Chapter

After a short rejuvenating swim, Arthur joined Lisa on the front deck for a leisurely breakfast, while the boat's radio played a top forty station in Miami. Sitting beside Lisa, Arthur could sense something new between them, a new level of comfort and paradoxically, an intense awareness of the proximity of one to the other.

It was nearly noon, when they finally pulled up the anchor and headed due West for several miles before tacking Southeast and sailing close to the wind. The brisk mid-day breeze kept the boat heeled over far to the port side.

When land came back in sight, they headed east toward a cluster of island closer to shore.

"Up ahead and to the starboard side, you will see the next stop on our itinerary," Lisa said. "The captain requests that all passengers wishing to go ashore please sign up for one of our tour packages available now at the purser's desk."

"Where exactly are we going?" Arthur asked.

"Another little island. This one is better. It's bigger and there's a beach. There's a little harbor on the east shore of the island that's partially blocked by a smaller island. Any boat anchored there is pretty hard to see until you're practically on top of it."

Arthur sat on the roof of the cabin, shirtless and shoeless, his water bottle next to him. He was still wearing the sunglasses that Lisa had given him and despite the beauty of the ocean on that sunny day, his attention kept returning to Lisa. She wore a scarlet bikini top and a pair of tight-fitting white denim shorts. Her dark, silky hair and sultry good-looks made it easier to ignore the impulse to immerse himself in the bright blue water that surrounded them.

"You think we'll have time today for that kung fu lesson we talked about?" Arthur asked.

"We'll go ashore after we anchor. We could practice a few things on the beach. The beach is along the Southwestern part of the island, but we'll be anchored in the little harbor on the north shore. The harbor is lined with interwoven mangrove trees. You can't pass through them on foot. We'll have to travel around toward the windward side of the island to land on the beach."

"Can you get the Tiger's Daughter close to the beach?"

"No, but there's a little inflatable boat stowed under one of these benches."

"What about..." Arthur started, then he paused.

"What?" Lisa said.

"Do you hear that?"

They remained motionless for a moment as a faint buzzing noise began to grow louder. Arthur turned and

looked forward. Ten degrees off their bow and riding close to the water was an airplane.

"I see it," said Lisa. "A sea plane."

"It's headed this way," Arthur said.

Lisa nodded.

"You think their looking for us?" Arthur asked.

"I'm not sure I want to find out," she replied.

They both stared at the plane for a moment. It was too far away for anyone aboard to see them clearly.

"I think you should go below," Arthur said. "Let's make sure they can only see me when they fly by."

Arthur took the wheel and Lisa went down the companionway into the cabin. She leaned up against the galley and watched Arthur through the open hatchway.

The plane continued toward them for another thirty seconds, then made a ninety degree turn to the west, a course that would take it away from land. The noise from its engines soon faded beneath the sounds of the waves against the hull.

"All gone?" Lisa asked.

"Yeah," he replied. "Almost seems like they didn't want us to get a good look."

"Did they get close enough to identify this boat?"

"I doubt it. They were pretty far off when they turned. And this boat is not that distinctive in its looks."

"I'd still like to spend the night by this island, but we'll have to stay vigilant for the next few hours. Keep an eye out for any kind of boat or plane."

"Alright captain," Arthur said.

She came up from the cabin with a pair of binoculars. She handed the binoculars to Arthur and took the wheel.

"Check out the small islands ahead for any signs of other people. The largest one, dead ahead, is our destination."

Arthur carried the binoculars out onto the front deck. He sat on the cabin bulkhead and began to scan the area, but saw no boats or planes.

Thirty minutes passed before they turned to enter a small cove on the leeward side of the island. The small harbor was deserted except for a bright orange float the size of a basketball near the mouth of the cove.

"You see that?" Arthur asked.

"Looks like a marker for a lobster trap."

"Is that weird? Wouldn't you expect to see more than one? What fisherman would travel all the way out here to set one trap?"

"Might have blown in from somewhere else. It appears to be tied down to something, but I guess the whole thing could have drifted here in a storm."

Lisa switched on the engine and Arthur furled the jib then lowered the mainsail. He piled the sail up as neatly as he could on the boom, then wrapped in all with a rope to keep it together. Lisa steered the boat in to within fifty feet of the mangrove jungle, then told Arthur to drop anchor.

