“Oh!” cried Toby excitedly, as the hooked fish leaped wildly from the water, and tried to fall across the taut line, with the idea of breaking loose, though Jack skillfully lowered his tip, and avoided that impending catastrophe. “What a dandy, Jack! Three pounds, and mebbe a lot more. Look at him fight, will you? He’s a regular old bronze-back warrior, I tell you. I hope you land that beauty. Play him for all you’re worth, Jack; please don’t let him get away. And now I hope Steve will say he’s got enough.”

“We haven’t got him yet by a jugful, remember, Toby,” remonstrated Jack. “They say you mustn’t count your chickens till the eggs are hatched; and I tell you a big bass like that is never caught until he’s flopping on the bank. They’re up to all kinds of tricks. Now he’s boring down, and trying to find a rock to get under, so he can grind the line, until it weakens and gives way.”

“Don’t let him get to the bottom, Jack!” cried Toby, anxiously. “That rod of yours will stand the strain all right. Give him the butt, Jack; keep him on top of the water! Oh! but isn’t he a grand fighter, though.”

107Toby could hardly have shown more interest had he been holding the rod instead of Jack; for he was not a selfish lad. By slow degrees Jack began to tire the big bass out. His rushes were losing some of their fierceness now, and the boy, shortening his line as he found opportunity, was able to partly drag the fish along to help in exhausting or “drowning” him, since his mouth was gaping open.

They had no landing-net, so Toby hastily stripped off shoes and socks in order to wade knee-deep into the stream, and help get the prize safely ashore. He would have willingly gone in up to his neck if necessary, to make a sure thing of the landing part.

Jack wisely selected a little strip of shallow beach as the best place for carrying out the finishing stroke of his conquest. Here Toby was able to use both of his hands, and actually push the big bass along, until in the end they had him safe on the shore, flapping still, as though his defiant spirit had not yet given in to the adversity that had overtaken him.

Long they gloated over his beauty. Having no scales along they could only guess at the weight of the prize. Jack said a good three pounds, but the more enthusiastic Toby went half a pound higher.

“Why, it wouldn’t surprise me much if he even tipped the scales at four,” he assured Jack. “See how thick through he is, will you, and a good 108 twenty-two inches long in the bargain. Oh! how he came down with a splash whenever he’d jump two feet out of the water, and turn over! I’ll never forget how finely you handled him, either, Jack, old chum! Now, if it had been me I’d like as not have got so excited I’d lost my fish by some fool play. But that ought to be enough for even Steve, and so I reckon we must quit the fun.”

He looked dolefully toward the river, as though disliking very much to give up when the acme of the sport had just been reached.

“I hope you’ll take his mate another day, Toby,” Jack told him, hopefully. “Don’t forget the old saying that ‘there’s just as good fish in the sea as ever were caught,’ and it applies to the Paradise River in the bargain. And now I’ll wash up, so I can get busy with my photographic work, as it’s about ten o’clock, and the sun as strong as I’d want.”

He seemed to have made up his mind just what pictures appealed most to him, judging from the business-like way he went about his work. Toby stood by ready to assist in any way possible, though he did not happen to be as greatly interested in photography as his comrade. So after about half an hour Jack had accomplished his task.

“I think they ought to turn out pretty fine,” was his finishing comment, as he closed his camera, the present of the lady who had engaged him to combine business with pleasure on this camping trip. 109 “If there’s anything wrong the fault will be wholly mine, because the conditions certainly couldn’t be improved on.”

“I suppose it’s home for us now, Jack?” asked Toby.

“We might as well be making a start,” he was told. “Perhaps I’ll want to snap off another picture on the way, because one or two things struck me as worth while.”

Accordingly Toby lifted the string of fish from the water, where they had been keeping cool. He grinned as he pretended to stagger under the load.

“Believe me, they’re going to turn out something of a weight, Jack.”

“We’ll fix that soon enough, and share the burden,” the other told him, as he picked up a stout pole, and proceeded to fasten the fish to its centre. “Many hands make light work, they say, and when we carry our prize bag of fish between us the strain will hardly be noticed.”

It proved just as Jack had said; what would have been a heavy weight for one to carry was a mere bagatelle for both, thanks to that pole, which was some six feet in length.

“First time in all my life I ever had to tote home a string of fish in this way,” Toby confessed, though with brimming good humor. “Don’t I wish we were going through Chester with the bunch, though; how the fellows’ eyes would pop out of their heads to see this whopping big chap you landed. And I just know Steve will immediately 110 press both hands on his stomach, and say: ‘That’s about my size!’”

