Charley took a turn around a pin and sat down. There were no more
shots. But as soon as he began to heave in, the shooting
recommenced.
"That settles it," he said, flinging the end of the net overboard.
"You fellows want it worse than we do, and you can have it."
We rowed over toward the next net, for Charley was intent on
finding out whether or not we were face to face with an organized
defiance. As we approached, the two fishermen proceeded to cast
off from their net and row ashore, while the first two rowed back
and made fast to the net we had abandoned. And at the second net
we were greeted by rifle shots till we desisted and went on to the
third, where the manoeuvre was again repeated.
Then we gave it up, completely routed, and hoisted sail and started
on the long windward beat back to Benicia. A number of Sundays
went by, on each of which the law was persistently violated. Yet,
short of an armed force of soldiers, we could do nothing. The
fishermen had hit upon a new idea and were using it for all it was
worth, while there seemed no way by which we could get the better
of them.
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