XXIV 



OF THE PERFECT THRILL 



I ONCE read in a book on fishing these words : 

 " No angler who has not landed a trout upon 

 a fly of his own making can say that he has known 

 the perfect thrill." Now, I am an amateur of 

 thrills and sensations of every kind. I believe 

 that every thrill, whether it be gained in the 

 concert-room, in the theatre, at the dinner-table, 

 or in pursuit of sport, is worth knowing, and to 

 get a new one I will take any trouble. As far 

 as the thrills of trout-fishing go, 1 had thought, 

 before I read the words which I have quoted, 

 that they were exhausted, always excepting the 

 never-to-be-exhausted thrill of landing the largest- 

 fish-yet. I had caught trout in all sorts of places, 

 though, perhaps, not with all sorts of lures. I had 

 never, for example, employed either poison or 

 dynamite, but there are sensations which an angler, 

 however curious and refined his taste may be, 

 must deny himself. 



And here was a thrill which I did not know. 

 This alone made it attractive. But the " perfect " 



158 



