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KIP RAISED THE HAMMER, brought it sharply down on a nail; another blow and the nailhead was flush with the plank He reached for a third piece of wood fro next to the shelter wall and carefully hammered it into place across the closed door Kip pulled at the timber reinforcement, decided another was needed, and haht He stepped back a few paces, wiping the moisture from his forehead

He was soaked with sweat fro the planks across the boatyard He stood where he was for aat the blocked doorway He needed a chain, a thick chain to pull across the door And a padlock, soth of chain here soet one off a boat moored in the harbor But the shelterso none of theht Nail another timber in place there at the bottom of the door

"Hey! What in God&039;s name are you doin&039; there!"

Kip tensed, turned toward the voice A heavyset black in deni quickly and purposefully across the yard The man was almost bald except for tufts of white hair on both sides of his head, and his eyes ary, untrusting He clenched a pipe between his teeth, and trailed gray whorls of smoke behind him Kip stood where he was, the hastree approach

The boatyard owner stopped abruptly, his eyes ain "What do you think you&039;re doin&039;?" he asked, not taking the pipe fro the hammer down on the jeep&039;s rear floorboard, beside the loaded rifle he&039;d brought along as a er, stepped forward, and wrenched at the tistree whirled on hioin&039; on here, mon?"

"I&039;ve sealed the shelter," Kip said evenly, "so no one can get in"

"And I knohat you got in there, too! Oh, yeah, Cochran told ot that bastard boat in there! Now you listen to me! I own this yard ain&039;t nobody else own it but Kevin Langstree! What daot to use et the boat out of the harbor"

"I DON&039;T WANT TO HEAR THAT FUCKIN&039; STUFF!" Langstree yanked the pipe out of his e, and Kip fully expected the ht at all! Any other boat maybe okay but NOT THAT ONE!" He motioned with a hand toward the shelter "YOU KNOW WHAT THAT THING DONE TO ME? Do you? Blew my yard to bits forty years back, set it afire, and killed a score of my best men! Those men died bad - crushed by metal, burned to crisps, torn apart - and me standin&039; there in the middle of it, watchin&039; the hell coet that! AND NOW THE GODDAMN THING BACK AGAIN! I don&039;t knohere froain toward the doorway and began to pull at the timbers There was a crack as one of the nails castree&039;s shoulder; he said in a grim, forceful voice, "I told you not to do that"

There was heat burning behind Kip&039;s eyes The boatyard owner started to tell Kip to get away froht better of it and took his hands froan

"Your yard, yes," Kip said "My island"

"I won&039;t have you tellin&039; me what I can and can&039;t do, mon, no matter if you the law here or not! I&039;oddamn boat in here, my supply shed broke open and God knohat all stolen, everybody scared and not wantin&039; to even come to their doors"

"What was stolen froency in his voice

Langstree paused, searching the other man&039;s eyes "Take a walk over there and you see, by God! The whole thing broke into, crates of oil, rope, tione I don&039;t knohat else - marine batteries, heavy-duty cable"

"Maybe it was requisitioned while you were gone?"

"Hell, no! Ain&039;t no way that ot paintin&039; and patchin&039; jobs in the yard now That&039;s heavy stuff been stolen, right out froht the stree," he said very quietly "You do as I say and leave the shelter alone We&039;re towing the U-boat out in theit, but for now just leave it alone! DO YOU HEAR WHAT I&039;M SAYING?"

The other htened by Kip&039;s intensity He pulled free of the constable&039;s grasp and stepped back a few paces "You crazy, mon, you crazy as all hell!"

But Kip had already turned away He clistree standing there alone, he wheeled past the shelter and raced back for the village, anxious to get hohter were safe Kip felt infected by a strange madness, a fear that threatened to rise up and crush hilimpse of the truth today, and he realized hoerless he was to prevent ould happen Oil, Langstree had said Barrels of diesel fuel, ropes, cable And batteries God, no He had seen the truth in Cale&039;s mad stare, in the half-consumed corpse of Johnny Majors, in the re on a bare plank floor And noorst of all, in the theft of uarded shed

In all the world there was onethe jungle road to the airstrip with the woman on the seat beside him, Moore could smell a storm in the air - a damp smell, full of heat, and the breezes had died coray, featureless canopy, the sun hidden, the clouds hanging ry at Kip than she had been the day before, and he could still see her anger working in her face She had hardly spoken to hi she had to check her plane before sending her , he saw the airplane ahead; it was still as they&039;d left it But as he pulled up beside it he realized he rong

"JESUS!" she cried out, leaping froside the plane, and Moore followed

"Godda up quickly and streaking her cheeks She ran a hand along the jagged dents in the plane&039;s fuselage The canopy glass had been broken out; in the front were the s loose, and the seats were ripped She shook her head in disbelief and rushed past Moore to the open engine cowling Moore saw the confusion of torn wires, cables and plugsSomeone had co shut and stepped back, treodda his ass in the village! He thinks he&039;s such a hotshot, telling people what they can and can&039;t do, and meanwhile he can&039;t even maintain law and order!"

"I don&039;t understand it," Moore said "There&039;s no reason anyone would"

"It&039;ll take days to fix this engine," the young woet parts out here! So to pay for this mess!"

Moore motioned toward the far during the night Come on" He reached out to take her ar after hi like a storm cloud over the clapboard house There was an empty pen, a shed, a square of tobacco plants On the porch was a bicycle frame without tires, and to one side of the house the hulk of an old car The trees clustered above like a painted green ceiling, and only a few yards away the jungle greild

Moore and Jana climbed a couple of cinder-block steps to the porch There was a screen door and beyond that the front door, which ide open

"Hello!" he called into the house "Anyone hoht he heard an odd drone, like the buzzing of insects, but he wasn&039;t sure

Jana reached past him and knocked on the door "Is anyone there, for God&039;s sake?"

But Moore had located the insect noise; he moved to the far side of the porch and looked down Then he stiffened and stepped back a pace