ive the trick--and in proper time I will
hook my dead salmon on one of my lines, drop him over the off-side of
the boat, pass him round to the gun-wale within view of our intelligent
castle customer, make a great outcry, swear I have a noble bite, haul up
my fish with an enormous splash, and, affecting to kill him in the boat,
hold up my salmon in triumph."

"It's a capital notion, Murphy, if he doesn't smoke the trick."

"He'll smoke the salmon sooner. Never mind, if I don't hoax him: I'll
bet you what you like he's done."

"I hear him coming down-stairs," said the Squire.

"Then send off the salmon in a basket by one of the boys, Dick," said
Murphy; "and you, Squire, may go about your canvass, and leave us in
care of the enemy."

All was done as Murphy proposed, and, in something less than an hour,
Furlong and Dick in one boat, and Murphy and his attendant _gossoon_ in
another, were afloat on the river, to initiate the Dublin citizen into
the mysteries of this new mode of salmon-fishing.

The sport at first was slack, and no wonder; and Furlong began to grow
tired, when Murphy hooked on his salmon, and gently brought it round
under the water within range of his victim's observation.

"This is wather dull work," said Furlong.

"Wait awhile, my dear sir; they are never lively in biting so early as
this--they're not set about feeding in earnest yet. Hilloa! by the
Hokey I have him!" shouted Murphy. Furlong looked on with great
anxiety, as Murphy made a well-feigned struggle with a heavy fish.

"By this and that, he's a whopper!" cried Murphy in ecstasy. "He's
kicking like a two-year old. I have him, though, as fast as the rock o'
Dunamase. Come up, you thief!" cried he, with an exulting shout, as he
pulled up the salmon with all the splash he could produce; and suddenly
whipping the fish over the side into the boat, he began flapping it
about as if it were plunging in the death-struggle. As soon as he had
affected to kill it, he held it up in triumph before the castle
conjuror, who was quite taken in by the feint, and protested his
surprise loudly.

"Oh! that's nothing to what we'll do yet. If the day should become a
little more overcast, we'd have splendid sport, sir."

"Well, I could not have believed, if I hadn't seen it," said Furlong.

"Oh! you'll see more than that, my boy, before we've done with them."

"But I haven't got even a bite yet!"

"Nor I either," said Dick; "you're not worse off than I am