第7章 The Old Mans Victory[第2頁/共22頁]

But he was that big and at the end of this circle he came to the surface only thirty yards away and the man saw his tail out of water.It was higher than a big scythe blade and a very pale lavender above the dark blue water.It raked back and as the fish swam just below the surface the old man could see his huge bulk and the purple stripes that banded him.His dorsal fin was down and his huge pectorals were spread wide.

The line went out and out and out but it was slowing now and he was making the fish earn each inch of it.Now he got his head up from the wood and out of the slice of fish that his cheek had crushed.Then he was on his knees and then he rose slowly to his feet.He was ceding line but more slowly all the time.He worked back to where he could feel with his foot the coils of line that he could not see.There was plenty of line still and now the fish had to pull the friction of all that new line through the water.