"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 nearer very
slowly, but none the less surely, the line falling in rings to the
bottom of the boat.
"Bravo!" cried Brazier.
"That's right, both of you!" shouted Shaddy excitedly. "He's dead beat,
and I shall have the big hook in his gills before he knows where he is.
Haul away!"
"Are these mud-fish you talk about good eating, Naylor?" asked Brazier.
"Oh yes, sir. Bit eely-like in their way; not half bad. Come, that's
winning, gents. Well done. Give me a shout when you want me. I won't
come yet so as to get in your way."
"Sha'n't be ready yet," panted Rob. "He is strong. I think you ought
to have a harpoon.--I say."
"Yes, sir."
"Do these mud-fish bite?"
"Well, yes, sir," replied Shaddy; "pretty nigh all the fish hereabouts
are handy with their teeth."
"Ah, he's off again!" cried Joe; and they had to let the prisoner run.
But it was a much weaker effort, and a couple of minutes later they had
hauled in all the line given, and got in so much more that the fish was
at the bottom of the river only four or five yards from the boat.
"Now then, both together; that line will hold!" cried Shaddy excitedly;
"get him right up and see what he is, and if he begins to fight fierce
let him have one more run to finish his flurry, as the whalers call the
last fight."
"Ready, Joe?"
"Yes."
"Both together, then."
There were a few short steady pulls, hand over hand, and the prisoner
was drawn nearer and nearer, and raised from the bottom slowly and
surely, while, as full of excitement now as the lads, Brazier and Shaddy
stood close to the edge watching.
"Hurrah!" cried Rob, who was nearest to the gunwale. "I can see him
now!"
"Well, what is it--a mud-fish?" asked Brazier.
"No," said Joe, straining his neck to get a glimpse through the clear
water, the disturbed mud raised by the struggles of the fish being
rapidly swept away. "It's a dorado: I can see his golden scales!"
"Then he's a regular whopper, my lads. Steady, don't lose him!" cried
Shaddy. "Shall I come on board?"
"No, not yet," said Joe excitedly. "He may make another rush."
"Why, I say, it isn't a very big one," said Rob.
"No," cried Joe, in a disappointed tone; "but he's coming up backwards,
which shows how strong he is."
"Ha, ha!" shouted Rob; "we've caught him by the tail."
"Got the line twisted round it, perhaps," said Brazier. "That's what
makes the fish seem so strong."
"Ugh!" yelled Rob, letting go of the line, with the result that it was
drawn back rapidly through Joe's fingers, till at a cry from his lips
Rob took hold again as the fish ran off and nearly reached its former
quarters.
"What's the matter?" said Brazier. "Did the line cut your fingers?"
"No. We've caught a horrid great thing. It isn't a dorado. I saw it
well, and it's nearly as long as the boat."
"Gammon!" growled Shaddy. "Here, what's it like, Master Joe?"
"I don't know. I never saw a fish like it before: its tail was all
golden scales, and then it was dark at the top and bottom, and went off
dark right toward the head."
"Then it must be a mud-fish, I should say, though I never knowed of one
with a tail like that. Haul him in again, and I'll get aboard now ready
with the hook."
He stepped into the boat, and lay down in the bottom with his arms over
the side and his landing-hook, securely bound to a short, stout piece of
bamboo, held ready.
"Shan't be in your way, shall I?" he asked.
"No, not at all," replied Joe. "Now, Rob, are you ready?"
"Yes."
"I say, don't let go again."
"I'll try not," replied Rob, and the hauling began once more, with
almost as much effort necessary. But at the end of a minute it began to
be evident that the fish was tired, for it yielded more and more as the
line was drawn in, but kept to its old tactics of hugging the bottom
till it was close up to the boat, where, after pausing a moment or two,
Rob cried,--
"Now then, both together! Don't miss him, Shaddy! Mind, he's a hideous
great thing."
"All right, my lads; haul away!"
They hauled, but instead of the fish suffering itself to be dragged like
a lump of lead close in to the boat, it now commenced different tactics,
and rose till the gilded tail appeared above the surface quite clear of
the line, and beat and churned up the water so that it was too much
disturbed for them to see the head, the creature seeming to be fighting
hard to dive down again straight to the bottom.
"That's right, my lads: he's coming. 'Nother fathom, and I'll get the
hook into him. Haul steady. He's, done. He's--Well, I'm blessed!"
