| “Luke, now damn it, you know I scare easy." He was, close to the break now, steeling himself for Luke suddenly springing up and growling at him. He noticed something at the edge of the break. Luke's rod and reel. He walked to it - and spotted Luke's cap floating in the still water at the bottom of the break. His stomach tightened, Luke's chest had been bothering him lately. His brow now deeply creased, Eddie worked his way around the protruding branches and limbs to the bottom of the break and reached for Luke's cap.
He didn't know why, and he never had time to think it out, but, suddenly, he felt a cold sensation run down his back to thud at the bottom of his stomach. Its great jaws agape, its cavernous maw red, the creature's wide head thrust up through the surface in an explosion of water and seized him lifting him off the edge of the break much as an alligator might snatch a rabbit off a floating log. Eddie's arm stuck out of the great, partly closed mouth. His hand opened, then closed, as the giant fish sank beneath the surface. The water boiled. Bubbles rose to the surface. In a moment, the water was quiet again." |
