He stood astride the curled body and yawned hugely, his raised fists brushing the low deckhead. With a grunt he stooped and shook Jervis’s shoulder. ‘C’mon then! Don’t make a bloody meal of it!’ Jervis groaned and sat up blinking, his red-rimmed eyes staring round at first with shocked unfamiliarity and then with renewed weariness. Oh, it’s you, Steve,’ he answered dully. ‘I wondered where the blazes I was.’ Duncan’s eyes crinkled. ‘Who the hell were you expectin’?’ He gestured towards the girl’s cabin. ‘Or is that where you’ve been all night?’ ‘Steady on, Steve,’ began Jervis hotly, his face flushing, ‘you’re wrong about her! She’s a damned fine girl!’ He struggled for words. ‘Why, if it wasn’t for her, I’d be dead right now, and you’d have sailed without me!’ Duncan smiled grimly. ‘Well, that’s got that off your chest, hasn’t it? Now perhaps you’ll call the skipper and tell him it’s nearly dawn, leastways it would be, but for the blasted clouds!’ He turned heavily on the ladder and reached for the hatch.
