146 ALBACORA 



on the bridge, grinning, pointing to Rivas and waving. 

 Somebody gave Lou the high-sign, and he popped out of 

 the cabin and came bearing down on Rivas. "Look," 

 Lou asked him, "have you ever done any fishing be- 

 fore?" 



"Sure," Rivas said. 



"Well, go easy on this light line," Lou ordered. "If 

 you bust it, you'll have to take the time to rig it up 

 again, fella. Here. Let me show you how to do it." 



Within a moment Rivas, harnessed to rod and reel, 

 was peering out at the darkening ocean, looking for fins. 

 Not five minutes elapsed before he spotted a striper. 

 Walt turned the Explorer toward the protruding marlin 

 fin. 



"You know what to do," I reminded Rivas. "The big 

 thing is just to take it easy. Don't pop the line." 



He nodded casually, but his dark eyes were bright 

 and there were little lines of strain around his mouth. 

 He could have written a textbook on how to bait striped 

 marlin, but I doubt if he had ever tested his own the- 

 ories before. Walt brought the Explorer around so that 

 the marlin came swimming up in our wake, dorsal fin 

 raised. Luis dropped the bait for several seconds. Then 

 he struck for the fish and struck again. His hook stayed 

 empty. Crestfallen, Luis started to reel in his line. 



"He just wasn't hungry," Luis explained. 



"Oh, no?" Lou said. "What's that behind your bait 

 now?" 



