Snake stared at the water but said nothing.
“Maybe he’s listening to something,” suggested Geo.
“You’d think there were better things to eavesdrop on than fishes,” said Urson. “I guess Argo’s given special orders that you two get no work. Some people. Let’s go eat.” As they started toward the convergence of sailors at the entrance of the mess hall, Urson paused. “Oh, guess what.” He picked up the jewel from Geo’s chest. “All you people are going around with such finery, I took my coins to the smithy and had him put chains on them. Now I’ll strut with the best of you.” He laughed as they went through the narrow way, crowding with the other sailors into the wide hall.
Night without dreams left them early, and the boat rolled from beneath the fog. Dawn was gray but clear; by breakfast-time a ragged slip of land hemmed the horizon. Halfway through the meal, water was splashing from the brims of pitchers to roll one way, darkening the wooden table; then as the boat heaved, it rolled another.
On the wheel-deck the sailors clustered at the rail. Before them, rocks stuck like broken teeth from the water.
In his new triple necklace, Urson joined Snake and Geo. “Whew! Getting through them is going to be fun.”
Suddenly heads turned. The sailors looked back as Argo’s dark veils, bloated with the breeze, filled about her as she mounted the steps to the wheel-deck. Slowly she walked among the sailors. They moved away. She stopped, one hand on a stay-rope, to stare across the water at the dark tongue of land.
From the wheel the Captain spoke: “Jordde, disperse the men and take the wheel.”
“Aye, sir,” said the Mate. “You, you, and you to the tops.” He pointed among the men. “You also, and you. Hey, didn’t you hear me?”
“Me, sir?” Geo turned.
“Yes, you — up to the top spar there.”
“You can’t send him up!” Urson called out. “He’s never been topside at all before. It’s too choppy for any fellow’s first time up. He doesn’t even know — ”
“And who asked you?” demanded the Mate.
“Nobody asked me, sir,” said Urson, “but — ”
“Then you get below before I brig you for insubordination and fine you your three gold baubles. You think I don’t recognize dead man’s gold?”
“Now look here!” Urson roared.
Geo looked from Argo to the Captain. The Captain was puzzled, true; but the bewilderment that flooded the face of the Priestess shocked him.
Jordde suddenly seized up a marlin pin, raised it, and shouted at Urson: “Get down below before I break your skull!”
Urson’s fists sprang up.
“Calmly, brother bear — ” Geo began.
“In a bitch’s ass,” snarled Urson and swung his arm forward. Something leaped on Jordde from behind — Snake! The belaying pin veered inches away from Urson’s shoulder. The flung fist sank into the Mate’s belly and he reeled forward, with Snake still clawing at his back. He reached the rail, bent double over it, and Snake’s legs flipped. When Jordde rose, he was free of encumbrance.
Geo rushed to the rail and saw Snake’s head emerge in the churning water. Behind him, Urson yelled, “Look out!” Geo dodged aside as Jordde’s spike made three inches of splinters in the plank against which he had been leaning.
“Not him!” cried Argo. “No, no! Not him!”
But Jordde seized Geo’s shoulder and whirled him back against the rail. Geo saw Urson grab a hanging rope and swing forward. Urson tried to knock Jordde away with his feet. But Argo moved in the way of his flying body and raised her hands to push him aside so that he swung wide and landed on the railing a yard from the struggle.
Then Geo’s feet slipped on the wet boards; his body hurled backward into the air. Then his back slapped water.
As he broke surface, Urson called to him. “Hang on, friend Geo, I’m coming!” Urson swung his arms back, then forward; he dove.
Now Geo could see only Argo and Jordde at the rail. But they were struggling!
Urson and Snake were near him in the water. The last thing he saw: Jordde suddenly yanked the chain from Argo’s neck and flung it over the sea. She screamed — and her hands reached for jewel, following its arc toward the water.
Then hands were at his body. Geo turned in the water as Snake disappeared beneath; Urson suddenly cried out. Hands caught Geo’s arms as he tried to gulp a breath. And Urson was gone.
Hands were pulling him down.
Roughness of sand beneath one of his sides and the flare of sun on the other. His eyes were hot and his lids orange over them. Then there was a breeze. He opened his eyes and shut them quick, because of the light. He turned over, thought about pillows and stiff new sheets. Reaching out, he grabbed sand.
He opened his eyes and pushed himself up. His hands spread on warm, soft crumblings. Over there were rocks, thick vegetation behind them. He swayed to his knees, the sand grating under his kneecaps. He looked at his arm in the sun, flecked with grains. Then he touched his chest.
His hand came to one bead, moved on, and came to another! He looked down. Both the chain with the platinum claw and the thong with the wire cage hung around his neck. Bewildered, he heaved to his feet. And sat down again as the beach went red with the wash of blood behind his eyeballs. He got up again slowly. The sand was only warm, which meant the clouds that had hung so thickly at dawn couldn’t have been gone for long.
Carefully Geo started down the beach, looking toward the land. When he turned to look at the water, he stopped.
At the horizon, beyond the rocks, was the boat, sails lowered. So they hadn’t left yet. He swung his eyes back to the beach: fifty feet away was a man lying in the sun.
He ran forward now, the sand splashing around his feet, sinking under his toes, so that it was like the slow-motion running of dreams. Ten feet from the figure he stopped.
It was a young Negro, with skin the color of richly humused soil. The long skull was shaved. Like Geo, he was almost naked. There was a clot of seaweed at his wrist, and the soles of his feet and one upturned palm were grayish and shriveled; Geo thought about what happened when he sat in the bath too long.
He frowned and stood for a full minute. He looked up and down the beach once more. There was no one else. Just then the man’s arm shifted across the sand like a sleeper’s.
Immediately Geo fell to his knees beside the figure, rolled him over, and lifted his head. The eyes opened, squinted in the light, and the man whispered, “Who are you?”
“My name is Geo.”
The man sat up and caught himself from falling forward by jamming his hands into the sand. He shook his head, then looked up again. “Yes,” he said. “I remember you. What happened? Did we founder? Did the ship go down?”
“Remember me from where?” Geo asked.
“From the ship. You were on the ship, weren’t you?”
“I was on the ship,” Geo said. “And I got thrown overboard by that damned First Mate in a fight. But nothing’s happened to the ship. It’s still out there; you can see it.” Suddenly Geo stopped. Then he said, “You’re the guy who discovered Whitey’s body that morning!”
“That’s right.” He shook his head again. “My name is Iimmi.” Now he looked out at the horizon. “I see them,” he said. “There’s the ship. But where are we?”
“On the beach at Aptor.”
Iimmi screwed his face up into a mask of dark horror. “No…” he said softly. “We couldn’t be. We were days away from…”
“How did you fall in?”
“It was blowing up a little,” Iimmi explained. “I was in the rig when suddenly something struck me from behind and I went toppling. I thought a spar had come loose and knocked me over. In all the mist, I was sure they wouldn’t see me, and the current was too strong for me, and…” He stopped, looked around.