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MOORE STOOD PEERING out through the windshield, his eyes probing the dark for the thing he knew erously close, perhaps a dozendeep into the sea Wind whistled around the edges of the wheelhouse, died away, built back up

Moore had no idea how long they&039;d been tracking the U-boat - or was the U-boat tracking them now? - because his atch had shattered when he&039;d fallen to the deck It was a matter of hours, he was certain, but tiued, his eyes ached frohted any land nor any other ships, and once when Kip had gone out onto the deck, he let a blast of air into the wheelhouse that felt thick and hot, as if the sun were beating down directly overhead

"Turn us back to Coquina, Cheyne," Jana called from where she sat at the rear of the wheelhouse

"Your trawler can&039;t take the force of these waves otten away and you won&039;t be able to find it again"

Cheyne said nothing; he paid no attention to her

She rose and ray eyes blazing "Listen to me! You can&039;t cover the whole of the Caribbean! And if you do find the boat again, how can you ever hope to force it to the reef? It will crush this trawler to pieces!"

Cheyne glanced over at her and then at the other two inal course, directly into the passage between Big Danny Cay and Jacob&039;s Teeth toward the sea lanes I knohere they&039;re headed Turning back to grind us under cost them time; if they hadn&039;t ould&039;ve lost them for sure"

He stared into Jana&039;s face "I didn&039;t ask you to come I didn&039;t ask any of you You all came of your own free will; I didn&039;t have to tell you what you&039;d be facing out here" He looked away, his gaze sweeping the wild horizon "The currents coether between the cay and the Teeth; they drive a boat through there like a bullet And that&039;s where they&039;ll try to go through into the lanes a fewback now"

"You can&039;t stop them," Jana said "You&039;re mad if you think you can!"

"Maybe I aed "But if I can&039;t drive the boat over the Teeth, then As for the artillery, or a bomb Moore, take that lantern from back there and step down into the cabin I want this wo"

Moore turned up the wick and went down, carefully, through the narrow opening "Go take a look," Cheyne told Jana

The light illualley, a couple of bare-ed forward, watching his footing, and Jana followed close behind Where the fraether near the bow the crates were piled on top of each other and secured with heavy ropes On some of them he could make out faded letters: CAUTION HIGH EXPLOSIVES He remembered the crate he&039;d kicked away on the deck Dyna around each other to le, thick fuse, which was attached to a small reel Bundles wrapped in clear plastic were tied to plankings, the cord fuses bound to the others He raised the light and saw the long, brown sticks There were four crates and two bundles of the plastic-wrapped dynah for a tremendous explosion

They made their way silently back into the wheel-house "Put that la beyond, spun the wheel for it; the Pride vibrated Jana stared at him, her face pale "That&039;s the dynamite we stole from those company men," Cheyne said "So you see, I did come prepared"

"The entire boat?" Jana asked softly

"Dynamite packed in the bow, drums of diesel fuel in the hold When the primary fuse is wound out there&039;ll be three minutes before the flame sets off the first case When the explosion comes it&039;ll take off the bow section and turn those hardwood plankings into spears Then the hold will go, and those fuel drues," Moore said

Cheyne glanced quickly at hi with the effort of controlling the rudder Then he returned his gaze to the sea "Three et off before the bos"

"Off? Where?" Jana thrust out her arht that priladly take your chances in the water, storet out ofahead, veered for the nearest; the sea streamed over the port beaed her shoulders of the ocean

Cheyne kept the wheel under fir; a pulse throbbed at the base of his throat He looked across as the floating compass rose, and slowly corrected two points Sweat dripped from his chin and spattered onto the instruobbling racket of the diesels: the faint rattling of the warning buoys on the southeastern point of Jacob&039;s Teeth The sea would be twisting the off to port at about ninety degrees when the next few flashes of lightning cut the darkness He had sailed these waters a thousand ti fleet, and sheer instinct told hih some miles distant; beyond the stretch of the reefs

