72 WAKE-ROBIN 
In deep water accordingly, and near the head of the 
hole, I determined to look for them. Securing a 
chub, I cut it into pieces about an inch long, and 
with these for bait sank my hook into the head of 
the Stillwater, and just to one side of the main cur- 
rent. In less than twenty minutes I had landed 
six noble fellows, three of them over one foot long 
each. The guide and my incredulous companions, 
who were watching me from the opposite shore, 
seeing my luck, whipped out their tackle in great 
haste and began casting first at a respectable dis- 
tance from me, then all about me, but without a 
single catch. My own efforts suddenly became 
fruitless also, but I had conquered the guide, and 
thenceforth he treated me with the tone and free- 
dom of a comrade and equal. 
One afternoon we visited a cave some two miles 
down the stream, which had recently been discov- 
ered. We squeezed and wriggled through a big 
crack or cleft in the side of the mountain, for about 
one hundred feet, when we emerged into a large 
dome-shaped passage, the abode, during cettain sea- 
sons of the year, of innumerable bats, and at all 
times of primeval darkness. There were various 
other crannies and pit-holes opening into it, some 
of which we explored. The voice of running water 
was everywhere heard, betraying the proximity of 
the little stream by whose ceaseless corroding the 
cave and its entrance had been worn. ‘This stream- 
let flowed out of the mouth of the cave, and came 
from a lake on the top of the mountain; this ac- 
