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bucket of water out of the sea and sponged Ledward’s head to cool him off.
    Ledward kept fighting.

    Baja Bill grinned at me. “He’s going to feel like he’s been hit by a truck tomorrow morning.”
    Ledward grunted.
    For the next two hours, Ledward fought that fish closer and closer. Baja Bill went back and forth to the wheel, keeping the line directly off the back of the boat, never letting it run to one side or the other.
    I climbed up to the bridge and stood near him, looking down on Ledward and the sea behind us. I could see the marlin underwater, keeping pace, a huge dark monster on the port side.
    “Leader’s coming up!” Ledward shouted. “Get down here!”
    Baja Bill put the boat on slow autopilot and I followed him down to the deck. With bothhands on my shoulders, he bent over and looked me in the eye. “We’re going to need your help, Calvin. This is a three-man job, minimum. I’m going to ask you to do something you’ve never done in your life. You haven’t even dreamed of it. I’m going to ask you to tag a nine-hundred-pound fish. By yourself.”

B aja Bill handed me a razor-sharp boat knife. I turned it toward the sun. It had nicks in the blade. It had been used a lot. I hadn’t done one thing, and already my hands were shaking.
    “And this,” he said, holding up a pole with a small flaglike thing on its tip, “is your tagstick. I’ll tell you what to do with it when the time comes. Tell you what to do with the knife, too. You ready?”
    I nodded, not ready at all. What was tagging? What was the knife for?
    Baja Bill took off his watch and stuck it in his pocket. A band of white skin circled his tanned wrist. He dug around in a drawer and pulled out a pair of tough canvas gloves with long cuffs that went halfway up to his elbows.
    He looked over at Ledward. “How’s she feel?”
    “Hopefully, we have an understanding.”
    Baja Bill pulled me close and pointed toward the marlin gliding just behind the boat in the clear water. Sunlight flashed on her flank. “See those stripes? That she still has them means she’s far from finished, and that’s just where we want her.”
    The marlin looked longer than Mom’s car. Its tail alone wouldn’t fit in the fish hold, where we’d put the ono. “How you going to get it on the boat? It’s so big.”
    “We’re not. We’re going to tag her and turn her loose. That’s where you come in.”
    Man oh man oh man oh man.
    “Okay, Led,” Baja Bill said. “Bring that leader up to where I can reach it, slowly now.”
    Ledward pulled back on the rod, using his back and the harness, then turned the reel lightly. Nobody wanted to see that giant fish go crazy again.
    Baja Bill braced his knees up against the gunnel and leaned over the water. He took the leader in one hand and pulled smoothly toward his chest.
    The marlin moved closer to the boat.
    Baja Bill reached out with his other hand, wrapped the leader around his fist, and slowly drew the marlin closer. “Okay, Calvin. Bring the knife and the stick and come stand next to me.”
    I braced my knees against the gunnel like he did.
    “Now, listen,” Baja Bill said. “We’ve got to do this right.”
    I gripped the knife in one hand and the tag stick in the other. “Ready.”
    “Good. Stand by till I tell you to move.”
    Baja Bill pulled the fish closer, and closer. “Led, back off on the drag a little. Give me a foot or two of line. Okay now, Calvin. I’m going to walk this fish forward, and I want you to set the tag. What you’re going to do is firmly poke the point of that stick into the side of the fish, just at the shoulder, by her dorsal fin. Poke it in and pull the stick back. The tag will stay in the fish—and don’t worry. She won’t feel it. Don’t move till I tell you, okay?”
    “Okay.”
    Nothing else in the world existed but that fish. Blood pounded in my temples.
    “Steady,” Baja Bill said quietly.
    He pulled the marlin closer. Its bill, huge head, and back broke the