“Don’t be too hard on Steve, Toby,” chided Jack. “All of us have our failings, and for one I’ve got my appetite along with me pretty much all the time. He happens to be a big fellow, and in fine health, so he feels hungry as many as six times a day, especially when in the woods, where the air tones up the system.”

Leaving the river with some regret they started to head for the camp that lay possibly a mile and a half away “as the crow flies.” Sometimes they chatted as they walked along, and then again both of them would fall silent, being taken up it might be with thoughts of those left behind in dear old Chester.

It chanced to be during one of those quiet periods that Toby suddenly shook the pole from which the string of fish dangled, as though endeavoring to attract the attention of his companion without making any noise. Glancing toward the other Jack saw him pointing with outstretched finger; and as he turned his own eyes in the direction indicated he discovered the cause of Toby’s singular behavior.

There was a man in sight, though just then, as he was bending over, he had apparently failed to discover their nearby presence. Jack instantly sank down to the ground, and Toby imitated his example; after which they crawled closer together, until they could exchange whispers.

111“That’s the man!” was the first low exclamation Toby gave utterance to.

“The man who came to the camp, and asked questions, do you mean?” demanded Jack, taking a cautious peep over the tops of the bushes that afforded them an effectual screen.

“Yep, he’s the same one,” Toby went on to say, decisively. “I recognize his figure, and there, you can glimpse his face right now, which I’d know among a thousand. But whatever can he be doing with that pickax?”

Jack seemed to be taking a deep interest in the actions of the mysterious stranger. He watched him move a little further along, and then start to dig with vigorous blows. They were quite close to him, and his face could be plainly seen. Jack was studying it intently, as though he might be comparing its leading features with a certain description that had been given to him.

When presently Toby saw his chum starting to get his camera in working order he drew a breath of admiration, for he guessed that Jack was intending to try to secure a snapshot of the man working with that pickax, as though desirous of offering it as positive proof that could not be denied.

Creeping behind a neighboring tree the generous trunk of which offered him the necessary asylum, Jack watched his chance. He waited until the man stood up to rest, with the pickax held over his shoulder, and the sun well on his face. 112 Then a tiny click announced to Toby that the thing had been done.

He was keeping his eyes glued on the man; but as several crows were holding a noisy confab not far away, and a squirrel had taken to barking at the intruder with the digging tool, such a slight sound as the clicking of the camera apparently passed unnoticed.

The stranger seemed to be more or less excited. After mopping his perspiring forehead he once more commenced digging here and there in a most tantalizing fashion. Toby could not comprehend what it could mean. Was there gold or some other precious deposit to be found up here among these hills, and might this strange man be an old prospector from the West who had had long experience in searching for mineral lodes? But then such things were seldom discovered so near the top of the ground, Toby recollected. He wished the man would go away so he could speak to Jack, and ask him what he thought; because the more he considered the matter the greater became his conviction that Jack must surely know.

Now the man seemed to have satisfied himself, for he again shouldered the pick, and started to leave the spot. Toby was glad to notice that he had turned aside and consequently there would be no danger of his coming upon them in their hiding-place. He waved a farewell after the other, boylike.

“Goodbye, Mister Man,” Jack heard him whisper, 113 exultantly; “come again when you can’t stay so long. Your room is better appreciated than your company. Who are you, anyway; and what’re you muddling about around here, I’d like to know.”

After the man had been swallowed up in the depths of the woods Jack made the other lie quiet for something like five minutes. This was to make doubly sure the stranger did not turn on his tracks, and come back again. It was hard for Jack to hold in, because he was quivering with eagerness to investigate, and see if he could find out what had interested the other so much.

“Guess he’s gone for keeps, Jack,” suggested the eager Toby, fretting like a hound held in the leash.

“Yes, it looks that way,” returned the other, commencing to get upon his feet, “and I suppose we’d be safe in going on our way again.”

“But, Jack, don’t you mean to take a peep over there where that chap was digging so wildly to learn what he was up to?” demanded Toby.

Jack looked at him as though trying to make up his mind.

“Well, it has to come some time,” he remarked, as if to himself, “and I suppose it’s hardly right to keep you in the dark much longer, now that you’ve seen as much as you have. So come along, Toby, and we’ll investigate.”

They were quickly on the spot. Here and there could be seen evidences of the man’s digging, 114 though he had hardly more than turned over the upper crust of earth and rocks. So far as Toby could see there was not the first sign of quartz, or anything else that, as he understood it, had to do with mining. Indeed, just in that particular place the earth looked unusually grimy and moist and oozy, a fact that struck Toby as surprising. Then he commenced sniffing the air more and more vigorously, while over his face crept a smile that kept growing broader and broader, as though the light of a great discovery had burst upon him like a dazzling comet.