第9章 Final Fight[第5页/共6页]

He lay in the stern and steered and watched for the glow to come in the sky.I have half of him,he thought.Maybe I'll have the luck to bring the forward half in.I should have some luck.No,he said.You violated your luck when you went too far outside.

Now it is over, he thought. They will probably hit me again.But what can a man do against them in the dark without a weapon?

I have all those prayers I promised if I caught the fish, he thought.But I am too tired to say them now.I better get the sack and put it over my shoulders.

But by midnight he fought and this time he knew the fight was useless.They came in a pack and he could only see the lines in the water that their fins made and their phosphorescence as they threw themselves on the fish.He clubbed at heads and heard the jaws chop and the shaking of the skiff as they took hold below.He clubbed desperately at what he could only feel and hear and he felt something seize the club and it was gone.

“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.”