第6章 Tired of the Old Man[第7页/共14页]

It must be very strange in an airplane, he thought. I wonder what the sea looks like from that height?They should be able to see the fish well if they do not fly too high.I would like to fly very slowly at two hundred fathoms high and see the fish from above.In the turtle boats I was in the cross-trees of the mast-head and even at that height I saw much.The dolphin look greener from there and you can see their stripes and their purple spots and you can see all of the school as they swim.Why is it that all the fast-moving fish of the dark current have purple backs and usually purple stripes or spots? The dolphin looks green of course because he is really golden. But when he comes to feed,truly hungry,purple stripes show on his sides as on a marlin.Can it be anger,or the greater speed he makes that brings them out?

The sun will bake it out well now,he thought.It should not cramp on me again unless it gets too cold in the night.I wonder what this night will bring.

Back in the stern he turned so that his left hand held the strain of the line across his shoulders and drew his knife from its sheath with his right hand.The stars were bright now and he saw the dolphin clearly and he pushed the blade of his knife into his head and drew him out from under the stern.He put one of his feet on the fish and slit him quickly from the vent up to the tip of his lower jaw.Then he put his knife down and gutted him with his right hand,scooping him clean and pulling the gills clear.He felt the maw heavy and slippery in his hands and he slit it open.There were two flying fish inside.They were fresh and hard and he laid them side by side and dropped the guts and the gills over the stern. They sank leaving a trail of phosphorescence in the water. The dolphin was cold and a leprous gray-white now in the starlight and the old man skinned one side of him while he held his right foot on the fish's head.Then he turned him over and skinned the other side and cut each side off from the head down to the tail.