The SYLE Press
Mouritzen heard a shout behind him, and turned to see another of the hands coming up from the direction of the forward hatch. Whatever he was saying was carried away by the wind.
Mouritzen shouted: ‘What was that?’
He came up to them. ‘The bear?’
‘What about the bear?’
‘The bear’s loose!’
‘Are you sure?’ Mouritzen demanded.
‘She’s down there, on the deck.’
Carling spoke then, his voice trumpeting over the massed violins of the storm.
‘The first sign!’
‘She was incredible,’ Mouritzen added. ‘A magnificent woman.’
‘Yes,’ Olsen said. ‘But I haven’t much liking for masterful women. When, in school history, I read of Joan of Arc, I detested her. I thought it fitting that she was executed, although I did not approve of the method.’
‘You think I do not know myself, Niels? I am a man without insight, ruled by his prejudices and obsessions. That is how I appear to you, is it not?’ ‘Not quite like that.’ ‘The...
Clinging to the steps as a wave washed over the Kreya, Mouritzen thought the wind was even higher. He made his way across a deck running with water towards the cluster of lights above the...
‘Hold on! She’s caught …’ Herning was on the bridge between the two hatches. He was half kneeling, and he turned his head towards Mouritzen, as though to make out more clearly what he was...
Mouritzen, by now, was alternately bullying and cajoling the men. He reflected when, under each smashing onslaught of the sea, he had time to think, on his own inadequacy in coping with this kind of...
The Kreya heeled and a wave lifted higher and higher above them before thundering down to immerse them, for an instant, in a world of savage water. Holding on to the rail, Mouritzen had a...
Olsen said, in a detached voice: ‘They’re not getting away fast enough.’ The boat lay at the foot of the long, sloping cliff that was the side of the Kreya, becalmed for all their struggle...
Annabel said: ‘I thought the ship was going to sink, but it didn’t.’ Mouritzen smiled at her. ‘The ship will not sink.’ She said accusingly: ‘You said that when I woke up we would be...
Dimly through the mist it was possible to see a long, unbroken line of white, without beginning or end. From it came the now familiar throbbing roar, louder and heavier. ‘My God!’ Mouritzen said. ‘We...
