of the adjacent book were handsomely stocked by
the best makers of this country and each of the three divisions of
Great Britain; in each of which--as well as in Norway, Germany, or for
the matter of that, India, New Zealand, Alaska, Japan or other
lands--I had more than once wet a line. My garb was not of leather
jerkin, my buskins not of thonged straw, but on the contrary I was
turned out in good tweeds, well cut by my London tailor. To be called
offhand, and with no more reason than there was provocation, a
"caitiff," even by a voice somewhat treble and a trifle trembling,
left me every reason in the world to be surprised, annoyed and
grieved. For now Anopheles had flown away; and had I not been thus
startled, I should certainly have had him. Yet more, no fish would
rise in that pool the rest of that evening, for no trout in my little
stream thereabout ever had seen a boat or been frightened by the plash
of an oar since the time, three years back, when I had bought the
place.

I looked up. Just at the bend, arrested now by hand anchorage to the
overhanging alders, lay a small boat, occupied by two boys, neither
of more than fourteen years, the younger seemingly not more than
twelve. It was the latter who was clinging with one hand to the
drooping bushes. His companion, apparently the leader in their present
enterprise, was half crouching in the bow of the boat and he,
evidently, was the one who had accosted me.

A second glance gave me even more surprise, for it showed that the
boat, though not precisely long, low and rakish of build, evidently
was of piratical intent. At least she was piratical in decoration. On
each side of her bow there was painted--and the evening sun, shining
through my larches, showed the paint still fresh--in more or less
accurate design in black, the emblem of a skull and cross-bones. Above
her, supported by a short staff, perhaps cut from my own willows, flew
a black flag, and whatever may have been her stern-chaser equipment,
her broadside batteries, or her deck carronades--none of which I could
well make out, as her hull lay half concealed among the alders--her
bow-chaser was certainly in commission and manned for action. The
pirate captain, himself, was at the lanyard; and I perceived that he
now rested an extraordinarily large six-shooter in the fork of a short
staff, which was fixed in the bow. Along this, with a three-cornered
gray eye, he now sighted at the lower button of my waist