SPIRIT OF THE CHASE 19 



by honourable drowning would be preferable to 

 beholding again the countenance of that Highland- 

 man. His shaggy cheeks would now be relaxed in 

 sarcasm. He helped me out, and that by the 

 ignominious heels. When I was once more upstand- 

 ing, " You should go home," he said, not ungently. 

 His tenderness was cutting. Home, indeed ! Still, 

 I could not well begin again just there. Yearning 

 for solitude, to be unseen, I wandered off in the 

 direction of Balmoral, leaving my host and the Gael 

 to make the best they could of Banchory. I did 

 not go far. Within quarter of a mile I came upon 

 a temptation. A ledge of scraggy rock stretched 

 out into the river. From the point of this natural 

 pier I should be able, with ease, to cast upon an 

 attractive patch of water. Thither I picked my 

 way, and then let out the line. At the very first 

 cast, delivered with desperate resolution, I found 

 myself in a trouble which, though less unheroic, was 

 more serious than that from which I had just 

 emerged. In the black water, where the fly was 

 stemming the strong current, I saw a heaving gleam 

 from out the depths, and instinctively raised the 

 rod. Lo ! I had hooked a salmon. At first his 

 behaviour was sedate. He ran across towards the 

 other bank, and slowly returned to his holt. Then, 

 after a pause as if for reflection, he began a move- 

 ment straight towards me. He came as it were foot 

 by foot, deviating neither to the right nor to the 

 left ; I reeling up in strict accordance with his 

 leisure; deliberately he came, until he was at my 



