Twisted some but okay. You all right?”

“Yes. Can you get your seat belt loose?”

“Yeah, I got it.”

A flashlight beam suddenly broke the darkness. “This way,” the navigator ordered. “Watch your step. Follow the light.”

The cabin was filling fast. As Alec went forward, the water was already sloshing against his knees. The horses screamed. Some of them, Alec thought anxiously, might even be loose, their boxes shattered.

Another beam of light came from up forward and two figures, the pilot and copilot, appeared in its glow. They’d been lucky to get out of their cabin alive, Alec guessed, for the weight of the engines must already have dragged down the flight deck below water level.

The navigator called out to his crewmates, “Our tail end’s been broken off. We’ve got maybe a minute more!” He pressed down on the heavy door handle and pushed.

Alec watched him, praying that the big door wouldn’t be jammed, for only through it could they get the horses out. Luckily the door opened easily. Then the night came in with a roar, making their plight seem all the more horrible. The water line was almost level with the door; there’d be no need for the escape rope. The life raft was pushed outside, the CO2 already filling its chambers.

The captain took hold of Alec’s arm. “You first, kid,” he ordered. “Get in and lie down. No standing.”

“I’ve got to free the horses—” Alec broke away from the captain’s grip and in the light from the flash he saw the shattered box stalls with the horses almost free and plunging in fear and panic. He was reaching for the Black when a hard blow landed on his jaw. His last conscious effort was that of trying to make sense out of the captain’s words: “I caught him. Now jump for it. We’re going down fast!”

THE PIRATE
4

The black night was almost over, its fury spent. First it surrendered to the pale gray streaks of dawn rising higher and higher into the heavens. Then came the fiery sun to pierce still greater holes in the lifting curtain.

The sea grew quiet. Shadowy waves slowly lifted and rolled forward, no longer hateful and ugly but brilliant reds and golds. A most peaceful scene, yet a lonely one, too, with nothing but the sun riding high above the now-slumbering sea.

As the great golden ball of the sun sent its rays farther and farther westward, it shone on a dark, solid object between the unbroken sea and sky.

The man-o’-war bird was all wings and it soared in the air like the great black pirate it was, seeking prey. Then it hung motionlessly on its seven-foot wings, its forked tail trailing loosely behind. It was a somber, satanic-looking creature, better suited in appearance for night than for day. And yet it lived close to the sun, glorying in rays that turned its wings the color of glowing sable and in the air currents that lifted it higher and higher and higher. No land was in view so the ocean rover must have come a long way to be alone with the morning sun.

As it searched for something to attack, it continued to hang effortlessly in midair, its wings crooked at the shoulders and its head turning from side to side without disturbing either its buoyancy or balance.