Cape Cod (96 page)
The whale turned back toward the ocean. It went out and swam in a wide circle, half in and half out of the water, as though it were dizzy, or trying to shake something out of its ears. Then, for a time, it swam parallel to the beach, and they ran along, shouting and waving their arms to keep it off. It was
their
whale now, and they couldn’t let it come back.
Then suddenly the whale righted itself and turned north, away from the beach, away from the volunteers, away from Jack’s Island.
While the others cheered, Geoff whispered to Janice, “We’d better get you out of those wet clothes.”
The marine biologists were using Rake’s house as a base of operations. When Geoff and Janice went inside, one of the biologists was on the telephone, giving an interview to an all-news radio station.
“No one knows why they do it,” he was saying. “Some scientists blame it on parasites in the whales’ inner ears, others on the turbulence in shallow waters during a storm. And recently we have found a magnetic anomaly in the earth beneath the elbow of the Cape, which may cause the whales’ navigational system to malfunction. Whether it is one of these factors or a combination of several, we just don’t know. It’s a mystery.”
“Like a lot of things,” said Janice.
“But we’ll solve it,” said the scientist.
“We’ll try,” whispered Geoff.
They went through the living room, past the fireplace where Sam Hilyard had made love to Hannah so long ago, to the room where the crazy old Come-Outer Will Hilyard had coupled with iron-spined Mary Burr. And while Janice shivered, Geoff stripped off her clothes and his suit and they got into the bed where Rake Hilyard had made love to Mary Muldowney.
And they warmed each other. It did not take long, yet it said more than all the words between them since they crossed that bridge on the Fourth of July.
And when they were done, they wrapped themselves in a blanket and went to the window. The beach beyond the pine grove was littered with dead and dying whales, but out in the water, there were seven swimming north, and one of them was theirs. They knew.
They stood in the window, their arms around each other, the blanket around their shoulders, and they watched the whales until they disappeared into the gray mist. Then they got back into bed and made love again.
And the whales swam north, past the point that might once have been called Kiarlness, the sandspit that sheltered the
Mayflower
for six miserable weeks, north from the bay that brimmed with life, north along coastlines of rock, past rivers and inlets, north to the seas where the ice never melted, to the place where the glaciers shimmered, the great white mountains of ice, the shaping hands of God.
Harvard Yard
Citizen Washington
Annapolis
The Rising of the Moon
Nerve Endings
Back Bay
Critical Acclaim for William Martin’s Smash Bestseller
Cape Cod
“THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU WHETHER YOU’RE HEADING FOR CAPE COD, THE MOUNTAINS, ARUBA OR JUST UNDER A BACKYARD TREE. SUPERB… SHEER READING DELIGHT… FIVE STARS—FIVE GREAT BIG STARS!”
—
The Dorchester Argus-Citizen
“ENTERTAINING… [AN] INVENTIVE FICTIONAL FORAY AMID HISTORICAL FACT, a salty sense of time and place, and a spanking pace, sails bellying with adventure.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“ENGROSSING… gives some of the high points of American history a human touch.”
—Orlando Sentinel
“A POWERFUL NARRATIVE… an historical novel with a capital ‘H’…. The excitement never flags.”
—Marlboro Enterprise/Hudson Daily Sun
“THIS HAS BLOCKBUSTER WRITTEN ALL OVER IT… Martin embraces the entire sweep of American history with unflagging relish for authentic detail and private moments.”
—Booklist
“JOHN JAKES MOVE OVER, YOU HAVE COMPANY… exquisite detail… one of the best fiction novels in many a year.”
—Morse-Press News
“STRONG, WELL-DEVELOPED CHARACTERS…. The story takes off and moves with the momentum of a snowball rolling down a steep hill.”
—Cape Cod Times
“ONE OF THOSE BOOKS TO BE TREASURED.”
—Copley News Service
“MARTIN IS A NATURAL STORYTELLER, JOHN JAKES AND JAMES MICHENER CAN ONLY DREAM ABOUT BEING THIS GOOD…. This may be the best historical novel set in New England since the heyday of Kenneth Roberts.”
—Flint Journal
“A BLOCKBUSTER TALE… A MASTER STORYTELLER…. Its characterizations are vibrant and robust…. If you enjoyed
Back Bay
you will delight in
Cape Cod.”
—Bangor Daily News
“MASTERFUL… INTENSE… THE HISTORY OF CAPE COD COMES ALIVE…. The Hilyards and the Bigelows are so believable, one is tempted to check the original list of
Mayflower
passengers to make sure they weren’t aboard.”
—Dayton Daily News
“ASSEMBLED WITH GREAT CLEVERNESS….[Martin’s] smooth blending of past and present works like a pendulum, swinging back to the Pilgrims and forward to their descendants. As the book progresses the arcs between eras become smaller.”
—Journal
(Edmonton, Alberta)
Contents
Chapter 3: The Glorious Fourth
Chapter 4: The First Encounter, The First Mysteries
Chapter 5: Murder on the Mayflower
Chapter 10: For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
Chapter 11: Indian at Aptucxet
Chapter 12: Papists Come to Plymouth
Chapter 13: Old Comers and New Buyers
Chapter 18: Serenity and the Pirate
Chapter 19: The Works of Serenity
Chapter 20: Comeuppance and Rebellion
Chapter 21: Billingsgate Shoals
Chapter 22: Sam and the Doctor
Chapter 24: The Story of Hannah and Sam
Chapter 25: Dead Letters and Greenheads
Chapter 27: Board Meetings and Floorboards
Chapter 28: Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd
Chapter 30: Pilgrims’ Progress
Chapter 31: Mechanical Monsters
Chapter 33: House on Billingsgate
Chapter 34: The Pilgrim Portagee
Chapter 35: The Lost Log of the Mayflower
Chapter 36: Answers and Questions
Critical Acclaim for William Martin’s Smash Bestseller
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 1991 by William Martin
Introduction © 2012 by William Martin
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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First e-book edition: June 2012
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ISBN 978-1-4555-2372-6