第7章 The Old Mans Victory
“there will be bad weather in three or four days,”he said“but not tonight and not tomorrowrig now to get some sleep,old man,while the fish is calm and steady”
he held the line tight in his right hand and then pushed his thigh against his right hand as he leaned all his weight against the wood of the bowthen he passed the line a little lower on his shoulders and braced his left hand on it
my right hand can hold it as long as it is braced, he thoughtif it relaxes in sleep my left hand will wake me as the line goes outit is hard on the right handbut he is used to punishmenteven if i sleep twenty minutes or a half an hour it is goodhe lay forward cramping himself against the line with all of his body,putting all his weight onto his right hand, and he was asleep
he did not dream of the lions but instead of a vast school of porpoises that stretched for eight or ten miles and it was in the time of their mating and they would leap high into the air and return into the same hole they had made in the water when they leaped
then he dreamed that he was in the village on his bed and there was a norther and he was very cold and his right arm was asleep because his head had rested on it instead of a pillow
after that he began to dream of the long yellow beach and he saw the first of the lions e down onto it in the early dark and then the other lions came and he rested his chin on the wood of the bows where the ship lay anchored with the evening off-shore breeze and he waited to see if there would be more lions and he was happy
the moon had been up for a long time but he slept on and the fish pulled on steadily and the boat moved into the tunnel of clouds
he woke with the jerk of his right fist ing up against his face and the line burning out through his right handhe had no feeling of his left hand but he braked all he could with his right and the line rushed outfinally his left hand found the line and he leaned back against the line and now it burned his back and his left hand,and his left hand was taking all the strain and cutting badlyhe looked back at the coils of line and they were feeding smoothlyjust then the fish jumped making a great bursting of the ocean and then a heavy fallthen he jumped again and again and the boat was going fast although line was still racing out and the old man was raising the strain to breaking point and raising it to breaking point again and againhe had been pulled down tight onto the bow and his face was in the cut slice of dolphin and he could not move
this is what we waited for,he thoughtso now let us take it
make him pay for the line,he thoughtmake him pay for it
he could not see the fish"s jumps but only heard the breaking of the ocean and the heavy splash as he fellthe speed of the line was cutting his hands badly but he had always known this would happen and he tried to keep the cutting across the calloused parts and not let the line slip into the palm nor cut the fingers
if the boy was here he would wet the coils of line,he thoughtyesif the boy were hereif the boy were here
the line went out and out and out but it was slowing now and he was making the fish earn each inch of itnow he got his head up from the wood and out of the slice of fish that his cheek had crushedthen he was on his knees and then he rose slowly to his feethe was ceding line but more slowly all the timehe worked back to where he could feel with his foot the coils of line that he could not seethere was plenty of line still and now the fish had to pull the friction of all that new line through the water
yes,he thoughtand now he has jumped more than a dozen times and filled the sacks along his back with air and he cannot go down deep to die where i cannot bring him uphe will start circling soon and then i must work on him i wonder what started him so suddenlycould it have been hunger that made him desperate,or was he frightened by something in the nightmaybe he suddenly felt fearbut he was such a calm,strong fish and he seemed so fearless and so confident
it is strange
“you better be fearless and confident yourself, old man,”he said“ you"re holding him again but you cannot get linebut soon he has to circle ”
the old man held him with his left hand and his shoulders now and stooped down and scooped up water in his right hand to get the crushed dolphin flesh off his facehe was afraid that it might nauseate him and he would vomit and lose his strengthwhen his face was cleaned he washed his right hand in the water over the side and then let it stay in the salt water while he watched the first light e before the sunrisehe"s headed almost east,he thoughtthat means he is tired and going with the currentsoon he will have to circle then our true work begins
after he judged that his right hand had been in the water long enough he took it out and looked at it
“it is not bad”he said“and pain does not matter to a man”
he took hold of the line carefully so that it did not fit into any of the fresh line cuts and shifted his weight so that he could put his left hand into the sea on the other side of the skiff
“you did not do so badly for something worthless,”he said to his left hand“but there was a moment when i could not find you”
why was i not born with two good handshe thoughtperhaps it was my fault in not training that one properlybut god knows he has had enough chances to learnhe did not do so badly in the night,though,and he has only cramped onceif he cramps again let the line cut him off
when he thought that he knew that he was not being clear-headed and he thought he should chew some more of the dolphinbut i can"t,he told himselfit is better to be light-headed than to lose your strength from nauseaand i know i cannot keep it if i eat it since my face was in iti will keep it for an emergency until it goes badbut it is too late to try for strength now through nourishmentyou"re stupid, he told himselfeat the other flying fish
it was there,cleaned and ready,and he picked it up with his left hand and ate it chewing the bones carefully and eating all of it down to the tail
it has more nourishment than almost any fish, he thoughtat least the kind of strength that i neednow i have done what i can,he thoughtlet him begin to circle and let the fight e
the sun was rising for the third time since he had put to sea when the fish started to circle
