ii6 AKGLIXG SKETCHES 



VKhy should I not take a farewell cast, alone, of 

 course ? I ahva}-s disliked the attendance of a 

 gillie. I took my salmon ro out of its case, 

 rigged it up, and started for the stream, ^\-hich 

 flowed within a couple of hundred yards of my 

 quarters. There it raced under the ash tree, a 

 jDale delicate brown, perhaps a little thing too 

 coloured. I therefore put on a large Silver Doctor, 

 and began steadily fishing down the ash-tree cast. 

 \A'hat if I should wipe Dick's e}-e, I thought, when, 

 just where the roiigli and smooth ■\\-ater meet, 

 there boiled up a head and shoulders such as I 

 had never seen on an}- fish. I\I}- heart leaped and 

 stood still, but there came no sensation from the 

 rod, and I finished the cast, m)- knees actually 

 trembling beneath me. Then I gently lifted the 

 line, and \e\-y elaborately tested e\"er\- link of the 

 powerful casting-line. Then I gave him ten 

 minutes by mj- watch ; next, with unspeakable 

 emotion, I stepped into the stream and repeated 

 the cast. Just at the same spot he came up again ; 

 the huge rod bent like a switch, and the salmon 

 rushed straight down the pool, as if he meant to 



