"Good guys!" Fat and sweaty Henry shouted, his eyes reflecting the golden light, he let out a dull exhalation, and with a thud of his body, the branches he leaned on creaked and sang with a sudden increase in weight, and they bent downward, approaching their limits, as if they would break at any moment or sink straight into the swamp—fortunately, they finally held on.

The man, with a dexterity and strength that was by no means appropriate to his age and size, walked briskly across the precarious makeshift bridges and the trap-filled ground, carrying a muddy head of at least twenty pounds, squeezing through the narrow gaps between branches and branches and epiphytes (some of which would jump back and slap him on the cheeks after being pushed away), he found his net pocket by the pump, and hurriedly loaded the head into it with the eel inside, his movements were already fast, but the eel kept falling down the way, Now that there were nets, some of the smaller long fish could still pass through the mesh, crackling and raining down on the ground, writhing like enchanted twine, and in a few or three strokes they were burrowing into the loose moss and silt.

"I should bring two nets, one with big eyes and one with small eyes." "Spaniards love baby eel, and they fry it with garlic around New Year's and add olive oil, hey, it's a fancy dish," he said. ”

Leaving the two pumps alone for a moment, Henry took the net around the corner, walked up to the bridge, and stopped where the light could not reach: "Oops," he blinked in the darkness, "I forgot that there are still children here," he said earnestly, "I'm sorry, but I have to pick them up quickly, or they will all go home, teacher, can you take the children away?" Or let him look back? It only takes 10 minutes. ”

Big Striff glanced down at his child, then another: "I don't think so," he raised his voice slightly, "but your child doesn't seem very good, do you want me to take him away?" ”

Henry stood in the dark, and the Steves could clearly hear him snorting: "No, no," he reacted violently, "he doesn't need to, he's just a daring little devil, he's just a little uncomfortable all of a sudden, isn't he, Tom?" He asked sternly, "Okay, I'm coming." ”

He came over with a bang, and the light projected on the bridge illuminated him so that the Struffes could see his outfit - he wore a double-breasted short coat, which style was a little familiar, if Stryff was not mistaken, it was an army outfit, a short coat, tough as iron, and waterproof, and did not have to be returned after service. Inside the coat was a black rubber bib with trousers, the kind often worn by the butchers of the fish market, the trousers pressed into the long rain boots, and the joints should have been bandaged, or something else—and that was because the territory from the groin down had been swallowed up by the black-brown mud that had been encroached upon by an inch of black-brown mud, and they were clinging to Henry's legs like a flowing third or fourth layer of skin.

The head was carefully placed upwards by Henry, and the eel's brown head kept sticking out of its swollen tongue and yellow gums.

The net was gently rested on the bridge, and Henry twisted his head and shoulders, and took off his short double-breasted coat, which was almost uncolorable, and pulled out a small bundle of rope from his pocket, first the neckline, then the sleeve, and fastened all the buttons firmly—so that he had an extremely spacious pocket—and he lifted the net, and shook it, and poured the thing into it, and the dog's head rolled in the pocket in a small margin, and more small eels came out of the wet black fur.

A sour smell permeated, but bearable.

Henry leaned down with joy, he grabbed the dog's jaw and pulled its mouth open, the bright yellow glove disappeared into the entrance to hell in the black hole, the tip of the glove had a non-slip spike, he easily grabbed a little head and dragged it out.

It was an eel about a foot and a half in length, as thick as a child's wrist, and the slippery slime fell from its frantically flicking tail, and Mr. Henry tucked it into one of the sleeves, then the second, and the third......

The boy standing beside Sasha clutched his arm tightly, his face pale, cold sweat pouring from his hair, and the traces of vomit on his lips, shining in the light - he was not as courageous as his father boasted, but he didn't want to disappoint and disgrace his father, so he had to stay here - but in the eyes of Striff, he was about to collapse, either in the next second, or in the next minute.

The last to break through the not-so-fortified wall was an act of Mr. Henry, who, after cleaning his mouth, put his fingers into the hollow sockets of the eyes, and stirred them happily or pressed downwards with all his might.

