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星期六 
0049Are you doing it? Yes,he said. ¨Its wonderful. Do you know now what we have? Yes,he said. ¨Yes I know. Its easy to give up. Will you give up everything? Are you glad I brought back the boys and that I come and be a devil in the night? Yes. Im glad of everything and will you swing your hair across my face and give me your mouth please and hold me so tight it kills me? Of course. And youll do it for me? When he woke he touched the blanket and he did not know, for an instant, that it was a dream. Then he lay on his side and felt the pistol holster between his legs and how it was really and all the hollownesses in him were twice as hollow and there was a new one from the dream. He saw it was still light and he saw the dinghy carrying water to his ship and he saw the white pounding of the surf on the reef. He turned on his side and tucked the blanket around himself and slept on his arms. He was asleep when they came to wake him and he had not dreamed at all this time. IV HE STEERED ALL THAT NIGHT and he had Ara on the flying bridge with him until midnight and then Henry. They were running with a heavy beam sea and steering was like riding a horse downhill, he thought. It is all downhill and sometimes it is across the side of a hill. The sea is many hills and in here it is a broken country like the badlands. Talk to me,he said to Ara. What about, Tom? Anything. Peters couldnt raise Guant?namo again. He has ruined it. The new big one. I know,Thomas Hudson said and tried to roll her as little as he could, riding the side of the hill. ¨Hes burnt out something that he cant repair. Hes listening,Ara said. ¨Willie is keeping him awake. Whos keeping Willie awake? Hes awake good,Ara said. ¨He doesnt sleep any better than you. How about you? Im good for all night if you want. Dont you want me to steer? No. I havent anything else to do. Tom, how badly do you feel? I dont know. How badly can you feel? Its useless,Ara said. ¨Would you like the wineskin? No. Bring me up a bottle of cold tea and check on Peters and Willie. Check on everything. Ara went down and Thomas Hudson was alone with the night and the sea and he still rode it like a horse going downhill too fast across broken country. Henry came up with the bottle of cold tea. How are we, Tom?he asked. Were perfect. Peters has the Miami police department on the old radio. All the prowl cars. Willie wants to talk to them. But I told him he couldnt. Correct. On the UHF, Peters has something squirting in German but he says it is way up with the wolf packs. He couldnt hear it then. Its a very funny night, Tom. Its not that funny. I dont know. Im just telling you. Give me the course and let me take her and you go down. Has Peters logged it? Of course. Tell Juan to give me a fix and have Peters log it. When was the son of a bitch squirting? When I came up. Tell Juan to get the fix and log it right away. Yes, Tom. How are all the comic characters? Sleeping. Gil, too. Get the rag out and have Peters log the fix. Do you want it? I know too damn well where we are. Yes, Tom,Henry said. ¨Take it easy if you can. Henry came up but Thomas Hudson did not feel like talking and Henry stood by him on the flying bridge and braced himself against the roll. After an hour he said, ¨Theres a light, Tom. Off our starboard bow about twenty degrees. Thats right. When he was abeam of it he changed the course and the sea was astern. Now she is headed home to pasture,he said to Henry. ¨Were in the channel now. Wake Juan and get him up here and really keep your eyes open. You were late on the light. Im sorry, Tom. Ill get Juan. Wouldnt you like a four-man watch? Not until just before daylight,Thomas Hudson said. ¨Ill give you the word. They might have cut across the > banks, Thomas Hudson was thinking. But I dont think they would. They wouldnt want to cross at night and in daytime the banks wouldnt look good to deep-water sailors. Theyd make their turn where I did. Then they would edge across comfortably the way we are going to do and they would probably hit for the highest part of the Cuban coast that showed. They dont want to get into any port so they will run with the wind. They will keep outside of Confites because they know there is a radio station there. But they have to get food and they have to get water. Actually they would do best to try to get as close to Havana as they could to land somewhere around Bacuranao and then infiltrate in from there. Ill send a signal from Confites. I wont ask him what to do. That will hold us up if hes away. Ill tell him what it is and what Im doing. He can make his own dispositions. Guant?namo can make theirs and Camag?ey can make theirs and La Fe theirs and the FBI theirs and maybe something will happen in a week. Hell, he thought. Ill get them this week. Theyve got to stop for water and to cook what they have before the animals starve and rot. Theres a good chance they will run only at nights and lay up daytimes. That would be logical. Thats what I would do if I were them. Try to think like an intelligent German sailor with the problems this undersea boat commander has. He has problems all right, Thomas Hudson thought. And the worst problem he has is us and he doesnt even know about us. We dont look dangerous to him. We look good to him. Dont take it in any bloodthirsty way, he thought. Nothing of this is going to bring back anything. Use your head and be glad to have something to do and good people to do it with. Juan,he said. ¨What do you see, boy? All bloody ocean. You other gentlemen see anything? Bloody nothing,Gil said. My bloody belly sees coffee. But it doesnt come any closer,Ara said. I see land,Henry said. He had seen it that instant, a low square smudge as though a mans thumb had daubed weak ink against the lightening sky. Thats behind Romano,Thomas Hudson said. ¨Thank you, Henry. Now you characters go down for coffee and send up four other desperate men to see strange and amusing things. Do you want coffee, Tom?Ara asked. No. Ill take tea when its made. Weve only been on watch a couple of hours,Gil said. ¨We dont need to go off, Tom. Go on down and get coffee and give the other desperate men a chance for glory. Tom, didnt you say you thought they were at Lobos?
feiyu2009 发表于：2010-4-24 10:53:04
