CLEAR WATERS 



cession. They were all of course safe men, but in the 

 dark anything may happen, so I was rather surprised 

 one morning at being accosted in the street by the 

 grave Anglo-Indian. 



'What a nice young fellow that is staying with 

 you.' 



' Yes,' I said, * he 's a capital chap.' 



* He has kindly promised to come out bass-fishing 

 with me to-night.' 



* Going with you ? Surely not ; he never fished in 

 his life ' (the sole occasion above-mentioned did not 

 seem worth allusion). 



* So he told me, but I have promised to lend him 

 a rod and tackle, and it 's pleasant to have a com- 

 panion out there at night and for the walk each way.' 



i Undoubtedly, but do leave it at that, and don't 

 put a rod into his hands whatever you do, or he '11 

 smash it, if it 's smashable ; but if you don't mind 

 that, on no account go within fifty yards of him. 

 He will hook you to a dead certainty, and possibly 

 even drown you.' I felt bound to put it rather 

 strongly, though I couldn't of course justify these 

 portentous forebodings. But I knew my young friend 

 pretty intimately from the soles of his boots to the top 

 of his head, and felt absolutely certain that this Anglo- 

 Indian would somehow rue his generous but reckless 

 overtures. But he only smiled, and said he would take 

 good care of himself. 



' So you 're going bass-fishing with Colonel Lucknow, 

 are you, to-night ? ' 



Rather shamefacedly Dick admitted the soft im- 

 peachment. For he had railed at the gentle art ever 

 128 



