onsiderably farther.

We covered several places where we had seen the sheetlike splashes; and
at the third or fourth I felt the old electrifying tap at my bait. I
leaped up and let my bait run back. The sailfish tapped again, then took
hold so hard and ran off so swiftly that I jerked sooner than usual. I
pulled the bait away from him. All this time the boat was running.
Instead of winding in I let the bait run back. Suddenly the sailfish
took it fiercely. I let him run a long way before I struck at him, and
then I called to the boatman to throw out the clutch. When the boat is
moving there is a better chance of a tight line while striking, and that
is imperative if an angler expects to hook the majority of these
illusive sailfish. I hooked this fellow, and he showed at once, a small
fish, and began to leap toward the boat, making a big bag in the line. I
completely lost the feel of his weight. When he went down, and with all
that slack line, I thought he was gone. But presently the line tightened
and he began to jump in another direction. He came out twice with his
sail spread, a splendid, vivid picture; then he took to skittering,
occasionally throwing himself clear, and he made some surface runs,
splashing and threshing, and then made some clean greyhound-like leaps.
In all he cleared the water eleven times before he settled down. After
that it took me half an hour to land him. He was not hurt and we let him
go.

Soon after we got going again we raised a school of four or more
sailfish. And when a number rush for the baits it is always exciting.
The first fish hit my bait and the second took R. C.'s. I saw both fish
in action, and there is considerable difference between the hitting and
the taking of a bait. R. C. jerked his bait away from his fish and I
yelled for him to let it run back. He did so. A bronze and silver blaze
and a boil on the water told me how hungry R. C.'s sailfish was. "Let
him run with it!" I yelled. Then I attended to my own troubles. There
was a fish rapping at my bait. I let out line, yard after yard, but he
would not take hold, and, as R. C.'s line was sweeping over mine, I
thought best to reel in.

"Hook him now!" I yelled.

I surely did shiver at the way my brother came up with that light
tackle. But he hooked the sailfish, and nothing broke. Then came a big
white splash on the surface, but no sign of the fish. R. C.'s line
sagged down.

"Look out! Wind in! He's coming at us!" I calle