第5章 The Old Man and the Big Fish[第2页/共14页]

Maybe if I can increase the tension just a little it will hurt him and he will jump,he thought.Now that it is daylight let him jump so that he'll fill the sacks along his backbone with air and then he cannot go deep to die.

If the boy were here he could rub it for me and loosen it down from the forearm ,he thought.But it will loosen up.

“I am not religious ,”he said.“But I will say ten Our Fathers and ten Hail Marys that I should catch this fish,and I promise to make a pilgrimage to the Virgin de Cobre if I catch him.That is a promise.”

Aloud he said“, I wish I had the boy.”

It encouraged him to talk because his back had stiffened in the night and it hurt truly now.

Shifting the weight of the line to his left shoulder and kneeling carefully he washed his hand in the ocean and held it there, submerged , for more than a minute watching the blood trail away and the steady movement of the water against his hand as the boat moved.

Then,with his right hand he felt the difference in the pull of the line before he saw the slant change in the water. Then,as he leaned against the line and slapped his left hand hard and fast against his thigh he saw the line slanting slowly upward.