第8章 The Sharks Attack[第4页/共13页]

The skiff was still shaking with the destruction the other shark was doing to the fish and the old man let go the sheet so that the skiff would swing broadside and bring the shark out from under.When he saw the shark he leaned over the side and punched at him.He hit only meat and the hide was set hard and he barely got the knife in.The blow hurt not only his hands but his shoulder too.But the shark came up fast and his head out and the old man hit him squarely in the center of his flat-topped head as his nose came out of water and lay against the fish.The old man withdrew the blade and punched the shark exactly in the same spot again.He still hung to the fish with his jaws hooked and the old man stabbed him in his left eye.The shark still hung there.

The old man made the sheet fast and jammed the tiller. Then he took up the oar with the knife lashed to it.He lifted it as lightly as he could because his hands rebelled at the pain. Then he opened and closed them on it lightly to loosen them.He closed them firmly so they would take the pain now and would not flinch and watched the sharks come.He could see their wide,flattened,shovel-pointed heads now and their white-tipped wide pectoral fins.They were hateful sharks, bad smelling,scavengers as well as killers,and when they were hungry they would bite at an oar or the rudder of a boat.It was these sharks that would cut the turtles'legs and flippers off when the turtles were asleep on the surface, and they would hit a man in the water,if they were hungry,even if the man had no smell of fish blood nor of fish slime on him.