“Now de lifeboats, in pullin’ for Garden, got to quarter into ten-foot seas, even after dot gale let down. Dey gettin’ nowhere except swamped, so dey come about and pull to east’ard with the seas, headin’ for Middle or East Key, and ain’t one of dem eye-londs a whole lot bigger den a backyard. De folks in de boats can’t even see ’em. Dass when we picked ’em up. Den de mate give us de bad news. Dere was t’ree lifeboats lowered away. He don’t know what hoppen to de third, but he reckoned it swamped and de folks was shark bait by now. Your papa, he can’t go reckonin’ like dot, got to find dem if he can, and it’s close on to dusk when de lookout see a man signalin’ from East Key with a white shirt. Main Chance can’t get in dere. Lord God Jehovah, de water so shallow dere, man could lay down on his back and not get his nose wet. So we lower our longboat away and fetch dem souls, dey all huddled up and pray in’. Ain’t nuttin’ on East Key, no water, no trees, nuttin’ but sand and coral, and de man who was signalin’ us told us dey had give up hope. Dis one fella, he had him a gold watch on a gold chain and he t’rew into de sea, tellin’ his friends, ‘I got no more use for time, and neither do you. God has abandoned us.’ Dass what de signalin’ fella tell us dot fella say.”

Artemis spoke; Will and the Braithwaites listened and saw and heard as if they had been aboard Main Chance when she spoke the wreck after nightfall and dropped her hook a safe distance off the reef. The longboat was lowered and Cyrus was rowed to Annisquam, her stern lamp and masthead light aglow like stars. “What schooner is that?” Captain Robinson hailed through his horn. Cyrus called back, “Wrecker Main Chance, out of Key West!” and then offered his services and asked for permission to come aboard to see what needed to be done. But Captain Robinson replied that he wasn’t letting some mooncussin’ son of a bitch on board his vessel.