Frontier and pioneer life -- Ontario -- Fiction; Ontario -- History -- Fiction
"Why and how?" said Clark. He knew so little of himself as appearing
in other people's minds.
"This man was a big Chicago importer--look out, you've got another
bass--and he was in New York at the time of the fire--heard his
warehouses were threatened and bought trainloads of stuff and rushed it
through. It arrived while the other stuff was still smoking, and he
made much more than he-- My dear sir, that's the best fish of the
evening, let me look at him."
Clark laid the twitching body of a bass on the teak deck, while the big
man came aft, trailing his bait and slowly reeling up his line. As the
minnow glimmered in towards the yacht's black side, there came a heavy
plunge, the bishop's rod bent double, and the line sang off his reel.
He was a famous fisherman, and Clark watched him admiringly. To every
ounce of pliant bamboo on his six ounce rod there was, down in the
brown water, a pound of savagely fighting weight. Deeper went the big
fish and further, but ever the taut line yielded by fractions, and the
nearly doubled rod kept up a steady insidious strain. As the bass
dashed back, the bishop recovered his nearly spent line while his lips
pressed tight and the light of battle shone in his large eyes. For a
quarter of an hour the fight lasted, till the great fish floundered
once or twice with heavy weariness on the surface, and the angler
worked him toward the yacht. Then a bare brown arm shot a landing net
underneath his horny shoulder and, with a dexterous twist, the Indian
pilot landed him on the deck in a thumping tangle of line, leader and
net.
"And that," said the bishop with a deep sigh of content, "will do.
We've got supper and breakfast as well."
The night deepened, and in the little saloon host and guest sat down to
a supper of fried fish, blueberries and cream. The small, red curtains
were drawn, and over the tiny fireplace a binnacle lamp glowed softly.
Forward in the bows, the Scotch engineer and the Indian pilot sat
conversing in deliberate monosyllables, and in the east a horned moon
floated just clear of the ragged tops of encircling pine trees. Clark
ate slowly and felt the burden slipping from his shoulders. It was a
strange sensation. Across the narrow table towered the bishop, the
genius of the place. He was still reminiscent of American experiences
and talked as talks a man who is comfortably sure of himself and his
companion.
"I don't believe I have any very close personal friends," said Clark
presently. "I've moved about too quickly to make them. One meets
people in the way of work, and so far as my own employees are
concerned, I see them chiefly through their work. I can't let the
personal element intrude."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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