She nodded.
I looked across at the dark-haired little diver. He was talking to Kielland. He was talking fast as though he had to keep on talking. I caught snatches of his conversation. It was about depth of water and oxy-acetylene cutting. 'He's nervous,' I told Jill quietly. 'I'll get him alone as soon as I can and see what I can find out.'
But I didn't get him alone before lunch and at lunch something happened that made me even more anxious to talk to the man privately. The meal was laid in a long, low room branching off from the steward's big kitchen. Windows looked out across ridges of bare rock to a black cutting where the sea lay still in the hot sunshine like a piece of glass. The meal — middag they called it — was a colossal affair. It began with big steaks of whale meat served with tomatoes and potatoes. This was followed by koltbord — there were innumerable tins of fish treated in different ways, smoked salmon, pickled hake, pressed whalebeef and a whole assortment of different meats, salad and several types of cheese. There was milk and a light Norwegian Pilsner to wash it down.
Lovaas was there and Captain Nordahl of Hval To. The talk was mainly of whale. Sunde kept his eyes on his plate and when he spoke it was only to ask for something to be passed to him. If Dick had let him be, I might have found out what I wanted and Lovaas might never have come into the picture again. But Dick asked him how it was he spoke such good English, and with a Cockney accent.
The little diver looked up. 'Me muvver was Cockney,' he answered, tucking his food into his cheek. 'She never could get on wiv the Norwegian language, so roight from the time Oi first opened me ma'f she talked ter me in English.'
'Who were the men working with you this morning?' Dick asked.
'Me partner an' a fisherman.'
There was a lull in the general conversation and Lovaas looked across at him. 'What are you fishing for?' he asked.
The Cockney Norwegian grinned. 'Per aerer engines, Kaptein Lovaas,' he answered. 'Oi'm a diver. Started yesterday.'
'He is getting up the engines of that old Junkers 88 that was shot down off Skarv Island,' Kielland explained.