36 AN ANGLER AT LARGE 



London to fish, and not to sit about and watch 

 him doing it. But my chance of taking a firm 

 stand had gone by, and I could only swear to 

 make the most of my lonely hour. Of it three- 

 quarters passed without incident, and then I 

 got to work on a fair fish that rose irregularly, 

 at what I do not know. I put, perhaps, five flies 

 over him, and was just tying on an alder when I 

 observed the massive figure of William moving re- 

 morselessly towards me across the water-meadows. 

 In three minutes he was angling for that trout. 

 Now I had found it and fished for it, and by all 

 the rules of the game it was mine to catch or 

 put down. But I was too cowed to protest. I 

 am not man enough for Williams and Blenner- 

 hassetts and people like them. William tried fly 

 after fly, fishing with such delicacy and precision 

 that I almost forgave him. At last he tied on 

 what he called a drake's hare's ear. I did not 

 know the fly, but it looked a likely one, and I 

 up and asserted myself, clutched the rod which he 

 had laid very incautiously on the grass, and at the 

 second throw had the exquisite pleasure of landing 

 the fish before William's eyes. 



I was now at peace with all the world, and 

 yielded up the rod without a murmur. At four 

 o'clock William had landed two fish and risen 

 three others, and was engaged at an angle of 



