by kps
Carolina clung to the rope and was pulled aboard by the strange sailor-who saved many lives that day but lost his own when he ventured into an attic where he heard a child crying and was carried downward to a watery death when the house collapsed.
Bruised, half drowned, she collapsed upon the deck while the sailor busied himself with pulling others aboard.
"Help me," he called curtly, and Carolina scrambled up to pull on a rope that rescued people clinging to chimneys with their children hanging on to them, lifted people out of boats-for everyone rushed to salvation on this "Noah's Ark" that had suddenly appeared in their midst.
There seemed to be people everywhere in the water -swimming, screaming, shouting, hanging on to things, losing their grip, disappearing. Most of the injured that day drowned so that those pulled aboard were for the most part able-bodied.
Frenzied rescue efforts went on all afternoon, and of each person hauled aboard Carolina tensely asked the same question: Had they seen Captain Kells? But none of them had and Carolina's worried gaze, sweeping the sea and the ruined town, found no trace of the Sea Wolf, which when last she sighted it was being rowed so valiantly to shore. She never stopped asking but the answer was always the same. No one had seen the captain.
As the frenzied rescue efforts continued, Carolina's mind seemed a dizzy blank. She was called first here, then there, as she went through the motions of helping others.
When the sun sank over Port Royal, the Palisadoes sandspit was a scene of utter desolation. Many ships had been sunk in the harbor. Sturdy Fort James and Fort Carlisle had disappeared. The tall houses were gone-indeed, less than a tenth of the buildings remained standing at all, and most of those were in such ruinous condition that their owners feared to enter them.
Carolina was still working when night fell. Then, like others, she sank to the deck exhausted.
But not to sleep. She stared up at the stars and her tired face mirrored deadly fear. In all the commotion, all the trying to stay alive and save others, she had not been able to find out the one thing most important to her.
Where was Kells? Oh, God, where was Kells?
Chapter 13
The answer to that question was brought to her by Hawks shortly after sunup.
Sleeping fitfully, overshadowed by a sense of doom, Carolina had waked with the dawn and struggled up, stiff and sore from her endeavors and her harsh treatment of the day before. She had staggered to the rail and looked out over an empty landscape of a shattered and drowned city-no, it was not empty at all for there were people and boats already plying their way around or clustered about the drowned rooftops: Householders and divers already at work, trying to recover plate and other valuables from the sunken buildings.
Watching them, it came to her how easily was human endeavor brought to naught.
Yesterday at this time there had been a teeming city about her, all life and hubbub.
And today ... today there were groans and yawns about her as others like herself roused to face what the new day might bring.
Her shoulders drooped. Where was Kells? Where could she find him? Was he alive or dead? No one seemed to have seen him. She did not even know where to begin to look!
As she stood gloomily by the rail, staring unseeing across the waste of desolation before her, she was hailed by a familiar voice and looked down startled to see Hawks. He sat below her in a rowboat, resting on his oars and looking-save for his tom clothing, a jagged cut down one cheek, and two very black eyes-very much as usual.
"Hawks!" she called down to him, amazed. "It can't be you! I saw the earth swallow you up at Morgan's Line!"
"And so it did," he rejoined cheerfully. "But the sea rushed in before the hole could close up and it washed us all out of there. I was one of the few who didn't drown, which is a wonder because I still have this." He patted the cutlass by his side.
"Oh, Hawks!" Carolina was leaning over the rail, so glad to see him alive that she was laughing and crying at the same time. "But what of Kells? Is there any word of him? I saw the Sea Wolf being rowed into the harbor just before the earthquake struck but when I looked around this morning I could find no sign of it."
Hawks looked up at her, startled and disturbed. "Are you sure it was the Sea Wolf?"
he demanded.
"Oh, yes, Hawks, I'm sure. I was studying it through a spyglass when the earthquake knocked the glass from my hand."
Hawks dipped an oar into the water. "I'll see what I can find out," he promised.
