Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1895-06-01
SEVENTEENTH YEAR.

other, and no doubt took sly nip on
the way, and the Englishman's eye Che
was wall-eyed) seemed to glow with
fire and obstinacy the more he drank,
but otherwise he was as sober as
judge. Night fell, and still they were
fighting the blank stream. The gen
tleman had fires built on the bank and
made a night of it, Notwithstanding
that his good lady came down and
begged him to come home, as a decent
fisherman should; and there he fished
until the dawn, while Pats fathers
legs were like to drop off him with
fatigue, or, more likely, to give way
under him with the whisky.
''Still the Briton fshed, until at last
with terrible oath he stood on the
wall, just where l had been standing,
the blankety blank stream but what
he would get a fish, and just then he
had a magnificent strike and a run
which made the reel buzz again. He
| was just commencing to play the big
| fish, for big it was, two or three pounds
at least, when $50 Pats father swore
on the Good Book out of the water
rose a beautiful lady with a pro-
nOunced HiberniaI accent, and said: I
charg' ye on yer p'ril to go long outer
dis! The fishes in dis water is mine, an,
ye've no roight en- loife ter 'em, an,
yer wall-eyed blayguard av de wurruld,
git out av me soight, or it's not tellin'
we I'll be- and then she dived into the
water. The Englishman turned lit
tie pale, but he kept on playing the
fish, took another drink with one hand,
and cursed Pats father that he did not
bring the net quick enough, and just
then his feet slipped on the wall, and
in he went, down, down, down, into
that deep hole. They dragged the
water with rakes and hooks, but they
never found the body. The lady shut
up the house, went away, and all the
property went to rack, ruin and
tangled scrub
''Well, that's a great ghost story!"
said Harry Myers; what has it to do
with the hoodoo'?"
''I'm not through yet, boys. Pat
swore that there was in that hole
freak of nature. ergo, a wall-eyed trout;
that he was never to be caught, al
though he might be hooked; that he
was the Britisher under the water
fairy's antigua ted hoodoo, and that
anyone who persisted in hooking him
went blind or died before the year was
out.
THAT settled it! l did not finish my
lunch before 1 was up on the wall try
ing for that one-hundred-year-o trout
with the boss eye, and nothing Pat
could say Avould shake me. For two
hours / worked as never man did. I
-, \ - Il / 7
could reach from the wall, but without
effect until, the'light changing, could
see that one side of the hole terminated
at the top in a slight overhanging
ledge. l changed my fly for a white
one with golden tail, and deftly
dropped it over the apparent ledge.
''Ye gods! with mighty rush and
swirl giant fish took my fly, and in
breath / could feel him hooked safe
enough. How the touch thrilled down
the tapering four-ounce bamboo, every
section of it thrilling like telegraph
wire! To right, to left, up and down,
backward and forward, good fighter
and a bold one. No subterfuge about
him! Up to the top he came, and threw
himself out of the water before my
eyes, then down again to the depths,
under the ledge and out again, but no.
where could he find a purchase on
which to fret or fray the line, and still
at his mouth the relentless tension of
the line was sinking the barb deeper
and deeper until the strain and pain
together began to tell. 1 could feel
him weaken. BY that mystic intuition
known only to the true fisherman,
knew that the end was coming, and
that the beauty was mine by the Prov
ess of my line and rod, as in the olden
time by the sword aud spear.
''Who said 'hoodoo to me at that
moment? I had forgotten the wall
eyed Britisher, the fairy, Pat, almost
myself and my own existence, in the
glorious battle of skill and finesse
against strength and cunning. At last
l bore little harder ON the line to
bring him round. With last gasp he
turned from the butt, headed in a mad
dying dash up the stream, and as
held firm to the line and reel with my
thumb, he cleared the water with
mighty bound, and-the line snapped
in the air like whip-lash-I had lost
him! 1t did not seem possible, and I
sorrowfully drew my leader up to my
fngers-the fly, hook and leader were
intact and whole as when new!
Boys, I was paralyzed. Then a
sound striking my ear I turned, and
there was poor Pat, rocking himself to
and fro, crying and sobbing after the
manner of his people: 'Ochone, ochone!
Aw, the dear master! Another av 'em
gone! May the black shadder fall on
the wall-eyed divil at the last day! Ow,
owl 1 could not help laughing, in
spite of my disgust at losing the fish,
and, packing up, we made our way