72 WAKE-ROBIN 



In deep water accordingly, and near the head of the 

 hole, I determined to look for them. Securing a 

 chub, I cut it into pieces about an inch long, and 

 with these for bait sank my hook into the head of 

 the Stillwater, and just to one side of the main cur- 

 rent. In less than twenty minutes I had landed 

 six noble fellows, three of them over one foot long 

 each. The guide and my incredulous companions, 

 who were watching me from the opposite shore, 

 seeing my luck, whipped out their tackle in great 

 haste and began casting first at a respectable dis- 

 tance from me, then all about me, but without a 

 single catch. My own eflforts suddenly became 

 fruitless also, but I had conquered the guide, and 

 thenceforth he treated me with the tone and free- 

 dom of a comrade and equal. 



One afternoon we visited a cave some two miles 

 down the stream, which had recently been discov- 

 ered. We squeezed and wriggled through a big 

 crack or cleft in the side of the mountain, for about 

 one hundred feet, when we emerged into a large 

 dome-shaped passage, the abode, during certain sea- 

 sons of the year, of innumerable bats, and at all 

 times of primeval darkness. There were various 

 other crannies and pit-holes opening into it, some 

 of which we explored. The voice of running water 

 was everywhere heard, betraying the proximity of 

 the little stream by whose ceaseless corroding the 

 cave and its entrance had been worn. This stream- 

 let flowed out of the mouth of the cave, and came 

 from a lake on the top of the mountain; this ac- 



