The Essential Gene Stratton-Porter Collection. Stratton-Porter Gene
He opened the back door and stepped out just as Dannie raised the pole again.
"Hey, you! Quit raisin' Cain out there!" yelled Jimmy. "I want to get some sleep."
Across the night, tinged neither with chagrin nor rancor, boomed the big voice of Dannie.
"Believe I have my extra line fixed so it works all right," he said. "Awful sorry if I waked you. Thought I was quiet."
"How much did you make off that?" inquired Mary.
"Two points," answered Jimmy. "Found out that Dannie ain't sore at me any longer and that you are."
Next morning was no sort of angler's weather, but the afternoon gave promise of being good fishing by the morrow. Dannie worked about the farms, preparing for winter; Jimmy worked with him until mid-afternoon, then he hailed a boy passing, and they went away together. At supper time Jimmy had not returned. Mary came to where Dannie worked.
"Where's Jimmy?" she asked.
"I dinna, know" said Dannie. "He went away a while ago with some boy, I didna notice who."
"And he didn't tell you where he was going?"
"No."
"And he didn't take either of his fish poles?"
"No."
Mary's lips thinned to a mere line. "Then it's Casey's," she said, and turned away.
Dannie was silent. Presently Mary came back.
"If Jimmy don't come till morning," she asked, "or comes in shape that he can't fish, will you go without him?"
"To-morrow was the day we agreed on," answered Dannie.
"Will you go without him?" persisted Mary.
"What would HE do if it were me?" asked Dannie.
"When have you iver done to Jimmy Malone what he would do if he were you?"
"Is there any reason why ye na want me to land the Black Bass, Mary?"
"There is a particular reason why I don't want your living with Jimmy to make you like him," answered Mary. "My timper is being wined, and I can see where it's beginning to show on you. Whativer you do, don't do what he would."
"Dinna be hard on him, Mary. He doesna think," urged Dannie.
"You niver said twer words. He don't think. He niver thought about anybody in his life except himself, and he niver will."
"Maybe he didna go to town!"
"Maybe the sun won't rise in the morning, and it will always be dark after this! Come in and get your supper."
"I'd best pick up something to eat at home," said Dannie.
"I have some good food cooked, and it's a pity to be throwin' it away. What's the use? You've done a long day's work, more for us than yoursilf, as usual; come along and get your supper."
Dannie went, and as he was washing at the back door, Jimmy came through the barn, and up the walk. He was fresh, and in fine spirits, and where ever he had been, it was a sure thing that it was nowhere near Casey's.
"Where have you been?" asked Mary wonderingly.
"Robbin' graves," answered Jimmy promptly. "I needed a few stiffs in me business so I just went out to Five Mile and got them."
"What are ye going to do with them, Jimmy?" chuckled Dannie.
"Use thim for Bass bait! Now rattle, old snake!" replied Jimmy.
After supper Dannie went to the barn for the shovel to dig worms for bait, and noticed that Jimmy's rubber waders hanging on the wall were covered almost to the top with fresh mud and water stains, and Dannie's wonder grew.
Early the next morning they started for the river. As usual Jimmy led the way. He proudly carried his new rod. Dannie followed with a basket of lunch Mary had insisted on packing, his big cane pole, a can of worms, and a shovel, in case they ran out of bait.
Dannie had recovered his temper, and was just great-hearted, big Dannie again. He talked about the south wind, and shivered with the frost, and listened for the splash of the Bass. Jimmy had little to say. He seemed to be thinking deeply. No doubt he felt in his soul that they should settle the question of who landed the Bass with the same rods they had used when the contest was proposed, and that was not all.
When they came to the temporary bridge, Jimmy started across it, and Dannie called to him to wait, he was forgetting his worms.
"I don't want any worms," answered Jimmy briefly. He walked on. Dannie stood staring after him, for he did not understand that. Then he went slowly to his side of the river, and deposited his load under a tree where it would be out of the way.
He lay down his pole, took a rude wooden spool of heavy fish cord from his pocket, and passed the line through the loop next the handle and so on the length of the rod to the point. Then he wired on a sharp bass hook, and wound the wire far up the doubled line. As he worked, he kept an eye on Jimmy. He was doing practically the same thing. But just as Dannie had fastened on a light lead to carry his line, a souse in the river opposite attracted his attention. Jimmy hauled from the water a minnow bucket, and opening it, took out a live minnow, and placed it on his hook. "Riddy," he called, as he resank the bucket, and stood on the bank, holding his line in his fingers, and watching the minnow play at his feet.
The fact that Dannie was a Scotchman, and unusually slow and patient, did not alter the fact that he was just a common human being. The lump that rose in his throat was so big, and so hard, he did not try to swallow it. He hurried back into Rainbow Bottom. The first log he came across he kicked over, and grovelling in the rotten wood and loose earth with his hands, he brought up a half dozen bluish-white grubs. He tore up the ground for the length of the log, and then he went to others, cramming the worms and dirt with them into his pockets. When he had enough, he went back, and with extreme care placed three of them on his hook. He tried to see how Jimmy was going to fish, but he could not tell.
So Dannie decided that he would cast in the morning, fish deep at noon, and cast again toward evening.
He rose, turned to the river, and lifted his rod. As he stood looking over the channel, and the pool where the Bass homed, the Kingfisher came rattling down the river, and as if in answer to its cry, the Black Bass gave a leap, that sent the water flying.
"Ready!" cried Dannie, swinging his pole over the water.
As the word left his lips, "whizz," Jimmy's minnow landed in the middle of the circles widening about the rise of the Bass. There was a rush and a snap, and Dannie saw the jaws of the big fellow close within an inch of the minnow, and he swam after it for a yard, as Jimmy slowly reeled in. Dannie waited a second, and then softly dropped his grubs on the water just before where he figured the Bass would be. He could hear Jimmy smothering oaths. Dannie said something himself as his untouched bait neared the bank. He lifted it, swung it out, and slowly trailed it in again. "Spat!" came Jimmy's minnow almost at his feet, and again the Bass leaped for it. Again he missed. As the minnow reeled away the second time, Dannie swung his grubs higher, and struck the water "Spat," as the minnow had done. "Snap," went the Bass. One instant the line strained, the next the hook came up stripped clean of bait.
Then Dannie and Jimmy really went at it, and they were strangers. Not a word of friendly banter crossed the river. They cast