noe.

The next moment he had enough to do to manage a fish that had taken his
bait, and to keep it from crossing my line so as to get them into a
tangle.

It was quite startling for the moment to have hold of so strong a fish,
one which darted here, there, and everywhere; now diving straight down,
now running away out to sea, and then when I thought the line must snap,
for it made tugs that cut my hands and jerked my shoulders, I uttered a
cry of disappointment, for the line came in slack, and the fish was
gone.

It puzzled me to see how coolly the others took it, but I supposed that
they were used to losing fish from the badness of their tackle, and
besides, there was evidently a big one on Mr Ebony's line to take their
attention.

"I wonder whether he has taken the hook," I thought to myself as I
carefully drew in the line, coiling it neatly down between my legs, yard
after yard, till I had pulled in at least fifty yards of the coarse
cord, when, to my utter astonishment, there was a sudden check or rush,
and the line began to run rapidly out again, my fish being still there,
and I saw now that it had made a rush in towards the canoe, and then
lain quite still close to the bottom till I had disturbed it by jerking
the line as I hauled it in.

The rest that it had had seemed to have made it stronger than ever, for
it darted about at a tremendous pace, and I was still playing it,
letting it run when it made fierce dashes, and hauling in the line
whenever it grew a little slack, when there was a bit of a bustle by my
side as Mr Ebony drew his fish close up to the side of the canoe, and
one of the blacks darted a barbed spear into it and lifted it into the
canoe.

It was a beautifully-marked fish about three feet long, and as I glanced
at it I wondered whether mine would be as big; and then I thought it
must be bigger, it pulled with such tremendous force; but at last its
struggles grew less and less powerful, and twice over I was able to draw
it nearly to the surface, but only for it to dart away again, and I
thought it was lost.

It seemed to excite a good deal of interest amongst the savages, two of
whom stood, one on either side of me, ready with their spears to make a
thrust at the fish, and one of them stretched out his hand to take the
line from me, but Mr Ebony uttered such a fierce exclamation, and
caught so angrily at a paddle, that the man drew back, and after a long
and gallant fight I at last drew m