After a while the fish stopped beating at the wire and started circling slowly again.The old man was gaining line steadily now.But he felt faint again.He lifted some sea water with his left hand and put it on his head.Then he put more on and rubbed the back of his neck.
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.
“It was the only way to kill him,”the old man said.He was feeling better since the water and he knew he would not go away and his head was clear.He's over fifteen hundred pounds the way he is,he thought.Maybe much more.If he dresses out two-thirds of that at thirty cents a pound?
The fish was coming in on his circle now calm and beautiful looking and only his great tail moving.The old man pulled on him all that he could to bring him closer.For just a moment the fish turned a little on his side.Then he straightened himself and began another circle.