A Man of Affairs by John D. MacDonald Page A

leaping and gyrating needle fish, and I caught two more yellowtails to add to Skylark’s hoard, and then I got a better fish that felt like a yellowtail. He was struggling as I slowly brought him in, and then he went curiously slack. There was still something on the line, but it did not feel heavy. I brought in the head of a large yellowtail, gill plates still working.
    “Barracuda,” Skylark said.
    Had it been whole it would have been the largest yellowtail we had caught that day. It had been slashed in half, and so keen had been the teeth, so powerful the jaws, that I had felt no jerk or tug as eight to ten pounds of living fish had been cut free. I looked at it and then looked at Louise. Her eyes were round and she swallowed hard and said, “When I thought of them biting I didn’t…”
    “I know what you mean.”
    And that was enough. It was after twelve. We threaded the fish on a stick. Skylark carried one end and I took the other. Louise carried the gear. After we took the fish to the kitchen, I went back to the dock and found that Louise had rinsed the gear and put it away. I went to my room and showered. My back and my legs felt hot. Just as I pulled on fresh shorts there was a knock at the door. I opened it and John handed me a planter’s punch and said, “Mrs. Dodge said to bring this, sar.”
    I thanked him. I sipped at it as I finished dressing. It was cold, tart and good. I realized it had been a long time since I had been able to loaf. It shocked me that I had put all the problems of Harrison so firmly out of my mind. I had a hunch I was going to be a whirlwind when I got back.
    As I went onto the veranda, my sports shirt felt itchy against the burn on my back and shoulders. Warren was sitting in front of the lounge smoking a cigar. I could hear a table tennis game going. I could see a group out by the pool.
    “What’s the deal on lunch?” I asked Warren.
    “I wouldn’t know and I wouldn’t care. I just had breakfast, buddy.” He was surly and he looked ill.
    “Tommy do any good with his spear?”
    “I wouldn’t know that either, buddy.”
    I shrugged and walked away from him. Puss was by the pool. She said she and Tommy had taken a skiff out to a reef and Tommy had speared a couple of big grouper. I asked for a second punch. Louise joined us and I thanked her for sending the first one. Lunch was served by John and Booty at one-thirty, on the veranda or by the pool, take your choice. Bonny Carson still wasn’t up. Amparo, Tessy Crown, Lolly Crown and Elda Garry ate at the pool-side, a hen party for four. I didn’t need any more sun. I ate on the veranda with Guy Brainerd, Bridget, Tommy and Puss.
    I felt so drugged by the sun and drinks that right after lunch I went back to my room, stripped down to my shorts and lay on top of the spread. I left the room door to the veranda open for the sake of the breeze. I had noticed that it was hard to look through the screen into the dim room and see anybody. There was a flavor of siesta in the air. I guessed that most of the others had folded, too. I knew that Tommy and Puss and Louise had.
    I tried to anticipate how Mike Dean would handle it when he got around to it, and that kept me awake just long enough so that I was not quite asleep when I was disturbed by the small pinging noise of the spring on my screen door.
    I rocked up onto my elbow and squinted at Bridget silhouetted in the open doorway.
    “You decent?” she said in a half whisper.
    “Come on in.”
    She shut the door quietly and came over and sat on the foot of the bed, facing me. I moved my legs to make room for her. She lighted two of her cigarettes and handed me one. She seemed to be intensely amused at something.
    “Oh, my God,” she said.
    “What is it?”
    “Excuse me for barging in on you, but I wanted to tell this little nugget to somebody and I couldn’t wait and you are the one I thought of. Why is that? Do people always come and tell you stuff? Is it because you don’t do