"Oh, what a shame! And we've only just paid two and sixpence for it! What
an utter idiot I was! I never thought it would pull like that. See, it's
floating about down there!"

"I'll get it for you if I can," said Beata. With some manoeuvring she
managed to fling her own line over it and drag it slowly in, losing it
several times but rescuing it in the end.

After that mishap Merle was wiser, and threw with more discretion. Fay
also tried her luck, and the girls sat waiting for bites. But alas! none
came. There were several false alarms, but the lines when hauled in held
nothing more exciting than hunks of seaweed. It was really most
disappointing.

"I'm afraid they don't like the bait," said Beata at last. "If we could
find a few lob-worms now, it might tempt them. They're evidently rather
dainty."

"And I expect we don't know much about it!" said Mavis.

"Well, people have to learn some time, I suppose. You can't tumble to
fishing by instinct!"

It was decided to go farther along and try to find lob-worms. The
difficulty was to scramble down the rocks on to the sand. From above it
looked quite easy and possible, but at close quarters the crags were very
precipitous. At one point, however, they determined to venture. They sat
on the edge of the sloping rock, let go, and then simply slid down,
hanging on to pieces of ivy and tufts of grass. The cove, when they thus
reached it, was worth the trouble of getting there. Sand-gobies were