24 In Pursuit of the Trout 



holding a rod in one hand and several trout 

 strung together with a bit of thick string in 

 the other. This sounded unlikely, because 

 he would scarcely have been in Bond Street 

 at that hour of day during the fishing season. 



Until you saw him at work stalking, cast- 

 ing to, or playing a trout, you might be led 

 away into thinking that he was a very ama- 

 teurish sportsman. Once see him, however, 

 at work, and you could not fail to recognise 

 a master mind and master hand. With small 

 fish of barely * limit ' size, or only an ounce 

 or inch or two above the ' limit,' he had no 

 quarrel, and would often put such gently 

 back ; against weighty trout he waged a 

 relentless war, carrying it right into their 

 most fortified camps, even amongst the 

 villainous roots of old waterside trees, and 

 where snags were most thickly planted in 

 the bed of the stream. The man knew no 

 fear, and it was astonishing how rarely he got 

 broken, even when fishing with a single small 

 fly and fine gut. 



One dark, uninviting afternoon in April, 



