The boat gained momentum. Reel as she might, the fish gained ground. Deep under the surface were pike-weeds. She knew the spot, twenty yards away, perhaps. Now fifteen. Now—
Wrapping the line about her shoe, she seized the paddle and began paddling frantically.
“Ah! That gets you.” Slowly, reluctantly, the fish gave ground. Then, driven to madness, he broke water a full fifty yards from the boat. This move gave the line a sudden slack. The boat shot sidewise and all but overturned. In a desperate effort to right herself, the girl dropped her paddle. Before the boat had steadied itself the paddle was just out of her reach.
“Oh, you! I’ll get you if I have to swim for it.”
All this time, quite unknown to the girl, something was happening in the air as well as the water. There was the sound of heavy drumming overhead. Now it lost volume, and now picked up, but never did it quite end.
Without a paddle, with her reel serving her badly, the girl was driven to desperation. Seizing the line, she began pulling it in hand over hand. This was a desperate measure; the line might break, the hook might loose its grip. No matter. It was her only chance.
Yard by yard the line coiled up in the bottom of the boat. And now, of a sudden, the thunder of some powerful motor overhead grew louder. Still, in her wild effort to win her battle, the girl was deaf to it all.
The line grew shorter and shorter, tighter and tighter. What a fish! Thirty yards away, perhaps, now twenty. Now—how should she land him? She had no gaff.
That question remained unanswered, for at that instant things began to happen. The fish, in a last mad effort to escape, leaped full three feet in air. This was far too much for the crazy craft. Over it went and with it went the girl.
That was not all; at the same instant a dark bulk loomed out of the clouds to come racing with the speed of thought towards the girl.