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"I don't think so," Henry said. "It's too high out of the water to be a dead whale. Anyway, I think it's bigger than a whale. Must be a ship, but it's a funny-lookin' ship. No masts, no lights."

"It could be an oiler," she said. "I've seen oilers in the carrier base at Mayport. It could be an oiler in distress."

"No it couldn't," Henry said. "If it was an oiler broke down or something, there'd be a lot of Navy out there with it. Now it could be a menhaden boat that lost its masts in a storm, except there hasn't been any storm. It looks more like a big ship, capsized." He hesitated a moment and then added, "Or a submarine."

So gradually that for a moment Henry thought his eyes were wrong, the black blob on the silvered sea began to change shape. It looked as if it were splitting apart, like an amoeba under the microscope in biology class. Then there was no doubt of it. A small part did detach itself from the larger mass. At first the small part seemed to be drifting, but then it assumed purpose and direction, narrowed, and moved towards shore, its speed increasing until it created a thin, phosphorescent bow wave. Soon it was so close that they could hear the muffled throb of its engine.