"We'll have to inflate the little dingy," she said. "It's folded up under the seat, all folded up. There's a small electric pump that can blow it up quickly."

Lisa lifted up the hinged seat of the starboard bench and pulled out a white and purple vinyl raft along with a small pump. She stretched out the flat vinyl oval and let half of it hang over the port side of the cockpit. She attached the small rubber hose to a valve on the boat and switched on the pump which emitted a faint buzzing noise as the wrinkled vinyl began to take the shape of a small rowboat. Lisa descended into the cabin while the boat inflated.

She returned to the cockpit carrying a small cooler.

"I have some deli stuff, a couple of rolls and a bag of chips. Is there anything else you want?" she said.

Arthur smiled and they exchanged a glance that almost ended their plans for the day.

"Behave yourself, Arthur," she said.

With the boat fully inflated, they lifted it and slid it off the back of the Tiger's Daughter then tossed in a pair of four-foot plastic oars. Lisa held a rope that was tied to the front of the raft to keep it from drifting away.

"I guess we don't need to lock up," she said.

Arthur shrugged.

They climbed onto the aft swimming platform and loaded the cooler and a couple of towels into the small boat. There was barely enough room for the two of them along with their lunch and towels. Arthur, still shirtless, sat on the edge of the raft with one foot in the boat and one foot in the water. He pushed them away from the Tiger's Daughter then they each grabbed an oar. They used the oars to paddle the boat out of the cove and around to the west side of the island. They were going against the wind and progress was slow. As they travelled farther south along the shore, the overgrowth of Mangroves began to thin out and patches of smooth white sand were visible between the trunks and roots of the trees. They approached a rocky point of land jutting out that seemed to form a sharp corner between the western and southern shores of the island. When they reached the Southern part of the Western shore, there were large stretches of open sand between the trees and twisted chunks of driftwood that dotted the beach. Twenty or thirty feet in from the water's edge, evergreen trees with soft pale green needles shared the sand with smaller mangroves and leafy underbrush.

The sun was still high in the sky and the southern breeze pushed small waves onto the sandy beach. They paddled in close to shore and Arthur stepped out of the boat into two feet of water, then pulled the boat up onto the beach. Lisa stepped off and brought the towels with her. Arthur lifted the cooler out and set it ten feet from the water, then lifted the boat up onto the sand and tied the bowline to a piece of driftwood.

Lisa spread out the towels beside the cooler and began to prepare sandwiches, while Arthur walked back out into the water and submerged himself. He returned to the beach a few minutes later feeling strong and refreshed. They ate while Lisa told stories about growing up around movie sets and Hollywood personalities.

With the wind gusting and small waves splashing against the sand, Arthur shifted his gaze from the sea to Lisa and said, "I know we're running for our lives and all that, but this isn't such a bad place to be right now."

She smiled and kissed him. He sat up suddenly and pulled back.

"What is it?" she said.

"Did you hear that?"

She looked up and was silent for a moment.

"I don't hear anything."

"Wait," Arthur said.

The droning sound grew louder and seemed to be coming through the trees behind them.

"A boat?" Lisa said.

Arthur nodded.

"We didn't see anything nearby."

"Is there someplace where we can get a view of the harbor?" he asked.

"I think we'll have to fight out way through the brush and trees."

Arthur stood and looked around.

"There," he said pointing to a gap between the trees and bushes twenty yards down the beach.

He helped Lisa onto her feet and they set off toward the opening. There were a few plants and some tall grass growing in the gap, but it was clearly used as a path at one point in the past. They passed between tall evergreens and small mangroves before reaching what appeared to be an end to the path at a wall of mangroves. They squeezed between a few trees until they reached a point where they could see the water of the cove through the leaves.

The Tiger's Daughter was just where they had left it, but in the mouth of the harbor was weather-beaten fishing boat towing a small motor launch. The fishing boat was little larger than the Tiger's Daughter and had a variey of poles and winches hanging off the back. Its engines were running, producing the low rumble they had heard on the beach.

"A fishing boat?" Arthur said.

"Maybe they're here to check with trap?"

Arthur stared silently.

There appeared to be four men on board. Two were holding a stick off the back of the boat, a third was visible in the wheel house and the fourth was on the front deck gazing toward the Tiger's Daughter. They were far enough away that it was difficult to see their faces, but they were dressed in grungy clothes. One had long dark hair another was bearded.

