196 



The Albacore 



That was a premonition of disaster, had I but 

 known it, for on the second day of my arriv^al on the 

 Cahfornian coast I was Hfting myself lazily, with a 

 full stomach, to a passing squid, a tiny creature not 

 worth my attention, when I felt a sharp pain shoot 

 through my jaw and a slender yet annoying, puU at 

 my head. In rage I started seaward, regarding not 

 the sting among my teeth ; furiously I wondered who 

 had dared attempt this outrage upon me. I do not 

 care to say how dire was the distress I felt when, 

 owing to the skill of the man-thing in the boat, behind 

 the rod and at the end of the line that had hooked 

 me, I could not get free. I only record that from the 

 rising to the setting of the sun that man fought with 

 me, and was drawing me so near to his boat that I 

 felt almost hopeless of ever seeing blue water again, 

 when I made my supreme effort. I dived seaward 

 at utmost power, and almost immediately knew that 

 I was free. But I bore with me a souvenir of my 

 encounter in the shape of a barbed piece of steel 

 imbedded in my lower jaw, which galled me ^erribly. 

 It had struck through a piece of plated bone, and could 

 not work out. Still, after awhile it ceased to annoy, 

 and I grew quite unmindful of its presence, until at last, 

 when it did drop out, I knew not of its going. Is it 

 necessary for me to say that I left those inhospitable 

 shores in haste ? I had no idea that men would hunt 

 for me in such a fashion, no prevision of any danger — 

 but I must not anticipate. Out on the blue, wide, 

 free sea I bore, and, resuming the glad, free life of my 

 deep-water fellows, soon forgot my perilous adventure. 



Now, had I realised it, I was beginning a terrific 

 journey without any such halt as I had before enjoyed 

 in the cool recesses of the East Indian Archipelago. 

 The need was laid upon me to go westward, ever 



