178 SALMON-SPEARING 



stillness of the night, broken only by the mono- 

 tonous gurgling of the running waters and the soft 

 whispering of the trees, before long lulled the young 

 watcher into a state of semi-consciousness, in which 

 he sat with open eyes staring forward into the space 

 before him, with a dim remembrance that he was 

 looking out for salmon, and that the white flood 

 beneath him was a river and the appointed subject 

 of his closest observation ; but a whole shoal of 

 salmon might have passed and dubbed him wisest 

 of men for the blissful ignorance he would have 

 manifested of their presence, had not a sudden 

 shout of " Mark ! " roused him from his somnolence 

 and recalled his wits to full life and activity. With 

 ear and eye painfully alert, he heard the shout taken 

 up by the next gillie, and the sound of his feet over 

 the gravel as he ran along the river's side to keep 

 his prey in view ; then the noise of some one 

 cautiously wading out in the water, a sudden rush 

 and splashing, and the next minute a clamour of 

 voices, amongst which he could discern that of 

 Hugh Ross calling for a light ; and as he looked 

 far down the stream he saw a torch coming down 

 the bank and borne into the river, and the flare of 

 the smoking pine-wood showed him a dark group 

 standing in the water, and for one moment he 

 fancied he saw the gleam of a fish being lifted out ! 



