minnow; instead, I was several Daisy 

 flies and gloriosa catgut to the 

 bad. I began to think of the after- 

 noon with that heavy do-or-die heart 

 clutch that prefaces the making of 



a speech. What if I should fail . 



The Cook was telling Bert about 

 a wonderful fish which a "party he 

 guided had caught, a thirty- pounder" 

 on a pin-hook or some such combina- 

 tion. Ruthlessly I interrupted him. 

 "Come Bert, let's get to work." 

 If only I could finish up the bus- 

 iness honourably and enjoy myself 

 once again in the unenlightened way 

 of a week ago before muscalonge 

 had entered my horizon. 



It came, the reward, about five 

 o'clock in the shape of a sufficiently 

 big fellow. For two hours I had 

 reeled in, let out, given his head, 

 coaxed him away from rocks and 

 played him with what skill I had 

 acquired from my failures. The 

 tricks he tried to play, the many times 

 he almost cut the line, or snagged it, 

 I would like to relate, but spare you. 

 I was almost as much exhausted as 

 he when the big fellow was finally 

 brought to the boat and gaffed. 



