Part 4 (1/2)
Firoon across the channel, and by the ti horizon I had Dancer riding peacefully on two heavy anchors, and I was sitting up on the bridge enjoying the last of the day and the first Scotch of the evening In the saloon below me there was the internored it, not even bothering to use the ventilator, until the firstaround my ears I went below and the conversation dried up at my entry
I thickened the juice and served my clam casserole with baked yams and pineapple salad and they ate in dedicated silence
”My God, that is even better than rinned at hi Jaht and went up on deck to check Dancer's ht
A great stillness lay upon the night, disturbed only by the soft chuckle of the tide against Dancer's side - and far off the boo and tall fro in thunder and white upon the coral of Gunfire Reef The na thuun
Thesilver and highlighted the bald domes of the peaks of the Old Men so they shone like ivory Below theoon writhed and twisted like torht the whisper of movement behind me and I whirled to face it Guthrie had followedleopard He wore only a pair of jockey shorts and his body hite andblack 45, dangling at arh We stared at each other for a ot to give up now You really aren't my type at all,” I told him, but there was adrenalin in my blood and my voice rasped
”When the ti this,”he said, and lifted the autorinned
We ate breakfast before sun-up and I took e to drink as we ran up the channel towards the open sea Materson was below, and Guthrie lolled in the fighting chair Jimmy stood beside me and explained his requirements for this day
He was tense with excite with the first scent of the bird in his nostrils
”I want to get some shots off the peaks of the Old Men,” he explained ”I want to use your hand-bearing cos, Jiested
”Let's do it my way, skipper,” he replied aardly, and I could not prevent a flare of irritation in le scout” He flushed and went to the port rail to sight the peaks through the lens of the coain
”Can we turn about two points to port now, skipper?”
”Sure we can,” I grinned at him, ”but, of course, that would pile us on to the end of Gunfire Reef - and we'd tear her belly out”
it took another two hours of groping about through the h the channel into the open sea and circled back to approach Gunfire Reef froame of hunt the thi me with the two references that would enable
Out here the swellstaller andbottoed in towards the outer reef
Where the swells nity turned to sudden fury, and they boiled up and burst in leviathan spouts of spray, pouring wildly over the coral with the explosive shock of is, white water cascading and crea its great slick back for the next assault
Jiing course with the reef, and I could tell ere very close to his erly, first at one and then the other peak of the Old Men
”Steady as you go, skipper,” he called ”Just ease her down on that heading”
I looked ahead, tearingcoral for a few seconds, and I watched the next swell charge in and break - except at a narrow point five hundred yards ahead Here the swell kept its shape and ran on uninterrupted towards the land On each side, the swell broke on coral, but just at that one point it was open
Suddenly I remembered Chubby's boast
”I was just nineteen when I pulled my first jewfish out of the hole at Gunfire Break Weren't no other would fish with ain - got a little more brains now”
Gunfire Break, suddenly I knew that here ere heading I tried to remember exactly what Chubby had told me about it
”If you coh water, steer for the oentre of the gap until you co old head of brain coral on your starboard side, you'll knohen you see it, pass it close as you can and then co hole tucked in neatly behind the main reef Closer you are on the back of the reef the better, man-” I remembered it clearly then, Chubby in his talkative phase in the public bar of the Lord Nelson, boastful as one of the very fewto hold you there, you got to lean on the oars to hold station in the gap - the hole at Gunfire Break is deep,One day I took four fish, and the smallest was three hundred pounds Could have took more - but time was up You can't stay in Gunfire Break h the Break like they pulled the chain on the whole damned sea You come out the same way you went in, only you pray just a little harder on the way out --,”cos you got a ton of fish on board, and ten feet less water under your keel There is another way out through a channel in the back of the reef But I don't even like to talk about that one Only tried it once”
Noere bearing down directly on the Break, Jiht into the eye of it
”Okay, Jio” I opened the throttle and sheered off,back to face Jimmy's wrath
”We were alone in a little closer”
”You having trouble up there, boy?” Guthrie shouted up froht,” Jimmy called back, and then turned furiously to me ”You are under contract, Mr Fletcher!
”I want to show you so, James, and I took him to the chart table The Break wasof thirty fatho instruction for it Quickly I pencilled in the bearings of the two extreme peaks of the Old Men frole they subtended
”That right?” I asked hiht, isn't it?” I insisted and then reluctantly he nodded ”
”Yes, that's the spot,” he agreed, and I went on to tell hiet in there,” he said at the end of h he had not heard a word of it
”No way,” I told him ”The only place I'm interested in now is Grand Harbour, St Mary's Island,” and I laid Dancer on that course As far as I was concerned the charter was over
Jimmy disappeared down the ladder, and returned within minutes with reinforcery and outraged
”Say the word, and I'll tear the bastard's arm off and beat him to death with the wet end,” Mike Guthrie said with relish
”The kid says you pulling out?” Materson wanted to know ”Now that's not right - is it?” I explained once more about the hazards of Gunfire Break and they sobered immediately
”Take me close as you can - I'll swim in the rest of the way,” Jimmy asked me, but I replied directly to Materson ”You'd lose him, for certain sure Do you want to risk that?”
He didn't answer, but I could see that Jimmy was much too valuable for them to take the chance
”Let me try,” Jimmy insisted, but Materson shook his head irritably
”If we can't get into the Break, at least let e,” Ji under the canvas wrapping on the foredeck
”Just a couple of passes” along the front edge of the reef, past the entrance to the break” He was pleading now, and Materson looked questioningly at me You don't often have opportunities like this offered you on a silver tray I knew I could run Dancer within spitting distance of the coral without risk, but I froorriedly
”I'd be taking a hell of a chance - but if we could agree on a bit of old danger money” I had Materson over the arm of the chair and I caned him for an extra day's hire - five hundred dollars, payable in advance
While we did the business, Guthrie helped Jie and carry it back to the cockpit
I tucked the sheath of bank notes away and went back to rig the tow lines The sledge was a beautifully constructed toboggan of stainless steel and plastic In place of snow runners, it had stubby fin controls, rudder and hydrofoils, operated by a short joystick below the Perspex pilot's shi+eld