“I’ve got an idea, Biff.”
“Let’s have it, Li.”
“Well, look, you know how well I can swim under water. Suppose I slip into the water on this side of the wharf. Then I’ll swim under it, and I can come up right beside the boat. I’ll move along from porthole to porthole and see if I can find out what’s going on in the boat.”
“Sounds okay to me. Good thing we changed into shorts. Be careful not to make any noise.”
“Me, Biff? I’ll be as quiet as a fish.”
He was, too. There wasn’t even the faintest “ker-plop” as Li lowered himself over the edge of the dock and sank into the water.
Biff waited tensely. From behind his stack of pineapple crates, he could get a good view of the starboard side of the yawl. He could see right to the water line and the four portholes just above it.
Moments became minutes, and it seemed to Biff that the minutes were stretching out much too long. Had Li met some obstruction beneath the dock? Biff’s worry was increasing. Finally, he noticed a circle of lightly rippling water near the bow of the boat. In the center of the circle, he could just spot Li’s head.
He watched as his friend slowly raised himself by the boat’s starboard gunnel until his head was even with the porthole. Noiselessly, Li dropped back into the water and took two strokes toward the stern. Now he peered into the second porthole. He repeated the process at the third porthole and moved on to the fourth. The fourth must be the one, Biff figured, that was in the small compartment where the yawl’s auxiliary engine was located.
Li took a longer time at this porthole. Biff watched him intently through the growing darkness. A slight movement on the boat caused him to raise his eyes. He gasped.