l^^ONSUCH 



up on a rock. I was afraid to use it, for fear of its 

 snapping or of catching my hand between it and the 

 reef. So I pulled the hose down until it became taut, 

 and wrapping the loose coils about me, I cached my 

 arrow-sling and net, and went swiftly up hand over 

 hand, obhquely over the reef, attended by an excited 

 mob of abudef duf s and surgeons. An anchor carried 

 out to mid-sand in the glass-bottom dinghy enabled 

 me to free the ladder, salvage my weapon and re- 

 sume my hunting. 



As once before in Haiti I caught my ankle in a 

 crevice of Almost Island — a diabolically ingenious 

 tie-up which compelled my sitting still and over- 

 coming a momentary impulse to tear loose. When I 

 had stopped unnecessarily using up the precious air 

 in the helmet, I set systematically to work, and after 

 trying every kind of push and pull and compression, 

 and going through another unpleasant moment, I 

 twisted around to bend my arrow and use it as addi- 

 tional leverage, when suddenly my ankle slipped 

 out. 



The coming of night to Almost Island deserves 

 a chapter, or if we knew even a fraction of the great 

 changes which every evening brings, an entire 

 volume. The setting sun gives way to blue, always 

 blue blackness, the movement of one's hand sets 

 fire to a thousand luminous creatures in mid- water ; 

 many of the day-loving fish go to sleep in amazing 

 positions ; the big-eyed squirrel-fish and the sinister 

 morays come forth, and the sharks begin to work 

 their way in from the open sea. A sight I shall not 



50 



