On the Border With Crook - ERBzine

330 ON THE BORDER WITH CROOK.overhanging boulders and widely-branchingtrees. The darkgreenwater in front rushed swiftly and almost noiselessly by,but not more than five or six yards below our position severalsharp-toothed fragments of granite barred the progress of thecurrent, which grew white with rage as it hissed and roared onits downward course.We disrobed and entered the bath, greatly to the astonishmentof a school of trout of all sizes which circled about and darted inand out among the rocks, trying to determine who and what wewere. We were almost persuaded that we were the first whitemen to penetrate to that seclusion. Our bath was delightful ;everything combined to make it so shade, cleanliness, convenience of access, purity and coolness of the water, and such perfectprivacy that Diana herself might have chosen it for her ablutions !Splash ! !splash a sound below us ! The illusion wasvery strong, and for a moment we were willing to admit that theclassical huntress had been disturbed at her toilet, and that wewere all to share the fate of Actseon. Our apprehensions didn'tlast long ;we peeped through the foliage and saw that it wasnot Diana, but an army teamster washing a pair 'of unquestionably muddy overalls. Our bath finished, we took our standupon projecting rocks and cast bait into the stream.We were not long in finding out the politics of the Big Horntrout ; they were McKinleyites, every one ; or, to speak morestrictly, they were the forerunners of McKinleyism. We triedthem with all sorts of imported and manufactured flies of gaudytints or sombre hues it made no difference. After suspiciouslynosing them they would flap their tails, strike with the side-fins,and then, having gained a distance of ten feet, would most provokinglystay there and watch us from under the shelter of slippery rocks. Foreign luxuries evidentlyhad no charm for them.Next we tried them with home-made grasshoppers, caught onthe banks of their native stream. The change was wonderful :in less than a second, trout darted out from all sorts of unexpected places from the edge of the rapids below us, from undergloomy blocks of granite, from amid the gnarly roots of almostamphibious trees. My comrades had come for an afternoon'sfishing, and began, without more ado, to haul in the struggling,was to catch one or twoquivering captives. My own purpose of good size, and then return to camp. A teamster, named