ve
been a most choice location. However, there will be other days, and--"

The colonel's voice was cut short by a shrill call from his delicate
reel, and a moment later he had leaped to his feet and cried:

"Shag, I'm a most monumental liar!"

"Yes, sah, Colonel. Dat's whut yo' suah is!"

"I've got the biggest bite I ever had! Get that landing net and see if
you can forget that you're a cross between a snail and a mud turtle!"
cried the colonel excitedly.

"Yes, sah!"

Shag moved on nimble feet, and presently stood down on the shore, near
the edge of the stream, while the colonel, on the bank above the eddy,
played the fish that had taken his bait and sought to depart with it
to some watery fastness to devour it at his leisure. But the hook and
tackle held him.

Up and down in the pool rushed the fish, and the colonel's rod bent
to the strain, but it did not break. It had been tested in other
piscatorial battles and was tried and true.

The battle progressed, not so unequal as it might seem, considering the
frail means used to ensnare the big fish. And the prize was gradually
being brought within reach of the landing net.

"Get ready now, Shag!" ordered the colonel.

"Yes, sah, I'se all ready!"

There was a final rush and swirl in the water. Shag leaned over, his
eyes shining in delight, for the fish was an extraordinarily large one.
He was about to scoop it up in the net, to take the strain off the rod
which was curved like a bow, when there came a streak of something white
sailing through the air. It fell with a splash into the water so close
to the fish that it must have bruised its scaly side, and then, in some
manner, the denizen of the stream, either in a desperate flurry, or
because the blow of the white object broke its hold on the hook, was
free, and with a dart scurried back into the element that was life
itself.

For a moment there was portentous silence on the part of Colonel Ashley.
He gazed at his dangling line and at the straightened pole. Then he
solemnly said:

"Shag!"

"Yes, sah, Colonel!"

"What happened?"

"By golly, Colonel! dat's whut I'd laik t' know. Must hab been a
shootin' star, or suffin laik dat! I never done see--"

At that moment a drawling voice from somewhere back of the fringe of
trees and bushes broke in with:

"I fancy I made that water hazard all right, though it was a close call.
Which reminds me of the perhaps interesting fact that forty-five and
sixty-four