I was about to answer this remark when I began to walk out into the water. I did not at the time know exactly why I did this, but it seemed as if some one had taken me by the hand and was leading me into the depths. But the water splashing above my ankles and a scream from Euphemia made me drop the line, which immediately spun out to its full length, making the stake creak and move in the sand. "Goodness gracious!" cried Euphemia, her face pale as the beach. "Isn't it horrible? We've got one!" "Horrible!" I cried. "Didn't you want to get one?" and seizing the axe, which lay near by, I drove the stake deep down into the sand. "Now it will hold him!" I cried. "He can't pull that out!" "But how are we to pull him in?" exclaimed Euphemia. "This line is as tight as a guitar-string." This was true. I took hold of the rope, but could make no impression on it. Suddenly it slackened in my hand. "Hurrah!" I cried, "we may have him yet! But we must play him." "Play him!" exclaimed Euphemia. "You can never play a huge creature like that. Let me go and call some of the others to help." "No, no!" I said. "Perhaps we can do it all by ourselves. Wind the line quickly around the top of the stake as I pull it in." Euphemia knelt down and rapidly wound several yards of the slack cord around the stake. In a few moments it tightened again, jerking itself out of my hand. "There, now!" said Euphemia. "He is off again! You can never haul him in, now." "Just wait," I said. "When he finds that he cannot break away he rushes toward shore, trying to bite the line above the chain. Then I must haul it in and you must wind it up. If you and I and the shark continue to act in this way, perhaps, after a time, we may get him into shallow water. But don't scream or shout. I don't want the others to know anything about it." Sure enough, in a minute or two the line slackened again, when it was rapidly drawn in and wound around the stake. "There he is!" exclaimed Euphemia. "I can see him just under the water, out there."