As the sun set he remembered, to give himself more confidence, the time in the tavern at Casablanca when he had played the hand game with the great negro from Cienfuegos who was the strongest man on the docks. They had gone one day and one night with their elbows on a chalk line on the table and their forearms straight up and their hands gripped tight. Each one was trying to force the other‘s hand down onto the table. There was much betting and people went in and out of the room under the kerosene lights and he had looked at the arm and hand of the negro and at the negro‘s face. They changed the referees every four hours after the fist eight so that the referees could sleep. Blood came out from under the fingernails of both his and the negro‘s hands and they looked each other in the eye and at their hands and forearms and the bettors went in and out of the room and sat on high chairs against the wall and watched. The walls were painted bright blue and were of wood and the lamps threw their shadows against them. The negro‘s shadow was huge and it moved on the wall as the breeze moved the lamps.

太陽落下去的時候，為了給自己增強信心，他回想起那回在卡薩布蘭卡的一家酒店里，跟那個碼頭上力氣最大的人，從西恩富戈斯來的大個子黑人比手勁的光景。整整一天一夜，他們把手拐兒擱在桌面一道粉筆線上，胳膊朝上伸直，兩只手緊握著。雙方都竭力將對方的手使勁朝下壓到桌面上。好多人在賭誰勝誰負，人們在室內(nèi)的煤油燈下走出走進，他打量著黑人的胳膊和手，還有這黑人的臉。最初的八小時過后，他們每四小時換一個裁判員，好讓裁判員輪流睡覺。他和黑人手上的指甲縫里都滲出血來，他們倆正視著彼此的眼睛，望著手和胳膊，打賭的人在屋里走出走進，坐在靠墻的高椅子上旁觀。四壁漆著明亮的藍色，是木制的板壁，幾盞燈把他們的影子投射在墻上。黑人的影子非常大，隨著微風(fēng)吹動掛燈，這影子也在墻上移動著