THE GLADIATOR OF THE SEA 



did me. Neither of us expected to hold the fish. 

 As a performance it was wonderful. But to endure 

 it was terrible. And he batted that leader at least 

 three hundred times! 



In fact, every moment or two he banged the leader 

 several times for over an hour. It almost wore me 

 out. If he had not changed those tactics again those 

 jerks would have put a kink in my neck and back. 

 But fortunately he came up on the surface to thresh 

 about some more. Again he leaped clear, affording 

 us another chance for a picture. Following that he 

 took his first long run. It was about one hundred 

 yards and as fast as a Marlin. Then he sounded. 

 He stayed down for half an hour. When he came 

 up somewhat he seemed to be less resistant, and we 

 dragged him at slow speed for several miles. At the 

 end of three hours I asked Dan for the harness, 

 which he strapped to my shoulders. This afforded 

 me relief for my arms and aching hands, but the 

 straps cut into my back, and that hurt. The har- 

 ness enabled me to lift and pull by a movement of 

 shoulders. I worked steadily on him for an hour, 

 five different times getting the two-hundred-foot 

 mark on the line over my reel. When I tired Dan 

 would throw in the clutch and drag him some more. 

 Once he followed us without strain for a while; 

 again we dragged him two or three miles. And most 

 remarkable of all, there was a period of a few mo- 

 ments when he towed us. A wonderful test for a 

 twenty-four-strand line! We made certain of this 

 by throwing papers overboard and making allowance 

 for the drift. At that time there was no wind. I had 

 three and one-half hours of perfectly smooth water. 



191 



