Page:Silver Shoal Light.djvu/244

 CHAPTER XX

HEN such fragments of the "vittles" as were left had been cleared away, the three fishers resumed their lines, and before long Joan hauled in a little mackerel. This was the beginning of a very lively hour, when they were kept busy attending to their lines. Garth landed his fish with a hand and a half and asked help of no one.

"It really doesn't hurt much," he said; "but I'm afraid your handkerchief will never be any more good, Joan. I can't keep it out of the mackerel."

There was a lull in the biting—the school had passed, perhaps—and Garth took one turn around a cleat with his line and counted his catch. The Captain refilled his pipe, which he had not had an opportunity to attend to for some time.

"When was it that you were master of the Bella S?" Joan hinted, mindful of the story which she had not yet heard.