"Oh, Hawks-take me with you," she entreated.
He shook his head. "Best I go alone," he said and rowed away.
Waiting for word seemed to Carolina the hardest thing she had ever done in her life.
It was two hours before Hawks returned, and she was hanging over the side calling out to him long before he could reach the vessel's hull.
But he didn't answer her anxious questions, which seemed to Carolina ominous.
Instead he called up, "Ask them to lower you down on a rope ladder. I been talking to the governor and he's got us a place to stay temporary like."
Careless of her billowing skirts, Carolina climbed down the hastily lowered rope ladder and almost tumbled into the boat. Hawks caught her and there was something reassuring in his strong grip.
"What have you learned?" she asked breathlessly.
Hawks, mindful of eyes and ears on the ship above, said loudly, "Wasn't the Sea Wolf you saw-must have been some other ship."
But Carolina, protesting, cried, "It was, Hawks, it was!"
When they were out of earshot of the ship Carolina had just departed, Hawks said,
"Not so loud, mistress. If the governor hears you're alone, everything swept away, he might not be so eager to see you in furnished quarters."
Alone! The word sank in on Carolina. "Hawks," she quavered. "Don't beat about the bush-tell me straight out." "The cap'n's dead," said Hawks on a long drawn-out sigh.
And there was sorrow in his eyes and in his voice.
Carolina crumpled to the bottom of the boat, her head in her hands. A long shuddering sigh went through her. After a moment she looked up.
"Where is he, Hawks?" she asked dully. "Can I go to him?"
Hawks, who had loved the captain too, man and boy, was looking out into the far distance, past muddy, scarred, broken Port Royal, across the blue Caribbean, fiercely bright in the morning sun. He was seeing another day, a younger Kells, whose sword had flashed bright in the sun, whose laugh had rung out across the water while the wind sang in the rigging.
"I found one of the Sea Wolfs crew, fellow named Price," he said at last, and his gruff voice sounded almost matter-of-fact. "He was dying but he told me what had happened. It was an unlucky voyage from the first. Off Trinidad they ran into a pair of galleons. The galleons were of a mind to fight, and the Sea Wolf blew them both out of the water. But they took some blows themselves and they decided to head back here for repairs. That's when they ran into the Santo Domingo. They fought her for three hours and when the sun went down the Santo Domingo struck her colors. They took her crew on board--but she wasn't carrying no treasure and she was short-handed because they'd had sickness on board. That's when the hurricane got them.
The Sea Wolf had been shot up, her masts damaged, and now the whole lot of it got stripped away."
"Yes," cried Carolina, hanging on his words. "I saw it. They were rowing in without their masts-I didn't recognize the ship at first."
"If they'd got here a day later or a day earlier they'd have made it," Hawks said glumly. "But as it was they came right in with the earthquake. The sea picked them up and hurled them into the town same as that ship back there." He jerked his head at the frigate Swan which she had just left.
"But why isn't the Sea Wolf on top of the houses like the Swan?" demanded Carolina.
"Because she was already too bad hurt and she broke up. Everyone drowned--including the cap'n." He cleared his throat, and pointed. "They went down right over there."
"Wouldn't do no good," he mumbled.
"Yes, it would, Hawks. Then we'd know."
"That's right," he said, suddenly as eager as she. "We could send divers down-s-only what would we pay them with?" "With promises!" cried Carolina. "Once I get to England, Hawks, I'll have plenty of gold." "Gold in England won't help," Hawks sighed. "They'll want to be paid now-in coin of the realm."
Carolina had a sudden inspiration. "We'll tell them there's a treasure map on his body, Hawks! That will lure them!"
Hawks gave the captain's lady an admiring look. "We can try it," he agreed. "There's some divers over there."
He rowed them to where some divers were diving into a house, bringing up silver plates for a big bearded fellow clad in a nightshirt, who kept muttering, "Good. Mary will like that."
