“I'll rest on the next turn as he goes out,”he said.“I feel much better.Then in two or three turns more I will have him.”
The sea had risen considerably.But it was a fair-weather breeze and he had to have it to get home.
He could not see by the slant of the line that the fish was circling.It was too early for that.He just felt a faint slackening of the pressure of the line and he commenced to pull on it gently with his right hand.It tightened,as always, but just when he reached the point where it would break,line began to come in.He slipped his shoulders and head from under the line and began to pull in line steadily and gently. He used both of his hands in a swinging motion and tried to do the pulling as much as he could with his body and his legs. His old legs and shoulders pivoted with the swinging of the pulling.
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.
“I'll just steer south and west.”he said.“A man is never lost at sea and it is a long island.”
Then he dreamed that he was in the village on his bed and there was a norther and he was very cold and his right arm was asleep because his head had rested on it instead of a pillow.