Page 100 - the-thirty-nine-steps

seen a shrewder or better-tempered face. He leaned his deli-
cate ten-foot split-cane rod against the bridge, and looked
with me at the water.
‘Clear, isn’t it?’ he said pleasantly. ‘I back our Kenner any
day against the Test. Look at that big fellow. Four pounds
if he’s an ounce. But the evening rise is over and you can’t
tempt ‘em.’
‘I don’t see him,’ said I.
‘Look! There! A yard from the reeds just above that stick-
le.’
‘I’ve got him now. You might swear he was a black
stone.’
‘So,’ he said, and whistled another bar of ‘Annie Laurie’.
‘Twisdon’s the name, isn’t it?’ he said over his shoulder,
his eyes still fixed on the stream.
‘No,’ I said. ‘I mean to say, Yes.’ I had forgotten all about
my alias.
‘It’s a wise conspirator that knows his own name,’ he ob-
served, grinning broadly at a moor-hen that emerged from
the bridge’s shadow.
I stood up and looked at him, at the square, cleft jaw and
broad, lined brow and the firm folds of cheek, and began to
think that here at last was an ally worth having. His whim-
sical blue eyes seemed to go very deep.
Suddenly he frowned. ‘I call it disgraceful,’ he said, rais-
ing his voice. ‘Disgraceful that an able-bodied man like you
should dare to beg. You can get a meal from my kitchen, but
you’ll get no money from me.’
A dog-cart was passing, driven by a young man who

100 The Thirty-Nine Steps