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"God hasn't forsaken us," mumbled Scaggs, staring at the silvery fish. "Mullet usually inhabit shallow seas. I've never seen them in deep water."
"It's as though he sent them directly to us," murmured Betsy, her eyes wide at the sight of her first meal in nearly two weeks.
Their hunger was so great and the number of fish so meager that they added the flesh of a woman who had died only an hour before. It was the first time Scaggs, Dorsett and Betsy had touched human flesh.
Somehow eating one of their own seemed oddly justified when mixed with the fish. And since the taste was partially disguised it also seemed less disgusting.
Another gift arrived with a rain squall that took nearly an hour to pass over and provided them with a catch of two gallons of water.
Despite having their strength temporarily renewed, despondency was still painted on their faces. The wounds and contusions, irritated by the saltwater, caused unending agony. And there was still the sun, which continued to torture them. The air was stifling and the heat intolerable. The nights brought relief and cooler temperatures. But some of the raft's passengers could not endure the misery of one more day.
Another five, four convicts and the last soldier, quietly slipped into the sea and perished quickly.
By the fifteenth day, only Scaggs, Dorsett, Betsy Fletcher, three sailors and four convicts, one a woman, were left alive. They were beyond caring. Death seemed unavoidable. The spark of self-preservation had all but gone out. The mullet was long gone, and although those who died had sustained the living, the lack of water and the torrid heat made it impossible to hold out for more than another forty-eight hours before the raft would float empty of life.
Then an event occurred that diverted attention from the unspeakable horrors of the past two weeks. A large greenish-brown bird suddenly appeared out of the sky, circled the raft three times and then lit with a flutter on a yardarm of the forward mast. It stared down through yellow eyes with beady black pupils at the pathetic humans on the raft, their clothes in shreds, limbs and faces scarred from combat and the scorching rays of the sun. The thought of trying to snare the bird for food instantly flooded everyone's mind.
"What kind of strange bird is that?" Betsy asked, her tongue so swollen her voice was like a whisper.
"It's a kea," Scaggs murmured. "One of my former officers kept one."
"Do they fly over the oceans like gulls?" asked Dorsett.
No, they're a species of parrot that lives on New Zealand and the surrounding islands. I never heard of one flying over water unless . . ." Scaggs paused. "Unless it's another message from the Almighty." His eyes took on a distant look as he painfully rose to his feet and peered at the horizon. "Land!" he exclaimed with joy. "Land to the west of us."
Unnoticed in their apathy and lethargy until now, the raft was being pushed by the swells toward a pair of green mounds rising from the sea no more than ten miles distant. Everyone turned their eyes westward and saw a large island with two low mountains, one on each end, and a forest of trees between. For a long moment no one spoke, each suspended in expectation but fixed with a fear that they might be swept by the currents around their salvation. Almost all the haggard survivors struggled to their knees and prayed to be delivered on the beckoning shore.
Another hour passed before Scaggs determined that the island was growing larger. "The current is pushing us toward it," he announced gleefully. "It's a miracle, a bloody miracle. I know of no island on any chart in this part of the sea."
Probably uninhabited," guessed Dorsett.
"How beautiful," Betsy murmured, staring at the lush green forest separating the two mounts. "I hope it has pools of cool water."
The unexpected promise of continued life revived what little strength they had left and inspired them to take action. Any desire of trapping the parrot for dinner quickly vanished. The feathered messenger was considered a good omen. Scaggs and his few seamen set a sail made from the tattered awning, while Dorsett and the remaining convicts tore up planks and feverishly used them as paddles. Then, as if to guide them, the parrot took wing and flew back toward the island.
The landmass rose and spread across the western horizon, drawing them like a magnet. They rowed like madmen, determined their sufferings should come to an end.
A breeze sprang up from behind, pushing them ever faster toward sanctuary, adding to their delirium of hope. There would be no more waiting for death with resignation. Deliverance was down to less than three miles away.
With the last of his strength, one of the sailors climbed the mast shrouds to a yardarm. Shielding his eyes from the sun, he squinted over the sea.
"What do you make of the shoreline?" demanded Scaggs.
"Looks like we're coming to a coral reef surrounding a lagoon."
Scaggs turned to Dorsett and Fletcher. "If we can't make entry through a channel, the breakers will pile us up on the reef."
Thirty minutes later, the sailor on the mast called out. "I see a blue-water passage through the outer reef two hundred yards off to starboard."
"Rig a rudder!" Scaggs ordered his few crewmen. "Quickly!" Then he turned to the convicts. "Every man and woman who has the brawn, grab a plank and paddle for your life."
A dreadful fear appeared with the crashing of breakers onto the outer reef. The waves struck and burst in an explosion of pure white foam. The boom of water crashing into coral came like the thunder of cannon. The waves grew to a mountainous height as the seafloor rose when they neared land. Terror replaced desperation as the occupants of the raft envisioned the destruction that would occur if they were dashed against the reef by the crushing force of the breakers.
Scaggs took the jury-rigged tiller under one arm and steered toward the channel as his sailors worked the tattered sail. The convicts, looking like ragged scarecrows, paddled ineffectually. Their feeble efforts did very little to propel the raft. Only with everyone paddling on the same side at the same time, as Scaggs ordered, could they assist him in steering for the channel.
The raft was overtaken by a wall of churning froth that swept it forward at a terrible speed. For one brief moment it was elevated on the crest, the next it plunged into the trough. Two of the male convicts were swept into the blue-green turbulence and never seen again. The seaworn raft was breaking up. The ropes, chafed and stretched by the constant rolling of the sea, began to fray and part. The framework of masts that supported the deck planking twisted and began splitting. The raft groaned when inundated by the following wave. To Dorsett, the immovable coral reef looked close enough to reach out and touch.
And then they were swept into the channel between the jagged edges of the reef. The surge carried them through, the raft spinning around, pieces of it whirling into the sun-sparkled sea like a Roman candle. As the main frame of the raft disintegrated around them, the survivors were thrown into the water.
