CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
99 
had not been feeding during the day surely they would take a 
nibble at an attractive bait before the shadows were absorbed 
in the gathering dusk. In this he reasoned well. Just before 
the setting of the sun, they appeared to awaken from their 
slumber and commenced biting as though half famished. As 
he unhooked them and readjusted his bait he would throw 
them in a slight depression in the swamp mud a safe distance 
from the edge of the stream. Knowing that his time was lim¬ 
ited he took no heed of other things—simply attended to his 
fishing. When he had caught a dozen or so he took a hurried 
glance backward over his shoulder to satisfy his mind that his 
fish were secure, but to his very great surprise not one could 
be found. No tracks of any kind were in evidence—they seem¬ 
ingly had just taken wings and flown away. This baffled him. 
Realizing that his day of fishing had been ruined, he was now 
determined to seek comfort by solving the mystery. So, land¬ 
ing his bait near the farther shore, he succeeded in hooking 
another pike, and as he threw him toward the same spot, he 
kept one eye on him; while pretending to be re-baiting his hook. 
Soon a water rattler as long as himself began emerging silently 
from an opening at the base of a great tussock. Seizing the 
slender fish by the head he took him in at a single gulp and 
instantly withdrew to his place of hiding. Now that he had 
discovered and identified the villain, the day of judgment was 
come. Laying his pole down upon the banks of the stream, he 
cut himself a long green stick, then resumed his fishing. With 
some difficulty, and with evident impatience, he managed to 
hook one more. Indifferently he threw the fish upon the same 
spot and waited for the old thief to emerge from his place of 
hiding in the tussock. He could not long resist the appetizing 
dish before him—a beautifully colored, sleek pike fish flouncing 
about at his very door, consequently he emerged as before, but 
this time only to have his neck broken. Twining his silk line 
about his Japanese reed he set out for home, thankful that this 
loathsome brute had, at best, left him his appetite. Now the 
sad plight in which Uncle Dave found himself that evening 
will surely elicit the sympathy of any fisherman as we see him 
being seated before a dish of collard greens when his appetite 
