SHEIKH SAID, GREEN ISLAND 33 



His only reaction to my surprised inquiry was a profound 

 curse. Gigi, usually so controlled, must have been badly put 

 out. He explained later. At a certain moment he had seen 

 the huge thing coming towards him like a striped torpedo 

 but with extreme caution; slowly, in half-depth, their eyes 

 had met. Gigi stood still, looking into the scornful, cannibal- 

 like face. The barracuda hesitated, then turned slightly and 

 passed in front of him though out of range. Gigi moved and 

 followed it softly. Again the barracuda turned in a half circle, 

 still slowly, still cautiously, and looked at him; and again 

 Gigi stopped. The barracuda dropped its mouth a little, 

 unsheathing its great conical teeth, then repeated the 

 manoeuvre as before, passing full-sided in front of him, only 

 now at a distance of a yard and a half. Gigi's arrow flew 

 into its side like lightning. For a fraction of a second Gigi 

 stood tense, then the barracuda gave one whisk of its tail 

 and was gone. Under the violence of the jerk, the cord that 

 connected the arrow to the anterior part of the gun had torn 

 off the barrel, and the barracuda had vanished with a three- 

 foot long 1 1 mm. steel arrow in its side, and the cord and 

 barrel as well. 



*And didn't it turn round and try to bite?' 



T'm telling you, it left like a rocket ... a V.2.' 



*How long was it ? Really six feet ?' 



'Every bit of it; it was longer than me.' 



'And you all saw it, all three of you?' 



Yes, all three had seen it (except me, damn it), near at 

 hand, in extremely turbid water, while unarmed. It could 

 have done what it liked with them. Evidently much that 

 has been written about barracudas needs modification. 



In all, we caught about twenty barracudas in the Red 

 Sea, the four biggest, measuring between four and five feet, 

 being caught by speargun. None of them ever fought back. 



