164 ALBACORA 



could. I turned the spool slowly and forced the fish to 

 come close enough to gaff". Lou ran and grabbed the 

 leader with both hands. The albacora surged. The cords 

 jumped out in Lou's neck, but he held fast. This time 

 Gus connected with the gaff. We had our albacora. 



"But that's not Bosco, Lou," I shouted. "The one you 

 caught last year was bigger." 



"He'll run about 800 pounds," Walt Gorman said. 

 "You know how many women have caught a fish that 

 big?" 



"Record, record," shouted Mario. 



"I timed you an hour and fifty-five minutes," Luis 

 Rivas said. "How do you feel?" 



"Tired," I said, "and filthy. I want to roll into a 

 good hot tub where all I'll have to land is a cake of 

 soap." Then I remembered Jo Manning. 



"Lou," I shouted. "Did you talk to the Mannings 

 yesterday?" 



The boys had hauled my fish aboard. Lou turned 

 away. "Hell," he said, "I forgot all about it. Those 

 damn penguins. It just slipped my mind." Lou ran to 

 the cabin and began barking at the radiotelephone. He 

 had plenty to tell the Mannings, and his voice sounded 

 impatient, but they were not expecting to hear from 

 us. The phone date Lou had made had passed almost 

 twenty-four hours earlier, and now he could get no an- 

 swer. Walt Gorman headed the Explorer toward Iqui- 

 que. Pisagua had come through, exactly as our guests 



