s. And
besides, it says there's no fishing here--and I believe it! I haven't
had a bite all the way up this brook."

He went on a bit farther and cast his fly again. Quiet fell upon the
long pool, where the shadow and sunshine lay in alternate blocks.

Suddenly there was a scrambling through the brush on the side of the
stream where Short and Long was standing, and then appeared a big dog
and a big man, the latter holding the former in leash. The man was
just as ugly looking as the dog--and the Barnacle was a howling beauty
beside this dog!

"Hey, you!" exclaimed the man to Short and Long--and he certainly
_did_ speak savagely.

CHAPTER XIX

THE YOUNG MAN WITH THE GUN

"Oh, dear, Lance!" gasped Laura Belding, in a whisper. "I am afraid
Short and Long will get into trouble. That man looks perfectly
savage!"

But the small boy did not seem to be in the least disturbed. He had
just made a very pretty cast into the stream as the dog and its master
appeared.

"Say! can't you read that there sign?" demanded the man, very red in
the face. The sign really was plainly to be seen, and easily read. In
large black letters it said:

PRIVATE
NO FISHING ALLOWED

The angler looked at the sign on the tree unabashed and observed:

"I didn't notice it. You see, Mister, they taught me never to read
anything marked 'Private.'"

"Well, it says 'No fishin' allowed,' anyway," snarled the farmer.

"But I'm not fishing aloud," came from Short and Long, who was
perfectly serious. "That's what I've been kickin' about. The other
folks down stream are making so much noise that they'd give every
trout in the brook nervous prostration. I tell you I came up here
especially to be quiet about my fishing----"

"You may think you're funny, youngster," interrupted the man; "but
you're fishin' just the same, aren't you?"

"Not so's you'd notice it," declared Short and Long. "All I've managed
to do so far is to give my fly a chance to swim. Haven't even had a
rise."

"I'll give yer a rise, confound ye!" roared the man, coming with a
rush through the bushes. "Git out o' there, an' git out quick, or I'll
set this dawg on ye!"

Here Lance took a hand in the affair. He shouted across the stream:

"Have a care, there, Mister! If that dog is savage, don't you turn him
loose."

"Who the dickens are _you_?" snarled the farmer. "This is my land, and
it's posted, and this here