Now they have beaten me,he thought.I am too old to club sharks to death.But I will try it as long as I have the oars and the short club and the tiller.
His back was as blue as a sword fish's and his belly was silver and his hide was smooth and handsome.He was built as a sword fish except for his huge jaws which were tight shut now as he swam fast,just under the surface with his high dorsal fin knifing through the water without wavering.Inside the closed double lip of his jaws all of his eight rows of teeth were slanted inwards.They were not the ordinary pyramid-shaped teeth of most sharks.They were shaped like a man's fingers when they are crisped like claws.They were nearly as long as the fingers of the old man and they had razor-sharp cutting edges on both sides.This was a fish built to feed on all the fishes in the sea,that were so fast and strong and well armed that they had no other enemy.Now he speeded up as he smelled the fresher scent and his blue dorsal fin cut the water.
He held the tiller under his arm and soaked both his hands in the water as the skiff drove forward.
“You think too much,old man,”he said aloud.
The old man's head was clear and good now and he was full of resolution but he had little hope.It was too good to last, he thought. He took one look at the great fish as he watched the shark close in.It might as well have been a dream,he thought.I cannot keep him from hitting me but maybe I can get him.Dentuso,he thought.Bad luck to your mother.