120 ALBACORA 



twenty-four-thread drag on my reel. Twenty- four-thread 

 line can withstand eighty pounds of pressure. Lou was 

 hunting Bosco with thirty-nine-thread line which tests at 

 130, but twenty-four-thread was plenty big enough for 

 me. I weigh only 110 pounds, against his 200. 



The Mannings and Captain Santiago on the Martin 

 seemed to have ideas of their own. They were fishing 

 southwest. Lou was trying to call them on our radio- 

 telephone. When he got a response, of course, he couldn't 

 resist ribbing. 



"We're using marlin for bait up here," he barked 

 as a greeting to John Manning. "How are things in the 

 south?" 



"We don't need any bait," Manning's voice came 

 back. "They're just jumping into the boat." 



"If you see an albacora, let me hear from you," Lou 

 said. 



"Suppose we check at four this afternoon," Manning 

 said. 



"Fine," Lou said. No matter where we were, we could 

 check with them easily because our radiotelephone had 

 a 1,000-mile radius. Actually, it was our news reporter, 

 lifeguard and expediter throughout the entire trip. 



The Explorer was running within three miles of shore 

 and everyone was searching the even, untroubled sea 

 when Lou came out of the cabin. He quickly dropped a 

 thermometer into the water and it came up reading 

 seventy degrees. "Too warm right here," Lou called up 

 sharply to the bridge. 



