Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/266

 and minks made their appearance, and then began a contest which had been kept up ever since. By the aid of traps and breech-loaders the boys waged an incessant warfare upon the interlopers, and finally succeeded in thinning them out so that the trout were allowed to rest in comparative peace.

The boys did not stop at noon, but ate their lunch as they floated along with the current. The monotony of the afternoon's run was broken by an hour's chase after an eagle, which they did not succeed in shooting, although one of Roy's arrows ruffled the feathers on his back, and by a long search for an otter which swam across the river in advance of them. About four o'clock in the afternoon they reached a favorite camping, or rather, anchoring ground, a deep pool noted for its fine yellow perch, and there they decided to stop for the night. The anchor was dropped overboard just above the pool, and when the skiff swung to the current, the bait-rods they had purchased to replace those that Matt Coyle had stolen from them, were taken out of the lockers, floats were rigged, a box of worms which they had