Curtis poked his head round the galley door and said, 'Soup up.'
'Okay,' I said. 'Let's have it. Maybe it'll help him to talk.'
But it didn't. For two solid hours I sat there like an intelligence officer examining an enemy prisoner. I tried every approach I knew short of hitting him — and I almost did that once I got so exasperated. But it had no effect. Every time I came up against a brick wall of — 'You ask my partner.'
At last I said, 'Well, where is your partner?'
He gave a wan smile. 'If I tol' yer that, yer'd know where the other fellow was nan, wouldn't yer?'
'Then what's the use of telling me to ask your partner?' I demanded irritably.
'Tell yer what Oi'll do,' he said suddenly. 'Next place we touch at, you put me ashore an' Oi'll telephone a message ter Peer ter meet you some place. Where you makin' fer?'
'Fjaerland,' I said.
'In Sognefjord?'
I nodded.