I was alone at the wheel of my own ship. And I was entering the longest fjord in Norway. For 130 miles it stretched eastward into the very centre of the most mountainous section of Norway. It was two to five miles wide with towering mountains falling sheer to the water and it was as deep as the mountains were high. I had read all about it and here I was actually sailing into it. And not just sailing for pleasure, but sailing with a purpose. I was going to Fjaerland, which lay under the largest glacier in Europe — 580 square miles of solid ice. And there, I hoped, I'd find the truth about Farnell. The reason for his death was as important to me now as the thought of what he might have discovered. I had seen the troubled look in Jill's grey eyes and something of the urgency in her had communicated itself to me.
The cold dampness of the mist should have destroyed my excitement. But it didn't. It increased it. Every now and then some change of the wind would draw aside for an instant the grey veil and I'd catch a glimpse of the mountains, their tops invisible, but their bulk suggestive of the greater bulk behind. This was the way to see new country, I thought. Like a woman, it should be revealed gradually. As I gripped the wet spokes of the wheel and felt the steady thrust of the wind driving Diviner deeper and deeper into the mountains, the mystery of the place held me in its spell and I remembered Peer Gynt again and the saeter huts high up in the hills.
Lost in my thoughts, the time, usually leaden-footed at the dawn, passed quickly. At eight o'clock the wind shifted abeam and I hauled in on main and mizzen sheets. Then I called Dick and went below to get some sleep. 'Watch the wind,' I said, pausing with my head just out of the hatch. 'You can't see them, but the mountains are all round us.
I must have been dead beat, for I fell asleep at once and the next thing I remember is Curtis shaking me. I sat up at once, listening to the sounds of the ship. We were canted over and moving fast through the water, cutting through a light sea with a crash and a splash as the bows bit into each wave. 'When do we reach Leirvik?' I asked.
He grinned. 'We left Leirvik an hour ago,' he said.
I cursed him for not waking me. 'What about Sunde?' I asked.
'He made his call.'
'Is he back on board?'
'Yes. I saw to that. I went with him.'
'You don't know what place it was he rang?'