Maybe if I can increase the tension just a little it will hurt him and he will jump,he thought.Now that it is daylight let him jump so that he'll fill the sacks along his backbone with air and then he cannot go deep to die.
He commenced to say his prayers mechanically. Sometimes he would be so tired that he could not remember the prayer and then he would say them fast so that they would come automatically.Hail Marys are easier to say than Our Fathers,he thought.
“I'll kill him though,”he said.“In all his greatness and his glory.”
He tried to increase the tension,but the line had been taut up to the very edge of the breaking point since he had hooked the fish and he felt the harshness as he leaned back to pull and knew he could put no more strain on it.I must not jerk it ever,he thought.Each jerk widens the cut the hook makes and then when he does jump he might throw it. Anyway I feel better with the sun and for once I do not have to look into it.
He straightened up,wiping his hand on his trousers.
“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.