14 



Evening in the North 



(Norwegian T) 



THE Vikna announced her arrival, long before she herself be- 

 came visible, by a dark-brown wedge of smoke that jetted up- 

 wards and apparently forwards over the horizon. Even this seemed 

 somehow aggressive, and the Boy experienced his first serious mis- 

 givings as he watched this blemish grow above the steel-gray surface 

 of the heaving ocean. Then a stubby bucket-topped spar and a madly 

 raked stack appeared beneath the plume of dirty smoke, and a glisten- 

 ing white disturbance could be discerned beneath them. The Boy's 

 nemesis was arriving slightly ahead of schedule. 



It was half an hour before the little vessel rounded the headland 

 and nosed into the bay, her engine-room bell clanging madly and 

 billows of black smoke rolling ahead of her brutal prow. As she came 

 to an abrupt and shuddering stop in the sound and let go her an- 

 chor with a tortured clatter, the Boy regarded her with little less 

 than terror. 



And there was much about the Vikna that was terrifying. She was 

 painted a nasty gray all over and her stack was grimed black halfway 



