12 ALBACORA 



but the Humboldt Current is too full of life and death 

 to allow anyone much time for rest. From the stern, I 

 looked out at our wake and at the shiny teaser that was 

 bobbing saucily fifty feet behind us. I was thinking 

 about marlin and trying to breathe deeply when long 

 snaky tentacles broke the surface and wrapped them- 

 selves around the teaser. Abruptly my deep breaths gave 

 way to a gasp. "Oh, Walt," I cried. "That's a giant 

 squid." Mario, with his quick eyes, had seen it, too, 

 and he moved into the stern saying, ^'Dos, dos/' 



As I stared, I understood. There was not one squid 

 out there, but two, and two sets of flailing seven-foot 

 tentacles were fighting to grasp the teaser, oblivious to 

 everything except wild greed. We were all proud of 

 our hand-made chrome teaser. Happily, it was absolutely 

 indigestible, even for a squid, but that was small con- 

 solation when it disappeared amid the churning, thrash- 

 ing tentacles. 



"Can you handle giant squid?" Mario asked me. Be- 

 fore answering, I picked up a large set of tandem 

 hooks. "This will fix them," I said. 



Perhaps it was to square accounts for the teaser, or 

 perhaps it was just to stay away from the coffee perco- 

 lator for a few more minutes, but at any rate I decided 

 that Mario and I ought to get ourselves a squid. Quickly, 

 Mario and I threw baited hooks over the stern. Then, in 

 spite of the speed of the Explorer, the squid closed in 

 with rapid spurts, pointing their tentacles as they 



