midnight
He dived straight through the wave as it towered over him . He came up , gasping , his hands all but clutching at a pair of hands that reached out of the waters and grasped with a last desperate effort at the sky . Ahead of the hands was a broken piece of oar . Those hands had just despairingly relinquished their grip on the one chance of safety , if any chance there could possibly be in that mad midnight waste . He pulled on the wrists and a white face came to view . Wild , staring eyes looked into his . Black hair flowed back from a face whose lips were blue and thin .