第8章 The Sharks Attack[第2页/共15页]

He held the tiller under his arm and soaked both his hands in the water as the skiff drove forward.

The breeze was steady.It had backed a little further into the northeast and he knew that meant that it would not fall off.The old man looked ahead of him but he could see no sails nor could he see the hull nor the smoke of any ship. There were only the flying fish that went up from his bow sailing away to either side and the yellow patches of gulf-weed.He could not even see a bird.

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.