i8 Recreations of a Sportsman 



and real engineer, as lie knew how to start the 

 engine if it should really refuse to go, rose to 

 the occasion and let out a shout and cheer, and 

 at them we went. 



Before I knew it, I saw Joe's back directly 

 under the boy, and I nearly lifted that cough- 

 ing, hiccoughing eight-horse-power engine out 

 of the launch trying to back her away. But 

 it was too late; a big sea tossed me over, 

 and they seemed to suddenly come at me 

 out of the night. I must have sent the launch 

 ahead, instead of astern. Perhaps I had her 

 backing and going ahead at the same time. I 

 did not hit the skiff, but I disconcerted Joe, who 

 thought I was aboard of them, and he yelled, 

 " I 've lost him ! " The gaff had slipped, or he 

 had lost his hold, and there was a smashing, 

 rolling, surging and bounding, choice talk in 

 Spanish, I think, a medley of sounds with my 

 own shouts to Joaquin, anxious to see the fish, 

 and in my line of vision. 



Then came Pinchot's voice, " I 've got him by 

 the tail!" And so he had. He held the 

 floundering swinging fish with grim desperation 

 until Joe got a fresh hold, and a rope about 

 him, and as Pinchot told me later, he determined 

 to " hang to his fish if he went overboard." 



My launch gathered sternway, and I backed 

 off and came up to leeward and watched them 

 take the one hundred-and-eighty-pound swordfish 



