第6章 Tired of the Old Man[第13页/共14页]

If I had brains I would have splashed water on the bow all day and drying,it would have made salt,he thought.But then I did not hook the dolphin until almost sunset.Still it was a lack of preparation.But I have chewed it all well and I am not nauseated.

The sun and his steady movement of his fingers had uncramped his left hand now completely and he began to shift more of the strain to it and he shrugged the muscles of his back to shift the hurt of the cord a little.

“With so much flying fish there should be dolphin,”he said,and leaned back on the line to see if it was possible to gain any on his fish.But he could not and it stayed at the hardness and waterdrop shivering that preceded breaking. The boat moved ahead slowly and he watched the airplane until he could no longer see it.

The odds would change back and forth all night and they fed the negro rum and lighted cigarettes for him.Then the Negro,after the rum,would try for a tremendous effort and once he had the old man, who was not an old man then but was Santiago El Campeon,nearly three inches off balance.But the old man had raised his hand up to dead even again.He was sure then that he had the n