136 DAHLAK 



excitement. I sprang round. There, at half depth, as if 

 suspended in the blue, seven sharks were watching us ; in the 

 middle of them was an enormous grouper. We looked at 

 each other terrified. Trembling, I collected my loaded gun, 

 and we floated up without making a sign. The grouper 

 remained where it was, gently waving its tail. The seven 

 sharks disappeared. 



A quick conference on top. Looking below again we saw 

 three more black-fin sharks in the company of the grouper ; 

 compared with her they looked spindly, although they were 

 perhaps twice as long. The grouper moved all of a piece, like 

 an engine on a turntable. Again the sharks disappeared. 

 Council of war. Yes, my gun was pretty powerful, but we 

 really needed the much more powerful one of Raimondo, 

 designed by himself. Where was Raimondo? Fishing over 

 there. We called him over and he saw the beast, which now 

 started travelling to and fro along the barrier, but twenty- 

 five feet out at half depth. We followed, parallel with it and 

 a little behind. Gigi had left his gun on the bottom near the 

 small grouper gone to ground; I had mine and Raimondo 

 his. We trailed this huge grouper for about half an hour, up 

 and down, down and up, a hundred yards at a time. 



Suddenly, without any apparent reason, the grouper went 

 towards the barrier and parked itself halfway up a pinnacle 

 of coral with a hole in the middle. Gigi cornered it and 

 Raimondo and I approached slowly. We got to within six 

 yards. I was in a better position than Raimondo, since I 

 could see the gill shields of the creature through the hole in 

 the pinnacle, while it could not see me. It seemed worried 

 about Raimondo who was approaching more openly. Any- 

 way, I remained still, leaving my companion to it, ready to 

 help if needed. Moments of agonizing suspense. Raimondo 

 drew closer and closer. He was now eight feet off with his gun 



