130 A Sportsman at Large 



on a certain lakelet which was situate on the demesne of one 

 Andrew MacMush of Tinspoon (this was not the real name of 

 the laird in question. For obvious reasons I have substituted 

 a fictitious one) . 



"Do you think he would give us leave ? " asked Teddy 

 anxiously. 



Lely shook his head. 



" I doubt it," he said. " Andrew MacMush of Tinspoon 

 is a dour old churl, and has an antipathy to strangers." 



" There is no harm in trying," I put in. " I will write him 

 a very polite note, and base my application on the strength 

 of my position as vice-chairman of The Field." 



Teddy agreed, and the dulcet Durward, wishing us luck, 

 wended his way to his domestic hearth, whilst Teddy and I 

 returned to Glenshee. 



Next day, with the diplomatic note in my pocket, and our 

 rods and other paraphernalia in the " Ma-chine," we jogged 

 over to Tinspoon, and sent the missive in to the Laird, by the 

 hand of his austere-looking butler. 



Anon, that worthy returned with the pleasing information 

 that " Tinspoon " himself would be graciously pleased to 

 allow us to cast a fly on his water that very evening. 



It was now late, and the shadows were lengthening, but a 

 fish on the land is worth two in the water, so we hurried off 

 to the lakelet, which lay about five hundred yards from the 

 Manse. It was an irregular piece, with an islet in the middle, 

 and was infested by a large concourse of domestic ducks and 

 geese ; consequently, the clarity of the water was not what 

 we could have desired but we could see fish and good ones, 

 too rising all among the feathered flocks, so we set to work, 

 Teddy taking the south and I the north side. I affixed a 

 medium sized " Wickham " as a dropper, with a fat " Coach- 

 man " as a stretcher. At once I espied a trout feeding freely 

 on the lee of the islet. No sooner was I over him than he took 

 boldly, and proved to be a nice fish of about a pound. 



Whilst dealing with this customer, I saw that Teddy was 

 busy with one, on the other side. 



It was not long before I had a beauty of nearly two pounds, 

 when Teddy came running round. 



