, the Sagamore Club encountered the petty difficulties and
annoyances to which similar clubs are sooner or later subjected;
disputes with neighboring land-owners were gradually adjusted; troubles
arising from poachers, dishonest keepers, and night guards had been, and
continued to be, settled without harshness or rancor; minks, otters,
herons, kingfishers, and other undesirable intruders were kept within
limits by the guns of the watchers, although by no means exterminated;
and the wealthy club was steadily but unostentatiously making vast
additions to its splendid tracts of forest, hill, and river land.

After a decent interval the Sagamore Club made cautious inquiries
concerning the property of the late O'Hara, only to learn that the land
had been claimed by Munn, and that taxes were paid on it by that
individual.

For fifteen years the O'Hara house remained tenantless; anglers from the
club fished freely through the mile of river; the name of Munn had been
forgotten save by the club's treasurer, secretary, and president,
Peyster Sprowl.

However, the members of the club never forgot that in the centre of
their magnificent domain lay a square mile which did not belong to
them; and they longed to possess it as better people than they have
coveted treasures not laid up on earth.

The relations existing between the members of the Sagamore Club
continued harmonious in as far as their social intercourse and the
general acquisitive policy of the club was concerned.

There existed, of course, that tacit mutual derision based upon
individual sporting methods, individual preferences, obstinate theories
concerning the choice of rods, reels, lines, and the killing properties
of favorite trout-flies.

Major Brent and Colonel Hyssop continued to nag and sneer at each other
all day long, yet they remained as mutually dependent upon each other as
David and Jonathan. For thirty years the old gentlemen had angled in
company, and gathered inspiration out of the same books, the same
surroundings, the same flask.

They were the only guests at the club-house that wet May in 1900,
although Peyster Sprowl was expected in June, and young Dr. Lansing had
wired that he might arrive any day.

An evening rain-storm was drenching the leaded panes in the
smoking-room; Colonel Hyssop drummed accompaniment on the windows and
smoked sulkily, looking across the river towards the O'Hara house, just
visible through the pelting downpour.

"Ir