view raw text
THE COLONELS BIG TROUT Temptation Overwhelms His Nephew and Sacred Fish Is Landed How ilic Trick Was Done and How Skill Bronjht Flslicr For It was always called the Colonels Trout but as a matter of solemn fact it was not his it was nine I dont know whether a fish in a case can e spoken of as a skeleton in a cupboard but hat is really what it amounted to The Colonel egan to try to catch it when lie was a subaltern o either trout must live to a great age or else lis promotion must have been unusually rapid Vhen the fish came first to my knowledge he the Colonel was a major he was also and still is my uncle and I his heir and favorite nephew Now I believe there stands in his last will and estament a somewhat painful codicil I have heard owners of fisheries reckon up ex wnsesand declare that every fish they land means an outlay of about 1 per pound but their ex penses pale beside mine The famous trout weighed about twelve pounds but it would take a good many golden sovereigns to cover the cost of that days fishing to me Looking about for extenuating circumstances I ail to find any it was wrong foolish and un pardonable but and of this last satisfaction no one not even the Colonel himself can rob me it was also magnificent How well I remember it all The occasion was my annual visit to Little Bur leigh For years that week had figured as the great event in my sporting calendarjseven days at The Manor with my uncle and his military friends or company I can recollect as a youngster the fascination of listening to their tiger shooting nigger hunting experiences Later years perhaps somewhat lessened my belief but it always was a great week and the fishing splendid Three miles of a southern trout stream swift run ning crystal clear set in a lovely Hampshire valley Not as a matter of fact that the scenery really mattered the sport was too good and I for one all back only on the surroundings when things are s6w Hills trees valleys spring blossoms and autumn tints are all well at the right time but after all when one is fishing the fish is the hing Parklike grounds are not much comfort if the float wont bob Why I have sat in a unt at Canterbury between a boneboiling factory and a sawmill catching threepound trout and enjoyed the scenery more than the loveliest spot in all England catching nothing Well the Burleigh water was open to me once a year miles of it with but two restrictions fly only to be used and the Colonels Trout to be held sacred Various weights and sizes were ascribed to that famous fish in the calm hours i of daylight beside the river my uncle would modestly admit that it was eight pounds if an ounce might even be nine but as the night wore woreon on especially in London at his club the gallant officer would start with nine and as the glasses filled and refilled and the hours grew smaller so would that trout in the Colonels estimation row proportionately bigger It was alas my un liappy fate to set these doubts at rest and to settle finally once and for all the weights and measures of the fabled fish down to the veriest ounce and inch As far as Bnrlelgh Manor and the Colonel are concerned I am now an outcast I dont say there is actually a pxico on jnyhondor tlmtjUie worthy gentleman would go so far as to have me imprisoned for life but I do feel quite certain that any keeper Who pushed me in and perhaps held me under for five minutes would if lie escaped the utmost penalty of the law receive such a reward as would make his life an easy one and himself a person of considerable affluence affluenceThere There are in my uncles creed things that under any circumstances one may or may not do An 1 elopement if it be sufficiently romantic he can forgive a slight excess when the punch bowl j passes he will pardon late arrival at meal times 1 never by the way a fault of mine he will over ¬ look but the man who shoots a fox robs a church snares a pheasant or and this above and beyond j all catches a trout with anything but an artificial 1 fly may rest assured that he lias earned my uncles most embittered and undying hatred and such a 1 man alas am I Gorgeous in its case of rounded glass flaunting in golden letters its weight length its girth every noble detail save the bait there looking down upon me as I write there is the trout How I vividly how clearly the scene comes back It L marks my last visit to dear old Burleight Manor Manorj I remember the evening before the deed far into the night we sat the Colonel his military guests and I fishermen all each with his tale to tell his memories of bygone years to recount honest up ¬ right followers of the angle and I as good as any The fly only was our sacred creed and yet and j