But the lightning revealed only the hipped sea So Was it possible the compass was off, he wondered, or had his instincts been fooled by the stor into the sea It&039;s not right, daht! He should be hearing those warning buoys by now, and even seeing the wash around the first of the blunt, green-slimed bommies that would sharpen into knife blades ahead "Try the radio," he said to Moore

Moore twisted the dial; this time there was no sound from the radio He turned up the volume No squeak of static or electrical interference

Only silence

"That&039;s funny," Moore said "So with it"

"No," Cheyne said "The radio&039;s not out I don&039;t knohat it is I&039;m not sure where we are"

The wind hissed around the wheelhouse, whispering through cracks in the ceiling

"What&039;s the ht

Cheyne looked fro He turned to port a few degrees The wind filtering through the ceiling stank of rot, of so to die

The sea stretched out before the Danny Cay, no landmark bo to crawl The boat where was the boat?

"I haven&039;t lost it!" he said through clenched teeth "I haven&039;t lost it! No! It&039;s out there And it&039;s waiting forfirst at Moore and than at the Carib

A wave sla the Pride to both sides The wind pulled at the windshield fra silence

Sea crashed across the bow; Cheyne drove straight through the rising wave, and on the other side of it he clenched his hand tight around the wheel and stared

The ocean had flattened into a black, limitless plain No wind, no slap of sea across the trawler There was a strange, unnerving stillness

"Where are you, bastard?" Cheyne whispered "Coines until the Pride was al flashed across his field of vision Moore, standing beside hiripped the instrumentation panel for support

"Listen!" Kip said

The wind Rising in the distance Shrieking, turning, thrashing against itself like a maddened beast

Veins of yellow broke open in the sky, cutting the sea into a jigsaw pattern of black and ocher Lightning ht his breath; he&039;d seen the entire horizon roiling The hurricane was advancing rapidly, a stornitude

At the same instant the entire plain of the ocean see the Pride forward so fast Jana and Kip were slath to hold the rudder, shouting for Moore to help The wind howled the length of the boat, and as the next roaring water flooded across the Pride there was a snapping noise - wood giving way One of the

Moore&039;s head was thrown back, his teeth alainst the vibrating wheel, fearful that the rudder would break The Pride was thrown high, al down a black wall, the sea sht the windshield would shatter So noise beneath Cheyne cursed, fought the rudder

The sea was littered with broken planks, pieces of boats, here a huge tree with naked branches - they could see it all by the inter&039;s illumination The battered tin roof of a house whirled past the starboard beaed bits of a storm-broken wharf swept by on each side of the trawler Sheets of spray drove over the boat, the scream of the wind like a ainst the wheel, a dark object hurtled across the prow directly toward the wheelhouse: the trunk of a tree, trailing cluing Moore&039;s face Water exploded into the wheelhouse, breaking out ed away into the sea again Cheyne wrenched at the wheel, his back about to give way, the sweat of pain running down his face The rudder wouldn&039;t respond!

And then suddenly, froht ahead, as if borne toward the, lared at the iron beheed Kipin water

The rudder was still sluggish; the sea had it locked in a powerful grip The Pride began to turn broadside, helpless before the rush of the onco across the wheelhouse; Moore opened his e to cry out

The iron prow lifted up, up, towering over them Foam roared beneath it, the noise of certain destruction

But then soreen and ghostly, a vision frohter It appeared to be aflaures on the decks A hideous noise of screa that hter,with incredible speed, roared between the trawler and the Night Boat; Moore could still see the subh a mist of fiery tiainst its superstructure; it swept past the trawler, and the grihter disappeared within the folds of the sea

Cheyne strained at the wheel, his teeth clenched There was a loud crack that both Moore and Kip firstwood Cheyne cried out in pain; bone protruded fro The Carib fell to his knees "TAKE THE WHEEL!" he shouted

And Moore, his senses reeling, found hi He let the wheel play out and then fought back, feeling the ocean&039;s tre at the rudder