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jobs, including some engine overhaul and the installation
of a new radiotelephone and a better ground plate on the
outside of her hull. They had put on the copper strip
when she was on the ways, and the bolt through the hull
for the radio connection. She went back in the water
Friday afternoon. The separate ingredients for disaster
were a long week end, a slow leak somewhere in her fuel
system, poor ventilation, and the fact that Barney who
had a poor nose anyway had a cold on Monday morning.
The catalyst was a torch. Barney had the radio ground
cable connected to the through-bolt and was preparing to
silver-solder it when Ingram came down the hatch and
smelled the gas. He yelled, and at the same instant
Barney struck the torch.
He d left a call for four a.m. When the telephone rang, he
was instantly awake. Opening the french windows, he
stepped out onto the balcony facing the harbor channel
and Hog Island. They were in luck; it was dead calm. The
fronds of the coconut palms along Bay Street were
motionless in the pre-dawn darkness that was beginning
Aground  41
to show a faint wash of rose in the east. He called Mrs.
Osborne, found she was already awake, and hurriedly
dressed in khaki trousers, T-shirt, and sneakers. When he
came out into the corridor, she was just emerging from
her room. She was wearing white calypso pants and
sandals and a blue pullover thing with short sleeves. Her
legs were bare. She looked very cool and fresh and
attractive, and if she had a hangover there was no visible
trace of it. Must have a constitution like a horse, he
thought. He took her suitcase and went out to signal one
of the taxis across the street while she settled the bill.
She was silent on the ride to the airport. There was no
apology, or even any reference to her behavior of last
night. Maybe she didn t even remember it, he thought
not that it mattered. The airport restaurant was closed,
but Avery had some coffee in the McAllister office. They
drank a cup.
 We ll just leave your bag here, Ingram said.  I ll take
mine, since I ll probably stay aboard. Even if we find
we re going to have to charter a tug to get her off, we
can t leave her abandoned out there.
They went out and boarded the plane. The deflated life
raft was bundled up in back of the seats in the after
compartment. Ingram motioned for her to take the co-
pilot s seat, and strapped himself into one of those in
back. Faint light was just breaking when they roared
down the runway and took off. He lighted a cigar and
settled back to wait. It would take over an hour.
Andros was a brooding dark mass below them, and
then they were out over the vast distances of the Bank
where the water lay hushed and flat in the pearly
luminescence of dawn. The sun, peering over the
curvature of the earth behind them, sprayed the
underside of the wing with crimson and gold in
momentary brilliance until Avery nosed down again and
it was lost. After what seemed like hours, Ingram looked
at his watch again. They should sight her in a few more
minutes. He stepped through the narrow doorway and
stood in back of Mrs. Osborne. She was staring out
ahead. Two or three minutes later he tapped her lightly
on the shoulder and pointed.  There she is. She nodded,
but made no reply.
The distant speck grew and divided into its separate
components of sand bar and boat. Avery began his
Aground  42
descent. Ingram spoke alongside his ear.  Let s take
another look at her before we go in. Get an idea of the
tide.
Avery nodded. The schooner was off to starboard and a
thousand feet below as they went past. Ingram stared
down at her. The empty deck still listed slightly to port in
the early morning light, and there was about her
something of the tragic helplessness of a beached and
dying whale as she lay exactly as she had yesterday
afternoon, on the same northerly heading. Avery swung
in a wide circle and they came down past her only a few
hundred feet above the water. Apparently nothing had
changed at all except that the list might be slightly less,
indicating the tide was higher. He studied the water
moving ever so slowly past the imprisoned hull.
 Still flooding a little, he said above the roar of the
engines.  But probably pretty close to slack high water
right now. You won t drift much.
Avery nodded.  You want to go by again?  No. Let s
put her down.  Righto. Cinch up your belts.
Ingram went back and strapped himself in. He watched
out the window as Avery swung west, toward the edge of
the bank, made a preliminary run to study the water for
possible obstructions, turned, and came in for the
landing. Water, smooth as oil, came up toward them, and
then they touched and the plane was drowned in a
seething white curtain of spray. They slowed, and began
to settle in the water. He unfastened his belt and went
forward. They were about two miles west of the sand spit
and the schooner. Avery turned. They began to taxi up
toward her.
 We d best not try to get too close, he said.  I don t
trust those shoals around there.
 Within a half mile will do, Ingram replied.  And as
long as the tide keeps flooding, you d better go back to
westward to wait for us.
 How long do you think you ll be aboard?
 I can probably bring Mrs. Osborne back in a half hour
or less. But suppose I call you on the radiotelephone, if
it s still working? Have you got either of the intership
channels?
Avery nodded.  Call on 2638.
Aground  43
 Right, Ingram said. He stepped into the after
compartment, attached the inflating bottle to the valve of
the raft, and put enough air into it to keep it afloat. Avery
came aft. He opened the door and they pushed the raft
out. Ingram knelt in the opening and completed the
inflation. Mrs. Osborne was standing behind them now.
The plane rocked gently with little gurgling sounds under
its hull as they swung around on the tide. Avery held the
raft while Ingram helped her in. She settled herself aft.
Ingram put his suitcase in, along with the air bottle and
the light aluminum oars, and stepped down himself and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]