The Blue Ice by Hammond Innes

Author:Hammond Innes
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448156948
Publisher: Random House

CHAPTER 6

HERE LIES THE BODY

BEFORE going below to interview Sunde, I went into the chartroom and worked out our course. There was a good deal of cloud about and I wanted to avoid any islands until we opened the entrance to Sognefjord. “Is the log out?” I called to Dick.

“No,” he answered. “Shall I stream it?”

“Please.” I had little tidal information and it was difficult to work out any allowance for drift. But the course we were sailing was marked by two lights and we should have to work on these. I drew in the lines of our course and then went out into the cockpit. Dick had left the wheel and was fitting the log line to its bracket. I held the wheel as he dropped the heavy, finned spinner overboard. The thin line trailed aft in out wake and as he let the last loop drop overboard the log wheel began to turn. He came back and took the wheel. “What’s the course?” he asked.

“North thirty west,” I answered.

The Nordhordland coast by Bovaagen was already no more than a low line of rock, shining white in the moonlight. It straggled out in a series of hummocks along our starb’d beam until it thinned to a narrow line and vanished. To the west lay open sea. Ahead of us a light winked steadily. “That’s Hellesöy light,” I said. “It’s on the island of Fedje. Leave that to port, but keep as close to the island as possible. Utvaer light should then be on the starb’d bow. Hold your course for ten miles and then turn to bring Utvaer fine on the port bow. I’ve marked it out on the chart. Okay?”

“Fine,” he said. “What about watches?”

“I’ll see about that when I’ve had a talk with Sunde,” I replied. His face looked pale and very young in the moonlight. A livid bruise was darkening round his eye.

“You got a nasty clip,” I said.

“Oh, that,” he said, feeling his eye. “It’s nothing. It was his head did that.”

“Feeling all right?”

“Fine, thanks. Bit chilly, that’s all. Could you pass me a duffle coat?”

I opened the cockpit clothing locker and flung him one of the coats. “I’ll send Wilson up to relieve you,” I said and went for’ard to the main hatch.

As I descended the ladder I heard Sunde’s voice through the open door of the saloon. “Oi tell yer, Oi don’t know nuffink, miss,” he was saying. He gave a quick gasp of pain.

“Sorry—am I hurting you.” Jill’s voice was soft and coaxing. “There, that’s fine. I’ll have that hand right in no time. Mr. Sunde. I want you to help me.”

“Oi’ll do anyfink I can, miss.”

I stopped at the bottom of the companionway. They had not heard me coming down in my rubber shoes. Through the open doorway I could see Jill’s face, very intense, very determined. She was sitting facing the diver across the saloon table and she held his bandaged hand in hers. “It means a lot to me,” she said.

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