he could not see by the slant of the line that the fish was circlingit was too early for thathe just felt a faint slackening of the pressure of the line and he menced to pull on it gently with his right handit tightened,as always, but just when he reached the point where it would break,line began to e inhe slipped his shoulders and head from under the line and began to pull in line steadily and gently he used both of his hands in a swinging motion and tried to do the pulling as much as he could with his body and his legs his old legs and shoulders pivoted with the swinging of the pulling
“it is a very big circle,”he said“ but he is circling”
then the line would not e in any more and he held it until he saw the drops jumping from it in the sun then it started out and the old man knelt down and let it go grudgingly back into the dark water
“he is making the far part of his circle now,”he said i must hold all i can,he thoughtthe strain will shorten his circle each timeperhaps in an hour i will see himnow i must convince him and then i must kill him
but the fish kept on circling slowly and the old man was wet with sweat and tired deep into his bones two hours later but the circles were much shorter now and from the way the line slanted he could tell the fish had risen steadily while he swam
for an hour the old man had been seeing black spots before his eyes and the sweat salted his eyes and salted the cut over his eye and on his foreheadhe was not afraid of the black spots they were normal at the tension that he was pulling on the liwice,though,he had felt faint and dizzy and that had worried him
“i could not fail myself and die on a fish like this”he said“now that i have him ing so beautifully,god help me endurei"ll say a hundred our fathers and a hundred hail marysbut i cannot say them now”
consider them said,he thoughti"ll say them later
just then he felt a sudden banging and jerking on the line he held with his two handsit was sharp and hard-feeling and heavy
he is hitting the wire leader with his spear,he thought that was bound to ehe had to do thatit may make him jump though and i would rather he stayed circling now the jumps were necessary for him to take airbut after that each one can widen the opening of the hook wound and he can throw the hook
“don"t jump,fish,”he said“ don"t jump”
the fish hit the wire several times more and each time he shook his head the old man gave up a little line
i must hold his pain where it is,he thoughtmine does not matteri can control minebut his pain could drive him mad
after a while the fish stopped beating at the wire and started circling slowly againthe old man was gaining line steadily nowbut he felt faint againhe lifted some sea water with his left hand and put it on his headthen he put more on and rubbed the back of his neck
“i have no cramps”he said“ he"ll be up soon and i can lastyou have to lastdon"t even speak of it”
he kneeled against the bow and,for a moment,slipped the line over his back againi"ll rest now while he goes out on the circle and then stand up and work on him when he es in,he decided
it was a great temptation to rest in the bow and let the fish make one circle by himself without recovering any line but when the strain showed the fish had turned to e toward the boat,the old man rose to his feet and started the pivoting and the weaving pulling that brought in all the line he gained
i"m tireder than i have ever been,he thought,and now the trade wind is risingbut that will be good to take him in withi need that badly
“i"ll rest on the next turn as he goes out,”he said“i feel much betterthen in two or three turns more i will have him”
his straw hat was far on the back of his head and he sank down into the bow with the pull of the line as he felt the fish turn
you work now,fish,he thoughti"ll take you at the turn
the sea had risen considerablybut it was a fair-weather breeze and he had to have it to get home
“i"ll just steer south and west”he said“a man is never lost at sea and it is a long island”
it was on the third turn that he saw the fish first
he saw him first as a dark shadow that took so long to pass under the boat that he could not believe its length
“no,”he said“ he can"t be that big”
but he was that big and at the end of this circle he came to the surface only thirty yards away and the man saw his tail out of waterit was higher than a big scythe blade and a very pale lavender above the dark blue waterit raked back and as the fish swam just below the surface the old man could see his huge bulk and the purple stripes that banded himhis dorsal fin was down and his huge pectorals were spread wide
on this circle the old man could see the fish"s eye and the two gray sucking fish that swam around himsometimes they attached themselves to himsometimes they darted off sometimes they would swim easily in his shadowthey were each over three feet long and when they swam fast they lashed their whole bodies like eels
the old man was sweating now but from something else besides the sunon each calm placid turn the fish made he was gaining line and he was sure that in two turns more he would have a chance to get the harpoon in
but i must get him close, close, close, he thought i mustn"t try for the headi must get the heart
“be calm and strong,old man,”he said
on the next circle the fish"s back was out but he was a little too far from the boaton the next circle he was still too far away but he was higher out of water and the old man was sure that by gaining some more line he could have him alongside
he had rigged his harpoon long before and its coil of light rope was in a round basket and the end was made fast to the bitt in the bow
the fish was ing in on his circle now calm and beautiful looking and only his great tail movingthe old man pulled on him all that he could to bring him closerfor just a moment the fish turned a little on his sidethen he straightened himself and began another circle
“i moved him,”the old man said“ i moved him then”
he felt faint again now but he held on the great fish all the strain that he couldi moved him,he thoughtmaybe this time i can get him overpull,hands,he thoughthold up,legslast for me,headlast for meyou never wentthis time i"ll pull him over
