第5章 The Old Man and the Big Fish[第3页/共15页]

He ate the other part of the piece that he had cut in two. He chewed it carefully and then spat out the skin.

Aloud he said“, I wish I had the boy.”

He looked across the sea and knew how alone he was now.But he could see the prisms in the deep dark water and the line stretching ahead and the strange undulation of the calm.The clouds were building up now for the trade wind and he looked ahead and saw a flight of wild ducks etching themselves against the sky over the water,then blurring,then etching again and he knew no man was ever alone on the sea.

The bird had flown up when the line jerked and the old man had not even seen him go.He felt the line carefully with his right hand and noticed his hand was bleeding .

But he seems calm,he thought,and following his plan. But what is his plan,he thought.And what is mine?Mine I must improvise to his because of his great size.If he will jump I can kill him.But he stays down forever.Then I will stay down with him forever.

“He is two feet longer than the skiff,”the old man said. The line was going out fast but steadily and the fish was not panicked .The old man was trying with both hands to keep the line just inside of breaking strength.He knew that if he could not slow the fish with a steady pressure the fish could take out all the line and break it.