TARPON TRAGEDIES 



he backed water with his paddle. "That devil 

 could swallow us whole." 



I turned loose the line before replying. 



"You have often said, Captain, that sharks 

 wouldn't tackle a man and that you would run 

 the biggest of 'em out of the country with a 

 stick!" 



"When I said that I was in shoal water. It's 

 the canoe I'm afraid of. They'd eat that up fur 

 the fun of it." 



"I don't want to lose the canoe, so I'll keep 

 twenty yards away from this brute." 



The shark towed us back and forth for an 

 hour, sometimes going far out from the key and 

 at others running close to the shore. Once I 

 landed on the beach and putting on the line all 

 the strain it would bear tried to turn or tire the 

 shark. I only succeeded in driving it off shore 

 at so rapid a gait that I had to hustle to get back 

 in the canoe, before my reel was emptied. An- 

 other hour dragged on, when the Camera-man, 

 who had been patiently following us, sang out : 



"What are we fishing for, tarpon or sharks?" 



"Tarpon, from this minute!" I replied, and 

 reeling in line till I was as near the monster as 



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