CHAPTER FIFTEEN 



THE GREAT LINES 



JOHN RADCLIFFE was not a trustful man, but he trusted Jan. 

 He trusted him from the beginning or, at any rate, after the first 

 five minutes of autobiographical cross-questioning were over. 

 There were perhaps two dozen men in the world whom Radcliffe 

 trusted. They had all sailed on the Honor and only they had sailed 

 on the Honor. And they had all been trustworthy. That was not 

 quite true. There had been one exception. He had sailed with 

 Skipper Radcliffe for a year. After that he had bought a boat and 

 set up in business as a linerman. Radcliffe had been annoyed to 

 find him poaching grounds between Iceland and Greenland that 

 had been the preserve of the Radcliffe family for three generations. 

 But not for long. The traitor, for so Radcliffe regarded him, had 

 learned a lot : he had been a remarkably intelligent man and a 

 good navigator. He had not, however, learned enough. Eighteen 

 months after he left the Honor a freak of the ice had surrounded 

 him. He and his crew were all drowned. Never, since then, had 

 John Radcliffe made a mistake. It would have been inhuman, 

 as well as uneconomic, for him to blunder into trusting the 

 undeserving. 



But, though he did not trust readily, Radcliffe trusted absol- 

 utely. And he made his decisions quickly. It was his job to make 

 decisions quickly. 'If you're going to use Sandy's gear,' he said, 

 *I suppose it will be all right, if Sandy doesn't object. ' Sandy was 

 in no position to object. He was lying in Foresterhill Hospital 

 with half of his right humerus as bare as a baby's bottom. He 



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