TALES OF FISHES 



Then I looked about for the swordfish. He had 

 gone down. 



It seemed then that, simultaneously with the re- 

 currence of a peculiar and familiar disappointment, 

 a heavy and powerful fish viciously took my bait 

 and swept away. I yelled to Captain Dan: 



"He's got it!" . . . 



Captain Dan stopped the engine and came to my 

 side. "No!" he exclaimed. 



Then I replied, "Look at that line!" . . . 



It seemed like a dream. Too good to be true! 

 I let out a shout when I hooked him and a yell of 

 joy when he broke water — a big swordfish, over two 

 hundred pounds. What really transpired on Cap- 

 tain Dan's boat the following few moments I can- 

 not adequately describe. Suffice to say that it was 

 violent effort, excitement, and hilarity. I never 

 counted the leaps of the swordfish. I never clearly 

 saw him after that first leap. He seemed only a 

 gleam in flying spray. Still, I did not make any 

 mistakes. 



At the end of perhaps a quarter of an hour the 

 swordfish quit his surface work and settled down to 

 under-water fighting, and I began to find myself. 

 Captain Dan played the phonograph, laughed, and 

 joked while I fought the fish. My companions 

 watched my rod and line and the water, wide-eyed 

 aixd mute, as if they could not believe what seemed 

 true. 



In about an hour and a half the swordfish came 

 up and, tired out, he rolled on the top of the great 

 swells. But he could not be drawn near the boat. 

 One little wave of his tail made my rod bend danger- 



32 