The two men at the stern of the boat pulled the orange float out of the water and continued to pull on the chain that hung from the bottom the float. A large gray cylinder came to the surface.

"What it that?" Lisa asked.

"A trash can?"

She stared another moment and said, "A trash can with the lid taped on, see those black lines at the top?"

"I don't think this has anything to do with catching lobsters," Arthur said. "That low-flying plane was coming from this direction."

"And I've heard that at least half of the fishermen in Everglades City are smuggling drugs," Lisa added.

The two men who pulled in the gray cylinder carried it into the wheelhouse in the center of the boat. A moment later, the engines grew louder and the boat turned toward the Tiger's Daughter.

Lisa crouched lower to the ground, pulling Arthur down with her. They could still see most of the harbor through gaps between the leaves of the densely packed trees.

"Don't let them see us," she said.

When the fishing boat pulled up along side of the Tiger's Daughter, the man standing on the front deck drew a pistol and pointed it down at the sailboat.

"I think we're going to have trouble," Arthur said.

"Anthony has every lowlife in the region looking out for the Tiger's Daughter. If they move that towel on the back..."

A long-haired man came out of the wheelhouse and stepped over the side of the fishing boat onto the Tiger's Daughter. As he stepped down from the sailboat's roof to the cockpit, he pulled out a handgun. The man on the front deck turned away from the sailboat and began to scan the shore of the island. Lisa and Arthur flattened out on the ground and could hear indiscernable voices coming from the fishing boat.

"I think we better get out of here," Lisa said.

They started to crawl back toward the path to the beach. A small outboard motor came to life somewhere in the harbor. Arthur turned around and peered through the leaves to see two men in the small motor launch heading out of the harbor. One was the short haired man from the front of the fishing boat, the other had long hair and a long gun of some kind, possibly a rifle or shotgun.

"They're coming for us," Arthur said. "The fishing boat is tying up to The Tiger's Daughter, but two men are coming in the small boat they were towing. They headed around the east side and they don't seem to be traveling too fast, so we have maybe five minutes to come up with a plan."

Arthur dropped down and rolled to his left, he stood up behind a thick patch of trees and held out a hand for Lisa. The two ran back down the path to the beach. Lisa ran straight for the cooler.

"I have a knife," Lisa said. "I used it to cut the rolls for lunch."

Arthur didn't respond. He was staring out at the sea, formulating a plan of his own. He didn't want to tell her yet about his unique set of skills, but saving their lives was the most important thing. He had to get into the water.

"There's a piece of driftwood down the beach that had a long straight segment, maybe an inch thick. I could make some sort of billy club out of it. Lord knows I've spent enough time learning stick fighting with Uncle Lenny," Lisa said, holding up the knife she had removed from the cooler.

Arthur nodded slowly, still looking at the water.

"What's wrong?" she said.

He turned to her and opened his mouth to speak, but paused.

"What is it?" she said.

"I have an idea," he said. "Do you think you could handle one of these guys, if he were unarmed."

"With a knife and a good stick and I can handle both of them."

Arthur smiled.

"I'm going in the water," he said. "Go to the southwestern corner and hide behind the cluster of trees and brush on

that little point that jutted out, just past the beach here. You know the one I mean?"

"I know where you mean, but I think we should stick together."

"You're going to have to trust me on this," he said. "I'm a good swimmer, I have a plan."

Lisa ran toward what looked like a dried out fallen tree a few yards down the beach. She grabbed one of the large branches and pressed her foot against the trunk. With a loud snap the branch broke off the trunk. As she walked back toward Arthur she used the knife to strip off smaller branches and twigs from the thick branch in her hands. She snapped off the thin end of the branch and held up what remained, a two foot long piece of wood that was about an inch and a half thick and mostly straight.

"I like the blade in the left - stick in the right approach," she said.

Arthur nodded "We don't have much time, get yourself down to the point and don't let them see you. I'm going to knock them out of the boat."

She frowned and said, "They're going to..."

"I told you, you have to trust me."

She turned away, but twisted her neck to keep her eyes on Arthur until he broke the gaze. As she began to run down the beach toward the southwestern point, Arthur stepped into the water.