ake and think of all the trouble we been to, it seems funny somebody
couldn't let us have half a chance to get a few good fish. What chance
they got to bite with a lot o' _girls_ gabbin' away, and then, just as
we get 'em quieted down, all you men got to come bustin' up here yellin'
your heads off. A fish isn't goin' to bite when he can't even hear
himself think! Anybody ought to know that much."

But the new arrivals hooted. _"Fish!"_ Ramsey vociferated. "I'll bet
a hundred dollars there hasn't been even a minny in this creek for the
last sixty years!"

"There is, too!" said Heinie, bitterly. "But I wouldn't be surprised
there wouldn't be no longer if you got to keep up this noise. If you'd
shut up just a minute you could see yourself there's fish here."

In whispers several of the tamed girls at once heartily corroborated
this statement, whereupon the newcomers ceased to gibe and consented to
silence. Ramsey leaned forth over the edge of the overhanging bank,
a dirt precipice five feet above the water, and peered into the
indeterminable depths below. The pool had been stirred, partly by the
inexpert pokings of the fishermen and partly by small clods and bits
of dirt dislodged from above by the feet of the audience. The water,
consequently, was but brownly translucent and revealed its secrets
reluctantly; nevertheless certain dim little shapes had been observed
to move within it, and were still there. Ramsey failed to see them at
first.

"Where's any ole fish?" he inquired, scornfully.

"Oh, my goodness!" Heinie Krusemeyer moaned. "_Can't_ you shut up?"

"Look!" whispered the girl who stood nearest to Ramsey. She pointed.
"There's one. Right down there by Willis's hook. Don't you see him?"

Ramsey was impressed enough to whisper. "Is there? I don't see him. I
can't--"

The girl came closer to him, and, the better to show him, leaned out
over the edge of the bank, and, for safety in maintaining her balance,
rested her left hand upon his shoulder while she pointed with her right.
Thereupon something happened to Ramsey. The touch upon his shoulder was
almost nothing, and he had never taken the slightest interest in Milla
Rust (to whom that small warm hand belonged), though she was the class
beauty, and long established in the office. Now, all at once, a peculiar
and heretofore entirely unfamiliar sensation suddenly became important
in the upper part of his chest. For a moment he held his breath, an
involuntary ac