The Kingfish 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 zzp-z7p-z7f / 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 