Shaddy roared out this last exclamation, for all at once, as the boys
hauled persistently at the line, the tail half of a large dorado was
thrust above the surface, agitated violently, and directly after there
followed the hideous head of an alligator with its jaws tightly closed
upon the fore half of the fish. It was shaking its head savagely to
break the line, and began giving violent plunges while it made the water
foam with its struggles, and in another moment would no doubt have
broken away; but just at the crisis, on seeing what was the state of
affairs, Brazier raised his gun, took a quick aim, and discharged
rapidly one after the other both barrels of his piece.
The result was magical. As the smoke rose, and quite a cloud of
brilliantly tinted birds flew here and there from side to side of the
river, whose trees on both banks seemed to have grown alive with
monkeys, the alligator made one leap half out of the water, fell back
with a heavy splash, and then lay motionless save for a quivering of its
tail as it was drawn nearer, when Shaddy managed to get his hook inside
the jaws, which were distended by the dorado, and then, stepping ashore,
he hauled the reptile right out on to the grass.
"Is he dead?" said Brazier, who was reloading.
"Not yet, sir; but you've shattered the back of his head, and he'll soon
be quite. No wonder you didn't land him quicker, Master Joe."
"But what does it mean?" cried Rob. "Oh, I see! Joe hooked a dorado,
and this fellow tried to swallow it head first, and couldn't get it
right down."
"That's it, my lad," replied Shaddy. "He'd half managed it when Mr
Jovanny here gave a pull, and has got the hook in him somewhere. I
thought so. Here's the pynte sticking right through outside his neck,
and he couldn't bite because of the fish stuck in his jaws just like a
great gag."
"Well, what's to be done?" said Rob; "we can't eat the dorado now.
Wonder whether I've got a bite yet."
He went slowly and wearily up to the tree where he had fastened the end
of his line, and to his delight saw that the branch was rising and
falling as a fish on the hook tugged to get away.
"Hi! Joe! Got one!" he shouted; but before the lad could reach him he
had the line in his hand and was hauling, sore as his fingers were, a
heavy fish toward the shore. Then with a cry of disappointment he
pulled in the line easily enough, for the fish was gone.
They returned to the spot where Brazier and Shaddy stood, near the
captured alligator.
"Good six feet long, Rob," said Brazier, who had measured it by taking
two long paces. "Something like a catch, Giovanni. Can you get the
fish out of its jaws, Naylor?"
"Oh yes, I think so, sir."
"Mind, for these creatures are very retentive of life."
"Oh yes, I know 'em, sir. I'll get the chopper and take his head off
first."
"But we are not going to eat that fish now, Mr Brazier, are we?"
"Well, I don't know, Rob. If it is well washed and skinned, it cannot
be any the worse, and we have nothing else in the way of fish or meat."
"Wrong, sir," said Shaddy, making a very wide smile; "look at that."
He pointed toward the top of the little clearing where the boatman had
forced his way in amongst the tangled growth, and gone on hewing his way
through bush, thorn, vine, and parasitical growth, to reappear just in
the nick of time with the bustard-looking bird hanging from his left
hand, dead.
"Says he had to go in a long way," said Shaddy, after a short
conversation with the man, who, weary though he was with his exertions,
immediately set to work by the fire picking the bird and burning its
feathers, with the result that the Europeans of the little expedition
confined themselves to the windward side of the fire till the man had
done.
"Never had such a delicious supper before in my life," said Rob two
hours later, as they sat in the boat eating oranges and watching the
gorgeous colours of the sky.
"Think this place 'll do, sir?" said Shaddy, after washing down his
repast with copious draughts of _mate_ made by his men.
"Excellently, Naylor."
"And you ain't hardly begun yet," said Shaddy, smiling. "Wait till you
get higher up, where it's wilder and wonderfler: this is nothing. Suit
you, Master Rob? Never had such fishing as that before, did you?"
"Never, Shaddy; but what did you do with the alligator and the fish?"
"My lads cut all off as the 'gator hadn't had down his throat, and
tumbled the other into the stream. Ain't much of him left by this
time."
The night came on almost directly after, with the remarkable tropical
absence of twilight; and, as if all had been waiting for the darkness,
the chorus of the forest began. Then, well making up the fire with an
abundance of wood, the boatmen came on board, and immediately settled
themselves down to sleep.