mechanical--slightly elongated the formation, and three scouts in single
file slid down to reconnoitre, and with a nervous splash as they scented
danger, dashed back and blended imperceptibly with the mass.

"We catch plenty big fella mullet!" George exclaimed, as he gleefully
splashed the water, and the cloud contracted and shrank back. The stream
was about ten feet wide. Our equipment for sport consisted of a tomahawk
and a grass-tree spear so frail that any of the mullet could have swum
off with it without inconvenience.

Straddling the stream side by side we splashed and "shooed" when the
slightest symptom of a sally on the part of the fish was betrayed. A few
brave leaders darted down, generally in pairs, and flashed back in fright
at our noisy demonstrations, and so the blockade of the mullet began.

While I stood guard shouting and "shooing" and making such commotion as I
trusted would convince the fish that the blockading force was ever so
much stronger and more truculent than it really was, George began to
construct a pre-eminently practical wall. Its design was evolved ages
upon ages ago by black students of hydrostatics and fish. George had
imbibed the principles of its construction with his mother's milk. He cut
down several saplings, and, screwing the butt ends into the soft sand
about a foot apart, interlaced them with branches of mangrove and
beach-trailers and swathes of grass. But the tide began to ebb. The
pent-up current, strong and rapid, frequently carried portions of the
structure away. George had to duck and dive to tie the vines and creepers
to the stakes close down to the sandy bottom. Though armfuls of leafage
floated to the surface and rolled out to sea, George worked with joyful
desperation. Presently the fish began to make determined rushes. Shouting
and splashing, tearing down branches, capturing driftwood, diving and