Forty-One
Monday, December 20
Old Port Royal Bay
Thomas and Oliver didn’t stop to clear their ears or exchange the hand sign okay, nor did they take the time to flick on the lanterns attached to their vests until after they’d already started descending. Neither man needed a weight belt; both sank like rocks toward the bottom. Thomas willed himself to take deep, slow breaths to ward off the vertigo caused by the dark, turbid waters.
They inflated their BCDs and halted their descent at forty feet, twenty feet above where the other divers worked, waving their lanterns back and forth searching for gold. Thomas checked the compass on his dive watch, pointed west, and shined his lantern on his hand for Oliver to see. After using the light from their lanterns to charge the illumination on the
