126 DAHLAK 



from the rocks of Medecheri in about four feet of water 

 holding on to and dragging something powerful that was 

 trying to get away. I reached him in a flash, snatched the 

 gun from him and took over. Gigi jumped into the boat and 

 started rowing off. 



*Whatisit?' I shouted. 



'A ray.' 



*How much line have you ?* 



'Twenty yards.' 



The beast was invisible down there in the shadows. I 

 pulled it gently to try its strength. It felt pretty powerful. 

 The line was right out. I must hang on at all costs. I dug my 

 heels in and the fish stopped. We remained stationary. Gigi 

 stared from the bows and held his breath. Either the line 

 must snap or the fish must give in or I must snap. The fish 

 gave in. I could feel it yielding. I drew the line in slowly yard 

 by yard. Would the fish surprise us ? I held myself at the 

 ready. Gigi's eyes were popping out of his head. When I had 

 got it to the surface I hurriedly tied the line to the rowlock. 

 It was a prisoner now, a strange horrible monster, yellow 

 brown and covered with pink and purple spots, its skin 

 wrinkled, its eyes projecting and squinting. 



'Look!' Gigi cried, pointing to the tail. It was long and 

 thick like a python, with a sort of spatula at the end of it, 

 but what was disturbing was that the tail was turned up and 

 the poisonous tip of jagged bone was stuck in the back, 

 almost up to the hilt. The legend is that the stingray kills 

 himself with this mortal weapon when he cannot escape from 

 his enemy. Reality is more prosaic. When it was struggling 

 to get free from the line it probably struck out at the imag- 

 inary foe and ended by wounding and poisoning itself. That 

 no doubt was why our victim appeared suddenly to give in. 

 We hauled it on board. It weighed about eighty pounds. 



