DAYS ON THE NEPIGON. 



sign of recognition, and ready instanter to 

 transact business at the first indication of 

 interest. 



He was really vitally concerned in what 

 was occurring in his immediate neighborhood, 

 understanding his duties, attentive to them, 

 and bristling with suppressed activity. It was 

 the perfection of feathery lure, not for an 

 instant losing motion, and presently catching 

 the proper swirl of the current, there was a 

 savage rush and the gleam of a beauty, as 

 away he darts with swimming colors. Never 

 were fins and tail worked harder. He was a 

 misguided desperado, a delirious devil when 

 he found that Silver Doctor only a mockery, 

 a delusion, a snare, and an epicurean fiz- 

 zle. At the other end of the rod it was no 

 fiction, but a glad, substantial reality, making 

 the nerves tingle with an exhilarating and 

 blithesome expectancy; for one is never quite 

 certain what the victim will do next; and 

 though the hook be firmly imbedded, any- 

 thing is likely to happen. 



His firm, thrilling strain demands more 

 61 



