"Just about."

"I don't see his fin," Bob said a moment later.

"Maybe he's," Jack began, but before he could finish what he was going to say, there was a violent tug on the line and at the same instant there was a tremendous commotion in the water some seventy-five feet astern.

"We've hooked him," Bob shouted.

The line was now running out rapidly, and, almost before he had finished speaking, the last layer left the reel, and, for a moment the line straightened out as taut as a bowstring.

"Shall I try to reel in?" Jack shouted excitedly.

"Go ahead," his uncle consented. "After that jerk, I reckon the line will hold him."

To his great surprise, the line came in easily and he had recovered fully thirty feet when there was a sudden reversal of program on the part of the big fish, and the handle of the reel was jerked out of his hand with a suddenness which made him gasp. Again the reel ran bare, and again the line straightened out.

"Better let him tire himself out," Mr. Lakewood suggested with a smile. "I reckon that line's going to hold him."

"Gee, but did you see that," Jack gasped.