e! It's a lie!"

"I think so myself," said Dannie. "Ye never would have dared. Ye'd have
known that I'd find out some day, and on that day, I'd kill ye as I
would a copperhead."

"A lie!" panted Jimmy.

"Then WHY did ye tell it?" And Dannie's fingers threatened to renew
their grip.

"I thought if I could make you strike back," gasped Jimmy, "my hittin'
you wouldn't same so bad."

Then Dannie's hands relaxed. "Oh, Jimmy! Jimmy!" he cried. "Was there
ever any other mon like ye?"

Then he remembered the cause of their trouble.

"But, I'm everlastingly damned," Dannie went on, "if I'll gi'e up the
Black Bass to ye, unless it's on your line. Get yourself up there on
your bank!"

The shove he gave Jimmy almost upset him, and Jimmy waded back, and as
he climbed the bank, Dannie was behind him. After him he dragged a
tangled mass of lines and poles, and at the last up the bank, and on
the grass, two big fish; one, the great Black Bass of Horseshoe Bend;
and the other nearly as large, a channel catfish; undoubtedly, one of
those which had escaped into the Wabash in an overflow of the Celina
reservoir that spring.

"NOO, I'll cut," said Dannie. "Keep your eye on me sharp. See me cut my
line at the end o' my pole." He snipped the line in two. "Noo watch,"
he cautioned, "I dinna want contra deection about this!"

He picked up the Bass, and taking the line by which it was fast at its
mouth, he slowly drew it through his fingers. The wiry silk line
slipped away, and the heavy cord whipped out free.

"Is this my line?" asked Dannie, holding it up.

Jimmy nodded.

"Is the Black Bass my fish? Speak up!" cried Dannie, dangling the fish
from the line.

"It's yours," admitted Jimmy.

"Then I'll be damned if I dinna do what I please wi' my own!" cried
Dannie. With trembling fingers he extracted the hook, and dropped it.
He took the gasping big fish in both hands, and tested its weight.
"Almost seex," he said. "Michty near seex!" And he tossed the Black
Bass back into the Wabash.

Then he stooped, and gathered up his pole and line.

With one foot he kicked the catfish, the tangled silk line, and the
jointed rod, toward Jimmy. "Take your fish!" he said. He turned and
plunged into the river, recrossed it as he came, gathered up the dinner
pail and shovel, passed Mary Malone, a tumbled heap in the bushes, and
started toward his cabin.

The Black Bass struck the water with a splash, and sank to the mud of
the bottom, wh