yet I remember into my thoughts that night there crept an evil one Why should not that monster fish some day be mine I was the better fisher ¬ man I knew Surely my practiced hand might I yet succeed where his had failed Then why not j try Conscience awoke within me and said No that particular pool that particular fish were the forbidden fruit fruitTEMPTATION TEMPTATION AND WEAKNESS WEAKNESSThree Three miles of river were open to the Cplonels s guests anywhere but there any fish but that I was a traitor in the camp Were I pulled in and 1 drenched what would it be but a fitting end to 5 such a deed And yet well rightly or wrongly next morning saw me early afoot no one about and a clear two hours before me Trembling partly r with excitement partly I hope with the kuowlr edge of evildoing I hastened to the pool On one point at least was my conscience easy that J 1 fish should fall to a fly or not at all Alas for r the path that is paved with good intentions We B all know the ultimate destination of those who tread that way Across that path there crawled JJ a worm An early bird might still have saved me but I myself was the early bird tlat fatal fatalmorn morn I caught the worm and I caught the fish Not all at once of course there was muHi to be done ere that noble twelve pounder lay safely and securely high up on the grassy bank Trimming the feathers from the hook took time creeping on tt hands and knees toward the pool took time pre paring for the fatal cast took time but playing aye and landing him took most time of all allI How well I knew the pool the deep dark hole beneath the tree roots where he lived the rippling shallows ripplingshallows where he sported the little knot of rushes that he loved and that by the bye Lad tightly held so many of the Colonels flies A clumsy bungler what right had lie to so insult a king of fish I felt quite indignant about it as I T poised my rod for the cast that was to land the L bait an inch before his nose nosePlcnip Plcnip went the worm and zing went my line as it tightened to the strike and oh the merry music as the wincli unwound to the overwhelming rush that followed Mine I had got him he was on Oil glorious moment Away to the winds morality honor friendship The Colonels Trout ball he was mine mine the rod that held him mine the skill that played him Fiercely at first right round the pool away a hundred yards away to the distant shallows where the river sang gayly in the morning sunlight Would he slip through the stepping stones down to the little weir too deep for me to wade too hemmed in by trees and bushes for me to follow For a moment my heart stood still then back he came slowly slowly in beside the bank Pray heaven no hidden snags be there it was the moment of the fight I supposed behindII I shouted I had a dim idea of a voice behind me Steady old chap steady It was the Colonel himself To my everlasting credit I had one generous impulse Take the rod sir and play him playhim yourself No no old chap no no Ah keep him away from that willow splendid Now turn him Look out Let him run Bravo well done indeed Quick now the butt Another unt ¬ meat and the flash of steel told me the gallant old Colonel was busy with the gaff the strain was over and the great fish mine I am always thankful that the scene that fol lowed was between we two alone I have heard that troops respect a iwearlns colonel and will fol low him anywhere and I can only say that had I to appoint an officer to lead a desperate sortie or a forlorn hope my elderly relative would b bv v that one To do him justice his first words wer of congratulation no regret no bitterness that his trout had been caught by someone else no sports ¬ man gentleman to the core he slapped me warmly on the back and bade me welcome to my capture Magnificently played sir and what a fish By gad all England shall hear of this Im proud of you sir damme proud of you So far so good the dreaded outburst hud not come I was a hero but it moment later and here it was that I realized the full particular meaning of a swear ¬ ing colonel he found the hook and on that hook the worm There was nothing to be said by me at least He said it all Possibly a page of Morse code dots and dashes niight faintly convey his next ten minutes conversation I say possibly with reservation honestly I dont think it would And now sir tlfe Colonel finished take your ¬ self and your more Morse code fish to the devil foreverI and get out of my sight forever I did Life is dear to me and clasping the Colonels trout tightly to my bosom I went if not IMrlmp to the destination he selected at any rate out iilaS of his sight and out also alas of his will forever Hubert Stanley lit Fishing Gazettev
