Tbe Kingfisb 283 



leader of home make. The bait was a " sliver " of 

 the belly of a salt kingfish, about four inches 

 long; and as I overreeled and paid out, this 

 ancient dainty was seized not fifteen feet from 

 the boat, and about one hundred feet of line 

 taken with a single rush. How the steel click 

 told the story in metallic shrieks ! finally settling 

 down into a spasmodic zip-zip-zip ! as the fish 

 was checked by the brake. Like the bonito 

 it played upon the surface not five feet under ; 

 now on the top, making side rushes; now cir- 

 cling the boat, bearing off until the rod bent to 

 the danger point and the delicate line hummed 

 a music of its own ; and anon going into the air 

 in splendid leaps. For five or six minutes, due 

 perhaps to the exigencies of the situation, the 

 lightness of the tackle, the kingfish played me, 

 jerked my arms down, to release them as suddenly, 

 shook its powerful tail at me in derision, plung- 

 ing through a fleet of Portuguese men-of-war or 

 cutting through the chalice-like form of some 

 dainty jellyfish deeper down, but almost always 

 on the surface, and moving so rapidly that the 

 boatman was ever on the alert to keep the light 

 boat stern to the game. The water was alive 

 with fish of the largest size feeding on a vagrant 



