"that spoon will spin splendidly, and I don't
expect the fish here have been educated so far as to know what a
fish-hook is. They've a lot to learn before they grow shy of an
artificial bait. Think that lead will be heavy enough?"

"Yes, quite enough to scare away a shark. What nonsense! I should put
on something small and light. We're not at sea."

"I know that, sir; but just you wait a bit and see. Ease off that sheet
a little more, Dan," cried Lynton. "That's better. I say, we're
opening up into quite a lake."

"The scenery is glorious," said Brace. "Look, there's plenty of dense
forest too beyond that open part we are passing."

"Yes, and there's the waterfall," cried Briscoe. "It's grand."

Brace nodded and sat with parted lips, gazing at the grand display of
falling water which was now almost directly ahead.

The whole river, which was very nearly half a mile wide at this spot,
tumbled over a ridge of rocks which barred its passage, and dropped in
places fully fifty feet with a dull murmuring roar which now began to be
plainly heard.

"Are you looking at the falls, Lynton?" cried Brace.

"Not yet. I'm too busy just now. I want to get the line out first.
There she goes, and good luck to her."

He dropped the great spoon and its armature of hooks over the side, and
Brace glanced after it, to see it for a few moments as the line was
allowed to run, the silvered unfishlike piece of metal beginning to spin
and, as it receded farther from the boat, to assume a wonderfully
lifelike resemblance to a good-sized roach swimming pretty fast.

It disappeared in a very few moments in the disturbed water, but soon
after it rose to the surface again and began to make leaps and darts of
a yard or two in length.

"I thought so," said Lynton drily. "That weight isn't heavy enough for
the rate at which we're travelling."

"Let out more line," said Brace, "and it may sink lower then."

The mate nodded, and drew about a dozen more yards from the open winder.

"That ought to do it," he said. "I'll give the line a twist round that
thole-pin, and then we shall hear it rattle if there's a bite and--
here--hi! Bless my soul!"

_Whizz_! _whoop_! _bang_!

The thole-pin had darted overboard, the winder was snatched from
Lynton's hand and struck violently against the steersman's leg.

Then both he and the mate made a dart at it to stop it, but came heavily
in contact as they stooped. The tiller flew wide, an