vii FISHERMAN BILLY 115 



suddenly, recalling me from my scrutiny of 

 himself. Sure enough the big float has 

 disappeared, and the pilots are also vanish- 

 ing one by one. I wind in the slack line 

 and tighten on the fish, which I can tell at 

 once is only a small one. He fights gamely 

 enough for his size, but a two-pound jack is 

 quickly mastered, and very soon he is over 

 Old Billy's great landing-net and lifted into 

 the punt. The hooks are taken out without 

 trouble, and I examine them to see that 

 they have taken no hurt from the jack's 

 sharp teeth ; suddenly I hear a sound of 

 thumping, and looking up find that Old 

 Billy is beating the unhappy little fish on 

 the head with a bottle, the instrument he 

 commonly employs for dispatching pike. 

 This is annoying ; I fully intended to put 

 the little fellow back, for he is two pounds 

 short of the size which I consider adequate. 

 This I explain with vigour, and command 

 the miscreant to release his prey and return 

 it to the water. Old Billy gives a final 

 decisive blow, and then, regarding the in- 

 animate corpse with satisfaction, observes 

 that it is too late. 



He has a theory that it is fatal to success 



