Read And the Deep Blue Sea Online
Authors: Charles Williams
And the Deep Blue Sea (25 page)
Then he regarded the drink with pious disapproval, and said, “It seems to me, Mr. Goddard, you ought to be down on your knees thanking the Lord you’re alive, instead of drinking that stuff.”
“I expect you’re right, Captain,” Goddard agreed. Then, because the impulse was irresistible, he added, “I imagine when we get to Manila, there’ll be quite an investigation.”
Steen shuddered.
“I mean,” Goddard went on innocently, “what with a conspiracy, a fire, a mutiny, and a fake SOS. Probably be quite a bit of paperwork.”
Steen departed. Karen smiled at Goddard and shook her head. “You shouldn’t do that to the poor man.”
“Let him find his own sunset.”
They fell silent for a moment, and then she said, “You claim I saved your life, and now you’ve saved mine. Is it a standoff?”
“Not a chance,” Goddard replied. “I won going away; I saved the best one. Ask any of the crew.”
“Well, they’re sailors. There is a certain amount of prejudice.”
He looked around at her. “What about that old Chinese belief of responsibility? Do we cancel each other, or is it doubled?”
“That’s an interesting point. What do you think?”
“I don’t know,” Goddard said. “But when we get to Manila, we could run over to Hong Kong and look into it.”
“I have to go to work.” She hesitated. “But I suppose I could get another week’s leave.”
“Then it’s a deal,” he said. “And don’t feel you’ll be ashamed of me; I’m sure the crew will give me another pair of pants.”
She laughed. “Well, I’ll think about it.”
“Forget that line,” he said. “It’s just that I’m out of practice and it’s hard for me to say anything I mean. And what I meant was simply that I wish you would.”
“I know,” she said. “I’m beginning to break the code. Now, tell me about your daughter.”
For the first time in five months he could. It was twenty minutes later when Madeleine Lennox came around the corner of the deckhouse looking for him. She stopped, arrested by something in the attitude of the two figures leaning on the rail, and shrugged. You won a few, you lost a few. She turned, and went aft in search of Barset.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
copyright © 1971 by Charles Williams
cover design by Katrina Damkoehler
978-1-4532-6624-3
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CHARLES WILLIAMS
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