22 FOURTH OR MILTIMORE LAKE. 



protracted test of endurance would not end in tiring 

 myself out instead of my captive. 



At last, the great unknown apparently shook off the 

 apathetic behavior which had hitherto characterized 

 his actions and began to show signs of irritability, 

 leaving the bottom and coming to about mid-water, 

 evidently making frantic efforts to get free from the 

 hook. The water was so muddy that although on one 

 occasion, by an unusually daring strain on the tackle, 

 I nearly succeeded in forcing him to the top, yet I 

 could not gain the slightest glimpse of my prize or 

 form any opinion as to its identity. 



The fighting now became fast and furious; no more 

 sulking, but a continuous, rapid, steady movement 

 around" and across the pool until, at last, the supreme 

 moment arrived when, the prize lying directly under 

 me, I prepared to bring him to the surface. Inch by 

 inch, carefully I coaxed him, my expectations raised 

 to such a pitch that I fairly trembled. At last it 

 showed up, the enormous open trap of a huge, gasping, 

 fagged-out old catfish, thirty pounds in weight. 



I was so paralyzed at the sight of my captive as to 

 immediately drop everything, and if the fish had not 

 been so thoroughly tuekered-out with its previous 

 efforts, I would have lost him before regaining my 

 nerve and the landing-net. However, when I did so, 

 to land him was an easy matter, and I took him 

 away back from the water's edge, and there pondered 

 earnestly and long as to what the dickens kind of a 

 fish it could be. I had had enough fishing for that 

 day, so I packed up and started to go home, taking the 

 Lake Shore tracks as the shortest way. 



About half a mile down the tracks I came across 

 a gang of section hands at work; they were all Swedes 

 excepting the foreman, who was a German and the 

 only man speaking the American language. I knew 

 most of these men by sight and was on pretty intimate 

 terms with the foreman. 



