“Fish,”the old man said.“ Fish,you are going to have to die anyway.Do you have to kill me too?”
But he was that big and at the end of this circle he came to the surface only thirty yards away and the man saw his tail out of water.It was higher than a big scythe blade and a very pale lavender above the dark blue water.It raked back and as the fish swam just below the surface the old man could see his huge bulk and the purple stripes that banded him.His dorsal fin was down and his huge pectorals were spread wide.
The moon had been up for a long time but he slept on and the fish pulled on steadily and the boat moved into the tunnel of clouds.
The sun was rising for the third time since he had put to sea when the fish started to circle.
He had rigged his harpoon long before and its coil of light rope was in a round basket and the end was made fast to the bitt in the bow.
“Clear up,head,”he said in a voice he could hardly hear.“ Clear up.”
It has more nourishment than almost any fish, he thought.At least the kind of strength that I need.Now I have done what I can,he thought.Let him begin to circle and let the fight come.
The old man dropped the line and put his foot on it and lifted the harpoon as high as he could and drove it down with all his strength,and more strength he had just summoned, into the fish's side just behind the great chest fin that rose high in the air to the altitude of the man's chest.He felt the iron go in and he leaned on it and drove it further and then pushed all his weight after it.