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Monitress Merle by Angela Brazil
page 76 of 218 (34%)
been since, and she swims about the water weeping and singing any little
bits of the service that she can remember. The fishermen said if anybody
was at sea and heard her it was bad luck, and a sign he would certainly
be drowned before long."

"I love the quaint old legends!" said Mavis. "I shall always think of
your mermaid now, when I hear the bell. This is our way down to the cove.
It's a most frightful scramble. Can you manage it?"

The girls went first over grass and gorse, then climbed down a tiny track
so narrow and slippery they were obliged to sit and slide, and finally,
with some difficulty, scrambled on to the grim rugged rocks beneath. They
were on a kind of platform, covered with seaweed and little pools, and
with deep swirling water below.

Beata decided it would be a good place to fish, so they got out their
log-lines. The first and most manifest thing to do was to find bait.
There were plenty of limpets on the rocks, and with penknives they
managed to dislodge some of them. It was only when a limpet was caught
napping that it was possible to secure him: once he sat down tight and
excluded the air from his shell, no amount of pulling could move him. The
victims thus gathered were sacrificed by Beata and Merle, who acted as
high priestesses, and chopped them up, and placed them upon the hooks,
for neither Mavis nor Romola would touch them, and even Fay was not
particularly keen upon this part of the fishing operations. They were
ready at last, and cast their lines. Merle, unfortunately, through lack
of experience, had not unreeled hers far enough, and the heavy weight
sank deeply in the water and jerked the whole thing out of her hands into
the sea.

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