The sea was black, oily. The fog had thinned a little and the ship rolled lazily on a long even ground swell. Far to the left, Kells could see yellow sky over Long Beach, and to the right a distant winking light that might be the Eaglet. There was no sign of the launch.
Then he heard shouting and the sound of people running on the deck above him. He waited, listened, looked at the sea. The black water reddened; Kells leaned far out of the port and saw a long tongue of flame astern. As he watched, the water and the sky brightened. All the after quarter of the ship was afire.
When he again looked forward, a launch had rounded the bow, was idling about two hundred yards off.
Kells stuck the revolver in his belt, untied and kicked off his shoes. Then he took out the revolver, fired twice into the red darkness. By the mounting glow from astern he thought he saw a white hand, raised; the launch swung toward him in a wide circle.
He put the sheaf of crisp bills into his hip pocket, buttoned the flap. He took off his coat and threw it and the revolver into the sea. He picked the little man up in his arms, said, “Pull yourself together, baby — we’re going bye-bye,” got him somehow through the port, dropped him. Then he stood on the lower edge of the port, took a deep breath, dived. There was darkness and the shock of cold water.
He came to the surface a few yards from the little man, reached him in two long strokes and hooked one hand under his armpit. The shock had revived him — he struggled feebly.
Kells grunted, “Take it easy,” and swam toward the launch.
The red-faced man whom Kells had talked to on the wharf leaned over the gunwale; together they hoisted the little man aboard. Then the red-faced man helped Kells. He had been alone in the launch. He went to the wheel.
Kells took off his trousers and wrung them out. He said: “How come you’re alone?”
The red-faced man put his wheel hard over, spat high into the wind. “Fay said for you to go something yourself,” he said. “I went back to the wharf and then I got to worrying, so I come out by myself.”