Fighting a Swordfish at Night 19 



into the skiff. Then we stood up, and made the 

 channel ring, Joaquin and I, who was much the 

 youngest just then. After the fish had been 

 made fast and sure beyond any possibility of 

 rolling over, I ran alongside, and the anglers 

 leaped aboard. 



We took the skiff in tow, and swung in toward 

 the black mass of Clemente on the horizon to 

 the west. It was some time before we picked 

 up the canon, but shortly Governor Pardee's 

 bonfire gleamed up and we headed for it, 

 the air full of congratulations and laughter. 

 Launches in Southern California are obliged by 

 law to carry a large bell, a sort of trombone- 

 like instrument, and yet another, a near kinsman 

 to the accordion, with a dash of flutes and har- 

 monicas in its make-up. This nameless instru- 

 ment of torture can be worked by the foot, after 

 the plan of a bellows. Thus Mexican Joe had 

 a band which we promptly put in action, and 

 victorious, towed the game inshore, landing it 

 in due time. Later we sat about the mess table, 

 and heard and discussed the story. There may 

 have been more said about the great victories 

 and battles of history, but that night the Pinchot 

 swordfish held the boards at San Clemente. 



The next morning it was photographed and 

 examined and found to be a perfect specimen 

 nearly ten feet long, weighing about one hun- 

 dred and eighty pounds; as trim a finny pri- 



