"The lords of creation are ungrateful pigs," said Madame.
Willatopy took one of his boys to do the spearing part of the programme, a junior engineer relieved Ewing of all care for the engine, Ching steered, Madame sat in the bows under the storm curtain, and the expedition set forth. It was bound for the sheltered coves on the west coast of Tops Island, where turtle were to be found disporting themselves in five or six fathoms of water. The sucker, a most accommodating beast, was put over the side of the boat, and instantly grappled the wooden planking to its adhesive shoulders. It is this passion for free travel which has made the remora the slave of turtle-hunting man. He is a hoe-boe among fish; too lazy to swim, he makes others swim for him. Then man steps in and utilises his laziness.
In the sheltered waters to leeward of the Island turtle could be seen swimming far down; now and then one would rise, take a gulp of air, flop over and descend. They were very shy, and when the shadow of the motor boat fell upon them would flee instantly. Upon Madame's previous visit Willatopy never got within spear throw of the beasts, but now he was better equipped for the discomfiture of turtle. He bade Ching anchor, but haul short on the cable, so that the launch might get away quickly upon emergency. The motor was declutched and kept running slowly so that power would instantly be at call. Then he watched intently the depths of the clear sea. For some time no turtle approached the hovering boat, but, after about half-an-hour, the great carapace and flappers of a fine specimen could be made out. Willie waited patiently until the turtle began to rise for breath, and then leaning well over he grabbed the remora, and skinned its sucker off the bottom of the launch. The direct retaining power of a sucker is enormous, but one may lever up an edge and peel it off without great difficulty. He rubbed the organ of suction vigorously with his hand—"to wake it up" said he—and then, as the turtle neared the surface some forty yards away, threw the remora far out towards it over the side of the boat. The turtle gulped and sank, and with it, adhering tightly to its plastron, went the remora. Denied free, joyous transport under a motor launch, it would put up with turtle. Its vigorously chafed sucker itched for adherence to something. The check on the winch whirred as the thin line ran out.
The turtle could not feel the suck of the remora which clung tightly to its shell, and, for a while was unconscious of the strain upon Willatopy's line. A pound or so of pull upon a beast weighing two hundred weight is not very noticeable. It wandered to and fro upon its lawful occasions, and all the while Willatopy kept the line tight by winding it in, or letting it run out against the mechanical check. He was subjecting the big turtle to less pull than one puts upon a twenty-pound salmon, and the situation called for sublime patience.
Time passed, the sun rose higher and higher in the sky, the launch rolled lazily in the back wash of the Pacific swell, but Willatopy went on oblivious playing his turtle. He could not increase the strain lest the line be torn out of the remora's back. I cannot believe, in spite of Willie's assurances to Madame, that the remora itself really enjoyed the sport. A small fish with a string tied round its tail—and also rove through a hole in its back—and perpetually hauled upon by a heavy check winch, could not have been wholly comfortable.
The turtle wandered farther and farther away. Willie ordered the anchor to be hauled up, the propeller moved slowly, and the boat to be steered in a wide circle of which the turtle and the adhering remora formed the centre. For an hour or more this manœuvre was continued, until the turtle revealed plain signs of annoyance. Hitherto it had risen at intervals, showed maybe two inches of snout, while it took a mouthful of air, and then passed to the depths to feed. Now its head would come right out as it shook it savagely, and the upper flappers would beat the water in irritation. Willatopy did not hurry the chase. He wanted the turtle's attention to be so far diverted from the boat and concentrated upon its own troubles that he could approach within a spear's throw. But he steadily shortened his line, and directed Ching to make circles, or rather spirals, of ever-narrowing radius. Upon these sea expeditions Madame did not carry a watch, and was no accurate judge of time without one. They had reached the fishing ground at about nine o'clock, and it was about noon when the second stage in the hunt began. Thus Willatopy had played his turtle for some two hours and a half. Once he could begin to get in work with his spears, the business would not take long in completion, though the natives, in their tiny canoes, hauled about by a speared turtle, will occupy some six hours in the killing. A powerful motor boat as a base of operation is very different from a bark canoe two feet wide, and with little more than an inch of free board.
The motor boat, steered by the deeply interested Ching, and guided by an occasional nod and word from Willatopy, closed in upon ever-narrowing spirals. The turtle, a huge beast, would now stay up a few seconds after each rise, shaking its big puzzled head, and churning the water into angry foam with aimless flappers. Willie signalled to his boy, who picked up a spear, and got upon his feet. He was a skilful boy, and it was a pretty bit of javelin work that he put in. The turtle was twenty yards distant at its last rise, yet the boy got it full under the flapper with his first cast.
"Now," roared Willie, as the turtle dashed down and away, leaving a trail of blood on the water, and the line fastened to the spear shaft spun out. Round came the motor boat and followed fast, yet not so fast that the cord was overrun. Willie wanted the turtle to pull against the barb of the spear, as it had pulled against the check of his winch. The end now approached. The brown boy, another spear in his hand, waited for a second chance, and got it. His spear, flung with the most dazzling force and accuracy, caught the unhappy turtle under a lower flapper as it rolled over to dive, and it was now attached, fore and aft, by two cords to the boat. Still Willatopy did not hurry; a turtle's flesh is soft, and the barbs might be torn out, and the prey lost if haste followed too close upon the heels of desire. He went on playing the beast sideways, hauling in a little upon his cord, as it weakened from its wounds, until finally he could get within spear's thrust and reach a clean finish.
"Now," said he again, as the turtle, pulled in within six feet of the boat, wallowed on the surface, and his boy, leaning down, drove a third and last spear right home between shoulders and carapace. "It is finished," said Willie with satisfaction. "We will now go back at speed and start upon the cookery."
"I am rather sorry for the brave turtle," observed Madame.