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.
He saw him first as a dark shadow that took so long to pass under the boat that he could not believe its length.
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.
“It is a very big circle,”he said.“ But he is circling.”
“I need a pencil for that,”he said.“My head is not that clear.But I think the great DiMaggio would be proud of me today.I had no bone spurs.But the hands and the back hurt truly.”I wonder what a bone spur is,he thought.Maybe we have them without knowing of it.
I do not know,the old man thought.He had been on the point of feeling himself go each time.I do not know.But I will try it once more.
Now you are getting confused in the head,he thought. You must keep your head clear.Keep your head clear and know how to suffer like a man.Or a fish,he thought.