218 THE WAY OF A TROUT WITH A FLY 



air was all gauzy and shimmery with the wings of in- 

 numerable spinners tossing in their love-dances. So that 

 even if there were no fresh rise of fly to bring the trout 

 on in the evening, there was just a chance of sufficient 

 fall of spinner to do the trick. The prospects, however, 

 were not such as to bring us out specially early after dinner, 

 and it was only just sundown that I found myself at the 

 bottom of the Eyrie beat. It did not look encouraging. 

 Not a fin was moving, not a fly could I see on the water, 

 and for the time of year the temperature was cool. So 

 with what patience I could muster I set myself to wait, 

 with my eye on the deep run under the tussocks opposite 

 the Eyrie. But the minutes slipped by and not a nose 

 put up, and after half an hour's wait I moved out of the 

 Eyrie and prospected slowly up my beat with my hopes 

 fading as the minutes sped by and the darkness gathered. 

 At length I reached the bend where the big drain runs in. 

 Here there is a big eddy in which at dusk one may often find 

 two or three cruising trout busy in absorbing spinners. By 

 this I paused for a while, for it was my last hope. But still 

 the darkness gathered and nothing moved. Stay ! What 

 was that ? It sounded like a rise, but there was no ring 

 anywhere. I waited a moment. It was repeated, up- 

 stream to my left. Cautiously I moved up to the corner 

 to see whether a trout was feeding in the mouth of the 

 drain. None. But there was a " gluck " again, and still 

 to my left up the drain, beyond two cross-drains which 

 entered it on either side ten or twelve yards up. Yes. 

 A fish was rising in the slow, almost still water of the drain, 

 and rising, too, in a way which, to my mind, indicated 

 spinners. A fish did I say ? There were one, two, three, 

 four, and all busy. It did not take long to knot on a 

 Pheasant-tail Spinner, and, creeping over the plank bridge 

 which crossed the side-drain, cautiously, so as to send no 



