they immediately snapped shut on the steel shaft , and as the fish tore the spear out of bond 's hand , quarrel stabbed at it with his knife and it went mad , dashing through the water with its entrails hanging out , the spear clenched between its teeth , and the harpoon dangling from its body quarrel could scarcely hold the line as the fish tried to tear the wide barb through the walls of its stomach , but he moved with it towards a piece of submerged reef and climbed on to it and slowly pulled the fish in .