vacuum of pressure was released and the wind took the three-inch
mahogany doors and ripped them effortlessly from their hinges, and
whisked them away, as though they were a pair of playing cards and
Nicholas and the seaman were exposed in the open doorway.
The wind flung itself upon them, and hurled them to the deck, smothering
them in the icy deluge of water that ripped at their faces as abrasively
as ground glass.
Nicholas rolled down the deck and crashed into the stern rail with such
jarring force that he thought his lungs had been crushed, and the wind
pinned him there, and blinded and smothered him with salt water.
He lay there helpless as a new-born infant, and near him he heard the
seaman screaming thinly. The sound steeled him, and Nicholas slowly
dragged himself to his knees, desperately clutching at the rail to
resist the wind.
Still the man screamed and Nicholas began to creep forward on his hands
and knees. It was impossible to stand in that wind and he could move
only with support from the rail.
Six feet ahead of him, the extreme limit of his vision, the railing had
been torn away, a long section of it dangling over the ship's side, and
to this was clinging the seaman.
His weight driven by the wind must have hit the rail with sufficient
force to tear it loose, and now he was hanging on with one arm hooked
through the railing and the other arm twisted from a shattered shoulder
and waving a crazy salute as the wind whipped it about. When he looked
up at Nicholas his mouth had been smashed in. It looked as though he had
half chewed a mouthful of black currants, and the jagged stumps of his
broken front teeth were bright red with the juice.
On his belly, Nicholas reached for him, and as he did so, the wind came
again, unbelievably it was stronger still, and it took the damaged
railing with the man still upon it and tore it bodily away. They
disappeared instantly in the blinding white-out of the storm, and
Nicholas felt himself hurled forward towards the edge. He clung with
all his strength to the remaining section of the rail, and felt it
buckle and begin to give.
On his knees still he clawed himself away from that fatal beckoning gap,
towards the stern, and the wind struck him full in the face, blinding
and choking him. Sightlessly, he dragged himself on until one
outstretched arm struck the cold cast iron of the port stern bollard,
and he flung both arms about it like a lover, choking and retching from
the salt water that the wind had forced through his nose and mouth and
down his throat.
Still blind, he felt for the woven steel of Warlock's main tow-wire. He
found it and he could not span it with his fist but he felt the quick
lift of his hopes, The cable was still secured. He had catted and
prevented it with a dozen nylon strops, and it was still holding. He
crawled forward, dragging himself along the tow-cable, and immediately
he realized that his relief had been premature.
There was no tension in the cable and when he reached the edge of the
deck it dangled straight down. It was not stretched out into the
whiteness, to where he had hoped Warlock was still holding them like a
