This is a story about two friends, Monsieur Morissot and Monsieur Sauvage. They live in Paris when it is under siege by the Prussians. These two friends used to fish a lot before the war. In the middle of the story both characters meet up after a long while without seeing each other. They decide to go to their favorite island and fish again. While they are fishing they start talking about the war and if the government is the cause of the war. During the conversation four armed Prussians come up behind them and take them captive. They take both of the friends to the Prussian leader. The leader accuses them of being spies and using fishing for cover. The leader said that he would let them go if they would give him the password to get into Paris. Now the friends have to find a way out of the situation.
There is not a lot of dialogue in this story. It is mostly Maupassant (the author) telling what is going on. Of course when the friends start talking about the war it gets more interesting. Maupassant writes, "They've got to be really stupid" he growled "to go on killing each other like that." (that was Monsieur Sauvage talking). Maupassant says again, Morissot said, "Under kings you have war against other countries. Under republican governments you have civil war." And they began to argue in a calm and friendly way. Maupassant does a good job showing the story line through dialogue.
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