Hawks leaned over and muttered to Carolina. "He was sick in bed when the quake hit. His whole family's washed away. He's pretending to himself they're still alive.
Mary was his wife."
Carolina gave the large gentleman a pitying look. "Could we borrow your divers for a short while?" she asked. "We need them to look for my husband."
"If you have to dive for him, mistress, you won't find him alive," the large gentleman told her gloomily. "No-of course, I know that. But there was a treasure map on him."
One of the divers looked at her keenly. "Who was your husband?"
His words made Carolina realize how battered and disreputable she looked-no one would recognize the Silver Wench now. Her bright hair was tied back with a piece of rope, her face and arms were bruised. "He was Captain Kells," she said simply and the diver shot a startled look at her and turned to speak to the other one with him. "If the Silver Wench says he's got a treasure map . . ." she heard him say, and his next words were lost to her. But he turned quickly. "We'll dive where you say, mistress."
And to the large house-holder who was looking indignant as he sat astride his roof holding three silver trenchers, he said, "We'll be back soon." Both divers climbed into the rowboat with Hawks and Carolina.
"The wreck's over there, sunk beside that building," said Hawks. "Look." He pointed.
"Just to the right of where you see that chimney sticking up." He swayed as one of the aftershocks shook the water.
Carolina also looked at that lone chimney sticking up, and bit her lip. But he wasn't down there, she told herself firmly, to still that dull ache in her heart. He wasn't. No, he was one of the lucky ones like herself. He was looking for her now and he had somehow missed her-although it escaped her how anyone could miss the frigate Swan lying spectacularly on the roofs of the submerged houses in what had once been the center of town. The divers would go down and search the wreck. They would not find him-and that would give her hope.
"My husband is tall," she began. "And dark-" "I've seen your husband, mistress, many's the time," one of the divers cut in. The other nodded his wet head and agreed, "Everyone in Port Royal knows Captain Kells."
So they would know him when they saw him.... She wasn't sure whether that made her feel better or worse.
She looked about her. There were bodies floating everywhere. She remembered hearing someone say thousands had died.
As if he caught her thought, one of the divers said conversationally, "The quake ripped up the burying place at Palisadoes and the water tore up the graves and scattered them as was buried."
Carolina felt sick. Hawks turned and gave the speaker a level look, and he fell silent.
They had reached the chimney now, wet pink bricks with water lapping around where smoke should have been coming out.... Hands clenched, Carolina sat and watched while the divers went over the side.
The hull was indeed down there, they came back to report-half of it at least.
"Bow or stem?" asked Hawks, who was no diver.
"Stem. We made out the name Sea Wolf."
"Look in the great cabin!" cried Carolina.
"He wouldn't be in there with all that was going on," protested Hawks. "He might have been." Hawks shrugged. "Look in the great cabin like she says."
The divers went down again into the murky water. They came up bearing a gold money chain. Hawks snatched it. "Now you'll get paid in gold," he said.
The next dive brought up another money chain.
"Must have been from the dons aboard the Santo Domingo," muttered Hawks, fingering the gold links that could be twisted free and used for money.
"But-did you see anyone?" Carolina asked faintly.
"Not Captain Kells." The first diver, a burly man, turned to Hawks with a frown. "You ought to give us one of those chains."
"No, you'll get diver's usual pay," said Hawks.
"We get more'n that today," the other said menacingly. "By rights we should have three-quarters-we take all the risk. Besides, there's a sea of mud pourin' down the Cobre and everything down there"-he turned a thumb downward to the sunken city-
"is still slippin' out to sea. And sinkin'. Soon we won't be able to see nothin' in this ooze. We got to get on to other jobs where there's known valuables-like the gold-smith's over yonder."
"They've already dived on that," Hawks said calmly.
"Yes, but they didn't get it all!"
During this battle of words Carolina noticed that the rowboat had somehow edged a little away from the chimney. She tensed.
"Dive again, please," she pleaded. "See if he's down there."
"Dive again," Hawks commanded harshly.
