Page 11 (1/2)

THE SQUARE-SHOULDERED black fishered around a central table in the Landfall Tavern Evening was rapidly falling and the trawler crews had long since finished their labors The place was now a maelstrom of noise and movement; on the other side of the plank-floored rooae, and several of the irls to dance with the and wildness, tall tales, and an occasional fight to blow off steam, and with Saturday auntil Monday Cigarette smoke swirled above the lasses clinked against bottles, and there was a din of loud laughter and talking On the rough plank walls tin signs advertising Red Stripe and Jaguar beers and Bacardi rums almost vibrated from the noise level The card dealer settled back in his chair and calmly surveyed his hand Then he looked fro to read the otherfor over an hour and he had won ood and war the ruet the stories he&039;d heard about that young buck Turk He had played cards with theabout the way Turk had died unsettled him There was no sense to it, no reason for it at all Now Turk was cold and dead, lying on a slab over at the clinic The dealer reached over for his bottle and swigged again Daht Da! He raised the ru; suddenly he didn&039;t feel quite so war," Ja down a card "I hear they find the boy with his head alhty, I&039;da hated to been the one who find hihty"

Smithson shook his head "No, ot hiblood told them over his cards "I hear that froo messin&039; round that fuckin&039; boat and he find bad trouble Me, I wouldn&039;t go near that t&039;ing"

"What you know?" the dealer, a bulky man named Curtis, asked sharply "Put down your blood continued, throwing a few coins into the pot "Been trouble since the white et rid of the sonofabitch!"

Percy leaned over the table, looking from one face to the next "They say his eyes was starin&039;, like he seen Death comin&039; for him," he whispered "The talk&039;s all over the yard He seen Death reach out for him, and take him by the throat and"

"Stop that talk!" Curtis said

"Oh yah," said the other man "If you doan believe a man can see his Death coht there on the spot I hope to God I never see it comin&039; I hope it sneak up on o quick"

"You crazy, mon!" Davis told hiet off the subject

Youngblood said, "Few years ago I crewed on a freighter out of Jah a squall an hour out, slowin&039; us down, and we cuts to the west a few points to keep away froht, and ever&039;thin&039; dark as hell and that wind blow bitter through our riggin&039; Oh, that wind be bitter, mon, cut you to the bone And the helmsman lose the way, him lost after thirty damn years at sea and a storo out, nothin&039; but crackle, then even the goddain&039; for hts nor land, and all of a sudden we coo flat And by God there come up a moanin&039;, hard to hear at first but then louder and nearer, things bein&039; said in different tongues, and wild screahin&039; and carryin&039; on"

"Shit!" Curtis said fiercely

"and then we sees we not alone On all sides goddain&039; catchin&039; a breeze that wasn&039;t there All of &039;elowin&039;, like St El them ti like that before, and I ain&039;t seen it since Them boats criss-crossin&039; in front of us, then passin&039; alongside And we sees oddamn decks! They was just outlines of men, y&039;knoith hardly any faces, but you knew they was o You see, we had come out in that place where the dead world and the livin&039; one meet Me, I hid host crews all callin&039; for help, y&039;know, because they stuck on that place forever, right there on the rim between the torlds Mebbe they not ready to pass on, or they tryin&039; to find the way back to harbor, but all the time their boats layin&039; down deep and just the specters ridin&039; the caps God knows, that place be Hell itself, all the shriekin&039; and moanin&039; so pitiful The helmsman spin us about and we tracks into the storht the buoys at the tip of the shoals, and we goes back the e coround so happy like we did in Kingston"

Theto be absorbed by their cards Curtis reached over for his bottle, swigged, and then peered into Youngblood&039;s haunted eyes "I doan believe a word o&039; that shit! I never seen nothin&039; like that!"

"Best pray you don&039;t, mon," Davis said quietly "Three cards"

A hefty black wo down to see if anything was needed She cast her eyes around the bar, frohts to those in the shadows at the rear Da drunker, louder and louder, and soon she was going to have to have Moe throw the bastard out Twoto work up soirl looked bored and disinterested Serves &039;erim smile And then that other table back there, the twoquietly

She had seenlike the expressions on the faces of Steven Kip and the white man when they&039;d come in and taken that back table She had served them drinks - beer for the constable, dark rum for the white man - and wanted to talk but they see in Kip&039;s eyes that lasses behind the bar, watching for inevitable trouble Now she approached theroup of drinkers, and looked down at their table "Get youelse?" she asked

"No," Kip said, without once glancing up, and the white man shook his head

She paused a few ed her shoulders and turned Frankie King was roaring drunk; he had a fighting look in his eyes

Kip watched her walk away and then coughed into his cupped hands; the cough tore at the linings of his lungs He gazed into the sputum in his hands and wiped it off on a napkin "Hallucinations," he said quietly "There were all "

"No I&039; to pass it off so easily" Moore looked intently into the constable&039;s eyes "How could we see the sa? Even if ere affected by so?"

Kip paused, taking a sip from his Red Stripe When he put the bottle down he asked, "And just as it , David? Shadows, a boatful of debris"

"Co "By God, I knohat I saw! I&039; crazy!"