"What shall we do if they do touch it?" said d.i.c.k. "How shall we get at them?"

"I did intend to take the boat, and row after them," answered Frank; "but see, we are to windward of them, and there is a good breeze, so that if we let the yacht drift towards them until they take the alarm, and then run the sails up, we shall overtake them."

"And what shall we do then?" said Jimmy, who was becoming a little nervous.

"Run them down--the water is not deep enough to drown them--and take away their boat if we can, and then make them come and beg our pardon before we give it up to them. If they attempt to board us, knock them over again."

Frank spoke decidedly and hotly, for he was much put out at the theft of the fish. His family had so befriended the poor people around, that it was very ungrateful of some of them to rob their line. His spirits rose, too, with a force he could not resist, at the thought of a midnight engagement, and the chance of outwitting those who had thought to outwit him. d.i.c.k and Jimmy were ready to follow their dux at any instant, and anywhere.

"They won't come till about midnight," said Frank, "so we may as well take a little sleep."

About two o'clock they were broad awake, and lying flat on the deck of the yacht, peering into the darkness in the direction of the night-line.

"Hush," said d.i.c.k; "I heard a noise like that of oars."

They listened, and sure enough they heard the noise of oars splashing in the water, and grating in the rowlocks.

"Here they are," whispered Frank. "We shall soon be in the thick of it."

d.i.c.k had been trembling for some time in his nervousness, and he thought somewhat bitterly, "What is the matter with me? Am I a coward?" and he felt ashamed at the thought. It was not cowardice, however, but pure nervousness, and the moment he heard the sound of the approaching voices his nervousness departed, and he felt as cool and collected as Frank.

A black patch soon became visible on the water, and they could just distinguish the outline of the boat. A splash in the water told them that the mooring stone had been thrown out, and that the robbers were at work. Frank quietly slipped his mooring, and the yacht drifted quickly towards the men. They were soon near enough to see that there were two men in the boat, and they heard one of them say in a startled tone,--

"I say, Jack, that yacht's adrift."

"Is there any one on board, did you see?" said the other.

"No, I don't think so."

"Yes, there is though. Pull up that stone and row off as fast as you can," answered his companion.

"Up with the sail!" shouted Frank, as he flew to the helm. d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k.

"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 occupants 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 d.i.c.k 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 ma.s.sacred 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 quant.i.ty 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 d.i.c.k 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.

In the morning they took up the line, and were well-rewarded for their previous trouble. The eels they took pretty well loaded the donkey-cart which old c.o.x had borrowed, and he took them to Norwich and made a good profit out of them.

Having amused themselves once with the night-lines the boys did not care to use them again, for it was _infra dig._ to catch fish for profit.

However the profits were good to other people, so they gave the line to old c.o.x, and told him that he must get some one to set it, and go shares with him.

The next day Frank walked down to the village public-house and stuck up the following notice in the bar,--

"If the person to whom the nets I have belong, will call at my house and claim them, he shall have the nets and a good thrashing."

Frank was five feet eleven inches high, and well built in addition, and he had always a look on his face which said "I mean what I say;" and the nets were never claimed.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Water Insects.--Aquaria.

One July afternoon the boys had been fishing, and to seek some shade and coolness while eating their lunch, they had driven the yacht into a quiet pool among the reeds, which almost met over them. The water below them was very clear and still, and as it was only about two feet deep they could see the bottom quite plainly, and they soon found that it was well worth a close inspection. The pool was teeming with insect life.

The surface of the water was covered with tiny whirligig beetles, which were skimming about in mazy, coruscating evolutions.

"Those whirligig beetles," said d.i.c.k, "have their eyes made with two faces--one to look down into the water, and the other to look into the sky."

"What a lot you have learnt about insects, d.i.c.k, in the course of a few months," said Frank.

[Ill.u.s.tration: METAMORPHOSES OF FLESH-FLY.]

"It is a grand study," said d.i.c.k enthusiastically; "and I have worked my best at it. When one goes hard at a thing it is astonishing how soon one picks up a lot of knowledge about it. I have read over and over again about the common insects, or those that are the most noticeable."

"Well, tell us about all those insects we see now."

[Ill.u.s.tration: WATER-BEETLE.]

"Look at those long-legged narrow-bodied flies which are sliding along over the surface. These are called water-measurers. That oval beetle which is swimming on its back, and using two legs like oars, is the water boatman. It fastens on to the head of small fish, and soon kills them. It lives in the water, but if put on land it can fly. Look at that brute crawling over the mud, with its lobster-like head. It has sharp claws and a hollow snout. It lies in wait for its victims, and when it seizes them it sucks the juice out of them with its beak. It looks only of a dull brown now, but when its wings are expanded its body is of a blood red colour, and its tail is forked. It sometimes comes out for a fly at night."

"And what is the fearfully ugly thing climbing up that reed-stem just out of the water?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: PUPA OF DRAGON-FLY.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: COMPOUND EYE OF DRAGON-FLY (SECTION).]

"Oh, that is the larva of the dragon-fly. The fly is about to come out of the case. Just watch it for a while."

[Ill.u.s.tration: LARVA OF GNAT.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ESCAPE OF GNAT FROM ITS PUPA-CASE.]

The larva of the dragon-fly is one of the ugliest of creatures. It has a long light-brown body and six legs. It has a fierce wide mouth and projecting eyes. Attached to its head are two claws, which with a pincer-like movement, catch up anything eatable and pa.s.s it to the mouth. In its larva and pupa state it has just the same appearance, and when it is about to change into a perfect dragon-fly it climbs up out of the water and emerges out of its case, just like the b.u.t.terfly, and sails away a perfect and gorgeous insect, leaving its case a transparent brown sh.e.l.l, still clinging to the reed or gra.s.s-stem on which it contracted its last change.

"Bother the gnats!" said Jimmy brushing some off his face. "There is nothing interesting about them."

"Oh yes, there is," said d.i.c.k. "They lay their eggs on the surface of the water, making a raft of them, and the larvae escape through the bottom of each egg into the water; and I have read that it is a very pretty sight to watch the perfect insect coming out."