id Brazier, who was already taking off his
necktie.

"No bait, sir? Mr Rob's going to find some wild oranges or sour sops,
or something, and if he don't I still mean to have a fish. Why, if I
can't find nothing else I'll have a bait if I come down to cutting off
one of my toes--perhaps one o' Mr Rob's would be tenderer or more
tempting--or my tongue p'r'aps, for I do talk too much. Work, both of
you; I'll soon have a bait, for I want my breakfast like mad."

Rob hurried off, but did not reach the great trees which surrounded the
open spot, for at the third clump of bushes he came upon an
orange-coloured fruit growing upon a vine-like plant in abundance. It
seemed to be some kind of passion-flower, and, in spite of Shaddy's
warning, he tasted one, to find it of a pleasant, sweetish, acid
flavour.

Gathering a capful, he returned at once to where his companions in
misfortune were hard at work.

"Hullo!" growled Shaddy. "Soon back! What have you got, my lad? Kind
o' granadillas, eh? Well, they're good to eat, but not much to make a
breakfast of. Better wait till I've done a bit o' conjuring and turned
some of 'em into a fish. There, what do you say to that for a hook?"

He held up his piece of wood carving, which was about four inches long
and two across, something in this shape:--

"Not much of a hook, Mr Rob, sir, but tough enough to hold a fish if we
can coax him to swallow it by covering it with the fruit. We can get
three of them juicy things on the shank and point. So now for the line!
How are you getting on, Mr Brazier, sir?"

"Very slowly, Naylor," said Brazier, with a sigh.

"All the more surer, sir. You help, Mr Rob, sir, and I'll lay up some
of my cotton handkercher for the snood. No; second thoughts is best.
I'll make a loose hank of it, so that the fish's teeth may go through if
he tries to bite the line, which of course he will."

The result was that in an hour or so a silk line of about twenty yards
in length was twisted up and attached to the loose cotton bottom secured
to the hook. This was baited, and, after selecting a suitable spot,
Shaddy climbed out upon a half-fallen tree whose trunk projected over
the river, and dropped his line into a deep eddying pool, where the
water ran round and round in a way which made Rob feel giddy.

There was a steep slope just here, so that the bank was not flooded, and
hence the angler was able to drop his line at once into deep water,
where th