THE ROYAL PXJRPLE GAME OF THE SEA 



Seven o'clock passed. I had fought this sword- 

 fish nearly three hours. I could not last much 

 longer. I rested a little, holding hard, and then 

 began a last and desperate effort to bring him to 

 gaff. I was absolutely dripping with sweat, and 

 red flashes passed before my eyes, and queer dots. 

 The last supreme pull — all I had left — ^brought the 

 end of the leader to Captain Dan's outstretched 

 hand. 



The swordfish came in broadside. In the clear 

 water we saw him plainly, beautifully striped tiger 

 that he was! And we all saw that he had not been 

 hooked. He had been lassoed. In some way the 

 leader had looped around him with the hook catching 

 under the wire. No wonder it had nearly killed me 

 to bring him to the boat, and surely I never would 

 have succeeded had it not been for the record Cap- 

 tain Dan coveted. That was the strangest feature 

 in all my wonderful Clemente experience — to see 

 that superb swordfish looped in a noose of my long 

 leader. He was without a scratch. It may serve 

 to give some faint idea of the bewildering possibili- 

 ties in tlie pursuit of this royal purple game of the 

 Pacific. 



