TWO FIGHTS WITH SWORDFISH 



a magnificent rush — ^the greatest of the whole fight 

 — and he took about five hundred feet of Une. 



Dan's expression changed as if by magic. 



"Steer the boat! Port! Port!" he yeUed. 



Probably I could not run a boat right with per- 

 fectly fresh and well hands, and with my lacerated 

 and stinging ones I surely made a mess of it. This 

 brought language from my boatman — well, to say 

 the least, quite disrespectable. Fortunately, how- 

 ever, I got the boat around and we ran down on the 

 fish. Dan, working with long, powerful sweeps of 

 the rod, got the line back and the fish close. The 

 game began to look great to me. All along I had 

 guessed this fish to be a wonder; and now I knew it. 



Hauling him close that way angered him. He 

 made another rush, long and savage. The line 

 smoked off that reel. Dan's expression was one of 

 utmost gratification to me. A boatman at last cor- 

 nered — tied up to a whale of a fish ! 



Somewhere out there a couple of hundred yards 

 the big fish came up and roared on the surface. I 

 saw only circling wake and waves like those behind 

 a speedy motor-boat. But Dan let out a strange 

 shout, and up above the girls screamed, and brother 

 Rome yelled murder or something. I gathered that 

 he had a camera. 



"Steady up there!" I called out. "If you fall 

 overboard it's good night! . . . For we want this 

 fish!" 



I had aU I could do. Dan would order me to 

 steer this way and that — to throw out the clutch — 

 to throw it in. Still I was at)le to keep track of 

 events. This fish made nineteen rushes in the suc- 



67 



