Pilot Officer Peter Thawaites stirred uneasly in his sleep .As he came out of the deep pit of oblivious ,something in the unconscious depth of memory twithced like the nerve of an aching tooth .Hanging in the vast void between sleeping and waking .He remembered with nightmare horror that he had gone to sleep under circumstances of crisis .His confused mind struggled for clear rememberance.Panic seized him as it flashe through his brain that he might have dozed off to sleep at the comtrols of his plane and even now be hurtling out of control to the ground.His drugged will battled titanically with the bonds of sleep ,and slowly ,panifully and confusingly he came awake ,his nerves jerking with the urgent need to he ready to deal with an emergency as soon as his wits were back with him .

 

With a reflex action he felt for the aileronls with his feet ,and his hands steadied an imaginary joy-sticker .As his eyes began to focus ,he saw a huge yellow mass before him .His brain reeled in terror ,and for moments he could not even tell how near or far it was .Then in a flash memory flowed back ,sparked by a smell-the smell of the sea.He looked wildly about .It was still there ,all around him ,as far as the eye could see.The puffed-up yellow thing before his eyes (it was only cemtimeters away )was his inflated life-saving jacket .

 

He did not feel cold in this sickly-tepid tropical sea :soon he would be feeling too hot again ,he knew .He had crashed in the sea at about noon the day before ,and had managed to extricate himself from his little plane and inflated his life-jacket .Now he looked around him to see wether the yellow stain which was intended to help rescue planes to spot him was still there .He added a little more of the dye ,and scanned the sky anxiously .Dawn was breaking ,and he might expect the search to begin when it was fully light .Luckily the sea was dead calm ,so that the tiny patch of yellow dye which would alone be visible to a plane would be relatively easy to see .Peter remembered searches he had taken part in ,and his heart sank with the memory of how difficult it was to spot a lone man in the vastness of the sea .He kept a sharp eye open for sharks .He had a supply of shark-repellent with him ,but he wanted to use it economically 

 

The sky reeddened rapidly and the sun rose above the curve of horizon-the burning ,pitless sun which yet offered hop of rescue .Peter scooped up some water in his hands and poured ith over his hair .In a spirit of bravado ,he reached for the comb ih his breast-pocket,but a jab of pain reminded him that probably had a broken rib .His hair would have to wait .It would be nice to be rescued with well-combed hair ,but it was not worth the danger of a perforated lung .

 

As the sun rose higher ,thirst began to take a central place in Peter’s consciousness .He remembered the shipwreched sailor’s cry,:Water ,water everywhere,nor any drop to drink!”People ,he had read ,went mad with thirst and threw themselves overboard .How could one throw oneself overboard a life-jacket ?He grinned ruefully to himself at the thought .Then the answer came to him in a flash :by pulling out the stopper and letting all the air out !He was unaccountably pleased to have found the answer to his conumdrum so quickly .Then he was alarmed that he had been pleased by such a grim thought .Could it be that he was already going mad?Or was it his irrepressilbe sense of humour rising above circumstancs ?He looked at the stopper on the life-jackedt .A strong compulison grew in him to pull it out ,the sort of the compulsion he had often felt as an adolescentp-to jump out of first-moving train ,or to pull the feather in a pompous lady’ hat .He resolutely drove the compulsive thought out of his mind ,but it kept edging its way in again with alarming persistence .

 

He did not know when he first became aware of the sound of aeroplane engines:perhaps he had dozed off under the scorching rays of the sun ,for as far as he remebered ,one moment there was absolute stillness ,and in the nest the deep hum of distant aircraft –more than one ,he thought .He resisted the impulse to shout “ridiculous !The planes were coming from the northeast .Affter a time he knew that they were sweeping the sea ,the engines first sounding louder for a time and then dimmer again.Each time they grew louder he cheered under his breath and strined his eyes in the direction to the noise .Each time the sound grew dim he slumped in his life-jacket and groaned .Frequently he prayed aloud ,”Oh ,God!Let them find me !Oh ,God !Let them find me .

 

When it did happen ,it all happened very quicly and smoothly .A seaplane appeared on the northern horizon and rapidly grew bigger.I t was flying at about 8,000 metres .He waved and shouted desperately ,although he knew they coul not hear above the roar of their engines .Then the plane veered sharply in his direction ,with its left wing dipping low .It straightened out ,throttled back and came in to a perfect landing a few hundred paddled ove to him and lifted him gently in :”How are you feeling ,old man ?”asked one of them ,a naval lieutenant “A bit thirsty ,”said Peter .

