THE SALMON OF CLOOTIE'S HOLE. 343 



A reproachful look makes the good fellow a little 

 ashamed, and he hastens to explain himself. He 

 says that he knows Angus is out to-day ; that in the 

 present state of the water the pool we are on is the 

 best on the river, and that if more comes down it will 

 be the only one fishable. He knows that Angus will 

 slip in directly we move, and will then keep it to 

 himself for the rest of the day, and very likely get 

 our fish, which is sure (so Johnnie says) to take a fly 

 later on. And in confirmation of the first part of his 

 warning, he shows us with the glass which a keeper 

 out of a deer-forest never leaves behind the shim- 

 mer of a rod behind a wall a long way up the 

 stream. " And," he adds, spitefully, " his ugly 

 heid'll no be far off. He has a fish, too ; I can see 

 it on the bank." 



To this we reply, " Oh, has he 1 confound him ! " 

 We hated Angus MacHowdie. He was the keeper 

 of a gentleman who was not often down ; and so he 

 (Angus) had a great deal of time at his disposal, and 

 spent most of it, during the season, on the river. He 

 was a splendid fisherman no better man in that re- 

 spect ever walked in boots but he fished too much 

 and too often, we thought, for a keeper, and had no 

 scruple at all in cutting you out, and taking your 

 water if he could manage it. "We often tried to cut 

 1dm out. Once we walked all night across the hills, 

 eight-and-twenty weary miles, with rod and gaff, in 

 the hope of being before him at a certain pool ; and 



