336 THE ADIRONDACK. 



Falls, lie commenced fishing, and had got the bottom 

 of his boat half covered with splendid fellows before 

 his friends arrived. They were utterly confounded 

 when they caught sight of him. At first they could 

 not believe their senses — it must be his appari- 

 tion. They had left him eating breakfast, and had 

 come the only possible route, as they supposed, by 

 which the Falls could be reached, and as fast as two 

 pairs of oars, worked by two stout pairs of arms, could 

 bring them ; yet there Martin was, fishing, and as far as 

 they could account for it, might have been there a week. 

 But the way he was lifting the two-pounders out did 

 not look like the work of an apparition ; and, recovering 

 a little their senses, they bawled out, " Where on earth 

 did you come from?" " From home," coolly replied the 

 imperturbable Martin, as he laid a rouser in his boat. 

 " What way did you come ?" they asked. " Up the 

 Raquette," was the quiet response, as he lifted another 

 from the foaming rapids. To all their questions he 

 retnrned evasive answers, determined, as a punishment 

 for their meanness, not to reveal the short cut. 



It is easy going down the Raquette, and six or seven 

 miles an hour can be made without severe labor, so 

 that our twenty miles' stretch yesterday was mere 



