He waked Peters by Flitting him thoroughly and Peters shook his head with the earphones on and said softly, “I’ve been trying hard, Tom, all the time. But there’s nothing.”
Thomas Hudson looked at the glass with a torch and it was rising. That will give them a breeze, he thought. Well, they can’t say they haven’t had luck again. Now I must figure that.
He went back to the stern and sprayed all the Flit he could into the cabin without waking the people.
He sat in the stern and watched the night clear and flitted himself occasionally. They were short of repellent but had plenty of Flit. It burned where a man had been sweating but it was better than sand flies. Their effect differed from mosquitoes in that you could not hear them before they hit and there was an instant itching from the bite. The bites made a swelling about the size of a very small pea. In some places on the coast and on the keys, they were more virulent than in others. At least their bites seemed to be much more annoying. But, he thought, that could be the condition that our hides are in and how much they are burned and toughened. I do not know how the natives stand them. They have to be hardy people to live on this coast and in the Bahamas when the trades aren’t blowing.
He sat in the stern watching and listening. There were two planes, high in the sky, and he listened to the throbbing of the motors until they no longer could be heard.
Big bombers going to Camagüey on the way to Africa or going straight through to somewhere and nothing to do with us. Well, he thought, they are not bothered by sand flies. Neither am I. The hell with them. The hell with them and the hell I’m not. But I’d like to get some daylight and get out of here. We’ve checked all the way up to the end of the point, thanks to Willie, and I’ll run the little channel right along the edge of the bank. There’s only one bad place and with the morning light I can see it OK even in a calm. Then we’ll be at Guillermo.
They were underway at daylight and Gil, who had the best eyes, was watching the green shore line with the twelve-power glasses. They were close enough to shore for him to see a cut mangrove branch. Thomas Hudson was steering. Henry was watching out to sea. Willie was backing up Gil.
“They’re past this part, anyway,” Willie said.
“But we have to check,” Ara said. He was backing up Henry.
“Sure,” Willie said. “I was just commenting.”
“Where’s that Dawn Patrol from that damned Molasses ship at Cayo Francés?”
“They don’t patrol on Sundays, do they?” Willie asked. “This must be a Sunday.”
“There’s going to be a breeze,” Ara said. “Look at the cirrus.”
“I’m afraid of one thing,” Thomas Hudson said. “That they’ve gone in through the pass at Guillermo.”
“We’ll have to see.”
“Let’s hook the hell up and get there,” Willie said. “This is getting on my nerves.”
“That’s the impression I get sometimes,” Henry said.
Willie looked at him and spat over the side. “Thank you, Henry,” he said. “That’s the impression I wish to give.”
“Break it up,” Thomas Hudson said. “See that big coral head to starboard that’s just awash? That’s what we have to not hit. On the inside, gentlemen, is Guillermo. See how green she is and full of promise?”
“One more goddam key,” Willie said.
“Can you make out any smoke from charcoal burning?” Thomas Hudson asked.
Gil swept it very carefully and said, “No, Tom.”
“The way it rained last night there wouldn’t be any smoke,” Willie said.
“You’re wrong for once, boy,” Thomas Hudson said.
“Maybe.”
“No. It could rain like hell all night and not put one of those big burnings out. I’ve seen it rain three days and hardly bother one.”
“You know more about them than me,” Willie said. “OK, there could be smoke. I hope there is.”
“That’s a bad shoal,” Henry said. “I don’t believe they could run in those squalls along here.”