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another sail in sight. Where, twenty minutes earlier, there had been at
least five other dinghies reefing and heading shorewards, there was
now only a desolate expanse of churning sea, with lines of white
horses showing where the waves were breaking over hidden reefs.
And with the sun slipping below the horizon, and the sky becoming
more overcast, the light was rapidly failing.
Her greatest danger lay in running aground on a coral bank. In calm
or moderate weather, banks were easily discernible. But now, with
the water scuffed up by gusts of wind, she could only trust to luck to
get her through them.
In the end, it was not a coral bank which brought disaster. Suddenly
there was a mighty buffet of wind. Too late she let fly the sheet. The
Mermaid capsized with Caroline underneath her.
For an instant, she felt the blind frenzy of total panic. The sea seemed
to claw at her body, dragging her down. She struggled to the surface,
and found herself trapped by sodden canvas.
But once her head was out of water, the momentary terror receded.
"Don't be a fool!" she told herself sharply. "Mermaid won't sink like a
keel boat. You can't drown if you keep your head."
But righting the Mermaid in a squall was very different from a
fair-weather exercise. Caroline managed to find the halyards and
release them, but rolling the swamped dinghy over was more than she
could manage without help. After several exhausting attempts, she
knew she would have to wait until someone rescued her. Even if no
one had seen her capsize, the Cooper boy was bound to raise an alarm
if she did not return to the boatyard before it grew dark. Meanwhile
she must just hang on the hull and wait. At least the sea was not cold,
as it would have been at home.
Nevertheless, by the time she had been in the water for an hour, it
seemed much colder than she had ever known it before. The wind, far
from slackening, was stronger than ever. And the twilight was rapidly
merging into darkness.
"Not to worry. They can still find me," Caroline thought bracingly.
But she knew she could not hold on indefinitely. Her arms were
already aching from shoulder to wrist, and she was beginning to feel
oddly light-headed.
When she first heard the throb of an engine, she was terrified she
might be imagining it. Then a beam of blinding light swept over the
Mermaid, and she knew it was no delusion. There was a boat coming.
Her ordeal was nearly over.
Judging by the sound of the engine, the boat was a powerful launch,
Caroline knew it would not be able to come too close without danger
of ramming the Mermaid. But she no longer had the strength to swim
even a short distance.
It was the Cooper boy who came for her. He tied a lifeline round her,
shouted to whoever was on the launch and swam alongside while she
was being hauled in like a spent game fish. Then several strong arms
heaved her on board, and someone removed the line and lifejacket,
and someone else wrapped her in a blanket and carried her below to a
cabin where she was laid on a bunk and made to swallow brandy.
At first, after the darkness, of the sea, the lamplight seemed
dazzlingly bright. She lay with closed eyes, shaking with fatigue and
nervous reaction.
The hands which had gently wiped her face began to dry her bare feet
and chafe them.
"Feeling better?" she was asked.
It was a measure of her devitalized condition that, even when she
knew who was looking after her, she felt only a mild curiosity. What
was Ian doing aboard? she wondered.
Presently he put the glass to her lips again, and this time the brandy
sent tendrils of warmth spreading through her. She had a curious
floating sensation.
Ian propped her up and tugged off her soaked white sweater, as if he
were undressing a child. Then he pulled the wet blanket away, and
wrapped her in another dry one.
After that, everything was hazy. Dimly, she heard the engine starting
up, and people moving about on deck and shouting to each other. And
then the bunk began to rock gently, and the lamp was a golden glow
very far away, and she- felt warm and overwhelmingly drowsy. She
was still in a pleasant daze when Ian carried her on deck again and put
her into the back of a car. But, from then on, the combined effect of
physical shock and neat brandy on an empty stomach began to wear
off slightly.
Instead of taking her back to the Tropicana, he drove to a large white
building which she took to be the local hospital until they entered the
hall of what was clearly a private house.
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