This was suspicious enough to warrant investigation, and the first
and only boat we succeeded in boarding proved to have an illegal
net. The law permitted no smaller mesh for catching shad than one
that measured seven and one-half inches inside the knots, while the
mesh of this particular net measured only three inches. It was a
flagrant breach of the rules, and the two fishermen were forthwith
put under arrest. Neil Partington took one of them with him to
help manage the Reindeer, while Charley and I went on ahead with
the other in the captured boat.
But the shad fleet had headed over toward the Petaluma shore in
wild flight, and for the rest of the run through San Pablo Bay we
saw no more fishermen at all. Our prisoner, a bronzed and bearded
Greek, sat sullenly on his net while we sailed his craft. It was a
new Columbia River salmon boat, evidently on its first trip, and it
handled splendidly. Even when Charley praised it, our prisoner
refused to speak or to notice us, and we soon gave him up as a most
unsociable fellow.
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