rgles down the incline, and swishes
around rocks that stick out above the surface.

"Let me tell you, boys, the old river may look pretty fine in spots down
our way, but shucks! it can't hold a candle to what you'll see up here.
Soon's I got my eyes fastened on that picture I thought of you, Jack,
and how you'd just love to knock off such a handsome view for keeps.

"But fishing was what I'd come after, and so I put all other notions out
of my head. It didn't take such an old fisherman as Toby Hopkins long to
settle on what looked like the most promising site for throwing out in
an eddy just below some frowning big rocks, and where the shadows looked
mighty inviting for a deep hole.

"Say, the fun began right away. Hardly had my baited hook disappeared in
the dark water when I had a savage strike, and away my reel buzzed like
fury. He was a game fighter, let me tell you, and I had all I could do
to land him, what with his acrobatic jumps out of the water, and his
boring deep down between times. But everything held, and he chanced to
be well hooked, so at last in he came.

"That sure looked like business, and I lost no time in baiting up again,
for I knew how finicky bass are about biting, and that you have to make
hay while the sun shines, because they quit work just as suddenly as
they start in, without you understanding the cause either.

"Right away I had another, and then a third big chap followed which I
lost. But what did one fish matter when there seemed to be no end of
them just hanging around waiting a chance for grub--because that was
just what I was feeding 'em, having fetched along two dozen big white
and brown fat fellows I got out of rotten stumps around home.

"Before there was a lull, I had landed five of the string. Then they
quit biting, and I had a chance to rest up a bit, and do some thinking.
So mebbe half an hour passed, when suddenly something happened. I heard
a cough, and looked around right away, thinking that either Steve here,
or you, Jack, had taken a notion to follow my trail across to the river
just to see what was going on.

"Say, I had a little shock just about that time. A man was standing
there not a great ways off, and watching me for keeps. He seemed to be
scowling like a black pirate, and something told me right away he didn't
much fancy seeing me there, taking fish out of the river.

"I guess I must have thought of half a dozen things all in a minute. He
was one of those sl