10. PAPI
Papi watched as Kurtz backed away from the crate, never taking his eyes off the squirming thing inside. The other men dissolved behind him as though they had never been there, and in an instant, his back was against the metal bulkhead of the hold. Kurtz’s mouth was moving, like a cow chewing its cud, but no words would come. Then he smiled.
“It’s a joke,” he said.
As Kurtz glanced from end to end of the hold, Papi saw there was something a little red and crazed in the third officer’s eyes. The man made his fingers dance as though he were holding the control bar of a puppet in each hand.
“A marionette.”
Papi remained silent, but the other mariners were whispering to one another. There was some frantic counting, some of the men using fingers and toes. Everyone was accoun
