“Yes. Bravo! capital! You’ll have one. Don’t strike too hard if you have a touch.”
“Stanes and spates!” roared the great Highlander, leaping from the ground in his excitement. “Strike, laddie, strike! That’s gran’! Haud oop yer rod. Keep the point o’ yer rod oop. Noo, Master Kenneth laddie, ye shall see what tooks place. Keep oop the point o’ yer rod, laddie. Dinna haud on by the reel. Let the fush rin! let the fush rin! Hech! but it does a man’s hairt gude to see.”
“It’s tugging so, it will pull me in,” cried Max, whose face was flushed with excitement as his rod bent nearly double.
“No, no; stand fast. Keep a tight line,” cried Kenneth, who seemed just as excited. “It’s a rare big one, Max.”
“Ay, it’s a fine fush,” cried the forester. “It’s nae kelt. Shall I go and help the laddie?”
“No, no, Tav; let him catch it himself. Look how it pulls!”
“But it don’t rin. Has she hookit a stane? Na it’s a fush, and a gude fush. Dinna be hasty, laddie. I’ll be ready wi’ the gaff. Let her rin, and—Stanes and spates! did ye ever see the like o’ that, Maister Kenneth? She’s caught a watter-hen!”
For at that moment, after the rod had bent double nearly, and been jerked and tugged till Max could hardly keep his footing, the invisible fish behind the rock suddenly seemed to dart upward, and, as the rod straightened, the captive to the hook flew right up in the air and fell with a splash on the side of the stone nearest to where Max stood staring at Tavish who waded into the water knee-deep, and with a dexterous jerk of the gaff hook got hold of the captive and dragged it ashore.
“Sure eneuch, it’s a watter-hen,” cried Tavish excitedly. “Ye’ve caught a watter-hen, maister, and it’s no’ a fush. D’ye hear, Maister Kenneth, and did ye ever hear o’ such a thing? It’s a watter-hen.”
“No, Tavvy,” cried Kenneth, who had fallen back on the heather, and was kicking up his heels, as he roared with laughter,—“no, it isn’t a water-hen; it’s a cock.” The forester took up the bird he had hooked, and examined its drenched feathers and comb before letting its head swing to and fro.