'Oh, that,' he said, feeling his eye. 'It's nothing. It was his head that 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. Her voice was quiet. 'A man called George Farnell was killed about a month ago on the Jostedal. He was-' She hesitated. 'I was very fond of him, Mr Sunde. Until the other day I thought it was an accident. I thought he had been alone. Then I discovered that someone had been with him. His name was Schreuder — an Austrian Jew who worked for the Nazis. Instead of going to the authorities and telling what he knew about Farnell's death, he came to Bovaagen Hval, shipped as a hand with Captain Lovaas and tried to escape to the Shetlands. That was the man who jumped overboard from Hval Ti yesterday morning — the man you picked up.'
'Nah look 'ere, miss. Oi don't know nuffink aba't it, see. Oi'm just a diver, Oi am. Oi don't want no trouble.'
'You had trouble to-night, didn't you?' Jill said slowly. 'Major Wright told me all about it. If it hadn't been for Mr Gansert you might be dead now. You'd have told Captain Lovaas what you know then he might have disposed of you. You owe your life to Mr Gansert and the two others who were with him — Major Wright and Mr Everard. Isn't that so?'