ALBACORA 191 



"Try it, Walt," I shouted. 



"You want to get cut off from your fish?" he asked. 



"Please try it my way, Walt." 



The Explorer jumped into a turn away from the fish. 

 My line ran down to the shiny spool and the marlin 

 jumped into the horizon. Then we were bearing down 

 on him and I was reeling in, fast, fast, fast. In minutes 

 I had all the line back and we were on top of the fish. 

 Then the marlin ran again, taking most of the line. 

 Walt turned and we repeated the process. I saw Mario 

 talking to Gus and shaking his head. 



"What the hell are you trying to do?" Lou asked. 

 "You want to lose the fish?" 



I was a minority of one, but I was adamant. Then 

 for the third time the fish went bolting away from the 

 Explorer, His leaps showed that he was tiring. No 

 longer did he use all the line. After he had run out only 

 half of it, he stopped and lay beneath the surface, rest- 

 ing. 



"Get after him now," I shouted. "We've got him." 



"Don't kid yourself," Walt shouted. "You've only 

 been on him twenty minutes. 



"But I've had him running so hard he's all bushed. 

 Let's go." 



"Okay," Walt said. "It's your fish." 



"At least," Lou prodded, "he's your fish until he 

 gets away." 



None of us yet quite realized that a new record for 



