380 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES. 



might and main. The frosted splinters flew about him, 

 whilst his companion, who had come up, looked eagerly 

 into the hole. The murderer worked with devilish haste, 

 never stopping to look round until a hole was made through 

 which the water gurgled up, staining the frosted ice, killing 

 the brilliant rainbows that flashed in the cracks that had 

 been made by the stabs of his old knife. He stopped for 

 a moment, turned up his coat and guernsey sleeve, and 

 thrust a brown and weather-stained arm into the water 

 and triumphantly drew forth a pike about four pounds in 

 weight. With the club he rapped the victim on the head, 

 placed it hurriedly in a large inner pocket, and with his 

 accomplice went off with the quick soft steps of the criminal. 

 And many is the pike that has been dazed in winter by 

 such ice-blows, and seized through those rough-hewn holes. 

 Mais ilfaut manger. Que voulez-vous ? 



NATIVES" FISHING ON GREAT HOVETON BROAD. 



