Barracuda 



paddles, he guided the canoe around the root, and on 

 we sped. i He soon get sick,' Jose kept repeating; 

 and finally, when the fish had made a desperate plunge 

 to the bottom, he began to take in the line, passing 

 it along so that each one aided in the work. 



That one fish, about eleven feet in length, could 

 weary and tire out three men seems incredible, but it is 

 a fact. The rushes of the gamy monster were of a 

 kind undreamed of by the sportsmen, and when its 

 plunges came, they could not be met. The line hissed 

 through our fingers and smoked as it went over the 

 slight gunwale; and to have fastened it meant a 

 break; so we possessed ourselves in patience and 

 played the game, allowing it to wear itself out, which 

 in time it did. When the line slackened we took it in, 

 hand over hand, as rapidly as we could, every pull 

 felt by the fish being answered by a lunge that sent 

 the rope hissing through our already burned fingers. 

 But finally the pace began to tell on the big fish. It 

 had towed the canoe an eighth of a mile with leaps, 

 plunges and struggles that proved it a worthy foe- 

 man, and now gradually succumbed. Its rushes grew 

 less and less frequent, and without the force and 

 power that characterized them at the onset, and finally 

 Jose announced that the game was up ; the fish barely 

 responded to the hauls on the rope, and the fight was 

 over. The fish sulked like a salmon and allowed itself 

 to be hauled alongside without a struggle, merely 

 moving its great tail back and forth, propelling the 



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