him fifty thousand dollars to win the case, which he did on
technicalities and with the aid of the best lawyers in the state.
Every Greek fisherman on the river contributed to the sum. Big
Alec levied and collected the tax, for all the world like a king.
The United States may be all-powerful, my lad, but the fact remains
that Big Alec is a king inside the United States, with a country
and subjects all his own."

"But what are you going to do about his fishing for sturgeon? He's
bound to fish with a 'Chinese line.'"

Charley shrugged his shoulders. "We'll see what we will see," he
said enigmatically.

Now a "Chinese line" is a cunning device invented by the people
whose name it bears. By a simple system of floats, weights, and
anchors, thousands of hooks, each on a separate leader, are
suspended at a distance of from six inches to a foot above the
bottom. The remarkable thing about such a line is the hook. It is
barbless, and in place of the barb, the hook is filed long and
tapering to a point as sharp as that of a needle. These hoods are
only a few inches apart, and when several thousand of them are
suspended just above the bottom, like a fringe, for a couple of
hundred fathoms, they present a formidable obstacle to the fish
that travel along the bottom.

Such a fish is the sturgeon, which goes rooting along like a pig,
and indeed is often called "pig-fish." Pricked by the first hook
it touches, the sturgeon gives a startled leap and comes into
contact with half a dozen more hooks. Then it threshes about