1937-04-22 — Page 25

THE CHINA MAIL THURSDAY SUPPLMENT, APRIL 22, 1987

..

MR.

ŅUS ROCKFORD stirred un- easily in the bed. His face was flushed and there was la bronchial wheeze in his speech. Ziba Ryder, sitting in the chair by the window of the little bed- room, lifted a protesting hand.

"Don't you try to say another word,” he 'ordered. “I can handle her all right. She's got the same maké of engine in her that my boat up home has and she can't put on any trick that I haven't run afoul of afore. You leave it to me, Gus."

His friend was, obviously, not yet entirely convinced. "Oh, yes, sure, Ziba," he said; "and it's doggone good of you. The only thing is well, you ain't never caught a tarpon.'

Q

"I'll have to own up to that. But, consarn you, Gus, don't you forget that I landed a three-hun- dred halibut all by myself when I was alone in a dory and twelve mile from the nighest land. Be- sides, it ain't goin' to be me that be doin' the fishin'. If a tarpon. is hooked and, judgin' by the luck you and me have had the times we've been on the river tryin', one won't be-if he is, it won't be me that has aholt of him; it'll be this Butter man- or Cutter, or whatever his name is. And he's one of them perts, you say.”

Rockford shook his head. ""Twas his wife that said it. She phoned me from the hotel at Sante and engaged the boat. I warned her that the fish hadn't begun to run in the river yet, although 'twas long past time. Didn't make no difference; her husband would catch one, she was sure. So I took the job for to- morrow, the first fifteen-dollar job I've had in a fortnight, and now here I am flat on my back. Doggone the luck!"

"

ex-

"Well, that's where I come in, ain't it? I can handle your boat, and Cutter can handle the tar- pon, if there is any. Him and me'll have a fine day of it and you'll get fifteen dollars. more do you want?

What See

you after me and Mr. Cutter and seven or eight ton of tarpon maybe-land to-morrow night. So long-and get well.”

ī

morning was

The following clear, warm, and sunny, as Flori- da mornings in early April us- ually are. Ziba was aboard the Good Day, Rockford's twenty- foot motor launch, by seven- thirty. He had spent an hour the previous evening making sure that everything was 'shipshape.

Sitting in one of the two chairs which the boat provided for the comfort of its fishing patrons, Ziba lit his pipe, smoked, and re- flected. This winter he was on a vacation. The long seige of ill- ness which he had endured dur- ing November ecember had been the cause, Hettie,

his married daughter, and Dr. Parker, the Orham physician, had made the decision for him. “You can afford it, Father," said Het- tie. “Clear out and go South, where it's warm, and stay there long as you've a mind to."

So go he did. ́ ́ He landed at Tampa, stayed there a while; then boarded a bus and travelled down the coast, Achance-ac- quaintance who owned a car of- fered him a ride along the river shore as far as Palmetto.

Ziba-in Orham they called him "Cap'n Zibe" liked Palmetto

Mrs. Cutter had

EXPERT caught her hus-

band hook, line, and sinker. All she wanted him to catch was a tarpon

at first sight. It was not crowd- ed. Its tiny hotel was but ส

· boardinghouse, and Ziba hated hotels, whereas, as Hettie' took a few boarders in the summer, he was used to boardinghouses.

He soon made the acquaintance of Gus Rockford. Rockford was thirty-four and a Florida "crac-. ked," Cap'n Zibe was fifty-one and a "Down-East' Yankee," but the pair took a fancy to each. other. Gus invited him out on the Good Day prospecting for the tarpon which should be in the river but were not-as yet.

subjected him and the Good Day to a careful scrutiny.

"Are you the man who is to take my husband fishing?".

"Why, yes m. I'm the man." "Humph! Is this the boat? It is very small. Do you think it is large enough, Henry ?”

The little man beside her had been, with the chauffeur's assis- tance, donning and adjusting the sun helmet. - `

"Yes? What is it, my dear?" he stammered. "Large enough? Oh, yes-yes. I'm sure it must be, or the man wouldn't use it. It is

By Joseph Lincoln

And now, here he was, about to take out a fishing party, just as he did day after day in the summertime, but now in charge of another man's craft, in strange waters, in search of a kind of fish he had never caught or even seen caught.

