But the fish kept on circling slowly and the old man was wetwith sweat and tired deep into his bones two hours later. But the circles weremuch shorter now and from the way the line slanted he could tell the fish hadrisen steadily while he swam.
For an hour the old man had been seeing black spots beforehis eyes and the sweat salted his eyes and salted the cut over his eye and onhis forehead. He was not afraid of the black spots. They were normal at thetension that he was pulling on the line. Twice, though, he had felt faint anddizzy and that had worried him.
"I could not fail myself and die on a fishlike this," he said. "Now that I have him coming so beautifully, Godhelp me endure. I'll say a hundred Our Fathers and a hundred Hail Marys. But Icannot say them now."
Consider them said, hethought. I'll say them later.
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