All men love to gain their ends; most men are contented with the shortest road to them, while others like by-paths. Some carry an innate love of triumph to a pitch of epicurism, and are not content unless the triumph be achieved in a certain way, making collateral passions accessories before or after the fact; and Murphy was one of the number. To him, a triumph without _fun_ was beef without mustard, lamb without salad, turbot without lobster sauce. Now, to entangle Furlong in their meshes was not sufficient for him; to detain him from his friends, every moment betraying something of their electioneering movements, though sufficiently ludicrous in itself, was not enough for Murtough!--he would make his captive a source of ridicule as well as profit, and while plenty of real amusements might have served his end, to divert the stranger for the day, this mock fishing-party was planned to brighten with fresh beams the halo of the ridiculous which already encircled the magnanimous Furlong. "I'm still in the dark," said Dick, "about the salmon. As I said before, there never was a salmon in the river." "But, as I said before," replied Murphy, "there will be to-day; and you must help me in playing off the trick." "But what _is_ this trick? Confound you, you're as mysterious as a chancery suit." "I wish I was likely to last half as long," said Murphy. "The trick!" said Dick. "Bad luck to you, tell me the trick, and don't keep me waiting, like a poor relation." "You have two boats on the river?" said Murphy. "Yes." "Well, you must get into one with our victim: and I can get into the other with the salmon." "But where's the salmon, Murphy?" "In the house, for I sent one over this morning, a present to Mrs. Egan. You must keep away about thirty yards or so, when we get afloat, that our dear friend may not perceive 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.