'Utmerket,' answered Jorgensen. He gave the signing-off whistle and then turned to us. Tomorrow we will know the answer to this little mystery — I hope,' he said.
And then our attention was called back to the radio with a voice calling, 'Ullo-ullo-ullo. Hval Ti anroper direktor Jorgensen.'
Jorgensen picked up the microphone again. 'Ja, Hval Ti. Dei er Jorgensen her.'
'Dette er kaptein Lovaas,' replied the voice.
Jill gripped my arm. 'It's the captain of the catcher, Whale Ten. I think he knows something.'
The conversation went on in Norwegian for a moment and then Jorgensen turned to me. 'Lovaas sounds as though he has some information. He wants a description of Farnell.' He thrust the microphone towards me. 'He understands English.'
I leaned down to the microphone and said. 'Farnell was short and dark. He had a long, serious face and wore thick-lensed glasses. The tip of the little finger of the left hand was missing.'
Jorgensen nodded and took the microphone. 'Now what's your information, Lovaas?' he asked.
'I speak English now.' There was a fat chuckle over the loudspeaker. 'She is not very good, my English. So please excuse. When I leave Bovaagen Hval two days before one of my man is sick. I take with me another man — a stranger. His name, he said, is Johan Hestad. He is very good to steer. But he has magnetise the compass and when I think I am near the whales I find I am off the Shetlands. He offered me many monies to go to the Shetlands. He says to me that he was with a man called Farnell seeking minerals on the Jostedal and that an English company will pay him money for his discoveries. I remember how this man Farnell is discovered dead on the Boya glacier and I lock him in the cabin. When I search his clothes I have found papers showing his real name to be Hans Schreuder. Also some little pieces of rock.'
At the mention of the man's real name, Jorgensen's grip on the microphone tightened. 'Lovaas,' he interrupted. 'Did you say — Schreuder?'