"What!" cried Rob, whose face was streaming with perspiration. "Let him
go? Do you hear, Joe?"

Joe nodded and tightened his lips, his face seeming to say,--

"Let him go? Not while I can hold him."

So the fight went on till the fish grew less fierce in its rushes, but
none the weaker, keeping on as it did a heavy, stubborn drag, and though
frequently brought pretty near to the boat, keeping down close to the
bottom, so that they never once obtained a glimpse of it.

"It ain't a dorado," said Shaddy at last. "I never see one fight like
that."

"It must be a very grand one," said Joe, wiping his face, for he had
resigned the line for a time.

"It pulls like a mule," said Rob, as the captive now made off toward the
middle of the river.

"What sort of a hook have you got on, Mr Jovanni?" cried Shaddy.

"One of those big ones, with the wire bound round for about two feet
above it."

"Then I tell you what, my lad: I don't believe that strong new cord'll
break. S'pose both of you get hold after he's had this run, haul him
right up, and let's have a look at him! Strikes me you've got hold of
one of them big eely mud-fish by the way he hugs the bottom."

"Shall we try, Joe?"

"I--I'm afraid of losing it," was the reply. "It would be so dreadful
now. Perhaps it will be tired soon."

"Don't seem like it, my lad!" said Brazier. "It is not worth so long
and exhausting a fight."

"Right, sir, and they've been too easy with him. You get his head up,
Mr Rob, as soon as he gives a bit, and then both of you show him you
don't mean to stand any more nonsense. That'll make him give in."

"Very well," said Joe, with a sigh. "We have been a long time. Wait
till he has had this run."

The line was running out more and more through Rob's fingers as he
spoke, and the fish seemed bent on making for the farther shore; but the
lad made it hard work for the prisoner, and about two-thirds of the way
it began to slacken its pace, almost stopped, quite stopped, and sulked,
like a salmon, at the bottom.

"Now both of you give a gentle, steady pull," said Brazier; and Joe took
hold of the line and joined Rob in keeping up a continuous strain.

For a few minutes it was like pulling at a log of wood, and Rob declared
the line must be caught. But almost as he spoke the fish gave a vicious
shake at the hook, its head seemed to be pulled round, the strain was
kept up, and the captive yielded, and was drawn nearer and nea