76 SALMON FISHING 



step ; but 1 was constrained to silence. Mind and 

 nerves had received a shock. The gut was not 

 thick. The line was not long. The landing-net 

 was not large. The course was not clear. About 

 fifty yards down stream, set in a tangle of scrub, 

 was a four-barred fence. Here was a how-d'ye-do ! 



I ventured to say as much. 



Run for a gaff and lose the fun ? Not she ! 



Was it worse that half of us should lose the fun 

 than that the whole of us should lose the fish ? 



" Go hon ! " said Miss Winsome, who had been 

 reading Mr. Snaith's novel, and liked its language. 

 " Well get him somehow, by-and-by." 



That fence, then? No doubt she noticed how 

 furiously the deep water was raging past. Would 

 she kindly say how I was to get over and yet keep 

 pace with the salmon when he should turn and run 

 down ? 



"O, Til go first and take the rod while you 

 scramble over." 



Of course that was the plan. Begone, dull care ! 

 At the moment I rebuked myself for not having 

 thought of the way out. Afterwards I found a poor 

 excuse in remembering that, in modest fearfulness 

 lest she should lose a trout, Miss Winsome had on all 

 previous occasions refused to take the rod when one 

 was hooked. I had not foreseen that she would 

 take it now. I had not realised that she would have 

 resource and courage in the hour of need. 



The fence was passed in safety. The salmon was 

 going vigorously, and for a moment the rod, in Miss 