 

水，到处是水

 

空军少尉彼得斯沃思不安地从睡梦中惊醒过来，他从无意识的深处醒来，有什么东西在无法感受知的记忆深处骤然一抽，就像一颗疼牙的神经一样。半梦半醒之间，他记起来-恶梦般的恐惧-他在危急的情况下睡着了。他尽力从混乱的大脑中回忆清梦。脑海中突然闪现出他可能开着飞机睡着了，甚至现在飞机正失控撞向大地，他一阵恐慌。他昏迷的意识尽极力地摆脱睡意的束缚，慢慢地，很痛苦，又很迷惑，他醒了，一恢复神智，他的神经就因需要立即应付紧急情况而激烈地跳动起来。

 

条件反射地伸出脚去控制副翼，双手去找想象中的飞机控制杆。眼睛能看清楚时，他才注意到自己前面是一堆黄色的东西。恐惧令他脑子一片混乱，有好一会儿他分不清楚这堆东西是远还是近。气味-大海的气味-激发他突然回忆起发生的事情。他急切地左右张望，极目远眺，发现在他周围一切还是那样。眼前（只有几厘米远）膨胀开的黄色东西是他充了气的救生衣，在他沉睡时支撑着他的全部重量。

 

在这种恶心的热带温热水中他不觉得冷。他知道一会儿又觉得太热了。他就是昨天中午坠机落入大涨中的，他设法从小飞机中爬了出，给救生衣充上气。此处他四处看看有助于营救飞机发现他的黄色水迹是否还在。他又多加了些染料，然后就不安地扫视天空。正是破晓时分，他希望天空全亮时搜索行动就可以了。幸运地，海面风平浪静，飞机能年到单独这一块黄颜料的水迹就比较容易被发现。但彼得想起他参加过的搜救行动，想到在一望无际的大海中找一个孤伶伶的有有多困难之后，他的心情就低落下去了。他还得警惕鲨鱼，他随着带着防鲨用品，但是他想着省点用。

 

天空很快就变红了，太阳能爬出了弯弯的海平面---无情燃烧着的太阳预示了获救的希望。彼得用水舀水浇在头发上故做勇猛状，伸手拿装在胸前口袋中的的梳子，但一阵剧痛提醒他自己可能断了根肋骨，头发得等了。获救时头发梳得漂亮当然好，但又不值得冒肺穿孔的险。

 

太阳长得又高点后，“渴”字开始占据着彼得的主导意识。他想起了遇难水手的呼喊：水，到处是水，但是没有一滴能喝！人们，他在书中读到，渴得发疯，然后就跳海了。一个人怎能跳下救生衣呢？想到这儿，他自己苦笑起来。一瞬间他就有了答案：拔掉塞子放气！这么迅速就找到这个难题的答案，他莫明其妙地高兴起来。然后就惊慌地意识到为这种可怕的想法而高兴，可不可能是他已经疯了？还是在危险环境中他依然有抑制不信的幽默感？他看着救生衣上的塞子，拔掉它的强烈冲动在加剧，是青少年时代他经常感天的那种充动-跳下迅速奔驰的火车，拔掉爱炫耀的女士帽子上的羽毛。他坚决把这种冲动想法赶出脑海，但是他又坚持不懈地一点一点挤进脑海，非常令人担忧。

 

他不知道最初什么时候开始意识到飞机的轰鸣声，也许是在炙热的阳光照耀下睡着了。他还记得刚才还是完全一片沉静，之后就是远外收音机械传达室来低沉的轰轰声-不止一架，他想。他抵抗住了想大声叫喊的冲动：太可笑了！飞机从东北方向飞来。不久，他知道飞机正在彻底搜寻海面。发动机的声音起先一度越来越大，然后又渐渐变小。每次声音越来越大，他都低声欢呼，朝着出声的地方努力看：随着声音越变越小，他就瘫倒在救生衣上叹息。他频繁地大声祷告：“啊，上帝！让他们发现我吧！啊！上帝！让他们发现我吧！”

 

真的灵验了，一切都发生得非常迅速而且顺利。一架海上飞机出现在北方的地平线上，很快就变得越来越大。飞行时速大约8公里。尽管他知道他们不可能在发动机的轰鸣中听到，他不顾一切地挥手大声呼喊。然后飞机迅速转向，放低左翼朝他飞来。机身正过来，减速，在离他几百米的地方完美降落。飞机滑行得更近后，停下来，一只橡皮艇。两个划阒桨来到他身边，轻轻地把他抬上船，“伙计，感觉怎样？”其中一个海军中尉问。“有点渴，”彼得说。