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and was feeling the advantage of the 

 current below the pool. He had to be 

 worked into quieter water, and then 

 stubbornly contested every inch of the 

 return journey. Again and again did 

 he take the fly to the farthest limits of 

 the pool, but he neither bored nor sulked. 

 For many a year of free and strenuous 

 life his swiftness and dexterity in stem- 

 ming rapid streams, in pursuing 

 prey, in avoiding the attacks of enemies 

 had been the things that counted, and 

 in this, his final struggle, he used the 

 arts which had availed him. After what 

 seemed to be a very long time, but was 

 not and could not be measured by the 

 watch, the rushes became shorter, and 

 we caught a glimpse of a side glorious 

 with red and orange; then did we first 

 know, of a surety, that here at last was 

 the fish worth toiling and waiting for, 

 the fish of dreams. Fighting to the end, 

 under the utmost pressure of tackle, he 

 came slowly to the bank, where Mesgil 

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