The Great Lines 



would be very grateful of the two-thirds of the share that Jan in- 

 tended to earn for him. 



After so many years of the North Sea, Jan found himself once 

 more unaccustomed to the longer motion of the open Atlantic. 

 At times he felt almost sea-sick, though never quite that, a slow 

 dizziness rather, as though one of those tall wheels in the circus 

 were revolving within his stomach or his head. He couldn't be 

 certain where. His ideas about his own anatomy had become 

 somewhat confused. 



'Johnny, I want a w^ord with you. ' Radcliffe was shouting from 

 the bridge. Once inside the skipper's cabin, which did duty as a 

 chart room, he continued: 'If you found out all that's going on 

 here, exactly how we're heading and how fast, what depth of water 

 we're fishing and what kind of currents run there, and you did it 

 all on your own, mind you, with me doing my best to lose you, 

 you'd feel pretty clever, I suppose?' 



*I might, if I thought you were really trying to lose me.' 



'Well, Johnny, I think you'd do it and that you would be very 

 clever. The trouble is that you'd^eei clever and, if you felt clever, 

 you might become anxious to show old RadclifFe up for what he's 

 worth: and to do that you'd have to talk to people. And 1 don't 

 want you to talk to people. So, since I think you're an honest 

 man, I'm not going to wait for you to prove to yourself that you're 

 cleverer than I am - which you probably are. I prefer to trust 

 your word rather than mistrust your intelligence. Do you under- 

 stand?' 



The shrewd eyes were, for a fraction of a second, rather solemn 

 and very beautiful. Johnny understood, and Radcliffe began to 

 explain his plans. Changing, with an almost slovenly familiarity, 

 from one chart to another he outlined his projected trip, thirty- 

 two hundred miles in all. Their first stop was to be a little bank 

 about two hundred and thirty miles south west of the Westmann 

 Islands. On it they would find skate, the big grey skate, but not 

 more than a hundred kit of them. They shouldn't take more than 

 two days to clean up that bank. Then they would go on to the 



223 



