SAILFISH 



than my fish. Suddenly a sailfish leaped, straight- 

 away, over my line. Then two leaped at once, both 

 directly over my line. 



"Sam, they'U cut my line!" I cried. "What do 

 you think of that.?" 



Suddenly I saw sharp, dark, curved tails cutting 

 the water. All was excitement on board that boat 

 then. 



"A school of sailfish! Look! Look!" I yelled. 



I counted ten tails, but there were more than 

 that, and if I had been quicker I could have counted 

 more. Presently they went down. And I, return- 

 ing to earth and the business of fishing, discovered 

 that during the excitement my sailfish had taken 

 advantage of a perfectly loose line to free himself. 

 Nine leaps we recorded him! 



Assuredly we all felt that there would be no 

 difficulty in soon hooking up with another sailfish. 

 And precisely three minutes later I was standing up, 

 leaning forward, all aquiver, watching my line fly 

 off the reel. I hooked that fellow hard. He was 

 heavy, and he did not come up or take off any 

 length of line. Settling down slowly, he descended 

 three or four hundred feet, or so it seemed, and 

 began to plug, very much like an albacore, only much 

 heavier. He fooled around down there for ten min- 

 utes, with me jerking at him all the time to irritate 

 him, before he showed any sign of rising. At last 

 I worried him into a fighting mood, and up he came, 

 so fast that I did not even try to take up the slack, 

 and he shot straight up. This jump, like that of a 

 kingfish, was wonderful. But it was so quick that 

 the cameras could not cover it, and we missed a 



79 



