Longest way's sometimes gainest way." Dick looked blank upon seeing the boat's head turned right away from the fish that was caught.

Dave saw it, and handed him the pole.
"Give her a few throosts, lad," he said.
Dick seized the pole and thrust it down into the water lower and lower till his hands touched the surface.
He tried again and again, but there was no bottom within reach, and the lad handed back the pole.
"Why, you knew it was too deep here!" he cried.
"Ay, I knowed, lad," said Dave, taking the pole; "but yow wouldn't hev been saddisfied wi'out trying yoursen." He proceeded to row the punt now for a few yards, till, apparently knowing by experience where he could find bottom, he thrust down the pole again, gave a few vigorous pushes, and was soon in shallow water.
It was a bit of a race for the river-like opening, but Dave sent the punt along pretty merrily now, while the bladder came slowly along from the other direction till it was only about fifty yards away, when there was a series of bobs and then one big one, the bladder which gleamed whitely on the grey water going down out of sight.
Dave ceased poling, and all watched the surface for the return of the bladder, as whale-fishers wait for the rising of the great mammal that has thrown his flukes upward and dived down toward the bottom of the sea; but they watched in vain.
A minute, two minutes, five minutes, then quite a quarter of an hour, but no sign of the submerged buoy.
"Yow two look over the sides," said Dave.

"I'll run her right over where the blether was took down." Dave sent the punt along slowly, and the lads peered down into the dark water, but could see no bladder.
"She'll come up somewheers," said Dave at last, sweeping the surface with his keen eyes, and then smiling in his hard, dry, uncomfortable way, as he looked right back over the way by which they had come, and nodding his head, "There she is!" he said.
Sure enough there lay the bladder on the surface forty yards behind them perfectly motionless.
"Yow take howd o' this one, young Tom Tallington," said Dave; and the lad prepared to hook the line as the punt was carefully urged forward.
"Take care, Tom!" whispered Dick excitedly.

"Now, now! Oh, what a fellow you are!" Tom did not dash in the hook when his companion bade him, but all the same he managed to do it at the right time, catching the line just below the bladder, and then stooping to seize it with his hand ready for the struggle which was to ensue.
Both boys were flushed with excitement, and paid no heed to the grim smile upon their companion's face--a smile which expanded into a grin as the line came in without the slightest resistance, and the lads looked at each other with blank dismay.
"Clap the line in the basket, Mester Dick," said Dave; "he's took the bait and gone." "Why, what a big one he must have been!" cried Tom.
"Ah, he would be a big one!" said Dave with a chuckle, as he urged the punt rapidly on; "them as gets away mostlings is." "Didn't you feel him a bit, Tom ?" asked Dick.
"No, he had gone before I touched the line," was the reply.
It was very disappointing; but there were the other trimmers to be examined, and though it would have puzzled a stranger, Dave went back with unerring accuracy to the next one that had been laid down.
This did not seem to have moved; and as it was drawn in, the bait was swimming strongly and well.
"Let him go, Dick," said Tom.
"Well, I was going to, wasn't I ?" was the reply.

"There you are, old chap, only got a hole in your gristly lip." He dropped the gudgeon into the water, and it lay motionless for a moment or two, and then darted downward as the punt glided on.
Another trimmer, and another, and another, was taken up as it was reached, all these with the baits untouched, and the disappointed look grew upon the boys' faces.
"I thought we should get one on every hook," said Tom.