us struggled, for it was fastened with
care, the efforts of the fish to escape became more and more violent,
and at last, just as the boy had succeeded in his task, a strong spring
from the fish snapped the rod near the tip, and at the same instant
snatched it from the youth's hand into the stream. Without a second's
hesitation, Agincourt dashed into the river, which rose nearly to his
shoulders, and, after a vigorous pursuit, reached the rod, but only as
the fish bad broken the strong gut in two, and made his escape up the
rapid current.

The boy was toilfully clambering up the bank, with the broken rod in his
hand, when a somewhat angry summons in Italian met his ears. It was time
enough, he thought, to look for the speaker when he had gained dry land;
so he patiently fought his way upwards, and at last, out of breath and
exhausted, threw himself full length in the deep grass of the bank.

"I believe I am indebted to you, sir, for my smashed tackle and the
loss of a heavy fish besides?" said Charles Heathcote, as he came up
to where the youth was lying, his voice and manner indicating the anger
that moved him.

"I thought to have saved the rod and caught the fish too," said the
other, half indolently; "but I only got a wet jacket for my pains."

"I rather suspect, young gentleman, you are more conversant with a
measuring-yard than a salmon-rod," said Heathcote, insolently, as he
surveyed the damaged fragments of his tackle.

"What do you mean by that, sir?" cried the boy, springing with a bound
to his feet, and advancing boldly towards his adversary.

"Simply that it 's not exactly the sort of sport you follow in Bond
Street," retorted Heathcote, whose head was full of "Mosely and Trip,"
and felt certain that a scion of that great house was before him.

"You must be a rare snob not to know a gentleman when you see him," said
Agincourt, with an insolent defiance in his look.

"Perhaps I'd be a better judge if I saw him after a good washing," said
Heathcote, who, with one hasty glance at the river, now turned a fierce
eye on the youth.

Agincourt's gun-room experiences had not taught him to decline an
offered battle, and he threw off his cap to show that he was ready and
willing to accept the challenge, when suddenly Layton sprang between
them, crying out, "What's the meaning of all this?"

"The meaning is, that your young friend there has taken the liberty,
first, to smash my fishing-gear, and then to be ver