I said; "after dusk, at night (if not
moonlight), or before daybreak is the time."

"Bosh!" was his acidulous comment "I've caught the same fish in New
Zealand in broad daylight." I shook my head, knowing that he was wrong.
He became angry, and remarked that he had found that all white men who
had lived in foreign countries for a few years accepted the rubbishy
dictum of natives regarding sporting matters of any kind as infallible.
Refusing to show me the tackle he intended using, at two o'clock he
hired a native canoe, and paddled off alone into Apia Harbour. Then he
began to fish for _La'heu_, using a mullet as bait. In five minutes
he was fast to a good-sized and lusty shark, which promptly upset the
canoe, went off with the line and left him to swim. The officer of the
deck of the French gunboat _Vaudreuil_, then lying in the port, sent a
boat and picked him up. This annoyed him greatly, as he wanted, like an
idiot, to swim on shore--a thing that a native would not always care to
do in a shark-infested place like Apia Harbour, especially during the
rainy season (as it then was), when the dreaded _tanifa_ sharks come
into all bays or ports into which rivers or streams debouch.

That evening, however, Marchmont condescended to look at the tackle I
used for _La'heu_, said it was clumsy, and only fit for sharks, but,
on the whole, there were "some good ideas" about it; also that he would
have another try that night. I suggested that either one of the Coe lads
or Lama should go with him, to which he said "Bosh!" Then, after sunset,
I sent some of my boat's-crew to catch flying-fish for bait. They
brought a couple of dozen, and I told Marchmont that he should bait with
a whole flying-fish, make his line ready for casting, and then throw
over some "burley"--half a dozen flying-fish chopped into small pieces.
He would not show me the tackle he intended using, so I was quite in the
dark as to what manner of gear it was. But I ascertained later on that
it was good and strong enough to hold any deep sea fish, and the hook
was of the right sort--a six-inch flatted, with curved shank, and
swivel mounted on to three feet of fine twisted steel seizing wire. My
obstinate friend had a keen eye, even when he was most disparaging
in his remarks, and had copied my _La'heu_ tackle most successfully,
although he had "bosh-ed" it when I first showed it to him.

Refusing to let any one accompany him, although the local pilot candidly
in