rprise--certainly
without alarm. Then Olly began to haul in the hook. It was a fearful
fly to look at, such as had never desecrated those waters since the days
of Adam, yet those covetous fish rushed at it in a body. The biggest
caught it, and found himself caught! The boy held on tenderly, while
the fish in wild amazement darted from side to side, or sprang high into
the air. Oliver was far too experienced a fisher not to know that the
captive might be but slightly hooked, so he played it skilfully, casting
a sidelong glance now and then at his busy comrades in the hope that
they had not observed him.

At last the fish became tired, and the fisher drew it slowly to the
bank--a four- or five-pound trout at the very least! Unfortunately the
bank was steep, and the boy found, to his distress, that the hook had
only caught hold slightly of the fish's lip. To lift out the heavy
creature with the line was therefore impossible, to catch hold of it
with the hand was almost equally so; for when he lay down and stretched
out his arm as far as possible, he could scarcely touch it with the end
of his finger.

"If it makes another dash it'll escape," muttered the anxious boy, as he
slid further and further down the bank--a hairbreadth at a time.

Just then the fish showed symptoms of revival. Olly could stand this no
longer. He made a desperate grasp and caught it by the gills just as
the hook came away. The act destroyed what little balance he had
retained, and he went with a sharp short yell into the pool.

Paul looked up in time to see his friend's legs disappear. He ran to
the spot in considerable alarm, supposing that the boy might have taken
a fit, and not knowing whether he could swim. He was relieved, however,
to find that Olly, on reappearing, struck out manfully with one hand for
a shallow place at the lower end of the pool, while with the other he
pressed some object tightly to his bosom.

"You don't mean to say," exclaimed Paul, as he assisted his friend out
of the water, "that you went in for that splendid trout and caught it
with your hands!"

"You saw me dive," replied the boy, throwing the fish down with affected
indifference, and stooping to wring the water from his garments as well
as to hide his face; "and you don't suppose, surely, that I caught it
with my feet. Come, look at the depth I had to go down to catch him!"

Seizing his prize, Olly led his friend to the spot where he had fallen
in,