reak in the water on the other
side of the boat alarmed and further excited me. I did not see the fish.
But I jumped up and bent over the stern to shove my rod deep into the
water back of the propeller. I did this despite the certainty that the
fish had broken loose. It was a wise move, for the rod was nearly pulled
out of my hands. I lifted it, bent double, and began to wind furiously.
So intent was I on the job of getting up the slack line that I scarcely
looked up from the reel.

"Look at him yump!" yelled Sam.

I looked, but not quickly enough.

"Over here! Look at him yump!" went on Sam.

That fish made me seem like an amateur. I could not do a thing with him.
The drag was light, and when I reeled in some line the fish got most of
it back again. Every second I expected him to get free for sure. It was
a miracle he did not shake the hook, as he certainly had a loose rein
most all the time. The fact was he had such speed that I was unable to
keep a strain upon him. I had no idea what kind of a fish it was. And
Sam likewise was nonplussed.

I was not sure the fish tired quickly, for I was so excited I had no
thought of time, but it did not seem very long before I had him within
fifty yards, sweeping in wide half-circles back of the boat.
Occasionally I saw a broad, bright-green flash. When I was sure he was
slowing up I put on the other drag and drew him closer. Then in the
clear water we saw a strange, wild, graceful fish, the like of which we
had never beheld. He was long, slender, yet singularly round and
muscular. His color appeared to be blue, green, silver crossed by bars.
His tail was big like that of a tuna, and his head sharper, more wolfish
than a barracuda. He had a long, low, straight dorsal fin. We watched
him swimming slowly to and fro beside the boat, and we speculated upon
his species. But all I could decide was that I had a rare specimen for
my collection.

Sam was just as averse to the use of the gaff as I was. I played the
fish out completely before Sam grasped the leader, pulled him close,
lifted him in, and laid him down--a glistening, quivering, wonderful
fish nearly six feet long.

He was black opal blue; iridescent silver underneath; pale blue dorsal;
dark-blue fins and copper-bronze tail, with bright bars down his body.

I took this thirty-six pound fish to be a sea-roe, a game fish lately
noticed on the Atlantic seaboard. But I was wrong. One old conch
fisherman who had been around