“What a fish,”he said.“ He has it sideways in his mouth now and he is moving off with it.”
When once,through my treachery,it had been necessary to him to make a choice,the old man thought.
Just then,watching his lines,he saw one of the projecting green sticks dip sharply.
He felt the light delicate pulling and then a harder pull when a sardine's head must have been more difficult to break from the hook .Then there was nothing.
Then he will turn and swallow it,he thought.He did not say that because he knew that if you said a good thing it might not happen.He knew what a huge fish this was and he thought of him moving away in the darkness with the tuna held crosswise in his mouth. At that moment he felt him stop moving but the weight was still there.Then the weight increased and he gave more line.He tightened the pressure of his thumb and finger for a moment and the weight increased and was going straight down.