CHAPTER 



iw Exactly ten days after my accident Lou and Walter 

 Gorman carried me on board the Explorer, My hip was 

 painful but, after so much time wasted as an invalid, 

 my balcony vigil had become at last unbearable. 



"You don't think you're going to fish with a leg 

 like that," Lou had said the previous evening when I 

 suggested that he haul me out of my boredom and onto 

 the ship. 



"I don't know," I said. 



"Now, Genie," Lou said, quickly, "you know what 

 can happen if anything goes wrong. You can fix that 

 hip for good." 



"I don't want to discuss it," I said, "but if you agree 

 to carry me aboard, I'll agree to make you one promise 

 right now." 



116 



