saucers."

"Flyin' catfish," Harris said scornfully. "You swallow that yarn?"

"Didn't you?" Rick asked quickly.

"Not any. That why you picked this creek to anchor in when there's so
many nicer ones upstream?"

Scotty explained. "We ducked in here to get out of that squall last
night. We didn't exactly pick it. Afterward, we realized where we were."

"Why don't you believe the story about Link Harris?" Rick wanted to
know.

"Oh, I believe some of it." The crabber took out a blackened, much-used
pipe and stoked it. "Link disappeared, all right. We found his boat
yonder." He pointed to a spot on the marshy shore.

"He didn't drown?" Rick pressed.

Harris shrugged. "Not very likely. We'd have found his body. Way the
tides were that day, there was no ebb tide strong enough to carry a body
out into deep water. The creek was clear. We'd have seen him."

"Then where did he go?" Scotty demanded.

"Can't say. When he disappeared, I went to Baltimore and bought every
book on flyin' saucers I could lay hands on. All I know for sure is that
what folks have been seein' around here ain't saucers. Shape's wrong,
color's wrong, and they don't move the way the books say."

"Would you say they were diamond-shaped, dark in color, with tails?"
Rick asked carefully.

Harris stopped with a match halfway to his pipe. "I would. For sure.
When'd you see one?"

"Last night. Right here."

"Mmmmm." Harris got the pipe going well and threw the match into the
water. "I've never seen one close. Hoped to. That's why I crab this
creek. Would you say it was big enough to catch a man?"

Rick shook his head. "I didn't get a very long look, but I'd say
definitely not. Unless it had some kind of powerful motor I couldn't see
or hear."

Harris puffed silently.

"Any theories?" Scotty asked.

"Not one. I'm barren as the flats in winter."

Rick finished his coffee and put the mug down on the cabin top. "Would
Link have gone away of his own accord?"

"I wouldn't think so." Harris accepted more coffee from Scotty. "But
let's keep one foot anchored. Who knows what's in a man's mind? Any man?
Sometimes there's a deep channel full of black water, and nothin' to
make you suspect it. Maybe Link did walk off. It would be the easiest
explanation--if you hadn't seen somethin' last night. I was about to
give up. Now I'm not so sure. What you saw came from somewhere, and it
was goin' somewhere. If we could find out whence and whither, so to
s