Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1909-02-12

in B:ier Water TO see whether there
are any trout there. Well. there are.
Austin stocked it years ago, and he
never fishes, SO 10 doubt it's full of
fish"
The Brier Water a cold, deep, lei
surely stream, deserved It's name. If
anybody ever haunted 1t with hostile
designs upon its fishy deniZens, Austin
ut least never did. Bcltei kingfshcr,
heron, mink and perhaps Il fUrtive
small boy with pole and siniier and
barnyard worm-thcse were the only
foes TIE trout might dread. AS for a
man and ~ rod, they knew him not,
nor was there much chance for cast
ing 4 line, because the water every
where flowed under weeds, arched
thickets of brier and grass and leafy
branches crisscrossed above.
This place is impossible" said Sci
wyn scornfully. What is Austin
about to let It all grow mp and run
Wild
He rceled in his line until only six
inches of the gossamer leader remained
free. From this dangled single sill
yer bodied fly, glittcring in the wind.
There's a likely pool hidden under
those briers," he said. Pin going to
poke the top OF my rod under-this
way Hahr' as heavy splash
sounded from depths unseen and the
reel screamed as he struck.
Up and down. under banks and over
shadows. rushed The invisible fish, and
Selwyn could do nothing for awhile
but let him go when he Insisted and
check and recover when the fish per-
mitted.
Eileen, spray Of green mint be-
tween her vivid lips, watched the per
Torrance with growing interest, but
VIXEN at length big, fat, struggling
specified trout was cautiously but sue
cessfully lifted out into the grass she
turned her back until the gallant fight
er had departed this life under a mer-
ciful whack from 4 stick.
THAT" she said family, SIS the part
don't care for. Is he out Of all pain?
What? Didn't feel any? Ga, are you
quite .sure?"
She walked over to him and looked
down at the beautiful victim OF craft
ooh, we'll" she sighed, you are very
clever, Of course, and ] suppose I'll eat
him, but / wish he were alive again
down there in those cool, sweet
depthsr'
killing frogs and insects and his
smaller brother fish"
did he do that?"
"No doubt of it. And if l hadn't
landed him d heron or a mink would
have done it sooner or later. That's
what a trout is fOr-to kill and be
killed"
She smiled, then sighed. The taking
Of life and the giving Of it were mys-
teries to her. She bad never Willingly
killed anything.
"Do you say that it doesn't hurt the
trout?" she asked.
"There are no nerves in the jaw
muscles of a trout Hail." as his rod
twitched and swerved under water and
his reel sang again.
And again she watched the perform
ance and once more turned her back.
Let me try" she said when the
coup de grace had been administered
to lusty, brilliant tinted bull trout.
And, rod in hand, she bent GREATNESS
and intent over the bushes, cautiously
thrusting the tip through a thicket OF
mint.
She lost two fish, then hooked q
third, q small one, but when she lifted
it gasping into the sunlight she shly-
cred and called to Selwyn:
"Unhook it and throw it back! II
simply can't stand that!'
Splash. went the astonished trout,
and she sighed her relief.
There's no doubt about it, she SAID,
'you and l certainly do belong to diff
ferent species of the same genus. Men
and women are separate species. DO
you deny it"
81 should hate to lose you that way,
he returned teasingly.
We'll, you can't avoid 1t. gladly ac-
nit that woman is not too closely re-
lated TO man. We don't like TO XII
things. It's an ingrained diStaste, not
merely a matter of ethical philosophy.
You like to kill, and it's trait common
also to children and other predatory
animals. which fact" she added airily,
"convinces me of woman's higher civ
ilization.''
1T would convince me, too" he said.
"if woman didn't eat the things that
man kills for her"
81 know. Isn't it horrid? Oh, dear,
we're neither Of us very high in the
scale yet-par;icularly YOU"
We'll. I've advanced some since the
good cd days when a man went WOO
inc with club" he suggested.
You may have. But. anyway, you
don't 90 woonG. AS for man collec-
lively. he has not progressed so very
far" she added demurely. las an eX-
annie that dreadful Draymore man ac-
tually hurt my wrist"
Selwyn looked NJ quickly, shade OF
frank annoyance on his face and
vision Of the fat sybarite before his
eyes. He turned again to his fishing,
but his shrug was more Of shudder
than aOnaarcd to be complimentary to
Percy Draymore.
She had OWNED somehow that it an
moved Selwyn to know that men had
importuncI her. She had told him Of
her experience as ianocently as she
ho1 +oIJ Nina and with even less EN-