164 THE SWAN AND HER CREW. 



* Up with the sail !" shouted Frank, as he flew to the helm. 

 Dick and Jimmy threw themselves on the halyard, and the 

 great sail rose with surprising quickness against the dark night. 

 The men in the boat were now pulling away at the top of their 

 speed, but with the wind dead aft the yacht bore swiftly down 

 upon them. The water was only about two feet deep, and 

 began to shallow. The yacht's centre boards were up, but still 

 she could not go much further, and they could tell that they 

 were continually touching the mud. 



" They will escape us," said Dick. 



" No, there is a deep bay just where they are rowing," said 

 Jimmy. 



As the water deepened the yacht started forwards, and in 

 another minute they were on the runaways. Crash went their 

 bows against the boat : she was at once capsized, and her occu- 

 pants were struggling in the water. One of them scrambled 

 on board the Swan, and rushed aft with an oar upraised to strike, 

 but Frank laid the helm over as he put the yacht about, and the 

 boom struck the fellow on the head and knocked him overboard. 



Meanwhile Dick had with the boat-hook tried to catch hold 

 of the boat. In this he failed, but he got hold of something 

 far more important, and that was a large fine-mesh net, which 

 the poachers had no doubt intended to use after robbing the 

 night-line. With such nets the damage done to fishing is 

 enormous. Shoals of fishes as small as minnows, and useless 

 for anything except manure, are massacred with them, and it is 

 by the constant use of such nets that the fishing on the broads 

 falls now so far short of what it used to be. Night-lines set 

 for eels are not poaching or destructive. The quantity of eels 

 is so great, that, as long as the young ones are spared, either 

 night-lines or nets of the proper kind may be used. 



The yacht swept on, leaving the men up to their waists in 

 the water, and swearing horribly. Frank felt a wild impulse to 

 return and fight them, for he was of a fighting blood, such as a 

 soldier should have, but he thought, " If we go back there are 

 sure to be some hard blows, and I have no right to take Dick 

 or Jimmy into a scrimmage and perhaps get them severely hurt, 

 for they are not so strong as I am," so he refrained, and they 

 sailed back to the boat-house, and waited until the dawn. 

 Their adversaries dared not attack them, but went off out of 

 sight and hearing. 



