"Now I suppose it is my duty to hand at least a part of that fish back to Oily Dave.

Oh dear, I would rather it had been anyone else, for I do dislike him so much!" "Don't fret yourself; wait until you hear the end of my story, and then you will see that for once the biter has been bitten," answered Miles, with so much chuckling and gurgling that he seemed to be in a fair way to choke himself.

"Mrs.Jenkin says she is quite positive that Oily Dave stole that fish, because his fish-house was quite empty a week ago, as she saw with her own eyes, but yesterday, when she was cleaning his house for him, she saw that he had a lot of fish.

He told her then that he had bought it to sell again.

She knew how much of that to believe, however, and asked me if we had missed any of our fish." "What did you say ?" asked Katherine, who then began to wonder if their fish had really wasted through being stolen, instead of having merely been used too fast.
"Oh, I didn't commit myself! Mrs.Jenkin has a good heart, but her head is as soft as blubber, so I was pretty careful not to say much," Miles answered, with a wag of his own head, which he thumped with his fist to show that at least he was not topped with blubber.
"It is maddening whichever way one looks at it!" cried Katherine.
"If Oily Dave stole our fish, and Waywassimo stole it from him again, then I have been buying our own property, and paying for it at a rather stiff price.