“That’s the front door where Mr. Lobster always comes out,” remarked Captain Sam. “It’s more work, though, making the end doors for him to walk in at.” These end doors, that the captain referred to, he now proceeded to fit into place. Each consisted of a funnel-shaped mesh made of knotted cord, the larger end fastened snugly all around to the end frame of the pot, and leading into a small opening, six inches in diameter, made of a wooden hoop. This hoop was held in place by Captain Sam’s tying it fast with strings to the centre of the frame. So that the entrance, for a hungry lobster seeking the bait inside, would be the entire end of the frame, or what Captain Sam called the “street entrance,” and narrowing to an opening only six inches in diameter, where the lobster would enter the cage. “Why don’t they walk out again?” inquired young Tim, whose experience in fishing had been limited mostly to catching flounders and cunners. “Well, they would, I reckon, if they swam like fish,” replied Captain Sam. “But when they have followed down the slope of the mesh, and once squeezed in through that small opening, they don’t know how to get back again, because their claws spread out so. The slope of the mesh helps them to get in, and there isn’t any on the inside to help them get out. But they will crawl out again sometimes, too, if you leave the pots too long and they get all out of food.” He next proceeded to set up, in the bottom of the pot, a small, upright post for a bait-holder. This was spear-shaped, with a barb whittled in it, after the style of a fish-hook, so that a fish once impaled thereon could not work off with the action of the water. “There!” exclaimed Captain Sam, when he had driven the last nail and tied the last cord. “Reckon it’s done. You boys can be chopping yourselves out some buoys, to mark your pots with, while I make the other two. You come up to the house to-night, and I’ll show you how to knot that twine to make the meshes. So it won’t cost you much to make your pots, only for a little twine and some nails.” The crew, having thus gained their experience and the use of Captain Sam’s tools, carried their stuff some three miles down the shore the next day, and proceeded to construct their own lath-pots. The intermediate waters had been fished so much by the townsfolk that they reckoned on better success farther away. Then, too, much of the water lying between was taken up with the pots of other fishermen, as was shown by their buoys floating here and there. They constructed four of the pots the first day. “Let’s quit for the afternoon now, and get these set,” suggested Little Tim, along about half-past four in the afternoon. “All right, if you will trot up to town and get some rope,” said Joe. “That’s the only thing we forgot. We’ll need the boat, though, to catch some bait with. You’ll have to foot it.” “I’ll go,” replied Tim; “but, say, who’s got any money?”