"Oh!" shouted Arthur; "oh! something's pulling me out of the--" Boat he would have said, for he had turned the line round his right-hand to keep the lead from the bottom; and all at once it had seemed to him that there was a slight quiver of the line; then it was drawn softly a little way, and then there was a heavy sustained pull that took his arm over the side, and he seemed as if he were about to follow it, only Josh leaned towards him, and took hold of the line beyond his hand. "Untwist it, my lad; don't turn it round your fingers like that. That's right. Now, take hold with both hands." "But I can't hold it!" cried Arthur, who was shivering with excitement. "Oh, yes! you can, my lad," said Josh coolly. "I'll show you. Now, hold tight." Arthur clung to the line with both hands in desperation; and it seemed to him that the great fish at the end of it was trying to draw his shoulders out of their sockets. "It's too hard. It cuts my hands. It's horrible!" "Let him go, then," said Josh laughing; "there's plenty of line. Let it run through your hands." "It burns them," cried Arthur desperately. "Ah!" he exclaimed with a sigh of delight, "it's gone!" "Haul in the line, then!" said Josh grimly, while Will, who knew what it meant, touched Dick on the shoulder so that he should watch. Arthur began to haul in the slack line for a few feet, and then he shouted again: "Here's another one bigger than the last!" he cried. "I cannot hold it." "Let it go, then," said Josh; and Arthur once more slackened the line, which ran fast for a yard, and then fell loose. "He's gone now!" said Arthur, hauling in the line; and then in a tone of voice so despairing that his brother burst into a hearty laugh: "Here's another at it now!" "I say, what a place this is, Taff!" cried Dick. "Here, let me help you!" "No, no," cried Josh; "you let him ketch the conger himself. Slacken, my lad." As if moved by a spring, or disciplined to obey the slightest word of command, Arthur slackened the line. "Now, then, haul again," cried Josh; and the boy pulled in the line eagerly, as if moved by the idea that the sooner he got the hook out of the water the less likelihood would there be of its being seized by one or other of the monsters that inhabited the rocky hole. "He has got it again!" cried Arthur in tones of anguish; "he'll pull me in!" "Oh, no, he won't; you're a-going to pull him out, if he don't mind his eye," said Josh sturdily. "You've got some brains, young gentleman, and he arn't." "But there must be a swarm there after my bait," pleaded Arthur. "Not there," cried Josh. "There's one got it." "But I've had three or four on, and they've gone again." "Oh, no! you haven't," said Josh; "conger eels often do like that. You pull hard; he pulls hard and tries to get to the bottom. You slack the line, and as there's nobody pulling up, he comes to see what's the matter. Now, slacken!" Arthur let the line run. "Now haul again."