The Ocean Cat's Paw

"Hi, young fellow!" shouted the leader, whose stripes betokened the sergeant. "What are you doing here?"

Rodd, whose heart was thumping against his ribs from excitement, did not so much as raise his eyes from the surface of the pool, but with teeth set, lips pursed up, and brows heavily knit, kept on playing his fish, paying not the slightest heed to the speaker and his companions.

"Fishing, eh?" said the sergeant, who, in spite of his important errand, could not take his eyes from the darting trout. "I say, we are after an escaped prisoner, and he came somewhere up here. Which way has he gone?"

Rodd did not take his eyes from the frantic darting of the fish, but gave line in silence as it flashed through the water to the far side of the pool, while the soldiers grounded arms and looked on with the de