With the parting injunction to “mind, now, and remember who you are to call,” the skipper went below. As eight bells, or twelve o’clock, was struck, the man who had first watch took the wheel, gave a glance at the compass, another at the sails, and the regular routine of duty was begun. Now dinner was announced, and after the skipper was seated, the half of the crew that reached the mess-table and secured seats were entitled to eat at “first table” during the trip. The others had to be content to eat at “second table.” Breeze was not posted as to this, and consequently was among those who got left when the rush took place. Afterwards, this seemingly trifling circumstance proved to be of the most vital importance to him, as we shall see. The cruise thus fairly begun was continued without incident until the _Curlew_ reached the fishing grounds off the Virginia capes. Then, under easy sail, she stood off and on, with a man constantly at the mast-head, scanning the surface of the water in the hope of seeing mackerel. The great seine-boat was got overboard, and with the seine in it, was towed behind the schooner, ready for instant use. At length, after four tedious days of this work, the impatient crew were brought tumbling on deck in a hurry one fine morning by the welcome cry of “There they school; half a mile away, off the weather bow!” CHAPTER III. THE HAULING OF THE SEINE. In less than five minutes after the first cry announcing the appearance of the eagerly expected fish, the great thirty-foot, double-ended seine-boat, rowed by eight men, had left the schooner and started in the direction of the school. In its stern, with his hand on the long steering oar, stood the seine-master, directing the course of the boat and keeping a sharp lookout ahead. Pulling after them as fast as he could was Breeze McCloud, in the single dory that the _Curlew_ carried. The schooner, left in charge of the skipper and cook, was thrown up into the wind, and was held as nearly stationary as possible until it could be seen where she would be wanted. “Come, stretch yourselves, lads! stretch yourselves! Let’s see who’ll break the first oar! Those other fellows are just humping themselves. It’s Yankee against Yankee this time, and you’ve got a tough lot to beat,” shouted the seine-master. He would, of course, have been very sorry to have an oar broken, but he had such confidence that the men could do no more than bend the tough ash blades, no matter how hard they tugged, that he was perfectly willing they should try. By the “other fellows” he meant the crew of another fishing schooner, which daylight of that morning had disclosed not far from them, and which had evidently discovered mackerel about the same time they had. They, too, were out in their seine-boat, and doubtless looked forward with as great confidence as did the men from the _Curlew_ to taking the first fare of the season into New York.