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‘Quicker now, boys!’ Rob called out. ‘Man alive, look at that!’

All the space of water now enclosed by the net was seen to be in a state of commotion; the net itself was being violently shaken; here and there a fish leapt into the air.

‘Steady, boys! Don’t jerk, or ye’ll tear the net to bits!’ Rob called out in great excitement.

For behold! when they had hauled this great weight up on the shore with a final swoop, there was something there that almost bewildered them–a living mass of fish floundering about in the wet seaweed–some springing into the air–others flopping out on to the sand–many helplessly entangled in the meshes. It was a wonderful sight; but their astonishment and delight had to give place to action.

‘Run for the boat, Nicol! There’s more where they came from!’ Rob shouted.

Nicol rushed along to the boat; shoved her out; pulled her along to where his companions were; and backed her, stern in. They had no bucket; they had to fling the fish into the bottom of the boat. But this business of stripping the nets–shaking out the seaweed and freeing the enmeshed fish–was familiar to them; and they all worked with a will. There was neither a dog-fish nor a conger in all the haul, so they had no fears for their hands. In less than a quarter of an hour the net was back in the boat, properly arranged, and Rob ready to start again–at a place farther along the beach.

They were soon full of eagerness. In fact, they were too eager; and this time they hauled in with such might and main that, just as the guy-poles were nearing the shore, the rope attached to one of them broke. But Rob instantly jumped into the water, seized the pole itself, and hauled it out with him. Here, also, they had a considerable take of fish; but there was a heavy weight of seaweed besides; and one or two rents showed that they had pulled the net over rocks. So they went back to the former ground; and so successful were they, and so eagerly did they work, that when the coming darkness warned them to return to Erisaig, they had the stern of the boat nearly full of very fairly-sized saithe.

Neil regarded this wonderful treasure of the deep, as he laboured away at his oar.

‘Man, Rob, who could have expected such a lot? And what will ye do with them now? Will ye send them to Glasgow by the Glenara?–I think Mr. M’Aulay would lend us a box or two. Or will ye clean them and dry them, and sell them from a barrow?’

‘We canna start two or three trades all at once,’ said Rob, after a minute or two. ‘I think we’ll sell them straight off, if the folk are no in bed. Ye’ll gang and see, Neil; and I’ll count the fish at the slip.’

‘And what will I say ye will take for them?’

‘I think I would ask a sixpence a hundred,’ said Rob, slowly; for he had been considering that question for the last ten minutes.

At length they got in to the slip; and Neil at once proceeded to inform the inhabitants of Erisaig, who were still lounging about in the dusk, that for sixpence a hundred they could have fine fresh ‘cuddies.’ It might be thought that in a place like Erisaig, which was one of the headquarters of the herring-trade, it would be difficult to sell fish of any description. But the fact was that the herring were generally contracted for by the agents of the salesmen, and shipped directly for Glasgow, so that they were but rarely retailed in Erisaig itself; moreover, people accustomed to herring their whole life through preferred variety–a freshly-caught mackerel, or flounder, or what not. Perhaps, however, it was more curiosity than anything else that brought the neighbours along to the west slip, to see what the MacNicols had been about.