"Well, Charley," Neil Partington said, as we discussed it on the
wharf afterward, "I fail to see where your boasted imagination came
into play this time."

But Charley was true to his hobby. "Imagination?" he demanded,
pointing to the Streak. "Look at that! just look at it! If the
invention of that isn't imagination, I should like to know what
is."

"Of course," he added, "it's the other fellow's imagination, but it
did the work all the same."



CHARLEY'S COUP



Perhaps our most laughable exploit on the fish patrol, and at the
same time our most dangerous one, was when we rounded in, at a
single haul, an even score of wrathful fishermen. Charley called
it a "coop," having heard Neil Partington use the term; but I think
he misunderstood the word, and thought it meant "coop," to catch,
to trap. The fishermen, however, coup or coop, must have called it
a Waterloo, for it was the severest stroke ever dealt them by the
fish patrol, while they had invited it by open and impudent
defiance of the law.

During what is called the "open season" the fishermen might catch