in his grasp, time and
again his feet slipped from the back of a wriggling salmon.

"Dog-gone you, stand still; get pacified." He hauled off and slammed a
kick at a salmon which had tripped him.

"I'll bust you in de belly."

He landed with his equator submerged by nine nervous fish. He sought to
embrace a giant salmon. The Chinook slapped at him with his tail.

"Don' kick me wid yo' tail. I'll bust you in de nose."

He swung wildly at the salmon and was completely submerged. He came
snorting to the surface of the mass.

"Whuff! Fish, git ca'm. Does yo' lay still I does."

5.

On deck near the hatch coaming in the early night Mr. Ogaloff
Skooglund, the proprietor of the fish wheel, massaged his front teeth
with Copenhagen snuff and figured his winnings.

"If de salmon fisk been running like dis tree day more Aye cleans oop
sax t'ousand doller."

An echo from some unseen source seemed to reply.

Mr. Skooglund called loudly to the echo and then decided that he was
crazy, for the call was repeated from the river bank.

The proprietor of the fish wheel yelled a greeting into the darkness.

Down the bank into the circle of light cast by a dim lantern came a fat
man and a skinny individual with ears like a loving cup.

The fat man carried a wheat sack whose heavy contents jingled when he
sat it on the deck of the fish wheel.

The pair were out of breath. The owner of the fish wheel stepped
forward to try his English on his nocturnal visitors.

"Hello, fellers," he said.

The fat man answered, "Evenin'."

The skinny man tightened up on his ears for an instant and swung at Mr.
Skooglund with a short club.

"Good evening," he said, accenting the blow. The Swede took the count
with a grunt.

The fat man and the skinny one picked up Mr. Skooglund and carried him
to the open hatch. Feet first they dropped him upon the slithering mass
of salmon five feet below.

"He might drown. What did you hit him so hard for?"

"No chance. He ain't hurt--he'll sleep two or three hours. I only hit
him light. You can't kill these fish fighters hittin' 'em in the head,
anyway. Ivory--who's that?"

The fish wheel was being boarded by another visitor.

"Talk fish. You an' me owns the boat. We ain't seen nobody." The skinny
man whispered quickly to his companion. "Kick that sack in the hold."

The wheat sack with its clinking contents was cast into the open hatch.

The Wildcat made another futile leap at the hatch coa