“Did they search for me?”
“I want it,”the boy said.“ Now we must make our plans about the other things.”
“Tiburon,”the waiter said,“Eshark.”He was meaning to explain what had happened.
“Let Pedrico chop it up to use in fish traps.”
“I believe it,”the boy said.
“Very good.”
The wind is our friend,anyway,he thought.Then he added,sometimes.And the great sea with our friends and our enemies.And bed,he thought.Bed is my friend.Just bed, he thought.Bed will be a great thing.It is easy when you are beaten,he thought.I never knew how easy it was.And what beat you,he thought.
“Hot and with plenty of milk and sugar in it.”
He started to climb again and at the top he fell and lay for some time with the mast across his shoulder.
He could feel he was inside the current now and he could see the lights of the beach colonies along the shore.He knew where he was now and it was nothing to get home.
Inside the shack he leaned the mast against the wall.In the dark he found a water bottle and took a drink.Then he lay down on the bed.He pulled the blanket over his shoulders and then over his back and legs and he slept face down on the newspapers with his arms out straight and the palms of his hands up.
When he sailed into the little harbor the lights of the Terrace were out and he knew everyone was in bed.The breeze had risen steadily and was blowing strongly now.It was quiet in the harbor though and he sailed up onto the little patch of shingle below the rocks.There was no one to help him so he pulled the boat up as far as he could.Then he stepped out and made her fast to a rock.