236 THE SWAN AND HER CREW. 



" I tell you what," said Frank, at length, " a big fish like 

 that requires something out of the common to induce him to 

 bite. Let us put a big bream on, and try and tempt him by 

 size. So they put a bream a pound and a half in weight on 

 the gorge-hook, and worked the heavy bait up and down every 

 part of the pool, but still without success, and the autumn 

 night came on and put a stop to their fishing. 



" We must catch him somehow," said Frank. 



" Let us set trimmers for him," suggested Jimmy in despair. 



" No, no ; we will catch him by fair means if we can." 



The big pike, the biggest which they had ever seen, occupied 

 their thoughts all that evening. As Frank was dressing the 

 next morning a happy thought occurred to him, and when he 

 met his friends after breakfast he said, 



" I have got an idea how we may catch that pike. You 

 remember how he took the water-hen under? He decidedly 

 prefers flesh to fish. What do you say to catching a water-hen 

 and baiting our hook with it? " 



" The very thing," said Jimmy. 



" But how are we to catch the water-hen ? " asked Dick. 



"I don't quite know. We must get it alive, you see " 



They talked it over, but could not hit upon any plan of cap- 

 turing one alive, so at luncheon-time they went to Bell, and 

 asked him if he could help them. 



" Well, sirs, the water-hens come to my back garden to feed 

 with the hens and sparrows. If you could lay some sort of a 

 trap for them like a riddle-trap for sparrows it would be an 

 easy matter to entice one into it." 



"The very thing," said Jimmy. "We will put the casting- 

 net round a wooden hoop and prop it up on a stick, and put 

 bread-crumbs under it." 



So the casting-net was called into requisition, and a trap was 

 constructed, and set in Bell's back yard, which was close to a 

 dyke leading to the broad. The boys hid themselves in an 

 outhouse, having a long string fastened to the stick which sup- 

 ported the net at an angle of forty degrees. First the hens 

 came under it and then the sparrows, and the two began to eat 

 up all the bread put there. At last a water-hen was seen swim- 

 ming across the dyke, and with slow and cautious steps creeping 

 up the bank towards the net. Frank took the end of the string 

 in his hand, and peeped cautiously through a chink in the door 



