through with it! For yourself and for the world. Now,
stand straight, father. They're looking at you. They're all looking at
you."

Columbus, thought Danny. The intrepid voyager who had discovered a new
world! He smiled grimly. Columbus, the history books should have said,
the drunken sot who didn't even have the courage to face his own
convictions.

They walked ahead through the ridiculing crowd. Danny's throat was still
sore. He was not frightened, though. He possibly was the only man in the
crew who was not frightened. The others didn't care what their
destination was, true: but they wanted to reach it alive. Danny knew the
journey would end in success. The end of the journey meant nothing to
him. It was written in history. It was ...

Unless, he suddenly found himself thinking, I came back here to write
it. He grinned at his own bravado. What would they have said in freshman
psych--that was practically paranoid thinking. As if Danny Jones,
Whitney College, Virginia, U.S.A., could have anything to do with the
success or failure of Columbus' journey.

They reached the small skiff that would take them out to the tiny fleet
of caravels. The crowd hooted and jeered.

"... going to drop off the edge of the world, Columbus."

"If the monsters don't get you first."

"Or the storms and whirlpools."

Columbus gripped Nina's hand. Martin-Danny took his other arm firmly and
steered him toward the prow of the skiff. "Easy now, skipper," Danny
said.

"I can't--"

"There's wine on the Santa Maria," Danny whispered. "Much wine--to make
you forget. Come on!"

"And I'm going, father," Nina said. "Whether you go or not."

"You!" Columbus gasped. "A girl. You, going--"

"With Martin Pinzon. If--if my own father can't look after me, then
Martin can."

"But you--" Danny began.

"Be quiet, please," she whispered as Columbus climbed stiffly into the
skiff. "It may be the only way, Martin. He--he loves me. I guess I'm the
only thing he cares about. If he knows I'm going."

"To the Santa Maria!" Columbus told the rowers as Danny and Nina got
into the skiff.

"To the New World!" cried Danny melodramatically.

"What did you say?" Nina asked him.

His face colored. "I mean, to the Indies! To the Indies!"

The skiff bobbed out across the harbor toward the three waiting
caravels. Departure time had arrived.

Two hours later, they were underway.

* * * * *

The sea was calm as glass,