THE FLY 



65 



of our day's labour was disclosed. I had not long to 

 wait. Presently they appeared in the doorway, but not 

 as I had expected. I had looked for faces beaming with 

 delight ; those I saw were wrapped in gloom. The 

 buoyant and hopeful adventurers of the morning- were 

 downcast and sad ; their unsubstantial castles in the air 

 had been blown to the four winds 

 of heaven. They were in no haste 

 to expose the contents of their 

 creels, and their manner did not 

 invite enquiry as to the quality of 

 the sport they had enjoyed. But 

 indeed there was no need to en- 

 quire. Their dispirited mien told 

 a plain tale, and I was filled with 

 unchristian glee as it gradually 

 came to light that their success 

 had been even less than my own. 

 On the day after, an indignant 

 fisher left the hotel shouting 

 threats of vengeance — by writing 

 to the Times in the usual manner of the Briton 

 with a grievance— against all by whom he had been 

 fraudulently induced to waste his time and his talents 

 on an empty loch. His retreat was too precipitate. 



