364 



RECREATION 



out. The fish began taking line so 

 rapidly that it was almost impossible 

 to give it to him fast enough, even with 

 the Kid rowing, and relief did not come 

 until the fish took it into his head to 

 change his course, thus allowing much 

 line to be recovered. It was a fight of 

 which to be proud, and shouts of advice 

 and encouragement were given by the 

 cupants of the other boats, while 

 Charlie and the Kid were having the 

 time of their lives with the fish. I 

 never heard whether the fish was hav- 

 ing a good time or not, but we will 

 play he was. He would take out nearly 

 all of the line and allow them to re- 

 cover, as it suited his fancy. After about 

 15 or 20 minutes he at last seemed 

 to be tiring and allowed himself to be 

 drawn nearly to the surface of the 

 water, although some distance away. 



"Look! Look!" cried Kid. "It's a 

 whale ! It's a whopper ! Now be care- 

 ful, Charlie, and we will soon have him. 

 Isn't he a dandy !" 



But alas for human hopes ! As they 

 were drawing him carefully in, and the 

 Kid getting ready with the gaff, his 

 lordship suddenly took it into his head 

 to go to the depths again, and such 

 was the force of his rush that the line 

 parted and he was free. On pulling in 

 their line they found that the fish had 



taken away but one leader and that 

 they had saved the other five, together 

 with the sinker that had first been lost 

 with him. On examining the recov- 

 ered tackle, they found that one of their 

 hooks had caught in one of the hooks 

 of the other leader and that all of the 

 fight had been made with the tackle 

 hook to hook. Scott said the fish must 

 have weighed 20 or 25 pounds, for he 

 had caught a 15-pounder the year be- 

 fore, and that didn't put up any thing- 

 like the fight that this one did. 



It was the event of the season at our 

 end of the lake and an ever-occurring 

 topic of conversation for days there- 

 after when any of the participants met. 



I trimmed my sails and leisurely beat 

 back to camp, to be followed later by 

 the lucky — or unlucky — fishermen, with 

 their mosquito netting and other sup- 

 plies. That evening, around the camp- 

 fire, the incident was discussed and dis- 

 cussed, and the battle waged over 

 and over again, while sitting in the 

 smoke of the fire so as to be out of 

 reach of the "pesky critters." 



"Never mind, Charlie, if we did lose 

 him, we had a bushel of fun, anyway. 

 Now let's turn in and see if we can't 

 get some sleep and be ready to try 'em 

 again to-morrow." And all hands 

 turned in to dreamland. 









