career--especially the late episode of the Darcy diamond cross.

"Well, I'm glad I helped out in that case," mused the colonel, as he sat
up more alertly, for there came a tremor to his line that told much to
his practiced and sensitive hands.

A moment later the reel clicked its song of a strike, and the colonel
got first to his knees and then to his feet as he prepared to play his
fish.

"I've hooked one, Shag!" he called in a low but tense voice. "I've
hooked one, and I think it's a beauty!"

"Yes, sah, Colonel! Yes, sah! Dat's fine! I'll be ready as soon as yo'
is!"

Shag caught up a landing net, for, though the colonel was not
anticipating any gamy fish in this quiet, country stream, yet for such
as he caught he used such light tackle that a net was needed to bring
even a humble perch to shore.

"I've got him, Shag! I've got him!" the colonel cried, as the fish broke
water, a shimmering shower of sparkling drops falling from his sides.
"I've got him, and it's a bass, too! I didn't think there were any here!
I've got him!"

"Yes, sah, Colonel! Yo' suah has!" exclaimed the delighted George
Washington Shag. "You suah has got a beauty!"

And as Shag started forward with the landing net, while the colonel
was playing with the skill of long years of practice the fish which had
developed unexpected fighting powers, there was a movement among the
bushes that lined the stream below the willows, and a young man, showing
every evidence of eagerness, advanced toward the fisherman. Shag saw him
and called:

"Keep back! Keep back, sah, if yo' please! De Colonel, he's done got a
bite, an'--"

"Bite! You mean that something's bitten him?" asked the young man, for
he could not see the figure of the colonel, who, just then, in allowing
the bass to have a run, had followed him up stream.

"No, he's catchin' a fish--he's got a strike--a big one! Don't isturb
him."

"But I must see him. I've come a long distance to--"

"Distance or closeness don't make no mattah of diffunce to de colonel
when he's got a bite, sah! I'm sorry, but I can't let yo' go any closer,
an' I'se got to go an' land de fish. Aftah dat, if you wants to hab a
word wif de colonel, well, maybe he'll see yo', sah," and Shag, with
a warning gesture, like that of a traffic policeman halting a line of
automobiles, started toward the colonel, who was still playing his fish.

Harry Bartlett, for he it was who had thus somewhat rudely interrupted
the detect