Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/143

 are sliced up like halibut. They are caught with harpoons. They are ugly, I tell you, and when one of them weighing four hundred pounds comes flopping over the rail and begins to swing that sword of his around like lightning, you may be sure that he gets all the room he wants."

"What do you do with the swords after they are taken off?"

"Keep them as curiosities or sell them, just as you please. There is great demand for them. I have one that I should not like to part with. It belonged to a two hundred pounder. The sailors thought they had killed him before they hauled him aboard; but he gave one expiring flop after he reached the deck, and the point of his sword cut a big hole in the leg of my trowsers. If I had been a little closer to him, he might have injured me very badly. If a man had his only weapon of offense and defense made fast to his nose, he wouldn't do much with it, would he? But it just suits the swordfish, which, according to Captain Davis, delivers his blows so rapidly that he will kill half a dozen out of a school