The scene was only one more strange element to be added to the voyage of the Cyclops.Ĭhurch, sir. The eyes were open and reflected fear mingled with suffering and hardship, eyes that had seen too much. The patient's face looked tired and yellow-skinned, a youngish face that belied the thick forest of white hair above. Church peered over Gottschalk's shoulder and saw the ship's doctor bent over a man lying in a bunk. His narrow eyebrows very nearly matched his clipped moustache.Īs he was walking down a passageway toward the wardroom for a cup of coffee a cabin door opened and the American consul general to Brazil, Alfred Gottschalk, hesitated on the threshold, talking to someone inside. He wore his silver-yellow hair cropped excessively short, Prussian style. Despite his short, rotund, and almost comical frame, he radiated that indefinable air of someone accustomed to the upper rungs of authority. Then he looked up, taking in every detail of the Cyclops from her ungainly straight-up-and-down bow to the graceful curve of her champagne-glass stern. The consul general had stepped out of a chauffeur-driven town car and directed the loading of his steamer trunks and suitcases. He stepped from the cabin and closed the door behind him, his eyes narrowed with suspicion.Something I can help you with, Lieutenant.ĭon't you see, she must have been struck by a giant, rogue wave.Īs officer of the deck before the ship departed Rio de Janeiro, Church had observed a motor caravan arrive on the dock.
Gottschalk turned and noticed Church standing in the passageway. The hull plates groaned under the stress and they could hear several cracking noises.
From instinct, honed by years at sea, everyone in the wheelhouse automatically grabbed at the nearest secure object to keep his footing. Suddenly, before Worley could reply, the Cyclops lurched downward into a deep trough between the swells. Though the person on the stretcher was obviously part of his entourage, Gottschalk took little notice, turning his attention instead to the chain-drive Mack truck that brought up the rear. Church watched as a figure on a stretcher was lifted out and carried on board, but he failed to discern any features because of heavy mosquito netting that covered the face. The second vehicle in the caravan was an ambulance.
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