23 TWO TALES OF TROUBLE. 



and tried him. He proved most excellent, the flesh being finely flav- 

 ored, tender and containing dark layers of high flavor very like those 

 of a shad. 



The last two days of my fishing I engaged another motor boat, 

 somewhat smaller and a good deal handier than the first one. It had 

 the grave objection that it was covered by a fixed rOof, supported on 

 stanchions, and this made it very difficult for the fisherman to handle 

 his rod. Within half an hour after leaving the harbor something very 

 heavy was hooked, which I hoped and prayed was my desired big 

 kingfish, but which finally turned out to be a forty-three pound amber- 

 jack, whose picture is also reproduced herewith. This fish made a 

 most tremendous fight and, as my line was already badly weakened 

 and I had no confidence in it, it was necessary to use very great care 

 and spend a great deal of time in playing him. Nothing else touched 

 my bait for a considerable time, so we ran down to the westward until 

 opposite North Key, about five miles from the mouth of the harbor. 

 Here there was a lot of floating gulf weed, and. for fear of fouling it, 

 I began to reel in my line. When twenty-five or thirty yards were 

 still out there was a swirl in the water and Captain John called, 

 "There's a dolphin after it !" I ran out a few feet of line, let my bait 

 go back, saw the fish whirl up. snatch it and turn away, and struck 

 him as one would a trout. The instant response was a tremendous leap 

 in the air and I saw that he was a big fellow. Then began a most 

 furious fight. He would run out my line almost to the end, leap six 

 feet from the water ( and he was a magnificent sight with the bright 

 tropical sun on his brilliant color) then turn sideways, opposing his 

 great width so that I could not recover any line at all. Then he swam 

 in circles, our handy boat following him in the opposite way, so that 

 we waltzed together over the bosom of the deep, and every now and 

 then he jumped. I found it almost impossible to handle him, from 

 my seat under the edge of the roof, which constantly interfered with 

 the use of my rod. so kept a pull on him as well as possible, and 

 scrambled out on the little stern deck, I holding hard to the fish and 

 Captain John holding hard to me to prevent my going overboard. 

 There I dropped into a sitting posture and had considerably more 

 freedom, but the rudder chains ran along the top of this little deck 

 and I had to sit on them, giving attention both to handling my fish and 

 to easing up so that the rudder could be worked under me. It took at 

 least three-quarters of an hour to kill that dolphin, but finally he came 

 up closer and closer and, at last. Captain John jerked the big steel 



