sh, whose gleaming
silver sides and sharp teeth proved him fresh-run from the sea! It was
a signal victory for an angler to land such a fish under such
conditions, and Chichester felt that fortune had been with him.

He enjoyed a quarter of an hour of great satisfaction as the men poled
the canoe up-river to the club-house. But there was a shadow of
anxiety, of vague misgiving, that troubled him; and he urged the men to
make haste. At the landing the Colonel and the Doctor were waiting,
with strange, long, inscrutable faces.

"Did you get him?" they said.

"I did," he answered; "forty-eight pounds. Hold up that fish, Louis!"

"Magnificent," they cried, "a great fish! You've done it! But, man, do
you know what time it is? Five minutes to ten o'clock!"

Nearly ten, and twenty miles of rough river and road to cover before
high noon. Was it possible? In a second it flashed upon Chichester what
he had done, what a fearful situation he must face. "Come on, you
fellows," he cried, stepping back into the canoe. "Now, Louis, shove
her as you never shoved before! Ten dollars apiece if you make the
upper landing in half an hour."

The other canoe followed immediately. They found the two buckboards
waiting, and scrambled in, explaining to the drivers the necessity for
the utmost haste. Chichester's horse was a scrawny, speedy little
beast, called _Le Coq Noir_, the champion trotter of the region. "_He,
Coq!_" shouted the driver, flourishing his whip, at the top of the
first long hill; and they started off at a breakneck pace. They passed
through the village of _Sacre Coeur_ a mile and a half ahead of the
other wagon. But on the first steep _cote_ beyond the village, the
inevitable happened. The buckboard went slithering down the slippery
slope of clay, struck a log bridge at the bottom with a resounding
thump, and broke an axle clean across. The wheel flew off, and the
buckboard came to the ground, and Chichester and the driver tumbled
out. The Black Cock gave a couple of leaps and then stood still,
looking back with an expression of absolute dismay.

There was nothing to do but wait for the other buckboard, which arrived
in ten or fifteen minutes. "Will you have the kindness to lend me your
carriage?" said Chichester elaborately. "Oh, don't talk! Get out quick.
You can walk!" They changed horses quickly, and Chichester took the
reins and drove on. Quarter past eleven; half past; quarter to
twelve--and three miles yet to go