A Wise 01' Cat 



to quit. When they lie quiescent and appear to have 

 given up, you had better corral your wits. You'll 

 need them. It was so in this case. Off again, on 

 again, gone again 



But of course that sort of thing could not go on 

 all day. In fact probably it didn't last as long as I 

 now think it did. 



Finally I managed to coax my fish into a shallow 

 cove where I could give him the coup de grace. That 

 is a very good way to put it now. I am willing to 

 extend to this particular cat such assurance of my 

 most distinguished consideration, though I wasn't 

 thinking in such polite terms then. I had waded out 

 into the water up to my knees and the time seemed 

 to have come for eventualities. The big cat evidently 

 had reached the same conclusion. When I started 

 to maneuver him into a narrow gravelly pocket, once 

 more he broke for deep water. As he rounded a little 

 saw-toothed sliver of Carboniferous sandstone that 

 had lurked out there in the swift currents for a hun- 

 dred or a thousand years waiting for that super- 

 moment the reel suddenly ceased its humming, the 

 sea-grass line sagged in the guides and I saw a short 

 quivering length of it go trailing out towards the chan- 

 nel and then disappear forever! 



125 



