第8章 The Sharks Attack[第2页/共15页]

“I shouldn't have gone out so far,fish,”he said.“ Neither for you nor for me.I'm sorry,fish.”

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.

He had ailed for two hours, resting in the stern and sometimes chewing a bit of the meat from the marlin,trying to rest and to be strong,when he saw the first of the two sharks.

It is silly not to hope,he thought.Besides I believe it is a sin .Do not think about sin,he thought.There are enough problems now without sin.Also I have no understanding of it.