he sea's alive with swordfish!" cried Captain Dan. "It's the day!"

Then I awoke to my opportunity.

Round the east end, close to the great black bluff, where the swells
pile up so thunderously, I spied the biggest purple fin I had ever seen.
This fellow came to meet us--took my bait. I hooked at him, but did not
hurt or scare him. Finally I pulled the hook out of him. While I was
reeling in my line suddenly a huge purple shadow hove in sight. It was
the swordfish--and certainly one of immense size--the hugest yet.

"He's following the boat!" yelled Captain Dan, in great excitement.

So I saw, but I could not speak or yell. All was intense excitement on
that boat. I jumped up on the stern, holding the bait Captain Dan had
put on my hook. Then I paused to look. We all looked, spellbound. That
was a sight of a lifetime. There he swam, the monster, a few feet under
the surface, only a rod back of the boat. I had no calm judgment with
which to measure his dimensions. I only saw that he was tremendous and
beautiful. His great, yard-wide fins gleamed royal purple. And the
purple strips crossed his silver sides. He glowed in the water, changed
color like a chameleon, and drifted, floated after us. I thought of my
brother Reddy--how he would have gloried in that sight! I thought of
Dilg, of Bob Davis, of Professor Kellogg--other great fishermen, all in
a flash. Indeed, though I gloated over my fortune, I was not selfish.
Then I threw in the flying-fish bait. The swordfish loomed up, while my
heart ceased to beat. There, in plain sight, he took the bait, as a
trout might have taken a grasshopper. Slowly he sank. The line began to
slip off the reel. He ceased to be a bright purple mass--grew dim--then
vague--and disappeared.

I sat down, jammed the rod in the socket, and got ready. For the life of
me I could not steady my legs.

"What'll he weigh?" I gasped.

"O Lord! he looked twice as big as the big one you got," replied Dan.

"Stand by with the cameras!" I said to my companions, and as they lined
up, two on one side and one on the other, I began to strike at that fish
with all my might and main. I must have had at least twelve powerful
strikes before he began to wake up.

Then!

He came up, throwing the water in angry spouts. If he did not threaten
the boat I was crazy. He began an exhibition that dwarfed any other I
had seen, and it was so swift that I could scarcely follow him. Yet when
I saw the line rise, and th