The two boys proceeded a short distance from their proposed camping-ground, and having baited their hooks with some fat and rather gristly beef, they proceeded to throw out their lines; but as they were not used to this kind of fishing, neither of them succeeded in getting his line out into deep water. Adam had been watching them, and seeing that they were making out badly, he came down to give them what he called “a start.” He unwound the whole of each line, and carefully laid it in coils on the sand. Holding the shore end of the line firmly in his left hand, he swung the hook and heavy lead several times above his head, and let it go. The long line flew out its full length, and the lead and bait plunged into deep water. When each of the lines had been thus put out, he went back to his own work. It was not long before the boys began to have bites, and in a few minutes Chap commenced hauling in his line like a house a-fire. Hand-over-hand he grasped and jerked the cord, throwing it wildly to each side of him as he violently pulled it in. In a moment he drew a fish out of the water, and threw it up high on the sand. Rushing to it, he picked it up, and held it in the air. “Look at that!” he cried to Phil. “A splendid fellow! It must be nearly a foot long.” Phœnix and Phil were both interested in the first fish caught in Florida waters, and they ran to look at it. Adam, also, who was picking up driftwood near by, came to see Chap’s prize. “It will do for bait,” he said, as he took the fish from the hook. “Bait!” cried Chap, in amazement. “A big, fat fish like that for bait!” Adam laughed. “A fish like that isn’t called a big one in these parts, though I s’pose in your waters it would be a pretty good ketch. It’s a mullet, and good enough eatin’, though it isn’t big enough for a meal for us, and I only want to cook one fish.” “All right!” said Chap. “If there are fish big enough for you in this river, I’ll catch them.” The mullet was killed, and both lines baited with a large piece of its flesh; for it was food much more attractive to the big fish they wanted, Adam said, than the cold meat they had used before. Phil went farther down the river, and both boys put out their own lines this time, succeeding, after several attempts, in throwing them a considerable distance from the shore. In less than two minutes Chap felt a tug at his line. He gave a pull, and his first impression was that his hook had caught in something at the bottom, but the jerking of his line soon let him know that there was a fish at the other end of it. Then he began to haul in; but this hauling in was very different from anything he had been accustomed to.