Big
Alec levied and collected the tax, for all the world like a king.
The United States may be all-powerful, my lad, but the fact remains
that Big Alec is a king inside the United States, with a country
and subjects all his own."
"But what are you going to do about his fishing for sturgeon? He's
bound to fish with a 'Chinese line.'"
Charley shrugged his shoulders. "We'll see what we will see," he
said enigmatically.
Now a "Chinese line" is a cunning device invented by the people
whose name it bears. By a simple system of floats, weights, and
anchors, thousands of hooks, each on a separate leader, are
suspended at a distance of from six inches to a foot above the
bottom. The remarkable thing about such a line is the hook. It is
barbless, and in place of the barb, the hook is filed long and
tapering to a point as sharp as that of a needle. These hoods are
only a few inches apart, and when several thousand of them are
suspended just above the bottom, like a fringe, for a couple of
hundred fathoms, they present a formidable obstacle to the fish
that travel along the bottom.
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