256 Fish Stories 



fess with the fear of sharks in my heart, when Jim's head 

 shot out of water just long enough to grin at me, then went 

 down. As he came up again I shouted, " What's the mat- 

 ter? " that grin having put sharks out of my mind. 



" I've got your tuna, sir," and down he went again, to 

 immediately reappear. 



I could not believe the evidence of my eyes, and could 

 only laugh as he went down up to his eyes, then pulled him- 

 self up to the surface. But he had my tuna, had never re- 

 leased his hold on the gaff in all that exciting turmoil, and 

 had held it with his left hand, helping to turn the boat with 

 his right, and when I suggested that we swim, to give the 

 other angler a fair chance, he said nothing but bore on after 

 me; and when he disappeared the tuna had merely rushed 

 ahead, tried to sound, and had dragged Jim down a foot or 

 two, a clever, and too suggestive imitation of a man being 

 jerked down by a shark. 



The launch was now alongside, and Jim threw his legs 

 about the propeller, while I was lashed to the shrouds, as 

 the two men could not for the moment haul me in, the cord- 

 uroy seemed to weigh a ton ; then I was taken aboard. 



Jim's entire thought was for the tuna; so I leaned over 

 the stern, the men holding me by the legs, and he lifted the 

 gaff until the tuna's head appeared, when I thrust my hand 

 down into its big mouth, and securing a grip on its gill 

 rakers, gave the word. Heave-o-ohoy ! came the chanty. 

 The men hauled on my legs, and I pulled the tuna, and in 

 a few seconds dropped it into the cockpit, when we cheered 

 as anglers will ; then Jim was hauled in by a rope which had 

 been tossed him by his wife. 



All this time we had kept an eye on the angler on the 

 bottom of the boat, and now steamed for him. He was 

 lying so quiet that one might have fancied he was asleep; 

 but he denied the imputation. The sea was covered with 

 wreckage, and Captain Harry Doss, one of the boatmen of 

 Avalon, who had seen the catastrophe, came out from the 



