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"That the boat killed old man Kephas?" the ister the men&039;s presence; they focused somewhere on the submarine His name was Turk; he had only recently arrived on the island, and Kip had already had trouble with hi Langstree had bailed hi stree was paying hies for a welder But Kip had seen a lot of these island drifters pass through, and he knew Turk was a rootless, undisciplined type of man

"What happened to Kephas was an accident," Kip said

The young oatee "I saw the body this h flared nostrils "Why you put that thing in here, to hide it?"

"Go on about your business, nored his &039;bout that fucker I hear it&039;s a Nazi sub"

Kip nodded

"How &039;bout that, huh? Goddam bitch jus&039; corked off the bottom, ain&039;t that so? I never heard of that happenin&039; before What&039;s inside her?"

"A few tons of corroded iron, twisted bulkheads, maybe a couple of live torpedoes" Kip said And what else? he wondered suddenly What had Moore mentioned about the sealed hatches?

"Why don&039;t you open it up and have a see?" Turk raised an eyebrow

"Too dangerous And I&039; thinly He turned and stared at the boat for a ar stub out of hisin a shower of sparks into the placid water "Off the Cayo," he said, "sounboat sunk in about a hundred feet They used an underwater torch to get through a few collapsed bulkheads, and they burned into a vault You knohat that fucker yielded?" He looked from one man to the other "Gold bars Made those fellas rich Fuckin&039; rich"

"Gold bars?" Lenny asked

"That&039;s bullshit" Kip interrupted quickly "And if you think this beat-up crate&039;s carrying gold bars you&039;re out of your old But oddamn Nazis carried all manner of stuff with &039;e in there is a lot of old machinery," Kip told hiain, his eyes still blank

Kip recognized that hungry look "Now you heara bit of free-lance torching, forget it Like I say, you spark soold bars off the streets of Heaven"

The other man held up his hands defensively "I&039;ain and walked past the constable toward the battered fra a shaft of blinding sunlight, and was gone

"He got no respect for elders," Lenny said "He&039;s trouble, but he daazed at the U-boat for a fewa chill creep up his back He could hear the sounds of it settling; creaking tiroan of a deep metal bulkhead - eerie, distant voices "Lenny," he said, "keep the workmen away fro around with this thing, and what I said about explosives"I do what you say" He raised his voice and called to the rest of the et on with our business! JR, you and Murphy got a hull-scrapin&039; to finish up! Percy, you done paintin&039;? Coet back!"

Kip clapped the man on the shoulder andfro on that conning tower, as silent and motionless as Death itself Keep it up, he told hi ju for the fishermen&039;s shanties Like it or not, he had to pay a call on the Kephas woman There ork to be done, and a sorry task it was indeed

But before his jeep had ain, like a pre hi off a dark place where he feared to look

That boat had been built to destroy; it had been baptized in blood and fury, and God only kne one down in the wake of its torpedoes and guns Boniface&039;s words haunted him: Take it out of the harbor Sink it Sink it Sink it

"How, by God?" he said aloud

Abruptly the bright colors of Coquina village caun to wonder how he could soothe the Kephas woed nails across the wall inside his soul