“Tom,” Henry asked. “Do you want me to stay with you or to carry water or what?”
“Carry water until you are too tired and then get some sleep. I want you on the bridge with me tonight.”
“Can I bring you a shirt or a sweater?” Henry asked.
“Bring me a shirt and one of the very light blankets,” Thomas Hudson said. “I can sleep now in the sun and the sand is dry. But later on it will be cool with the wind.”
“Isn’t the sand wonderful? I’ve never known such dry or powdery sand.”
“The wind has beaten it for many years.”
“Will we get them, Tommy?”
“Of course,” Thomas Hudson said. “There is no doubt of it at all.”
“Please forgive me if I am ever stupid,” Henry said.
“You were forgiven when you were born,” Thomas Hudson said. “You are a very brave boy, Henry, and I am fond of you and trust you. You’re not stupid either.”
“You truly think we will have a fight?”
“I know it. Do not think about that. Think about details. Think about all the things you should do and how we should be a happy ship until we fight. I’ll think about the fight.”
“I will go and do my duty as well as I can,” Henry said. “I wish we could practice the fight so I could do my part better.”
Thomas Hudson said, “You’ll do it all right. I do not see any way that we can miss it.”
“It’s been so very long,” Henry said.
“But everything is long,” Thomas Hudson told him. “And pursuit is the longest.”
“Get some sleep,” Henry said. “You never sleep any more.”
“I’ll sleep,” Thomas Hudson said.
“Where do you suppose they lost their own boat, Tom?” Ara asked.
“They got these boats here and they did away with these people a week ago, say. So they must be the one that Camagüey claimed. But they got somewhere close to here before they lost her. They didn’t sail any rubber boats into that wind.”
“Then they must have lost her east of here.”
“Naturally. And they were damned well in the clear when they lost her,” Thomas Hudson said.
“It was still a long way home,” Henry said.
“It is going to be a longer way home now,” Ara said.
“They’re funny people,” Thomas Hudson said. “They’re all brave and some of them are so damned admirable. Then they have mean ones like this.”
“We better go and do our work,” Ara said. “We can talk tonight on watch to keep awake. You get some rest, Tom.”
“Get some sleep,” Henry said.
“Rest is as good as sleep.”
“No it isn’t,” Ara said. “You need sleep, Tom.”
“I’ll try to get some,” Thomas Hudson said. But when they were gone he could not sleep.
What did they have to do this rotten thing here for? he thought. We will get them anyway. All these people would have done was tell us how many they were and how they were armed. I suppose that was worth killing for, from their standpoint. Especially if they thought of these people as Negroes. But all that shows something about them. To have killed like that they must have some plan and they must have some hope of being picked up. Also there must have been dissension about the plan or they would not have done this murdering here of the sailor. That could be an execution for anything, though. He might have let her go down when she could have been kept up to make the try to get home.
Where does that bring us? he thought. You can’t bank on that. It is only a possibility. But if it was true it would mean she went down in sight of land and fast. That would mean they would not have much stuff. Maybe the boy did not do it and was falsely accused.
You don’t know how many boats they have because there could be a boat or two boats from here out turtling. There is nothing to do but think around it and check your keys.
But suppose they have crossed the Old Bahama channel and hit the Cuban coast? Sure, he thought. Why didn’t you think of that before? That’s the best thing for them to do.