My m--m--mouth is
full of guts,' was all that I could say; and the girl would never speak
to me afterward."

_Rodman._ "That was lucky, for you got a wife better able to bear with
your little foibles."

_Kingfisher._ "I did, sir."

_July 8._ Rodman and I were to take the Upper Indian-house Pool to-day,
the others going to the Patapedia. Kingfisher and I exchanged Indians:
he, having a man who was a better fisherman than either of mine, kindly
lent him to me, that I might have a better chance of killing a salmon, I
being the only one of the party who had not succeeded in doing so. I
found in my book a casting-line of double gut: it was only two yards
long, but I thought I had better trust to it than the single gut which
the fish had been breaking for me the last two days. I also found in my
book a few large showy salmon-flies tied on double gut: with these I
started, determined to do or die. I was on the pool at 5 A. M., and had
raised two salmon, and caught two large trout, which often took our
flies when we were casting for bigger fish. At 6.30 I raised and hooked
a big fish, which ran out twenty yards of line, and then stopped. I
determined to try the waiting method this time, and not to lose my fish
by too much haste; so I let him have his own way, only holding him with
a tight hand. Joe, I soon saw, understood his part of the business: he
kept the canoe close behind the fish, so that I should always have a
reserve of line upon my reel. My salmon made two runs without showing
himself: he pulled hard, and was evidently a strong fish. He now tried
to work himself across the river into the heavy current. I resisted
this, but to no purpose: I could not hold him, and I thought he was
going down the little rapid, where I could not have followed, when he
steered down through the still and deep water, and went to the bottom
near the camp. There he stayed, sulking, for more than an hour, and I
could not start him. The cook came down from his fire to see the
conflict; Joe lighted his pipe and smoked it out; old Captain Merrill,
who lived on the opposite bank, came out and hailed me, "Reckon you've
got a big one this time, judge;" and still my line pointed to the bottom
of the river, and my hands grew numb with holding the rod.

They have tied me to the stake: I cannot fly,
But, bear-like, I must fight the course.

Suddenly, up from the depths came the salmon, and made off at full speed
down the river, making his