THE BASSES: FRES H-W ATER AND MARINE 



to carry the single fly slightly below the surface. 

 His reward came at once, for Mr. Bass, as he re- 

 turned to his own element, doubtless paused for a 

 moment to dwell upon the wonders of the foreign 

 one from which he had just returned, paused 

 just long enough to allow Mendy's tempting bug 

 to drift under his nose, and then struck swift, sure, 

 and safe. 



" It 's only a mite of a fellow, boys," said 

 Mendy, as he quickly brought the bass within reach 

 of his left thumb, which he inserted in the gill, 

 basketing the fish without flurry or waste of time. 



Gills by this time had his hands full with a two- 

 pounder, which had struck with such vim that a 

 sort of wake was made behind him, seaming the 

 pool, across which the fish was surging with diago- 

 nal sweeps from right to left and vice versa. 



" Boys, he is an unco' dandy," cried Gills, and 

 the fish justified the remark under the rodster's 

 peculiar method of handling, for he went at 

 pleasure, hither, thither, and everywhere. It will 

 be remembered that one of Gills's crotchets was to 

 allow a bass all the line he wanted, provided that 

 the strength of the fish was sufficient to draw the 

 line from the clicked reel. Now this bronze-backer 

 was just the fish to do Gills's theory to a turn, and 

 he buckled down to it as if with a foreknowledge 

 of the latitude of range permitted by his oppo- 

 nent's favorite method 4 . 



108 



