d towards the middle of the lake. The rod was
bent into a semicircle, but the game was fast; with the butt firm
between his knees and his thumb pressing the reel, the sportsman gave
him a hundred and fifty feet of line, when his efforts began to relax,
and as Smith began to reel him in, a moment of dead pull, a holding
back like an obstinate mule occurred. The trout was slowly towed in
the direction of the boat. Then, as if maddened by the force which
impelled him, he dashed furiously forward, the reel answering to his
movements and the line always taught, he rose to the surface leaping
clear from the water, shaking his head furiously as if to throw loose
the fastenings from his jaw. Failing in this, down he plunged fifty
feet straight towards the bottom, making the reel hiss by his mad
efforts to escape. Still the line was taught, pressing always, towing
him towards the boat at every relaxation. At last he rose to the
surface, panting and exhausted, permitting himself to be towed almost
without an effort, to within twenty feet of his captors. When he saw
them, all his fright and all his energies too seemed to be restored,
and away he dashed, sciving through the water a hundred and fifty feet
out into the lake. But the hook was in his jaw, and he could not
escape. After half an hour of beautiful and exciting play, he
surrendered or was drowned, and Smith lifted him with his landing net,
a splendid ten-pound trout, into his boat. By this time the shadows of
twilight were gathering over the lake, and he came ashore. A proud man
was Smith, as he lifted that fish from the boat and handed it over to
the cook to be dressed for breakfast, and though we had seen the whole
performance from our tents, yet he gave us in glowing and graphic
detail the history of his taking that ten-pound trout.

"Captain," said Hank Wood, who had been quietly whitling out a new set
of tent pins, addressing Smith, "you had a good time of it with that
trout, but it was nothing to an adventer of mine with an old
mossy-back, on this lake, five year ago this summer."

"How was that?" inquired Smith; and we all gathered around to hear
Hank Wood's story.

"I don't know how it is," he began, as he seated himself on the log in
front of the tents, with one leg hanging down, and the other drawn up
with the heel of his boot caught on a projection in the bark, his knee
almost even with his nose, and his fingers locked across his shin, "I
don't know exactly w