282 Big Game Fishes 



through the scuppers did not even harden the tar 

 which oozed up from every seam. 



For twenty-four hours we drifted, the clear rich 

 blue of the Gulf Stream offering every invitation ; 

 but the dusky shapes of a number of " man- 

 eaters " barred even this solace. It was while 

 thus adrift, thirty miles east of East Key, that 

 Paublo bethought him of a wind-raiser, and forth- 

 with taking a belaying-pin, hammered vigorously 

 on the foremast. I learned later that this was 

 generally infallible; this day it failed, failed to 

 raise the wind, but as the captain of the galley 

 and clever boatman replaced the pin, the smooth 

 water of the Gulf broke into foam not two hun- 

 dred yards away : he had " conjured " up the king- 

 fish. The dinghy was drifting astern, and it took 

 but a moment to grasp rod and tumble in. Under 

 Paublo's strong strokes we were presently in the 

 heart of the school from which I took my first 

 kingfish. The rod was so well fitted for the 

 work that I can but commend it. It was of green- 

 heart, eight feet in length, of two joints, and 

 weighed about twenty ounces. The line was a 

 fine linen, number twelve cuttyhunk a mere 

 thread to be broken at the slightest mistake ; the 

 hook, a 6/0 Limerick, with a long copper wire 



