195 



I muttered at the fowl " would you betray " 

 but the thought snapped like an o'erstrained wire, 

 for lo ! what felt like the behemoth of old was jerk- 

 ing at my tackle. The Anthropoid fell forward upon 

 his hands, his shoulders level with his ears, his 

 eyebrows twitching up and down in joyous antici- 

 pation, while I snatched at the apparently hot cord 

 and kept a big blue coming so fast that he only 

 touched water at intervals. Over the side he came 

 bleeding like a pig, and in a moment the hook was 

 freed and overboard. The fish was not nearly so 

 large as his pulling power had suggested, but there 

 were more to follow. Leaving the captive to the 

 tender paws of the Anthropoid, I braced for the 

 second round, which was not long delayed. An- 

 other fish, and another and another, speedily followed. 

 So far as I could see they were exactly alike in size, 

 gameness, and strength. Within a couple of hours 

 we had killed about a dozen fish ; then the terns 

 disappeared, and for some time the troll dragged 

 vainly. Cap was idly humming to himself, when 

 the Anthropoid grunted and pointed shoreward. 

 I could see no terns nor anything except water, but 

 the Osprey came about and Cap explained "He 

 seen somethin' jump we'll jest try it." 



How the Anthropoid had conveyed his knowledge 

 concerning whatever had jumped, was a mystery to 

 me. Certainly he had not spoken, but for all that it 

 was his privilege to convey facts according to his 

 lights. That he had seen something was presently 

 proved by a tremendous jerk at the tackle. In an 

 instant I had all I could attend to, for that fish 

 fought like a salmon. Watchful Cap threw the 



