“Now, Mr Manners,” cried Josh, “what do you say to that? Are there any trout in Willows’ waters?”
“Yes, splendid! We ought to get some fish to-night. Here, where are your creels?”
“Haven’t brought them,” said Will. “We are going to help fill yours.”
And they did, for the fish rose to nearly every cast, quarters and half-pounders, the artist to his great delight landing two both well over a pound, for it was one of those evenings when, as if warned by their natural instinct of a fast to come, the trout rose at every fly, taking in their heedless haste the artificial as well as the true, and only finding their mistake when gasping out their brief life upon the bracken laid at the bottom of the artist’s creel.
The trio fished on till the creel was nearly full, so intent upon their sport that they paid no heed to the gathering clouds, Nature’s harbingers of the storm about to break among the hills, till a bright flash of light darted down the vale, followed almost instantaneously by a mighty crash, which went roaring and rumbling on in echoes, to die distantly away.
“Hold on!” shouted Will. “Look sharp; we shall have to run. It’ll be wet jackets as it is. I say, Mr M, lucky I put away your traps! Wasn’t I right?”
“Right you were, young ’un,” cried the artist, making a whizzing noise as he wound up his multiplying winch. “But I’m not going to bark my shins running amongst these stones. Now then, boys. ’Tention! Shoulder rods! Right face! March!” And he led off at a rapid rate down by the side of the stream. “Here, lads, that’s heavy,” he cried at the end of a few minutes, just as the rain began to make chess pawns upon the surface of the pools. “I’ll carry it now.”
“No, no,” cried Will. “But let’s shelter here for a few minutes. It’s only going to be a shower now.”
He ran into where a great mass of slatey-looking rock stood out from the perpendicular side of the gorge, heedless of the fact that it necessitated splashing in through the shallow water, which nearly covered his boots.
“Nice dry spot this,” said the artist, laughing, as they stood in the ample shelter.