, and I forgot to give him the butt.

A wild scutter in the water, a plunge, and a break for the head-waters
of the Clackamas was my reward, and the weary toil of reeling in with
one eye under the water and the other on the top joint of the rod was
renewed. Worst of all, I was blocking California's path to the little
landing bay aforesaid, and he had to halt and tire his prize where he
was.

"The father of all the salmon!" he shouted. "For the love of Heaven, get
your trout to bank, Johnny Bull!"

But I could do no more. Even the insult failed to move me. The rest of
the game was with the salmon. He suffered himself to be drawn, skip-ping
with pretended delight at getting to the haven where I would fain bring
him. Yet no sooner did he feel shoal water under his ponderous belly
than he backed like a torpedo-boat, and the snarl of the reel told me
that my labor was in vain. A dozen times, at least, this happened ere
the line hinted he had given up the battle and would be towed in. He was
towed. The landing-net was useless for one of his size, and I would not
have him gaffed. I stepped into the shallows and heaved him out with a
respectful hand under the gill, for which kindness he battered me about
the legs with his tail, and I felt the strength of him and was proud.
California had taken my place in the shallows, his fish hard held. I was
up the bank lying full length on the sweet-scented grass and gasping in
company with my first salmon caught, played and landed on an eight-ounce
rod. My hands were cut and bleeding, I was dripping with sweat, spangled
like a harlequin with scales, water from my waist down, nose peeled by
the sun, but utterly, supremely, and consummately happy.

The beauty, the darling, the daisy, my Salmon Bahadur, weighed twelve
pounds, and I had been seven-and-thirty minutes bringing him to bank! He
had been lightly hooked on the angle of the right jaw, and the hook had
not wearied him. That hour I sat among princes and crowned heads greater
than them all. Below the bank we heard California scuffling with his
salmon and swearing Spanish oaths. Portland and I assisted at the
capture, and the fish dragged the spring balance out by the roots. It
was only constructed to weigh up to fifteen pounds. We stretched the
three fish on the grass--the eleven and a half, the twelve and fifteen
pounder--and we gave an oath that all who came after should merely be
weighed and put back again.

How shall I tell the