swinging, this did not matter, and everybody tried to watch all four floats at once.
“Whose float will go first?” said Roger.
“Mine,” said Titty. “It’s bobbing already.”
“Look out, John,” said Susan. “Your float isn’t there.”
John looked round. His float was gone. He pulled. The top of his rod bent and jerked, and up came a fat little perch with bright red fins and dark green bars on his sides.
“That’s one, anyhow,” said John, as he put on another minnow.
After that the perch came fast, one after another. Sometimes three floats bobbed together. There was soon a pile of perch in the bottom of the boat.
Roger was counting them, “Twelve, thirteen, fourteen …”
“Where’s your float, Roger?” said the mate.
“And look at your rod,” said Titty.
Roger jumped up and caught hold of his jerking rod, which he had put down while he was counting the catch. He felt a fish at the end of his line. Just as he was bringing it to the top there was a great swirl in the water, and his rod was suddenly pulled down again. Roger hung on as hard as he could, and his rod was bent almost into a circle.
“It’s a shark! It’s a shark!” he shouted.
Something huge was moving about in the water, deep down, pulling the rod this way and that.
“Let him have line off the reel,” said John, but Roger held on.