21 8 Fish Stories 



sembled the sail of a boy's boat, about a foot high; as I 

 looked, it grew larger, and higher, and in less than ten 

 seconds the big dorsal sail-like fin of the swordfish was 

 gleaming, rippling in the sunlight like some gorgeous fabric 

 set with turquoise, sapphire and tourmaline. 



It seemed to me four or five feet in height as it cut the 

 clear steel-like surface of the water, and possibly the peculiar 

 ripple and tremor as the fish swam slowly along made it 

 look larger. 



My boatman sculled the dinghy gradually around, and we 

 slowly crept up in its wake, much against his will, as I know 

 he had no fondness for the fish, there being a story current 

 that his companion years ago had been run through by the 

 big Cuban spearfish. If he felt any hesitancy he did not 

 show it ; he sculled me on and on, cleverly and silently, until 

 I was within fifteen feet of the marvelous fin, then ten, and 

 then — then, the deluge literally. It was a lucky cast, my 

 grains striking just back of the head, the pole being shot 

 back as the great fish bounded into the air and in a frenzy 

 struck to the right, and to the left, mowing down imaginary 

 foes, then falling with a crash to leap into the air again, and 

 again, its huge pliable silk-like fin waving, trembling, quiver- 

 ing in the light, like a huge bat's wing. 



Four or five times the fish leaped, always rising to the 

 very tip of its tail, dropping back again with a crash after 

 the fashion of its kind; then it turned rapidly, so rapidly 

 that my man pulled on his oar for his life, and the fish made 

 a clean rush seaward, then down, taking the line, hissing and 

 burning, through my hands one hundred, two hundred feet, 

 and then jerking the light boat so suddenly, that had I not 

 been clinging to the line, it would have floored me. I had 

 a little notch or rowlock in the bow for shark-fishing, and 

 into this I slipped the line, then lay back to keep the bow as 

 high as possible, while the sculler steered us after the flying 

 game. 



Garfishes leaped aside in fright as we rushed on ; pelicans 



