‘Mr Darnell…?’ ‘Forty days, you say? That in itself is an extraordinary achievement, wouldn’t you say, Captain Balfour? To stay out in a lifeboat that long, and at the end of it still have five other people alive?’ Darnell had not moved, had not looked at the witness. His eyes were still fixed on the ceiling. With sudden energy, he lurched forward and, with his elbow bent beneath him, studied Balfour as if he, the witness, was the only one who could really know what the question meant, what it was like to be out there, all alone, lost at sea. ‘In all your years as a seaman, have you ever known of anything more extraordinary than that?’ The answer of Thomas Balfour was immediate, exact.‘No, sir. I have not.’ Nodding emphatically, Darnell swept his legs out from under the table and got to his feet. ‘A thousand miles, you say; a thousand miles from where they started to where you found them. A rate of twenty-five miles or so per day, east to west—isn’t that what you said?’ he asked, his eyebrows raised as he waited.
