"They're gone, Josh!" cried Will, as the ripple on the surface suddenly ceased. "Maybe they'll come up again, my lad," said Josh. "I'll keep on," and he went on rowing first towards the large boat, then towards the small, as they slowly toiled on, trying to get nearer to each other and Uncle Abram's boat, which was just about intermediate. If they could once join and form a circle, even if part of it were only the net ropes, the fish would be inclosed, and instead of making for the unfinished part of the circle where there was only rope, they would avoid it and the boats, and make for the other side. "All right, Josh! they're showing again," cried Will, for the dreaded catastrophe had not taken place--the fish had not gone down and swum away beneath the boats. "Keep wi' us, lad!" came a musical hail to Josh, "and we shall do it yet." "Ay, ay!" shouted back Josh; and like a sentry he kept going to and fro, with the boats closing up, yard by yard, but slowly, for they had the weight of the widely-spread net to check their progress. They were forty yards from Uncle Abram's boat on either side, and it seemed a long time before they were twenty, and all the while this was the most dangerous time, for the alarmed shoal was beginning to swim to and fro. Then all at once they disappeared from the surface again, and Dick thought they were gone. But the fishermen pulled steadily still, and their companions in the stern of each boat kept the line tighter, and just as they were now getting closer the mackerel showed again, making the water flicker as if a violent storm of rain were falling. "Back out, lad, and go to port," said the captain of the seine-boat; and Josh rowed steadily along close to the line, pausing half-way between the seine-boat and the beginning of the corks, that is, of the net. The men in the little boat just at the same time passed their rope on board to their friends, and then went off to the right, to pause half-way, as Josh had done to the left. Meanwhile the men on the seine-boat began to haul steadily at the ropes at each end, drawing the great circle narrower. "Why, how big is this net round?" said Dick in a whisper, as if he feared alarming the fish. "Mile," said Josh laconically, "ropes and all." "But they are drawing the ropes in fast now," said Will, "and when they get the spreaders together it will be seven hundred yards." "What are the spreaders?" "Long poles to keep the ends of the net stretched. They've got lead at the bottom, like the net, to keep them on the sand." "Look out!" shouted the captain of the seine. "Here they come!" The men hauled the harder, and oars were splashed in all three boats, the smaller rowing to and fro, with the result that the surface of the water became calm once more, not the sign of a ripple to betoken the presence of a fish; but no one ceased his efforts. "Are they gone, Will?" asked Dick.