THE DESPOILERS 69 



"Rotten luck," the former agreed. "Only 



nine." 



"Fishin' ain't what it used to be. Onct I 

 could go out and git a mess in an hour." 



"Couldn't we, though?" the first agreed. 

 "But them times ain't any more." 



"I'll say they ain't!" 



"Makes me tired." 



"Me too." 



"Too danged much fishinV' 



"And pollutin' the water." 



"City fellers!" 



"Dudes!" 



It was on the departure of Swift that Old 

 Black Bass for the first time in his life felt 

 a sense of incompleteness that made him 

 vaguely sorrowful. He knew the cause of 

 her departure : he had seen the line running 

 shoreward from the frog. But it was not 

 so much sorrow for her that he felt as it was 

 some obscure troubling of his nature due 

 to this new and sudden isolation. 



It was his first experience of the need of 

 another. From out the depths his nature 

 questioned him and revealed a haunting 

 desire. New and vague, it yet disclosed 

 that within him which, if called out, might 



