96 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



CHAPTER IX 



A LEARNED EDITOR AND A CLEVER ARTIST DOWN 

 SALISBURY WAY FOR PIKE 



At all periods of my life I have been amongst those 

 who have a high esteem for the gifts and responsi- 

 bilities of those whose talents have brought them to 

 the front in jonrnahstic work, either with their pens 

 or pencils. I have friends that write for papers, and 

 others that draw for them, but up to the day of which 

 I write I had never seen an editor; yet, strange to 

 say, I had the clearest notion, of my own creation, 

 as to what I should see when Fortune should bring 

 me face to face with one. 



It happened that one of these friends, very clever 

 with his pencil, asked me to join him in pursuit of 

 pike in one of our kindly landowners' preserves down 

 Salisbury way, but, before the day to start came 



round, he told me that the editor of The would 



come with us, and asked me if I could be at Waterloo 

 to catch a certain afternoon train. Unfortunately 

 a circumstance had arisen that would prevent my 

 starting until the morning after, and, when I told 

 him this and it had been arranged that I should find 

 him and his friend near a certain bridge, he offered 

 to take the baits with him, but, lacking in the confidence 

 necessary to trust him with the whole of them, I 

 suggested his taking half. 



'But say, old man, supposing you don't turn up, 

 what a fix I shall be in with Mr Editor !* 



'And supposing,' said I, 'you take the lot, and, 

 before I turn up, you have sustained your usual loss 

 through one of the many thousands of little accidents 

 that are more likely to happen to you, when in charge 



