“‘Good land,’ thinks I, ‘if I could only land that fish and have him mounted, he’d sell for a good figure to some of those inter-tourists who come to Florida to go back with big fish stories.’ To tell the story right, they have to take the fish to prove it; and lots of fellows make a tidy living selling big fish to big men who wouldn’t know a barracuda from a porgie if they saw them in an aquarium.
“Well, I starts in on my preparations to land Mr. Barracuda. I saw him cock up a knowing eye at me and then sink down, down, down out of sight. But I knew somehow that he would come back, and I just sat and waited. It was funny to watch all the different kind of fish down in that water. First a flock of parrot fish, pink and white striped like zebras, would float by. Then come a striped shark, yellow and black, like a tiger, with maybe a string of young sharks—‘puppies,’ they call ’em—following her.
“Next thing would be a big old devil fish, snapping his beak, and then a school of small fry, swimming for their lives to get away from some barracuda. But, though while I waited I saw a lot of barracuda, I didn’t see the one I called mine.
“Well, I came there every day for a week, and I tried every kind of bait I could think of, but Old King Cole, as I had come to call the big fish, was always absent on pressing business. It ran along like this for maybe a month before I saw him again. I ran hot foot to the shack. Got my rod and two hundred yards of stout line. Then I baited up with live bait and went after Old King Cole.
“Well, sir, he must have been hungry, for he took my bait like a flash, and then the fight began. Gracious, how that fish fought! Just when I thought I had him tired out, he’d start again. But the funny thing was that the harder I’d fight him the livelier he seemed to get. Finally I yelled to Dick, who was up by the light, to get me a revolver quick.
“‘What you got there?’ he hollers.
“‘The biggest fish in the world; and if I don’t get him he’ll get me, by thunder!’ I yells back.
“Dick he came on the run with that gun.
“I told him to watch and I’d play the fish near the surface. Well, I gave him line and then, Ginger! on he came like a locomotive. ‘Now!’ yells I, and Dick fired. Again I called, and Dick let him have two more. The weight on the line grew dead all of a sudden and the water turned crimson. When it cleared I looked down into it and could hardly believe my eyes. There, in the shallow water, lay dead a fish three times the size of my barracuda! At first I couldn’t realize that it was a dead shark lying there, I was so astonished.
“‘All that trouble over a shark!’ grumbles Dick.