There was a second's pause, while the big trout, pained and surprised, tried to gather his scattered wits. Three quarters of Pritchard's line floated loosely across the brook, but the leader and the fly remained under, and Pritchard knew that he had hooked his fish. Then, and it was sudden--like an explosion--the whole length of floating line disappeared, and the tip of Pritchard's powerful rod was dragged under after it. The reel screamed. "It's a whale!" shouted Gay, forgetting how much depended upon the size of the fish, "a whale!" The time for stealthy movements and talk in whispers was over. Gay laughed, shouted, exhorted, while Pritchard, his lips parted, his cheeks flushed, gayly fought the great fish. "Go easy; go easy!" cried Gay. "That hook will never hold him." But Pritchard knew his implements, and fished with a kind of joyous, strong fury. "When you hang 'em," he exulted, "land em." The trout was a great noble potentate of those waters. Years ago he had abandoned the stealthy ways of lesser fish. He came into the middle of the brook where the water is deep and there is freedom from weeds and sunken timber, and then up and down and across and across, with blind, furious rushes he fought his fight. It was the strong man without science against the strong man who knows how to box. The steady, furious rushes, snubbed and controlled, became jerky and spasmodic; in a roar and swirl of water the king trout showed his gleaming and enormous back; a second later the sunset colors of his side and the white of his belly. Inch by inch, swollen by impotent fury, galvanically struggling and rushing, he followed the drag of the leader toward the beach, where, ankle-deep in the water, Gay crouched with the landing-net. She trembled from head to foot as a well-bred pointer trembles when he has found a covey of quail and holds them in control, waiting for his master to walk in upon them. The big trout, still fighting, turning, and raging, came toward the mouth of the half-submerged net. "How big is he, Miss Gay?" The voice was cool and steady. "He's five pounds if he's an ounce," her voice trembled. "He's the biggest trout that ever swam. "He _isn't_ a trout," said Pritchard; "he's a char." If Gay could have seen Pritchard's face, she would have been struck for the first time by a sort of serene beauty that pervaded some of its expressions. The smile which he turned upon her crouching figure had in it a something almost angelic. "Bring him a little nearer," she cried, "just a little." "You're sure he weighs more than three pounds?" "Sure--sure--don't talk, land him, land him----"