EPISODICAL 253 



put him down. I had come to a place where the sedges 

 and flowering reeds grew so high and dense that it was 

 useless to attempt further fishing there. So, though 9.30 

 had struck, and the blue-winged olive rise had begun to 

 slacken ominously, I pushed through a coppice, across a 

 clearing, and on through a wire fence to the road leading 

 to the bridge which spanned the river, and was hastening 

 down the other side when I noticed that the top of my rod 

 had an ominous kink in it. I did not think it could be due to 

 the two-pounder, and I put it down to some strain incurred 

 in the coppice or in getting through the wire fence; but 

 I was not prepared to feel the top snap in my fingers as 

 I sought to straighten it. I climbed disconsolately down 

 the embankment, and was about to make my way home, 

 when a tinkle from something in my pocket gave me an 

 idea. It was a tin box of Seabury's adhesive tape — a 

 form of diachylon plaster — which I had bought to strap 

 down that ill-fitting reel to the handle of that May-fly rod. 

 That was quite an idea. I laid the two broken ends along- 

 side for a distance of two and a half or three inches, and 

 laid on spirally a strip of the tape, and, to my delight, 

 found it made a firm, if rather ungainly, job of it. Instead, 

 therefore, of striking across the meadows I followed the 

 river down to the point where I had put down the fish 

 from the other side — incidentally putting down on the way 

 a fish of two pounds five ounces, which I got on the fol- 

 lowing day — and made a little detour into the meadows, 

 got well below the place, and presently had the satis- 

 faction of finding my fish up again and feeding with quiet 

 resolution. The Orange Quill was still on my cast, the 

 line ran clear despite the sticking-plaster, and the little 

 nine-foot rod really worked wonderfully well, considering 

 its handicap. Anyhow, the fly lit in front of the fish 

 without any splash, and was accepted without a trace of 



