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 forehead.He was not afraid of the black spots. They were normal at the tension that he was pulling on the line.Twice,though,he had felt faint and dizzy and that had worried him.
“Don't jump,fish,”he said.“ Don't jump.”
I must hold his pain where it is,he thought.Mine does not matter.I can control mine.But his pain could drive him mad.
“He is making the far part of his circle now,”he said. I must hold all I can,he thought.The strain will shorten his circle each time.Perhaps in an hour I will see him.Now I must convince him and then I must kill him.
The fish was coming in on his circle now calm and beautiful looking and only his great tail moving.The old man pulled on him all that he could to bring him closer.For just a moment the fish turned a little on his side.Then he straightened himself and began another circle.
“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?