CHAPTER II
ARISTIDE DESSALINES
I WILL pole you down to the old milldam," said Giles, "and then you can get out and walk along the edge of the slide and try a cast into the pool below. I have taken some nice ones from there when the water is high, as it is just now. You see, they get close under the bank on the west side, because there is such a rush of water coming down that it makes an eddy where they get shelter."
"How can we get back?" asked Virginia. "Surely you can't pole against such a strong current."
"I could," replied Giles, "but it would take too long. We will leave the punt down there and walk back across the meadows. It's not much over a mile, because, you see, the river winds."
He placed the pole against the end of the little jetty and with a powerful shove sent the punt well out into the stream which, swollen by the recent heavy rains, was transformed from its peaceful, gentle-flowing quiet into a cataract. The current caught the light punt and whirled it down between flower-covered banks.
"How jolly!" cried Virginia; "it is like running the rapids!"
"You should see it in the spring," said Giles; "it's ripping then. We'll have to shoot into the bank below
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