"Ye never would have dared.
Ye'd have known that I'd find out some day, and on that day, I'd
kill ye as I would a copperhead."
"A lie!" panted Jimmy.
"Then WHY did ye tell it?" And Dannie's fingers threatened to
renew their grip.
"I thought if I could make you strike back," gasped Jimmy, "my
hittin' you wouldn't same so bad."
Then Dannie's hands relaxed. "Oh, Jimmy! Jimmy!" he cried. "Was
there ever any other mon like ye?"
Then he remembered the cause of their trouble.
"But, I'm everlastingly damned," Dannie went on, "if I'll gi'e up
the Black Bass to ye, unless it's on your line. Get yourself up
there on your bank!"
The shove he gave Jimmy almost upset him, and Jimmy waded back,
and as he climbed the bank, Dannie was behind him. After him he
dragged a tangled mass of lines and poles, and at the last up the
bank, and on the grass, two big fish; one, the great Black Bass
of Horseshoe Bend; and the other nearly as large, a channel
catfish; undoubtedly, one of those which had escaped into the
Wabash in an overflow of the Celina reservoir that spring.
"NOO, I'll cut," said Dannie. "Keep your eye on me sharp. See me
cut my line at the end o' my pole." He snipped the line in two.
"Noo watch," he cautioned, "I dinna want contra deection about
this!"
He picked up the Bass, and taking the line by which it was fast
at its mouth, he slowly drew it through his fingers.
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