but when he put all of his effort on, starting it well out before the fish came alongside and pulling with all his strength, the fish pulled part way over and then righted himself and swam away
“fish,”the old man said“ fish,you are going to have to die anywaydo you have to kill me too”
that way nothing is acplished, he thought his mouth was too dry to speak but he could not reach for the water nowi must get him alongside this time,he thoughti am not good for many more turns
yes you are,he told himselfyou"re good for ever
on the next turn,he nearly had himbut again the fish righted himself and swam slowly away
you are killing me fish,the old man thoughtbut you have a right tonever have i seen a greater,or more beautiful,or a calmer or more noble thing than you,brothere on and kill mei do not care who kills who
now you are getting confused in the head,he thought you must keep your head clearkeep your head clear and know how to suffer like a manor a fish,he thought
“clear up,head,”he said in a voice he could hardly hear“ clear up”
twice more it was the same on the turns
i do not know,the old man thoughthe had been on the point of feeling himself go each timei do not knowbut i will try it once more
he tried it once more and he felt himself going when he turned the fishthe fish righted himself and swam off again slowly with the great tail weaving in the air
i"ll try it again, the old man promised, although his hands were mushy now and he could only see well in flashes
he tried it again and it was the sameso,he thought,and he felt himself going before he started;i will try it once again
he took all his pain and what was left of his strength and his long gone pride and he put it against the fish"s agony and the fish came over onto his side and swam gently on his side, his bill almost touching the planking of the skiff and started to pass the boat,long,deep,wide,silver and barred with purple and interminable in the water
the old man dropped the line and put his foot on it and lifted the harpoon as high as he could and drove it down with all his strength,and more strength he had just summoned, into the fish"s side just behind the great chest fin that rose high in the air to the altitude of the man"s chesthe felt the iron go in and he leaned on it and drove it further and then pushed all his weight after it
then the fish came alive,with his death in him,and rose high out of the water showing all his great length and width and all his power and his beautyhe seemed to hang in the air above the old man in the skiffthen he fell into the water with a crash that sent spray over the old man and over all of the skiff
the old man felt faint and sick and he could not see well but he cleared the harpoon line and let it run slowly through his raw hands and,when he could see,he saw the fish was on his back with his silver belly upthe shaft of the harpoon was projecting at an angle from the fish"s shoulder and the sea was discoloring with the red of the blood from his heartfirst it was dark as a shoal in the blue water that was more than a mile deepthen it spread like a cloudthe fish was silver and still and floated with the waves
the old man looked carefully in the glimpse of vision that he had then he took two turns of the harpoon line around the bitt in the bow and laid his head on his hands
“keep my head clear,”he said against the wood of the bow“ i am a tired old manbut i have killed this fish which is my brother and now i must do the slave work”
now i must prepare the nooses and the rope to lash him alongside ,he thoughteven if we were two and swamped her to load him and bailed her out,this skiff would never hold himi must prepare everything,then bring him in and lash him well and step the mast and set sail for home
he started to pull the fish in to have him alongside so that he could pass a line through his gills and out his mouth and make his head fast alongside the bowi want to see him, he thought,and to touch and to feel himhe is my fortune, he thoughtbut that is not why i wish to feel himi think i felt his heart,he thoughtwhen i pushed on the harpoon shaft the second timebring him in now and make him fast and get the noose around his tail and another around his middle to bind him to the skiff
“get to work,old man,”he saidhe took a very small drink of the water“ there is very much slave work to be done now that the fight is over”
he looked up at the sky and then out to his fishhe looked at the sun carefullyit is not much more than noon,he thoughtand the trade wind is risingthe lines all mean nothing nowthe boy and i will splice them when we are home
“e on,fish,”he saidbut the fish did not e instead he lay there wallowing now in the seas and the old man pulled the skiff up onto him
when he was even with him and had the fish"s head against the bow he could not believe his sizebut he untied the harpoon rope from the bitt,passed it through the fish"s gills and out his jaws,made a turn around his sword then passed the rope through the other gill,made another turn around the bill and knotted the double rope and made it fast to the bitt in the bowhe cut the rope then and went astern to noose the tailthe fish had turned silver from his original purple and silver,and the stripes showed the same pale violet color as his tailthey were wider than a man"s hand with his fingers spread and the fish"s eye looked as detached as the mirrors in a periscope or as a saint in a procession
“it was the only way to kill him,”the old man saidhe was feeling better since the water and he knew he would not go away and his head was clearhe"s over fifteen hundred pounds the way he is,he thoughtmaybe much moreif he dresses out two-thirds of that at thirty cents a pound
“i need a pencil for that,”he said“my head is not that clearbut i think the great dimaggio would be proud of me todayi had no bone spursbut the hands and the back hurt truly”i wonder what a bone spur is,he thoughtmaybe we have them without knowing of it
he made the fish fast to bow and stern and to the middle thwarthe was so big it was like lashing a much bigger skiff alongsidehe cut a piece of line and tied the fish"s lower jaw against his bill so his mouth would not open and they would sail as cleanly as possiblethen he stepped the mast and, with the stick that was his gaff and with his boom rigged,the patched sail drew,the boat began to move,and half lying in the stern he sailed southwest