“You’ve got it, Mr. Birch. I can feel it ease up when you pull. Don’t yank it, Mr. Birch; pull kinder stidy. That’s it! Now it gives.” “Pull away!” said Dick, beginning to be a little excited by the prospect of something, which from the feeling could not be kelp. “Don’t be in a hurry, Mr. Birch; if we lose it, we might fish all day without gittin hold on’t agin. I cal’late we’ve got hold of sunthin this time; and don’t le’s lose it,” said the cautious fisherman. “Stidy, now. There it comes. It’s a rope as sure as you’re alive!” “Take hold of it with your hands,” added Dick, when the rope came in sight. “There’s something tied to the end of it. There it comes.” “It’s nothing but a stone.” The rope was drawn into the boat. There was a stone attached to it, which was taken in. As they pulled on the line, it was observed that the boat moved towards the middle of the channel, drawn in that direction by some heavier weight attached to the other end of the rope. “There ’tis,” said Hubbard, triumphantly. “I cal’late we’ve got the rope, if that’s what you want.” “But there is something attached to the other end of it,” replied Dick, as he pulled on the line. “I cal’late there is; the fifty-six is hitched to that end. Though what in natur the stone is for, I don’t know,” said Hubbard. “Don’t yank it, Mr. Birch; you may twitch it off. I cal’late we’d better tell the sheriff, and let him see to the rest on’t.” Mr. Bangs, already satisfied by the appearances in Dick’s boat that something had transpired, ordered his men to pull in that direction. “We have found the rope, Mr. Bangs,” said Dick. “Have you? Are you sure it is the one?” “It is a whale line, answering to the description of the one that was lost. We have got only one end of it; the other end seems to hang to the bottom.” “What’s that stone for?” asked the sheriff, as his boat was hauled up alongside of the other. “I don’t know; probably to sink this end; but let us pull it up, and ascertain what there is at the other end.” Two men took hold of the whale line and pulled. The weight attached to the other end was very heavy. It was more than a fifty-six pound weight, and every one was intensely excited as fathom after fathom was hauled into the boat. “I cal’late we’ve got sunthin’,” said Hubbard, who would have choked to death if he could not speak. “Stidy! stidy! don’t yank.” The object could now be seen, and the men turned pale, and looked horrified. Even the stout-hearted sheriff wore an expression of painful anxiety upon his face, as though he wished some other person might have been called upon to perform this disagreeable duty. Birch was sick, and turned in disgust from the horrible sight. It was horrible--it was a human body! It was a headless trunk! “Stop!” said Mr. Bangs. “We will not haul it into the boat. Secure it at the stern, and we will tow it to the beach.”