第10章 The Old Mans Return[第2頁/共9頁]

Inside the shack he leaned the mast against the wall.In the dark he found a water bottle and took a drink.Then he lay down on the bed.He pulled the blanket over his shoulders and then over his back and legs and he slept face down on the newspapers with his arms out straight and the palms of his hands up.

“The hell with luck,”the boy said.“I'll bring the luck with me.”

Many fishermen were around the skiff looking at what was lashed beside it and one was in the water,his trousers rolled up,measuring the skeleton with a length of line.

That afternoon there was a party of tourists at the Terrace and looking down in the water among the empty beer cans and dead barracudas a woman saw a great long white spine with a huge tail at the end that lifted and swung with the tide while the east wind blew a heavy steady sea outside the entrance to the harbor.