CHASING AND RACING 67 



I dropped the white-winged lure a foot in front of his 

 nose. He had it in a moment and I was fast in a good 

 one. After putting up a strenuous fight he gave in 

 and came to the net, deftly handled by Andrew, 2 J lbs» 

 — a good start ! It was now almost dark, but there 

 was a luminous patch where the moon's rays struck, in 

 the centre of which I religiously placed my fly. Fish 

 after fish came to it, and to cut a long story short, I 

 creeled four and a half brace of beauties ; the biggest 

 3I lbs., and not one under i| lbs. Then I strolled 

 home, happy and triumphant, only to find that my 

 friends and my guests, after giving me half an hour's 

 law, had fallen upon the flesh-pots like a swarm of 

 locusts, leaving me only the husks of the feast to satisfy 

 a gargantuan appetite. Moreover, my CO., instead of 

 sympathizing with and extolling my skill with the 

 angle, read me the Riot Act, and ticked me off severely 

 for my negligence in vacating the head of the table in 

 favour of " a few wretched trout," which I could catch 

 at any time. What a lack of understanding ! And 

 yet some admirers of the sex are good to maintain that 

 the sporting instinct is as strong in women as in the 

 mere male, if but given a fair chance ! 



Now, as it happened these same trout proved 

 our undoing, and brought to an untimely and 

 undesired end our delightful occupation of Missenden 

 Abbey. It was in this wise. It seems that the 

 Misburn, the little stream that ran through, and linked 

 up the chain of lakelets, had a nasty habit of drying up 



