www.freeclassicebooks.com

Good morning," he said. "How did yeh sleep?"

Oh, just splendidly, and you?" she replied.

So-so," he answered.

She looked at him searchingly as he approached her.

Why I don't believe that you have slept at all," she cried.

I didn't feel very sleepy," he replied evasively.

You sat up all night on guard!" she exclaimed. "You know you did."

De Chinks might o' been shadowin' us--it wasn't safe to sleep," he admitted; "but

I'll tear off a few dis mornin' after we find a feed of some kind."

"What can we find to eat here?" she asked.

"Dis crick is full o' fish," he explained, "an' ef youse got a pin I guess we kin rig up

a scheme to hook a couple."

The girl found a pin that he said would answer very nicely, and with a shoe lace

for a line and a big locust as bait the mucker set forth to angle in the little

mountain torrent. The fish, unwary, and hungry thus early in the morning proved

easy prey, and two casts brought forth two splendid specimens.

"I could eat a dozen of dem minnows," announced the mucker, and he cast again

and again, until in twenty minutes he had a goodly mess of plump, shiny trout on

the grass beside him.

With his pocketknife he cleaned and scaled them, and then between two rocks he

built a fire and passing sticks through the bodies of his catch roasted them all.

They had neither salt, nor pepper, nor butter, nor any other viand than the fish,

but it seemed to the girl that never in her life had she tasted so palatable a meal,

nor had it occurred to her until the odor of the cooking fish filled her nostrils that

no food had passed her lips since the second day before--no wonder that the two

ate ravenously, enjoying every mouthful of their repast.

"An' now," said Billy Byrne, "I tink I'll poun' my ear fer a few. You kin keep yer

lamps peeled fer de Chinks, an' de first fony noise youse hears, w'y be sure to

wake me up," and with that he rolled over upon the grass, asleep almost on the

instant.

The girl, to while away the time, explored their rock-bound haven. She found that

it had but a single means of ingress, the narrow pass through which the brook

108

The Mucker