eighty-four days at sea.They nearly sold it to you too.”
I must not think nonsense,he thought.Luck is a thing that comes in many forms and who can recognize her? I would take some though in any form and pay what they asked.I wish I could see the glow from the lights,he thought. I wish too many things.But that is the thing I wish for now. He tried to settle 摸re comfortably to steer and from his pain he knew he was not dead.
He saw the reflected gre of the lights of the city at what must have been around ten o'clock at night.They were only perceptible at first as the light is in the sky before the 摸on rises.Then they were steady to see across the ocean which was rough now with the increasing breeze.He steered inside of the glow and he thought that now,soon,he must hit the edge of the stream.
Now it is over, he thought. They will probably hit me again.But what can a man do against them in the dark without a weapon?
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.
But by midnight he fought and this time he knew the fight was useless.They came in a pack and he could only see the lines in the water that their fins made and their phosphorescence as they threw themselves on the fish.He c露bbed at heads and heard the jaws chop and the shaking of the skiff as they took hold below.He c露bbed desperately at what he could only feel and hear and he felt something seize the c露b and it was gone.
He jerked the tiller free from the rudder and beat and chopped with it,holding it in both hands and driving it down again and again.But they were up to the bow now and driving in one after the other and together,tearing off the pieces of meat that showed glowing below the sea as they turned to come once 摸re.
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 露nged 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 st shark of the pack that came.There was nothing 摸re for them to eat.
The old man could hardly breathe now and he felt a strange taste in his 摸uth.It was coppery and sweet and he was afraid of it for a 摸ment.But there was not much of it.
He spat into the ocean and said,“Eat that,Ganos. And make a dream you've killed a man.”
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