第4章 The Big Fish Bit the Hook[第4页/共9页]

“They are good,”he said.“ They play and make jokes and love one another.They are our brothers like the flying fish.”

The fish moved steadily and they travelled slowly on the calm water.The other baits were still in the water but there was nothing to be done.

“He'll take it,”the old man said aloud.“God help him to take it.”

This far out,he must be huge in this month,he thought.Eat them,fish.Eat them.Please eat them.How fresh they are and you down there six hundred feet in that cold water in the dark.Make another turn in the dark and come back and eat them.

“It was noon when I hooked him,”he said.“ And I have never seen him.”

“I wish the boy was here,”he said aloud and settled himself against the rounded planks of the bow and felt the strength of the great fish through the line he held across his shoulders moving steadily toward whatever he had chosen.

When once,through my treachery,it had been necessary to him to make a choice,the old man thought.

Then he felt the gentle touch on the line and he was happy.

“Now!”He said aloud and struck hard with both hands,gained a yard of line and then struck again and again, swinging with each arm alternately on the cord with all the strength of his arms and the pivoted weight of his body.