126 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



for some little time, I began to fear that the little 

 nephews of the demonstrator would be disappointed, 

 and, just as I had given too hasty expression to this 

 fear, I was told in a whisper that a moth was coming; 

 and then I saw it, and behind it others, most evidently 

 being guided in their course by their noses. 



The village, with its snug bay so near to one of 

 the most varied fishing grounds on the coast of Corn- 

 wall, must be marked an ideal spot for sea anglers, 

 as we soon discovered. 



Our journey to Falmouth to fetch the new-comers 

 was not allowed to spoil our first day's fishing. When 

 the travellers woke from a much-needed sleep, they 

 learned that while they had slept we had taken advan- 

 tage of the continuing breeze to go for a sail, with 

 spinners out, for mackerel, the whereabouts of which 

 were shown to us by gannets hovering and diving 

 Coverack way. Thither the boat's bow was pointed, 

 and, before the sailors had rigged out their gear — 

 a heavily-weighted, short line attached to the end of 

 a pole running out twelve feet at right angles to the 

 boat, one on each side, with a hand line running out 

 to the other line as a means for dra\ving in the captive 

 without need of moving the pole — we were in the 

 thick of a shoal that gave every one a busy chance 

 while passing through them. Again and again the 

 captain's warning call came, 'Mind the boom,' as time 

 after time we turned to go back over the fish again. 

 Sometimes the stooping to avoid the swinging timber 

 was so leisurely done that the head was overtaken 

 and its ducking painfully hurried. 



The fact that mackerel will take any quivering 

 or spinning lure was that day fully demonstrated. 

 Each of the fishers had on a different bait in the 

 contest for a small pool, to which all had cpntributed, 

 and the prize was won by the narrowest of margins, 

 the difference between the various takes being, I think, 

 more due to quickness in drawing in and putting out 



