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The commonplace words were having their desired effect. The life-and-death look began to fade from his pale blue eyes. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve as if turning on the switch that would allow his lips to function. “Yeah,” he managed. “Hit something in Little Todd. Didn’t pay much attention. Time we got here we were taking on more’n we could bail. We started radioing then. I think the propeller got dinged and we’re taking on water around the shaft.”
Normalcy somewhat restored-given the world continued to pitch in a colorless panorama of blustering cloud and billowing wave-A
He dragged two disreputable-looking orange vests out from beneath a seat and the men began buckling them on.
When Hal’s hands were free again, A
“Ke
“Ken. You untie the stern. Hal, I’m going to hand you my towline. Make it fast to the bow. Then the both of you get aboard my boat. The Low Dollar’s riding too low in the water. I’d just as soon nobody was on board. Got all that?”
Ke
The yell did a good turn, convincing Hal that slicing through a $1.59 piece of rope might be worth the time saved fumbling with his desperate knots.
In another minute both men were on board the Belle Isle and A
The towline grew taut, was dragged above the churning of the Belle’s wake. When the full weight of the sodden Low Dollar hit, A
To the right, amid the waves, she could see the rocky outcrop that was Kamloops Island. Had the water been flatter, or the Low Dollar less swamped, she might have towed the damaged vessel north of the little island to Amygdaloid Ranger Station where she had tools. Or even around to Rock Harbor where they had everything including telephones and hot and cold ru
Hal was stationed on deck watching his boat. Ke
The fog was lifting. Several miles of shoreline were coming into hazy focus. The twenty miles of cliffs and coves between Little Todd Harbor and Blake’s Point were now as familiar to A
On still, su
“You’re new,” Ke
A
“It’s not like it used to be,” he went on as if she’d not spoken. “Used to be people on the lake took care of each other. You’d never pass a vessel in distress. Never. We could’ve sunk out there and nobody’d‘ve so much as thrown us a line. People don’t care. All they care about’s getting a campsite before the next guy.”
“Did somebody pass you?” A
“Not passed. A white boat with green-I didn’t see the name or I’d report it to the Coast Guard. They were out in the lake near where the Kamloops went down, headed east.”
“Maybe they didn’t see you. The fog’s been cat-footing around. Are you sure it wasn’t red and white? The Third Sister was heading this direction. They’re diving the Emperor tomorrow.”
“Green. And they saw us. They’d‘ve had to. Not a sign. The bastards left us sloshing up, to our knees in bilge. They probably heard the rainbow were ru
A
The noises turned out to be worth a thousand times what Molly had paid AT amp;T for the phone time to teach her. A ranger could get more information from a few well-placed “oh reallys” and “uh-huhs” than from an hour’s by-the-book interrogation. People wanted to talk. Chewing over betrayals, disappointments, and unrealized hopes seemed to do for humans what licking wounds did for animals: a cleansing of poisons, a soothing of hurts.
A
The moment these thoughts blew in, A
In the lee of Kamloops Island the water flattened out reassuringly. Even so, the Low Dollar was begi
“We aren’t going to make the dock at Todd,” A
“You can’t let her sink,” he said pitifully. “She’s not paid for.”
For a moment they stood in silence, the deck rocking gently. There was scarcely any wind, but thin lines of foam whipping white on the water beyond the Low Dollar never let them forget they were only there on sufferance.