Living Silver 



even tinier than his boat and almost as old. Not quite a centen- 

 arian, thought Jan. But he took the ship through the gates and 

 parked her at one of the quays of the inner harbour. The crew of 

 the Leslie James could stretch their legs and their gullets in the 

 pubs of Peterhead. 



The skipper telephoned to the owners, the mate to his wife and 

 Jan to his girl friend. And then he walked through the dreich 

 town trying to figure out what he should do with himself. It 

 was raining a driving rain that stabbed through any number of 

 garments to find its way to the skin. There never seemed to be 

 rain at sea, but perhaps it was just that salt water was as wet as 

 fresh and, since one was already soaked with brine, it didn't mat- 

 ter much if there was also a cloudburst. Or maybe there was no 

 rain because there was no high land. Jan couldn't be bothered 

 working it out. Even his brain felt soggy. 



He hardly noticed the slap on his back but turned automatically 

 with a defensive, slightly hysterical, quickness. Then he relaxed 

 into the broadest of smiles and answered the greeting in Polish. 



It was Tadeusz, the ex-colonel from his Alma Mater at the sign 

 of the Goldfish. Soon they were sitting together in the Italian cafe 

 that is the most Scottish of village institutions. They swopped 

 witticisms hurriedly in their native tongue for they were both 

 language-starved with a year's accumulation of unuttered puns. 

 And then to politics, then back to puns, then to old friends and 

 what had become of them, and back to tall stories. It was only 

 after a good hour of pointless geniality that they began to talk of 

 the things that seriously affected their lives. But the talk, when 

 it came, was perhaps the most important conversation that Jan 

 ever held. It changed his life completely and for the better. 



Jan had long known that the jibing familiarity of trawlermen 

 had proved too much for the democratic principles of such an 

 officer and gentleman as Tadeusz. He had left the Aberdeen fleet 

 shortly after going to bed with a large affectionate lobster that had 

 somehow found its way into his bunk. But he had not given up 

 the sea. The unexpected payment of some back pay and post-war 



