A Sportsman at Large 78 



to the apparition. After a careful scrutiny he surmised it was 

 a sturgeon of all things in the world ! I was an innocent 

 in the ways and life history of the salmo family at that time, 

 but Harry ought to have known better ! 



He searched about for a convenient stick, and when he had 

 found one to his liking he unfolded his plan of action. 



" Now be steady ; I will quietly lift him to the surface. 

 As soon as his head shows, let drive at it ! " 



I stood with gun ready. 



The luckless fish did not seem to resent the lifting tactics. 

 Presently my chance arrived and I pulled off. 



There was a devil of a rumpus ! My shot had grievously 

 wounded the victim but failed to stun him. It leapt into the 

 air and then went rolling and gyrating down stream, leaving 

 a ruddy trail of gore in the water. It reached a pool some 

 twenty yards lower down, where it continued its contortions. 

 It was a pretty cold day, I promise you, but Harry had his 

 clothes off in a jiffy, and, plunging in, succeeded in retrieving 

 the fish, which proved to be an unmended kelt, a repellent 

 monster, which, in condition, would probably have pulled the 

 index to thirty pounds, but which, as we saw him stretched 

 on the heather, could not have weighed half as much. It had 

 a beak like an eagle, was as lanky as a half-starved pike, 

 black, slimy and sinister. 



And now that the fell deed was done my companion was 

 conscience stricken, as I might have been, had I then fostered 

 the fetish of the orthodox salmon angler, as I did in after years. 

 My only regret was that the flesh of the fish was obyiously 

 unfit to add to the attractions of the Cat or menu. 



" Let's bury it, and try to forget it," murmured Harry 

 gloomily. 



And we did. Nor did we breathe a word of the disreputable 

 adventure until years after. 



I was for giving a vivid recital thereof to the rest of our bunch, 

 but my brother-in-law bound me to silence with blood-curdling 

 threats as to what would happen if I " went back on " him ! 



A propos my excellent relative by marriage, he was, as a 

 rule, a positive puritan where sport of any kind was con- 

 cerned, a prieux chevalier, who held that the slightest deviation 



