I flicked the beam downward. His mouth was opened.

I was rabbit.

Waves of the death-fear passed downward. My stomach imploded. I grewdizzy.

Only one thing, and one thing only. Left to do. I managed it, finally.I pulled the rest of the plugs.

I could count the scaly articulations ridging his eyes by then.

The squiggler grew, pinked into phosphorescence...squiggled.

Then my lamp. I had to kill it, leaving just the bait before him.

One glance back as I jammed the jatoes to life.

He was so near that the squiggler reflected on his teeth, in his eyes.Four meters, and I kissed his lambent jowls with two jets of backwash as Isoared. Then I didn't know whether he was following or had halted. I beganto black out as I waited to be eaten.

The jatoes died and I kicked weakly.

Too fast, I felt a cramp coming on. One flick of the beam, criedrabbit. One second, to know...

Or end things up, I answered. No, rabbit, we don't dart before hunters.Stay dark.

Green waters, finally, to yellowgreen, then top.

Doubling, I beat off toward Tensquare. The waves from the explosionbehind pushed me on ahead. The world closed in, and a screamed "He's alive!"in the distance.

A giant shadow and a shock wave. The line was alive, too. Happy FishingGrounds. Maybe I did something wrong....

Somewhere Hand was clenched. What's bait?

A few million years. I remember starting out as a one-celled organismand painfully becoming an amphibian, then an air-breather. From somewherehigh in the treetops I heard a voice.

"He's coming around."

I evolved back into homosapience, then a step further into a hangover.

"Don't try to get up yet."

"Have we got him?" I slurred.

"Still fighting, but he's hooked. We thought he took you for anappetizer."

"So did I."

"Breath some of this and shut up."