The poles he selected to take were two of Ben's heavy duty fly rods. Both had been used to take fish from the Powder River. Mary had worked her way out to a large boulder in the river, jumping from rock to rock to get there. Baiting her hook with a hopper, she made her first cast. It could not have happened better if the fish had been auditioning for this part all week. As soon as that hopper hit the water, there came a huge turbulence on the surface and the line on Mary's pole snapped tight. She quickly raised the tip of her rod and almost instantly the largest rainbow trout Chess had ever seen, measured his entire length a good five feet out of the water. The next thing to happen was Mary measuring her entire length in the water. Going completely under, she floundered till she had her feet on the bottom and then stood up. Standing now in water just above her waist, she was one bedraggled looking girl. She had her pole in her hand and remembering that fish, started to reel furiously. She was too late and trailing a slack line dejectedly made her way to dry land. Now that she was away from the noise from the river, she was able to hear Chess, in the throes of laughter. "Chester Vance! You did this deliberately, you knew that monster was there and what he would do. I think I hate you!" she was sitting on a rock trying to wring the water from the tail of her shirt when he reached her.