第9章 Final Fight[第2页/共6页]

I must let the first one get a good hold and hit him on the point of the nose or straight across the top of the head,he thought.

He liked to think of the fish and what he could do to a shark if he were swimming free.I should have chopped the bill off to fight them with,he thought.But there was no hatchet and then there was no knife.

But in the dark now and no glow showing and no lights and only the wind and the steady pull of the sail he felt that perhaps he was already dead.He put his two hands together and felt the palms.They were not dead and he could bring the pain of life by simply opening and closing them.He leaned his back against the stern and he knew he was not dead.His shoulders told him.

“Half fish,”he said.“ Fish that you were.I am sorry that I went too far out.I ruined us both.But we have killed many sharks,you and I,and ruined many others.How many did you ever kill,old fish?You do not have that spear on your head for nothing.”

The old man saw the brown fins coming along the wide trail the fish must make in the water.They were not even quartering on the scent.They were headed straight for the skiff swimming side by side.

He spat into the ocean and said,“Eat that,Galanos. And make a dream you've killed a man.”