Chapter Ten
Memorial
They reached the channel in the Shoals. The ferry turned slowly, started in, and then came to a dead stop. The Captain shifted from looking at the depth finder to shining his searchlight over the water.
"We're not gonna make it!" he finally moaned. "We need just a foot or so but we're not gonna make it."
The young Warlock came up on deck. "Damn!" he said, "You can see the damned things over here. You could wade along those things!"
The Captain's eyes widened. "That is IT!" he cried. "Lighten the load by a couple of hundred people and we just might make it! Everybody that can swim, over the side. Walk down the Shoals and I'll pick you up on the other end."
"These men are exhausted!" the doctor complained. "That water's ice cold!"
"It's wade or die!" the Captain answered. "there's no other choice. The only way we'll get over there is to lighten the load. Once we're on the other end we've got an easy run home. We can't spend a lot of time arguing about it.
It took a few more minutes' persuasion but finally men were leaping off the ferry, swimming a few yards to the Shoals, climbing up and wading along them The Captain watched the depth gauge anxiously. When the last of them were gone, he sighed.
"All ahead full!" he ordered. "If we get caught on a narrow part I'm hoping we'll drag over."
The ferry moved on. Twice there was an agonizing grinding sound but finally she reached the other end. Ropes went out and weary, shivering men climbed back aboard.
The doctor counted heads. "Somebody's missing!" he cried.
"That young Warlock," a man answered. "He heard something on the Shoals, went to investigate."
The Captain rushed to the searchlight and began to play it over the Shoals. Finally they saw the Warlock coming, another man thrown over his shoulder. It took him several minutes to struggle to the ferry. He was hauled aboard with his burden.
"Where in the hell is Newmark?" the Warlock asked. "Before this kid blacked out he kept muttering something about the people from Newmark coming, that we had to wait for them. They were making rafts, anything that would float. The coastal roads are blocked."
The Captain examined the shivering young man. "The Indian village!" he cried. he began to play the search light out over the water. Nothing.
"We're running out of time!" he moaned, "But we can't leave them. I'm going to back up the channel. The bottom's pretty deep in this area. I should be able to get fairly close. Put a couple of men on the searchlights on the stern. Give a cry when you spot them."
It seemed like they had barely started moving when somebody cried, "Here they come!"
The Captain kept going, slowing down until he finally came to a stop. The next few minutes were frantic as the makeshift vessels were unloaded.
Finally there were no more. The Captain signaled full ahead and the ferry pounded off, her engines shaking from the rich fuel.
"We saw you go up the first time," an old Chief explained, "and tried to reach you when you came back down. But you came too quickly We weren't ready. But The Old Ones delayed you this time, and my grandson found you in time."
"BARELY!" the Captain told his old friend.
It was now only a race against time. For the anxious men aboard the sight of the sea wall and the ferry pier brought a round of cheers. The vehicles waiting to rush them away to safety were even more pleasant to see.
Hurriedly helping hands crammed the people aboard as they rushed from the ferry.
The Captain, the last to leave her, patted her side. "Thanks, old girl!" he muttered. "If I had time I'd get you out to sea. When this is all over you're going to be needed around here."
From somewhere a stretcher appeared. The Captain was strapped onto it. It was fastened onto a four wheel drive vehicle and in moments was rolling away.
As they headed up into the hills the Captain saw the men in the trucks ahead of them standing up and pointing back towards the harbor.
"What is it?" the Captain cried.
The medic tending him looked back. "It's the ferry, sir. She's heading out of the harbor. It looks like she's making a run for the sea!"
"Damn!" the Captain thought. "Who? Who could be crazy enough to take a ferry almost out of fuel, and try to outrun an incoming tsunami?"
The Captain wanted to shake his head but that hurt just too much. He didn't see the tsunami come in. When that happened he was totally unconscious and a doctor was pulling slivers of bone out of his brain.
They were very surprised a couple of days later when he woke up that everything still worked! The vision in his left eye was even returning.
They had gotten more air drops. The people that had survived were beginning to pick up the pieces, salvage parties were working day and night in Cape Glouster.
It was a couple of days before they would let the Captain ride around in a jeep and inspect what was going on. Nobody really questioned that from now on he would be in charge. Oh, eventually there'd have to be an election to make it official.
As they got down to the harbor Warlock Young walked up. "What canary did YOU eat?" the Captain asked, seeing his broad grin.
"We found something that belonged to you," the Warlock answered. "Thought you might like to have it back."
He raised his hand in the air and began to circle it about. From a loud speaker somewhere music began to play, then the loud shrill of a familiar horn filled the air.
The Captain looked towards the sea wall and around it came The Lady, flags fluttering all about her deck.
She came to a stop a little ways off shore. There was no pier any more for her to dock at. A man climbed into a small boat and was brought ashore. He climbed the bank where the jeep waited, and the Captain finally recognized his helmsman.
"I don't believe it!" he moaned, "It was you? You were that crazy?"
"Like you said," the young man answered, "we're really going to need her now. You were in no condition so I took command."
"And by God, you'll keep it!" the Captain answered. "But no more God damn crazy stunts like that, mister!"
The young man laughed, gave a sharp salute and cried "Aye aye, sir!"
The River Lady would serve many more years with her new Captain until she was replaced by a newer ship and became a memorial, a floating tribute to men and ships that whey they had to could do what could not be done.
THE END
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