DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 295 



have him on. A fisher friend of mine had the 

 monster salmon on, there can be no doubt, for 

 this is the impression his tale of it made on me. 

 It rushed, tugged, jiggered and sulked in turns as 

 no fish had ever done before and, after playing 

 his would-be capturer for an hour and a half, and 

 tiring him until he could not lift his cramped arms, 

 it snapped the trace and severed its connection with 

 the used-up man, but, that it might not quite forget 

 him, it kept his fly. 



"It was a monster, Geen, and had you been 

 there and gaffed it for me you would have slapped 

 my back and said : ' Lay thee down and dee, 

 Johnson ; lay thee down and dee.' ' 



There are exceptions to every rule and even 

 Tony's turn came to be surprised. The sun had 

 set hastily behind a cloud that presently rose and 

 darkened the high and oily running waves and, 

 thinking to entice a fish or two on the journey 

 home, I took off the worm and replaced it with a 

 Silver Natural Spin and then held it in the water 

 so that Tony could see its frightened-fish-like spin. 

 Wonderful to relate he asked to have it in his hand, 

 where he turned it over many times while he 

 seemingly racked his brain in vain for memories 

 of its counterpart. He dropped it in the water 

 and watched it spin again until the freeing of the 

 winch gave line and even after that he watched 

 the place where he thought the lure was spinning. 

 Still cogitating, his eyes came to the rod as if 

 he momentarily expected it to bend and, that he 

 might know quickly the size of the coming fish, he 

 bent his ear to catch what the winch would say. 

 His expectant attitude worked on me until I found 



