SEVEN MARLIN SWORDFISH IN ONE DAY 



was the most terrifying. Not a word from R. C! 

 But out of the tail of my eye I saw him crouch, ready 

 to leap. He grimly held on to his rod, but there had 

 not been a tight line on it since he struck the fish. 



Yelling warningly. Captain Dan threw the wheel 

 hard over. But that seemed of no use. We could 

 not lose the swordfish. 



He made two dives into the air, and the next 

 one missed us by a yard, and showed his great, 

 glistening, striped body, thick as a barrel, and 

 curved with terrible speed and power, right along- 

 side the cockpit. He passed us, and as the boat 

 answered to the wheel and turned, almost at right 

 angles, the swordfish sheered too, and he hit us a 

 sounding thud somewhere foreward. Then he went 

 under or around the bbw and began to take line ofif 

 the reel for the first time. > I gave him up. The 

 line caught aU along the side of the boat. But it 

 did not break, and kept whizzing oflf the reel. I 

 heard the heavy splash of another jump. When we 

 had tmrned clear round, what was our amaze and 

 terror to see the swordfish, seemingly more tigerish 

 than ever, thresh and tear and leap at us again. 

 He was flinging bloody spray and wigwagging his 

 huge body, so that there was a deep, rough splash- 

 ing farrow in the sea behind him. I had never 

 known any other fish so fast, so powerful, so wild 

 with fury, so instinct with tremendous energy and 

 life. Dan again threw all his weight on the wheel. 

 The helm answered, the boat swung, and the sword- 

 fish missed hitting us square. But he glanced along 

 the port side, like a toboggan down-hill, and he 



seemed to ricochet over the water. His tail made 



ei3 



