A Leaper of the Kuroshiwo 



miracle known to all tuna anglers towing a heavy 

 boat by four hundred feet of 21 -thread line. He 

 keeps this up for mile after mile; now going, now 

 being reeled in, but maintaining a general average 

 of distance. An hour, two, three slip away, and 

 maddened at the eternal strain, the constraint that 

 he has never before known, he rises and charges 

 again, and again rushes away, taking more line. 



Down into the deep he goes; now far out in the 

 watery canon, an oceanic abyss, piling into the un- 

 known where the water is cold as ice; then out from 

 the blue comes a gray ghostly shape, a grouper shark. 

 The shark has caught his scent, sees the gleaming 

 silvery victim in the toils and charges in a vicious 

 manner, and snaps and misses as the leaper climbs up 

 the vault of the watery heavens, climbs with the swift- 

 ness of a beam of light, literally between the devil and 

 the deep sea and the thing at the surface. 



Reaching the sunlight, he swings around in a circle 

 and catches a glimpse of the boatman rowing with all 

 his might : he must keep the stern of the boat to the 

 fish, and he pulls with one oar ; but the leaper dashes 

 away again, and again begins the long pull. Four 

 hours have passed, the tuna is still fresh, is still full of 

 fight, but the insatiate something is always there, 

 always working, holding back, a fearsome thing, and 

 suddenly the leaper realizes that he is standing still, 

 then is being lifted. He makes a desperate, gallant 

 rush, but the thing holds. He dashes about in a con- 



207 



