I wonder how many dressings they have for that other wounded character? If they had time to get dressings they had time to get other stuff, too. What stuff? What do you think they have besides what you know they have? I don’t think much. Maybe pistols and a few machine pistols. Maybe some demolition charges they could make something out of. I have to figure that they have the machine gun. But I don’t think so. They wouldn’t want to fight. They want to get the hell away and on a Spanish ship. If they had been in shape to fight they would have come back that night and taken Confites. Maybe no. Maybe something made them suspicious and they saw our drums on the beach and thought we might be basing there nights. They wouldn’t know what we were. But they would see the drums and figure there was something around that burned plenty of gas. Then too they probably didn’t want to fight with their wounded. But the boat with the wounded could have laid off at night while they came in and took the wireless station if they wanted to get off with that other sub. I wonder what happened with her. There’s something very strange about that.
Think about something cheerful. Think about how you start with the sun at your back. And remember they have local knowledge now, along with all that salt fish, and you are going to have to use your head. He went to sleep and slept quite well until two hours before daylight when the sand flies awakened him. Thinking about the problems had made him feel better and he slept without dreaming.
They left before the sun was up and Thomas Hudson steered down the channel that was like a canal with the gray banks showing on either side. By the time the sun was up he was out through the cut between the shoals and he steered due north to get into blue water and past the dangerous rocky heads of the outer reef. It was a little longer than running on the Inside but it was much safer.
When the sun rose, there was no wind and not enough swell for the sea to break on any of the rocks. The day would be hot and muggy, he knew, and there would be squalls in the afternoon.
His mate came up and looked around. Then he looked carefully at the land and along it to where the high, ugly tower of the light showed.
“We could have run down easily on the inside.”
“I know it,” Thomas Hudson said. “But I thought this was better.”
“Another day like yesterday. But hotter.”
“They can’t make much time.”
“They can’t make any time. They’re becalmed somewhere. You’re going to check with the light whether they went into the cut between Paredón and Coco, aren’t you?”
“Sure.”
“I’ll go in. I know the keeper. You can lay just inside the little key at the tip. I won’t be gone long,” Antonio said.
“I don’t even need to anchor.”
“You’ve got plenty of strong-backed people to get anchors up.”
“Send up Ara and Willie if they’ve eaten. Nothing should show here this close to the light and you can’t see a damned thing looking into the sun. But send up George and Henry, too. We might as well do it right.”
“Remember the rocks make right up to your blue water here, Tom.”
“I remember and I can see them.”
“Do you want your tea cold?”
“Please. And a sandwich. Send the men up first.”
“They’ll be right up. I’ll send the tea up and have everything ready to go ashore.”
“Be careful how you talk to them.”
“That’s why I am going in.”
“Put out a couple of lines, too. It will look better coming in on the light.”
“Yes,” his mate said. “We might get something we could give them at the light.”
The four came up and took their usual posts and Henry said, “Did you see anything, Tom?”
“One turtle with a sea gull flying around him. I thought he was going to perch on his back. But he didn’t.”
“OK, Tom,” George said. “If I see any really big submarines do you want me to tell you?”
“If you see one as big as you saw that one time keep it to yourself.”
“I dream about her nights,” George said.
“Don’t talk about her,” Willie said. “I just ate breakfast.”
“When we closed I could feel my
“Scared.”
“I saw her come up,” Ara said. “And the next thing I heard Henry say, ‘She’s an aircraft carrier, Tom.’ ”
“That’s what she looked like,” Henry said. “I can’t help it. I’d say the same thing again.”
“She spoiled my life,” Willie said. “I’ve never been the same since. For a nickel I’d have never gone to sea again.”
“Here,” said Henry. “Take twenty cents and get off at Paredón Grande. Maybe they’ll give you change.”
“I don’t want change. I’ll take a transfer.”
“Would you really?” Henry asked. There had been a certain amount of bad blood between them since the last two times they had been in Havana.