Canada Bill and I were on board the steamer _Doubloon_, going up
the Red River on one occasion. Bill was doing the playing, and I
was driving and baiting. We had caught a nice string of fish, and
had about come to the conclusion that there were no more of our
kind left worth fishing for, when a nice looking young man came
swimming up. We thought at first he was too small to angle for;
but you can't sometimes always tell, for we found out that this
one was larger than anything we had caught that evening.
He came right up, and, before we had time to put on fresh bait,
wanted to bet $500 that he could turn the winner.
Bill said, "All right; I'll go you just once," and began counting
out the money.
I caught a glimpse of the sucker's leather, and gave Bill the office
to raise him about $4,000.