The old man saw the brown fins coming along the wide trail the fish must make in the water.They were not even quartering on the scent.They were headed straight for the skiff swimming side by side.
He liked to think of the fish and what he could do to a shark if he were swimming free.I should have chopped the bill off to fight them with,he thought.But there was no hatchet and then there was no knife.
I must not think nonsense,he thought.Luck is a thing that comes in many forms and who can recognize her? I would take some though in any form and pay what they asked.I wish I could see the glow from the lights,he thought. I wish too many things.But that is the thing I wish for now. He tried to settle more comfortably to steer and from his pain he knew he was not dead.
“Come on,galano.”the old man said.“ Come in again.”
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.
He could not talk to the fish anymore because the fish had been ruined too badly.Then something came into his head.
I must let the first one get a good hold and hit him on the point of the nose or straight across the top of the head,he thought.
The shark came in a rush and the old man hit him as he shut his jaws.He hit him solidly and from as high up as he could raise the club.This time he felt the bone at the base of the brain and he hit him again in the same place while the shark tore the meat loose sluggishly and slid down from the fish.