The dog's ears stood up suddenly, as if it were alive and heard some terrible sound, but then a brown head slipped out of the white fuzz, and the eel's little eyes were like two glowing sesame seeds, and it opened its mouth to show its small, dense teeth in the light—Mr. Henry rudely grabbed it and pulled it out, and it was hard to say what color and texture it was, and something slimy came out, and even the sand had to think about it to understand that it was the brains of the dog.

Henry's son opened his mouth wide, and then a stream of grayish-white liquid mixed with semi-solid food squirted straight through his throat, making an arc in the air, pouring on the elated Mr. Henry, and on his face.

Sasha looked up, and Striff immediately picked him up, the smell much worse than a dog's head that hadn't completely rotted.

Annoyed, Mr. Henry, for both hands were already dirty, lifted his shoulders to wipe his face, but it was also stained with eel slime and his son's vomit.

He made an annoyed look and tried to control the disgraced son. He also has a smaller, more delicate-looking child by his side! They didn't vomit, and they looked as usual, and they didn't even look away!

"It's such a disappointment for kids now." He said dryly, and the joy he had just had just now was gone: "Can't you stop a little?" He rebuked his son: "Look at what you can do...... It's dirty! ”

The child looked up for a look, then uncontrollably lowered his head and vomited, the food he had swallowed, digested or undigested, almost clean, and now it was his turn to dripping down his tongue.

Sasha's hand was in his pocket, and he took out a handful of blueberries from his pocket, the very sour kind, and handed it to Henry's son. In his opinion, the nervous tension caused by Henry's reprimand was one of the subsequent causes of vomiting – maybe not one.

While receiving the berries, the boy cried and hiccuped constantly.

"Oh, a lot of times, children don't have their thoughts in their hands." Big Striff said that he put Sasha down and let him be with the boy: "Let them be together, do you need my help?" ”

"Thanks, no, no." Henry's tight forehead relaxed slightly, "I'll be alone, you can watch the child, maybe you're right." He leaned down again, focusing all his attention on the eel, though he wasn't so happy anymore. Would you like to take two back with you? Eel, children and women, men eat all good...... You don't want to? Do you mind where they come from? ”

"How do you think that?" "I'm just not very good at eels," said Big Striff. I don't like wasting food, especially the ones that are supposed to be delicious...... No, I don't care how they are fished – only in recent decades have people started fishing eels with conical nets or fork valves at the currents, and before that fishermen used fresh pigs' heads or something else to trap eels – fresh carrion would make them flock to it in desperation, as I saw in great detail with a German writer born in 1929, where the head of a black horse was used. ”

"My grandfather used sheep's heads as bait, and the nearby restaurants served lambs, but no one ate them, and very few people knew that sheep's heads could be used in this way," said Henry. It's a pity. Today's eels are fat and strong. He added: "More." ”

Henry pulled out a dozen foot-long eels from the dog's head, and dozens of small eels as well, and the pumping machine was still rumbling, and the swamp was about to be drained.

He suddenly became thoughtful, and Big Stryff found himself staring at several other small swamps. Kent's grave is in it.

"How about I drain them one by one?" Henry excitedly said, "There will be more eels in there." ”

"Maybe." "But I must warn you, as you said – the dog's head is not a mushroom, it's not a methane, it doesn't grow or transform on its own – there's a good chance it was consciously thrown here by someone. ”

Henry turned his head, and he showed a surprised expression in the light, "Yes," he muttered, "Yes," he rubbed his fingers, and his round face flushed as he realized that he might have unknowingly become a thief, "I didn't expect it...... I didn't even come to catch the eel on purpose, it was just a coincidence, you see, what I wanted was a gold watch, but it suddenly came out and it blocked my inlet, what could I do? ”

Big Stryff lowered his voice, and when necessary, his voice would become incredibly convincing: "That's right," he said, "yes, it's just a little fork that no one expected, we just need to get back to the original state," he glanced at the hollowed-out head, "It's not completely eaten yet, is it?" ”

(To be continued)