"But, as I said before," replied Murphy, "there will be to-day; and you must help me in playing off the trick."
"But what _is_ this trick? Confound you, you're as mysterious as a chancery suit."
"I wish I was likely to last half as long," said Murphy.
"The trick!" said Dick. "Bad luck to you, tell me the trick, and don't keep me waiting, like a poor relation."
"You have two boats on the river?" said Murphy.
"Well, you must get into one with our victim: and I can get into the other with the salmon."
"In the house, for I sent one over this morning, a present to Mrs. Egan. You must keep away about thirty yards or so, when we get afloat, that our dear friend may not perceive the trick--and in proper time I will hook my dead salmon on one of my lines, drop him over the off-side of the boat, pass him round to the gun-wale within view of our intelligent castle customer, make a great outcry, swear I have a noble bite, haul up my fish with an enormous splash, and, affecting to kill him in the boat, hold up my salmon in triumph."
"It's a capital notion, Murphy, if he doesn't smoke the trick."
"He'll smoke the salmon sooner. Never mind, if I don't hoax him: I'll bet you what you like he's done."
"I hear him coming down-stairs," said the Squire.
"Then send off the salmon in a basket by one of the boys, Dick," said Murphy; "and you, Squire, may go about your canvass, and leave us in care of the enemy."
All was done as Murphy proposed, and, in something less than an hour, Furlong and Dick in one boat, and Murphy and his attendant _gossoon_ in another, were afloat on the river, to initiate the Dublin citizen into the mysteries of this new mode of salmon-fishing.
The sport at first was slack, and no wonder; and Furlong began to grow tired, when Murphy hooked on his salmon, and gently brought it round under the water within range of his victim's observation.
"This is wather dull work," said Furlong.
"Wait awhile, my dear sir; they are never lively in biting so early as this--they're not set about feeding in earnest yet. Hilloa! by the Hokey I have him!" shouted Murphy. Furlong looked on with great anxiety, as Murphy made a well-feigned struggle with a heavy fish.
"By this and that, he's a whopper!" cried Murphy in ecstasy. "He's kicking like a two-year old. I have him, though, as fast as the rock o' Dunamase. Come up, you thief!" cried he, with an exulting shout, as he pulled up the salmon with all the splash he could produce; and suddenly whipping the fish over the side into the boat, he began flapping it about as if it were plunging in the death-struggle. As soon as he had affected to kill it, he held it up in triumph before the castle conjuror, who was quite taken in by the feint, and protested his surprise loudly.