Swimming to Catalina

52

Stone grabbed Arrington and helped her down off the bed. They had to duck underwater to get through the door, which was now submerged, then surfaced in the corridor, and, half walking and half swimming, they made their way aft. The yacht was sinking much faster than Stone would have believed possible.

Gradually, as they moved toward the stern, the depth of the water decreased, since the yacht was down by the bows. Stone remembered that he had a flashlight in his pocket, and he stopped feeling his way and turned it on. Protected by its rubber covering, it still worked. “Do you remember a stairway back here anywhere?” he asked. The noise of the water coming in was less in the after part of the ship.

“No,” she said. “I was blindfolded when we came aboard.”

“There’s got to be a way up,” Stone said, half to himself. “It would be crazy to have only one set of stairs to all the decks.” He kept wading aft; the water was only waist-deep now.

“Where did you come from?” she asked. “How did you find me?”

“There’s a long answer to your first question,” he said. “I’ll tell you later. As to finding you, I had no idea whatever you were aboard. If you hadn’t been kicking the bulkhead, you’d still be in that cabin.”

“Thanks for telling me,” she said.

The light finally shone on what Stone had been looking for; a spiral staircase was only a few feet ahead. “There!” he shouted.

“Hurry!” she shouted back.

They started up the stairs, but then there was a rumble, and the yacht seemed to stand nearly on her head.

“What was that?” she asked.

“The door to the crew quarters must have given way,” Stone said, “and the water all rushed forward.”

They were now moving almost horizontally up the spiral staircase. They made the next deck and continued to move along, walking carefully on the curved banister risers.

“What do we do when we get out?” Arrington asked.

“Dino is waiting in a boat.”

“Dino?What the hell is he doing here?”

“We’ve all been very concerned about you.”

They finally emerged into the main saloon, which, like the rest of the yacht, was standing nearly on end.

“We’ve got to make that door,” Stone said, pointing above them. A round table was a few feet away, apparently bolted to the floor. “I think I can grab the pedestal,” he said. He stood on the banister of the nearly horizontal staircase, got an arm around the pedestal, and hoisted himself onto it.

From somewhere deep in the bowels of the big yacht there came a menacing rumble, and the ship began her final journey to the bottom. Water rushed at them from below as Stone got hold of Arrington’s wrist and pulled her up with him.

“It’s too far to the door,” he said. “We’ll never make that.”

“Look!” she cried. “The window.”

Stone followed her finger and saw a latch on the window a few feet above her head. “Take my hand and steady me,” he said. “I think I can reach it if I stand on the edge of the tabletop.” He got one foot there and, holding on to Arrington, the other. He flipped the latch and tugged at the window. It slid open about two feet and stopped. The water level was rising fast now; it was up to their necks again, and climbing.

“We’re going to have to rise with the water,” Stone said. “Grab for the window and get yourself out. I’ll be right behind you.”

Then the yacht gave up the ghost and began sliding under the waves. The water engulfed them, but Stone kept the flashlight trained on the open window. Arrington slipped away from him, but he couldn’t see where. Then his shoulders were stuck in the open window. He pushed himself back inside the sinking yacht, stuck one arm through the window, then got his head, shoulder, and the other arm through. As he broke free, he pushed hard off the window sill and made for the air above.

He broke the surface with a shout, expelling all the air he had been saving, and began looking for Arrington.

“Stone, over here!” she called from behind him.

Stone turned and saw her being hauled into a rubber dinghy by two men; one of them was the captain ofContessa. Stone looked around for Dino and the black boat, but saw nothing. He made for the dinghy and grabbed the side.

The yacht’s skipper leaned over and looked at him. “You!” he shouted angrily.

Stone swung the flashlight at him and caught him full on the side of the head. The man fell backward and out the other side of the dinghy. Stone hoisted himself half into the rubber boat and saw the other crew member coming at him with an oar. He pushed himself back into the water, narrowly avoiding the swinging blade. When he broke the surface again, a few feet away, he heard the dinghy’s outboard start up. Arrington was struggling with the man now, as the rubber boat started to move away from Stone.

Then, like the cavalry, Dino showed up. He was drifting toward the dinghy in the black Whaler, and he had his flashlight in his hand. He swung it mightily and made contact with the back of the man’s head. The man fell overboard.

“Help me get them!” Stone yelled. “We can’t just let them drown!” He was already swimming around the dinghy. With Arrington’s and Dino’s help, he got both the unconscious men back into the dinghy. They stank of alcohol.

“Are they hurt badly, do you think?” Arrington asked.

“They’ll live,” Dino said. “What do you want to do with them, Stone?” He was holding the dinghy next to the Whaler.

Stone hoisted himself into the dinghy. “Arrington, get into the boat with Dino,” he said. He began unscrewing the outboard from the dinghy’s plywood transom. “Hurry up!” He got the outboard loose and dropped it overboard, where it joinedContessa, then he flung the oars as far away as he could, hopped into the Whaler, and got the engines started.

From the direction of the shore a large motorboat was headed toward them. “I hope that isn’t a Coast Guard cutter,” Stone said. He switched off the Whaler’s running lights, put the throttles forward a little, and motored slowly for fifty yards as a spotlight played on the water behind them. For another few hundred yards he increased speed slightly, hoping to keep the sound of his engines quieter than those aboard the approaching boat, then he pushed the throttles wide open and roared away toward the mainland. A few seconds later they were doing forty knots through the black night. “Everybody keep a lookout for other boats!” he shouted over the engines.

Dino took off his jacket and helped Arrington into it. “How are you?”

“Don’t ask!” she shouted back.