It was well after eight-thirty when a large and glittering motor- car rolled down to the lane lead- ing from the main road and drew up in the boardinghouse yard. A and liveried chauffeur alighted opened one of the rear doors. Two people got out, a woman and a man. The woman was tall and, as Ziba would have described it, fleshy. Like the automobile, she was massive and imposing.

But the man with her-Cap'n him. Ziba gasped when he saw Was this his passenger, this lit- tle, thin, meek, sawed-off individ- ual, with the ribboned eyeglasses and the fussy little mustache? Was this the expert fisherman?

The pair moved down the pier, the woman in the lead. The chauf- feur took from the car a rod case, a shining and impressive tackle box, a cork sun helmet, large paper-wrapped parcel, and 2 thermos bottle. Loaded with these, he fell in at the rear of the parade.

Ziba Ryder rose in the stern sheets of the Good Day. "Morn- in'," he hailed cheerfully.

Mrs. Cuttër-he took it for granted that she was Mrs. Cut- ter-adjusted her eyeglasses and

a-regular boat-isn't it-er Captain?"

Ziba nodded. "Yes, sir-ee!" he replied. “No better in the `river “

"Well, I suppose I must take your word for it,” Mrs. Cutter sighed. "One thing more: Are you a sober man?

"Sober?"

"Yes, certainly. Mr. Cutter and I are strongly opposed to alcohol in any form. You haven't liquor on this boat now??

"No; no, maʼam.”

"You will see that Mr. Cutter catches a tarpon a very large tarpon?"

"I'll do my best. If he don't it'll be because they ain't around.”

"Nonsense. Why shouldn't they be around?”

Mr. Cutter ventured to put in a word. "He probably means, my dear,"

"that he explained, they may not bite. Fish don't always bite, you know.”

:

"Pooh! You must make them bite. They bite- for other people. That Hendricks. woman's hus- band caught the one they have in their trophy-room or she says he did and I shan't be satisfied until we have one big, or bigger than theirs. Pet- ers," turning to the chauffeur, "you may put those things, in the boat. The large box there has your luncheon in it, Henry."

29

Rod, tackle box, package, vacu- um bottle, and Mr. Cutter were carefully handed by the chauffeur to Ziba, who deposited them in the boat. The mooring lines

!

were cast off and the ebbing tide moved the Good Day away from the pier. Cap'n Zibe lifted the lid of the engine 'box and stoop- ed to the starting lever,

“Good-by,” called Mrs. Cutter. "I shall be here with the car promptly at five, so don't keep me waiting. And, Henry, don't you, dare come back without a tarpon, a big tarpon. Emina Hendricks, knows you have gone and I've told her what a wonderful fisher- man you are or have told me You are so don't make me look

ridiculous."

Palmetto river, for the first four or five miles above its exit into Sante Gabriel Bay, is a wide stream, with dozens of small is- lands scattered about it and div- iding its channels. The chan- nels are well marked and buoyed, and Cap'n Ziba had traversed most of them when he and Gus Rockford were out together their, fruitless prospecting ́ex- peditions for tarpon. He was not fearful of

ning aground as long as he kept to familiar wat- ers The Good Day rounded the point of the nearest island and stood out into the broad stretch of water beyond.**

on

"Might as well rig up, I guess, hadn't you, Mr. Cutter?" sug- gested Ziba.

Mr. Cutter started. "Eh?" he exclaimed. "Did-did you speak? I beg your pardon.' I was thinking, I guess. I was think- ing what a relief-I mean how pleasant it is out here. So peace- ful.”

"Yes yes. Hope it won't stay too peaceful, that's all. A good, lively-tarpon on the end of that line of yours would kind of stir things up the right way, eh? I was just sayin' seems to me you might's well rig up your tackle." "My my tackle? Did you say I must rig it up?"

"Why, yes. Fix and reel. soon's, you've a mind to now,”

your pole

You start fishin

The heavy rod, in the canvas case, lay on the deck beside the passenger's chair. Mr. Cutter re- moved it from the case and care- fully-almost fearfully, 80 it seemed to Ziba-fitted the two sections together.

(Continued on Page 3)

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ཝཱརིཏཀ ཡསྶ