It has more nourishment than almost any fish, he thought.At least the kind of strength that I need.Now I have done what I can,he thought.Let him begin to circle and let the fight come.
You are killing me fish,the old man thought.But you have a right to.Never have I seen a greater,or more beautiful,or a calmer or more noble thing than you,brother.Come on and kill me.I do not care who kills who.
For an hour the old man had been seeing black spots before his eyes and the sweat salted his eyes and salted the cut over his eye and on his forehead.He was not afraid of the black spots. They were normal at the tension that he was pulling on the line.Twice,though,he had felt faint and dizzy and that had worried him.
But the fish kept on circling slowly and the old man was wet with sweat and tired deep into his bones two hours later. But the circles were much shorter now and from the way the line slanted he could tell the fish had risen steadily while he swam.
“No,”he said.“ He can't be that big.”
“I'll rest on the next turn as he goes out,”he said.“I feel much better.Then in two or three turns more I will have him.”
On this circle the old man could see the fish's eye and the two gray sucking fish that swam around him.Sometimes they attached themselves to him.Sometimes they darted off. Sometimes they would swim easily in his shadow.They were each over three feet long and when they swam fast they lashed their whole bodies like eels.