The Hunters by John A. Flanagan

Author:John A. Flanagan [Flanagan, John A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2012-10-12T04:00:00+00:00

chapter twenty-five

There was no pursuit.

Any troops who might have mounted one were totally occupied fighting the fire that had engulfed Doutro’s ship. After some minutes, the mast collapsed across the jetty, spreading the flames to the piles of spare lumber and confiscated equipment stored there. As the Heron rounded the first bend, the glow of the fire was vivid in the night sky behind them.

Lydia walked aft and stood by the steering platform, gazing at the orange light in the sky, visible above the headland they had just rounded.

“Well, that certainly caught their attention,” she said. Hal smiled at her. But Stig was rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

“You know, I’ve been thinking . . . ,” he began slowly. Hal called to Edvin, who was seated amidships.

“Edvin. Note the time and the date, please. A unique event has just occurred.”

“Very funny,” Stig said. Edvin glanced up briefly from his knitting and shook his head.

“If I might continue?” Stig persisted, and Hal made a gracious, sweeping gesture with his free hand.

“Pray do.”

“Well then, I was th—” Stig realized he was about to say thinking again and leave himself open to further sarcastic comment. He changed his choice of words. “Wondering . . . yes, wondering. Why don’t we try something similar, instead of running this Wildwater Rift?”

“Similar to what?” Hal asked.

Stig gestured toward the glow in the sky behind them. “Why don’t we start another fire and, while everyone’s distracted, open the boom and sail on through?”

“What, now?” Thorn asked.

Stig shook his head impatiently. “No. They’re all alert now. We could come back tomorrow night. Sneak into the town and start a fire, then head for the boom.”

Hal considered the idea for a moment or two, then shook his head.

“Too risky,” he said. “It’s one thing to head out of the harbor and sail away while they’re all distracted by the fire. But if we want to break through the boom, we’ll have to board one of the boom vessels, overcome the crew, then figure out how the opening mechanism works. It’ll take time and we’re bound to be spotted.”

Stig pursed his lips as he thought about Hal’s words. “I suppose so,” he said. But he sounded only half convinced.

“On top of that,” Hal continued, “it’ll cost us another day while we lay up somewhere waiting for tomorrow night. And we can’t afford that.”

“Fair point,” said Stig. “But maybe we should keep the idea in mind.”

Hal nodded. He wanted all the crew willing to suggest ideas and new plans if they thought of them, and rejecting Stig’s idea out of hand would discourage the others from coming forward in the future.

“We’ll keep it in mind,” he agreed, smiling at his friend. “Let’s keep our options open until we’ve seen this Wildwater Rift.”

“It sounded pretty bad,” Stig said.

Hal shrugged. “Remember,” he said, “Pedr wasn’t a sailor and he knew nothing about boats. Besides, he’s never actually seen the rift. Often these things get blown out of all proportion. It’s probably a whole lot better than it sounded.

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