shoulders. As I turned, dripping, Jones, re- lieved of the wheel, touched me on the arm. "Go back to sleep, boy," he said kindly. "We need you, and we're goin' to need you more when we get ashore. You've been talkin' in your sleep till you plumb scared me." But I was wide awake by that time, and he had had as little sleep as I had. I refused, and we went forward together, Jones to get coffee, which stood all night on the galley stove. It was still dark. The dawn, even in the less than four weeks we had been out, came per- ceptibly later. At the port forward corner of the after house, Jones stumbled over something, and gave a sharp exclamation. The next mo- ment he was on his knees, lighting a match. Burns lay there on his face, unconscious, and bleeding profusely from a cut on the back of his head -- but not dead. -172- |