Again, after a long run over the deep water, it would be quite still, and the punt would be sent forward so cautiously that the capture seemed to be a moral certainty; but so sure as Dick crept to the extreme end of the punt and reached out, there was a tremor for an instant visible on the water and the bladder disappeared.
"He must be a monster!" cried Dick, whose face was scarlet.

"Oh, Dave, do go more quietly this time!" "Let me try!" cried Tom, making a snatch at the hook.
"No! I'll have him," said Dick.

"I wouldn't miss this chance for the world!" "Ay, I'll goo up quiet-like," said Dave, pausing to give himself an opium pill before resuming his task.

"Yow be quicker this time, lad--a bold dash and you'll get him!" The double-looking bladder seemed now to be quite divided in two, for the string had grown tighter in being drawn through the water, and as it lay quite still, about forty yards from them, it looked a task that a child might have done, to go up to it softly and hook the string.
"Now!" said Dave as he propelled the boat stern foremost by working the pole behind as a fish does its tail.
"Oh! do get it this time, Dick!" panted Tom as he knelt in the boat.
"One quick dash, Mester Dick, and you hev it!" Dick did not answer, but lay prone upon his chest well out over the stern of the boat, holding on with one hand, the hook stretched out over the water, ready, his heart beating and his eyes glittering with excitement.
As the punt glided on Dick's face was reflected in the dark amber-tinted water--for there was not a ripple made--but he saw nothing of the glassy surface; his eyes were riveted upon the gleaming white bladder, into which the string had cut so deeply.
Another moment or two and he would be within striking distance, but a glance at his hook showed that, perhaps from looseness in its socket, the point was turned too much away.
He had barely time to turn it, as the moment arrived to strike, and strike he did, just as the bladder was plunging down.
A yell came from behind him from Dave! A groan from Tom! Dick rose up in the boat with a feeling of misery and disappointment, such as he had never before experienced, for he was perfectly conscious of what he had done.

The bladder had been snatched under so quickly, that when he struck, instead of the hook going beneath and catching the string, the point had entered the bladder.