第8章 The Sharks Attack[第6页/共14页]

He did not like to look at the fish anymore since he had been mutilated.When the fish had been hit it was as though he himself were hit.

Now they have beaten me,he thought.I am too old to club sharks to death.But I will try it as long as I have the oars and the short club and the tiller.

“Now,”he said.“I am still an old man.But I am not unarmed.”

It was too good to last,he thought.I wish it had been a dream now and that I had never hooked the fish and was alone in bed on the newspapers.

The shark was not an accident .He had come up from deep down in the water as the dark cloud of blood had settled and dispersed in the mile deep sea.He had come up so fast and absolutely without caution that he broke the surface of the blue water and was in the sun.Then he fell back into the sea and picked up the scent and started swimming on the course the skiff and the fish had taken.