xii A THAMES SALMON 213 



as " Netted after the ninth leap," the article 

 gave a grotesque but recognisable version of 

 Amaryllis's exploit, and, after a paragraph 

 of superlatives, wandered into a remarkable 

 life -history of the "king of fish," stating 

 how it always works up rivers to feed and 

 down them to spawn, and attributing the 

 return of salmon to the Thames to a food- 

 supply increased by the winter floods. 



" This is important," said the One in 

 Authority, " not the gas, of course, but the 

 fact." I gasped, and begged him not to 

 take too much on trust, but somehow I 

 could not tell him why I was so warm 

 about it. He seemed surprised, but thanked 

 me. But he had, he said, the best of 

 reasons for believing that the fish was a 

 real grilse ; he had ascertained the lady's 

 name and address (William must have been 

 talking in the city), and he proposed to 

 call upon her without delay. With that 

 we parted. 



Events have moved rapidly since then. 

 I met the One in Authority yesterday 

 morning, and he was a very angry man. 

 " It had a big head and red fins," he ex- 

 plained shortly. " It is disgraceful that 



