pockets and
let Dale do all the work."

And again I upset my messmate as if it were a fatality, for I cried
out--

"All right, sir, we can manage. Don't touch the line, Walters."

"No; don't touch the line!" cried Mr Denning, and the lad shrank back
as if the thin hemp were red-hot.

Then amidst plenty of excitement and some of the crew coming aft, I
helped Mr Denning haul and haul till the fish was gradually drawn so
close in that we could see its failing efforts to regain its freedom.
Apparently it was nearly five feet long, and its sides flashed in the
clear water where it was not foaming with the lashing of the captive's
vigorous widely-forked tail.

"Bonito," cried the captain.

"No, no, albicore," said Mr Brymer.

"Suppose we wait till it's fully caught," said Mr Frewen, smiling at
Miss Denning, when I saw her brother give him an angry look.

But the next moment I was thinking only of the fish, which was now so
exhausted that it had ceased struggling, and allowed itself to be
dragged along in the wake of the ship, merely giving a flap with its
tail from time to time which turned it from side to side.

"Now," said Mr Denning to me, "let us both haul it on board."

But I protested, saying that the weight of the fish would certainly
break it away, and that we should lose it.

To save us from such a catastrophe, I unfastened the other end of the
line, made a running noose round the tight line beneath Mr Denning's
hands, and let it run down till the noose struck the fish on the nose,
and made it give a furious plunge to escape.

But the hook held firm in spite of my dread, and after a little
twitching and shaking, with the lookers-on making remarks which only
fidgeted me instead of helping, I managed to make the noose glide over
the slippery body.

"Now!" cried Mr Frewen, who was as interested as the rest; but before
the word was well uttered, I had given the line a sharp snatch just as
the running noose was in the narrow part before where the tail fin
curved out above and below like a new moon.

This meant a double hold, for the noose tightened, and now in spite of a
fresh set of furious struggles the fish was steadily hauled out of the
water, and we nearly had it up to the poop-rail, when the hook was torn
out of its holding, and the fish hung down quivering and flapping from
the noose about its tail.

The weight seemed to be tremendous, but I gave two or three sharp tugs,
had the fish over the