Ty had finally managed to crawl far enough along the narrow ledge. He was apparently directly below the log that stuck out from the bank above him. Elmer judged this by the way the other craned his neck in order to look up.
"Now he's got his chance, if he can only reach that dangling line!" he thought.
Apparently Ty realized the same thing, for he was seen to be extending that same crotched stick that had before proven so useful.
In this fashion he speedily drew the line in toward him, gently, so as not to arouse the fisherman before he was ready to give him a good hard shock.
"Pull up the curtain, the stage is all ready!" Elmer said to himself, as he kept close watch on the movements of the boy below.
He could see Ty taking a firm grip on the dangling line as though he meant to have it no halfway affair.
"Now, go!" exclaimed the watcher.
Just as though Ty might have been waiting for some such order, he was seen to suddenly tighten his hold, and then give a tremendous jerk, that was surely calculated to make Adam believe the champion bass of the Sweetwater had taken his bait and gorged it.
Then something happened, something that doubtless the practical joker crouching below had not anticipated as a result of his prank.
Adam seemed to suddenly awaken. He was evidently greatly excited, and as he made a wild clutch at the butt of his rod, which had been partly jerked out of his grasp by the violence of that bite, he just naturally lost his seat on the log.