DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 231 



south winds, that brought clouds which cast sweep- 

 ing shadows across the sea, breathed upon the cliffs 

 and then rose hastily to make room for others that 

 followed in their wake ? It was where the blue sky 

 lowered to meet the deeper blue and where white 

 clouds rose to make the most of both that my eyes 

 would go to see whence the shadows came and 

 then follow them until they disappeared and my 

 thoughts went with them. " Dad, I think you had 

 a nibble" was what brought them back. "I did 

 not feel it " was all I could rouse myself to say, but 

 a more complete awakening came when the lad's 

 winch noisily proclaimed a fish was on and then, as 

 if to verify the doubted nibble, I got a tug and 

 tussle that stirred the hunting instinct. 



My fish weighed eleven pounds ; what weight 

 Harry's was we can only guess, but it was a big 

 one, no doubt, as its away-back and downward rush 

 did not cease until it was home amongst the weeds 

 from which all efforts to move it failed. 



"I believe it was the biggest I ever hooked" 

 was what Harry said, and this was pardonable as 

 lost fish are always big ones. I handed him my 

 rod to use while I rigged out his afresh, but, before 

 I had finished, he was struggling with a fish bigger 

 than the last so he thought ; this also was lost 

 among the weeds. Again we changed rods that I 

 might replace the loss and, before I had accom- 

 plished this, he was grimly tussling with another 

 large one that bent his rod to a threatening angle, 

 and the line spoke as lines do when distressed by a 

 strain in rapid water ; but Harry heeded not as he 

 determined, if break there was to be, it should 

 come before the weeds were reached. We got 



