When the old man saw him coming he knew that this was a shark that had no fear at all and would do exactly what he wished.He prepared the harpoon and made the rope fast while he watched the shark come on.The rope was short as it lacked what he had cut away to lash the fish.
Besides,he thought,everything kills everything else in some way.Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive.The boy keeps me alive,he thought.I must not deceive myself too much.
The old man still had two drinks of water in the bottle and he used half of one after he had eaten the shrimps.The skiff was sailing well considering the handicaps and he steered with the tiller under his arm.He could see the fish and he had only to look at his hands and feel his back against the stern to know that this had truly happened and was not a dream. At one time when he was feeling so badly toward the end,he had thought perhaps it was a dream.Then when he had seen the fish come out of the water and hang motionless in the sky before he fell,he was sure there was some great strangeness and he could not believe it. Then he could not see well, although now he saw as well as ever.
“But man is not made for defeat,”he said.“A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”I am sorry that I killed the fish though,he thought.Now the bad time is coming and I do not even have the harpoon.The dentuso is cruel and able and strong and intelligent.But I was more intelligent than he was. Perhaps not,he thought.Perhaps I was only better armed.