This yarn is from Chester Keene. As he tells it:
A commercial fisherman was tending his net off Keewaydin Island's beach. Waiting for the tide to change, he watched the net line, illuminated by a small electric light attached to a boom. The light was just just bright enough to see, but not too bright to scare away the fish.
When he was sure the time was right, he started pulling his net over the stern roller, the dim light allowing him to see the catch coming into the boat.
All of a sudden, he started to get resistance on the float line. He would pull, it would pull back until it stalled. Finally, after getting the net going again, he was startled when out of the murky shadows lunged from his net an ugly dark creature with bright white teeth.
Not knowing what it was, in defense he picked up a boat oar and struck at the beast, and connected with a thud. The swing's arc also knocked out his meager light . After getting it functioning again, he could see the critter on the beach and could tell it was a chimpanzee. It was obviously the one that ran free on the island, raising havoc on many occasions.
The fisherman's last view of his net-crawler was the ape stumbling up the beach, his hand on his aching head as if he'd had a bad night at the sand bar.
Editor's note: This chimp was a notorious villain. The property of the island's owner Lester Norris, the chimp had gotten mean with age--as is common with the species.
Mr Norris used to let the NPD hold parties on Keewaydin and at one the chimp, who was in a cage, grabbed the arm of my son Wayde, and bit right through it. The only way I could get him loose from my son was to gouge my thumb in the beast's eye.
This works well with reluctant humans, also.
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