THE BASSES: FRES H-W ATER AND MARINE 



one of the gifted few in a stubble-field or an 

 alder-swamp. 



Mendy and Gills were startled by his voice, and 

 at once paused in their downward casts, looking 

 toward the Doctor, who had hailed them with an 

 addendum : 



" Boys, he 's one of the dandies of the old 

 Potomac River stock," alluding to the original 

 source of the black bass of Pennsylvania rivers, 

 all of which came from the source he named. 



"A five-pounder, if an ounce," he nervously 

 added, with flushed face and tremulous voice. 



" Gills," said Mendy in a low voice, " Doc will 

 lose that fish; his nerves are all unstrung." 



" No! no! Mendy, I Ve seen him before in just 

 such a quiver; outside he is an aspen leaf, inside 

 as nervy as an iron bar. Watch him." 



As Gills spoke, the Doctor was seen to edge 

 himself, inch by inch, toward the middle of the 

 stream, the fish meanwhile bearing all before him, 

 but not rapidly clicking the reel, for the angler's 

 thumb pressed the line closely against the rod, and 

 it went out with a measured click-click-click, not 

 with a continuous whirr and whirl, but inch by 

 inch, just as the bronzed rascal earned it. 



Gills's heart was in his mouth, for the Doctor's 

 method of handling the fish was so opposite to 

 his own in theory and practice that for his life 

 he could not help breaking out with: 



119 



