“It will be dark soon,”he said.“Then I should see the glow of Havana.If I am too far to the eastward I will see the lights of one of the new beaches.”
He was stiff and sore now and his wounds and all of the strained parts of his body hurt with the cold of the night.I hope I do not have to fight again,he thought.I hope so much I do not have to fight again.
One came,finally,against the head itself and he knew that it was over.He swung the tiller across the shark's head where the jaws were caught in the heaviness of the fish's head which would not tear.He swung it once and twice and again. He heard the tiller break and he lunged at the shark with the splintered butt.He felt it go in and knowing it was sharp he drove it in again.The shark let go and rolled away.That was the last shark of the pack that came.There was nothing more for them to eat.
“I'd like to buy some if there's any place they sell it,”he said.
I must let the first one get a good hold and hit him on the point of the nose or straight across the top of the head,he thought.
He spat into the ocean and said,“Eat that,Galanos. And make a dream you've killed a man.”
The sharks did not hit him again until just before sunset.
He could not talk to the fish anymore because the fish had been ruined too badly.Then something came into his head.