“It was the only way to kill him,”the old man said.He was feeling better since the water and he knew he would not go away and his head was clear.He's over fifteen hundred pounds the way he is,he thought.Maybe much more.If he dresses out two-thirds of that at thirty cents a pound?
“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.”
But when he put all of his effort on, starting it well out before the fish came alongside and pulling with all his strength, the fish pulled part way over and then righted himself and swam away.
Then the line would not come in any more and he held it until he saw the drops jumping from it in the sun. Then it started out and the old man knelt down and let it go grudgingly back into the dark water.
“Come on,fish,”he said.But the fish did not come. Instead he lay there wallowing now in the seas and the old man pulled the skiff up onto him.