TALES OF FISHES 



ripples here and there, and occasionally a sounding 

 thump. We grew more alert and interested. Sam 

 saw a bonefish right near the boat. He pointed, 

 and the fish was gone. After that we sat very still, 

 I, of course, expecting a bite every moment. Pres- 

 ently I saw a bonefish not six feet from the boat. 

 Where he came from was a mystery, but he ap- 

 peared like magic, and suddenly, just as magically, 

 he vanished. 



" Funny fish," observed Sam, thoughtfully. Some- 

 thing had begun to dawn upon Sam, as it had upon 

 me. 



No very long time elapsed before we had seen a 

 dozen bonefish, any one of which I could have reached 

 with my rod. But not a bite! I reeled in to find 

 my bait gone. 



"That bait was eaten off by crabs," I said to 

 Sam, as I put on another. 



Right away after my cast I felt, rather than saw, 

 that shght vibration of my line. I waited as before, 

 and just as before the line almost imperceptibly 

 slackened and nothing happened. 



Presently I did see a blue crab deliberately cut 

 my line. We had to move the boat, pick up the 

 lost piece of line, and knot it to the other. Then I 

 watched a blue crab tear off my bait. But I failed 

 to feel or see that faint vibration of my line. We 

 moved the boat again, and again my line was cut. 

 These blue crabs were a nuisance. Sam moved the 

 boat again. We worked up the flat nearer where the 

 little mangroves, scarce a foot high, lifted a few leaves 

 out of the water. Whenever I stood up I saw 

 bonefish, and everywhere we could hear them. 



148 



