AN ANGLER'S PARADISE 119 



knew the huge creature would sooner or later 

 adopt. 



But after all, it was not the straining sight 

 that informed me of the looked-for change ; it 

 was the sense of feeling. For as time wore on, 

 with greater hardihood, I dared to exert a more 

 powerful pressure on the unseen leviathan, until 

 the small rod was well-nigh bent double, and 

 then it was that the enemy seemed to awake to 

 the understanding that some mysterious force was 

 attempting to coerce him. 



What he actually did in the depths below 

 one cannot tell ; but I know that I felt a series 

 of electric shocks pass up the line. Undoubtedly 

 he was fast losing his temper ; perhaps savagely 

 shaking his hoary head and muttering smothered 

 fish-curses at the undislodgable and pertinacious 

 little creature that continued to tug at his jaw. 

 Whatever the cause of these electric shocks, I 

 fully realised that they were the forerunners of 

 something more violent, and told Ronald to keep 

 his weather eye open for squalls. 



Hardly were the words out of my mouth than 

 the salmon made a terrific run, taking out fully 

 fifty yards of line at lightning speed, and finished 