The two divers exchanged angry looks. One muttered something to the other but they submerged as ordered. When they came up the first diver said sulkily, "He was there all right. But we didn't find no map."
Carolina gave a great heartbroken cry.
"How come you didn't see him sooner?" demanded Hawks. The rowboat was now a few feet farther from the chimney.
"Because a great pile of stuff had fallen on him when the hull broke and the ship went over," was the impatient reply. "Now we've done what we come for. Pay us and let's go."
"Bring him up."
"What?"
"I said bring him up!" thundered Hawks.
"Like hell we will! It ain't safe down there-"
As if to confirm that, another of the frequent after-shocks rocked the surface and there was a sudden rumble. The chimney on which the divers sat crumbled, spilling them into the water. They gave a shout and broke toward the boat.
Hawks had seized the oars and was pulling swiftly away. "We'll leave your money with the governor and you can collect it from him," he called. "Diver's pay."
There were angry shouts behind him as the divers tried to swim toward the boat.
Carolina looked up at Hawks through her tears. "If they won't dive down and bring him up, Hawks--" "Nobody will. Too dangerous now with the houses settlin' down and breakin' up." "But we have two gold money chains! Surely that's enoughl" Hawks shrugged. "Any other day it might be. But not today."
Carolina leaned forward tensely. "But how do I know they haven't made a mistake in that murk? How do I know it's Kells they saw down there?"
"They're all down there," Hawks said softly, and there was sorrow in his voice. "And all dead. Can't do them no good now. But I knew you wouldn't be satisfied till you saw him for yourself. That's why I asked them to pull him up."
Carolina's hands clenched. "I won't believe it!" she cried. "I won't believe he's dead.
He's alive, I tell you. He was a fine swimmer. He--" She broke off, staring at Hawks, horrified that she had said was and not is.
"If he'd been alive he'd've found you afore now," Hawks said solemnly. "Not nothing would have deterred him, not the cap'n." There was admiration in his voice, and regret. Hawks had lost more than a captain -he had lost a friend. "All of them gone...."
And Betts and Cook and Gilly, too—and oh,so many others. Vanished
. ..
As if he had had the same thought, Hawks's voice penetrated her gloom. "Buried under the houses," he muttered, pulling hard on the oars as if by strenuous exercise he could dull emotion. "With the sea closed over their heads."
Sunk beneath the sea, fathoms down, trapped in wet green darkness-forever....
Carolina made a little choked protesting sound and Hawks turned a pitying look on her. "You got to be thinking of yourself now, mistress."
Unable to bear the pity in his blue eyes, Carolina swung her attention to the pair of divers, swimming strongly toward the next chimney that stuck up through the water.
"We should go back and pick them up, Hawks," she sighed.
"And have them kill us for these money chains? Let them swim to their next job!"
Hawks was pulling mightily on the oars as he spoke. "There's no law in this town today, mistress. A man can kill for what he wants, throw his victim in the sea and none be the wiser!" His face was grim. "That fellow back there who'd lost his wife-if that pair of divers bring up enough plate or jewelry, do you think he'll live to see another morning? Why should they share it with him? You heard them-they take all the risks!" He snorted.
Silence fell in the boat.
What he said was true, thought Carolina, dashing the tears from her eyes and looking out over the ruins of the submerged city, afloat with dead bodies. There was treasure in these houses, for Port Royal had been a rich trading town: silver bars, ingots, plate, jewelry, money chains, golden doubloons, pieces of eight. Treasure men thought worth fighting for, dying for.
"Indeed, mistress," said Hawks, who had already thought about it. "I think ye should get ye gone before nightfall. I see there's new ships in the harbor now that the wind's come up and ye should speak to the governor about getting ye on one of them."
"Oh, Hawks," she murmured. "What have I to live for? One place is as good as another."
"Time heals," he said roughly. "And the cap'n wouldn't like it if he thought I let anything happen to you now he's gone."