Read Online Far Tortuga by Peter Matthiessen - Free Book Online Page A

face.
    Entonces—abril, mayo, julio, septiembre
. Dat three month? I go back over dere three month.
    A silence.
    Will? Give us dat tale about de
Majestic
and Copm Steadman.
    No, mon. Dat de back time now, I tryin to forget dat.
    Will? You
shamed
of dat some way?
    Will gazes awhile at Athens.
    Well, I know
you
never be ashamed. But I thinks about de shipmates dat we left behind onto dat vessel, and dere faces lookin out at us over de rail dere. I tell you something, I gone to remember dat right to my grave. Every man of dem was silent; nobody said a word. But dere was one boy dere dat give us a kind of wave …
    Will raises his hand vaguely, still looking at the deck, then raises his head to gaze at the men’s faces.
    I gone to have dat boy’s wave with me on de day I die.

5 A.M .
    Black waves, turning gray.
    Wodie, at the wheel, stops humming and clears his throat. He pitches his voice low.
    Copm? I seein lights dere, Copm. Off de starb’d beam.
    How you know I was awake?
    Raib appears in yellowed undershirt, scratching his crotch. He considers Wodie, then turns toward the dark horizon.
    Ain’t no beacons in dis ocean—dem is runnin lights. Vessel must be comin out de back of Alligator. No turtle dere, nothin but sharks, so dat must be Desmond, sneakin around. (
spits over the rail
) You head west, hit de banks about daylight, we be just right.
    The
Eden
turns downwind, toward the southeast edge of Gorda Bank. At sunrise she is on the banks again, running south-southwest toward the northern edge of Alargate Reef.

    Raib replaces the canvas-and-lard baits with strips of flying fish. The silvery fish, attracted by the naked light over the engine hatch, have come aboard during the night. Squatting at the taffrail, he sews strips of fish to hooks with a sail needle, notching the baits to make them tail more naturally in the water. His thick hard lumpy fisherman’s hands move gently, and though it is dead, he talks softly to the wild-eyed fish as if to calm it.
    Fly too high, darlin, you fly too high.
    He laughs his deep accumulating laugh, and his broad back quakes beneath the weathered shirt.

    The
Eden
rides easily on the following wind, her jib and foresail taut. The trolling lines, hitched to the stanchions, sail out over the wake, and the baits, flashing at the surface, dart and hurry in the morning sea. Soon the fish rise; both lines go taut with a small
thump
and are hauled in hand over hand, skidding and cutting across the wake as the fish run.
    Three kingfish, a Spanish mackerel, four barracuda fly up out of the sea; they slap and skitter on the deck. A barra with black spots and a black dorsal snaps at the bare legs and Athens smacks it with a marlin spike across the head. A glaze on the gelatin eyes: the pupil dims.
    The barracuda shivers and lies still.
    Blood all over de deck! Hit dat fish cross de top of de head, mon, not in de gill part! Even de boy know better den dat!
    Will, I gone get dat bastard fore he get me, dass
my
policy!
    Well, grob a bucket den and swab dat gurry off fore it get sticky!
    Listen to dis fella! Soon de Coptin out of sight, he show us who de boss!
    I de mate, mon! You don’t believe dat, den wait see who get de mate’s half-share!
    Nemmine, Will, you a good fella. Dem as say you so stubborn and stupid don’t know you as good as we do.

    We gone eat dat barra with de spots? Dey say dem spots is poisonous.
    Me, I eats de spots, throw away de rest. Next to stripes, de thing I like de best in life is
spots
.
    Laughing, Athens tosses a fresh bait to the sea.
    Well, Athens, a mon get domn sick on poison fish!
    It de fishenin ground, not de fish. Dere dat famous place long by West Bay Beach, where de fish poisonous—not only de barra. De jack and de rockfish and all of dem.
    No, mon. De only where dere is poison fish is on dat bank eight, nine miles west de island—
dat
is de famous place. Something dat dey eat dere turn de jack a bad-lookin black color. Dem few poison fish at West Bay