31
“Run for it,” Dirk decided. “The storm’s passed, I can lower the lifeboat. Not a second longer on this cursed ship!”
His numb, wooden legs somehow carried him up on deck. The sun was dazzlingly bright. The deck was bare, the gale had wiped it clean – the lifeboat, the bulwark… and all the people? There was no-one to be seen, only the tattered sails barely fluttering on the guys. And – a body lay near the mast. The body of that Spaniard. A dead body.
Dirk walked over, picked the corpse up by its legs, dragged it to the side and heaved it overboard.
“See you tomorrow!” said the dead Spaniard as he fell, then disappeared into the transparent blue water.
Dirk felt his hair stand on end. He looked about. The ship lay still in open waters.
“I’m on my own,” he said to himself. “No, wait,
