The old man held him with his left hand and his shoulders now and stooped down and scooped up water in his right hand to get the crushed dolphin flesh off his face.He was afraid that it might nauseate him and he would vomit and lose his strength.When his face was cleaned he washed his right hand in the water over the side and then let it stay in the salt water while he watched the first light come before the sunrise.He's headed almost east,he thought.That means he is tired and going with the current.Soon he will have to circle. Then our true work begins.
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.
He tried it again and it was the same.So,he thought,and he felt himself going before he started;I will try it once again.
You work now,fish,he thought.I'll take you at the turn.
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.
“No,”he said.“ He can't be that big.”
Just then he felt a sudden banging and jerking on the line he held with his two hands.It was sharp and hard-feeling and heavy.
He woke with the jerk of his right fist coming up against his face and the line burning out through his right hand.He had no feeling of his left hand but he braked all he could with his right and the line rushed out.Finally his left hand found the line and he leaned back against the line and now it burned his back and his left hand,and his left hand was taking all the strain and cutting badly.He looked back at the coils of line and they were feeding smoothly.Just then the fish jumped making a great bursting of the ocean and then a heavy fall.Then he jumped again and again and the boat was going fast although line was still racing out and the old man was raising the strain to breaking point and raising it to breaking point again and again.He had been pulled down tight onto the bow and his face was in the cut slice of dolphin and he could not move.