He is hitting the wire leader with his spear,he thought. That was bound to come.He had to do that.It may make him jump though and I would rather he stayed circling now. The jumps were necessary for him to take air.But after that each one can widen the opening of the hook wound and he can throw the hook.
Consider them said,he thought.I'll say them later.
Now I must prepare the nooses and the rope to lash him alongside ,he thought.Even if we were two and swamped her to load him and bailed her out,this skiff would never hold him.I must prepare everything,then bring him in and lash him well and step the mast and set sail for home.
On this circle the old man could see the fish's eye and the two gray sucking fish that swam around him.Sometimes they attached themselves to him.Sometimes they darted off. Sometimes they would swim easily in his shadow.They were each over three feet long and when they swam fast they lashed their whole bodies like eels.
“It was the only way to kill him,”the old man said.He was feeling better since the water and he knew he would not go away and his head was clear.He's over fifteen hundred pounds the way he is,he thought.Maybe much more.If he dresses out two-thirds of that at thirty cents a pound?