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go to bridge,' the man said.
     
     
Kane crossed the deck quickly and climbed an iron ladder to the bridge. Guptas, the mate, was at the wheel, his turbaned head disembodied in the light from the binnacle.
     
     
Kane leaned in the doorway and lit a cigarette. 'How long has he been like that?'
     
     
Guptas grinned. 'Ever since we left Aden. It should take him at least two days to sleep this one off.'
     
     
'What a way to run a ship,' Kane said. 'What happened this time, anyway? Why didn't you call at Dahrein on the run-in from Bombay, as usual?'
     
     
'We had cargo for Mombasa,' Guptas told him. 'After that, Aden.'
     
     
'Skiros wasn't too pleased,' Kane said. 'I presume you've got the stuff all right.'
     
     
Guptas nodded. 'They should be bringing it up now. By the way, we have a passenger this trip.'
     
     
'A passenger?' Kane said incredulously. 'On this tub?'
     
     
'An American woman,' Guptas said. 'She wanted to leave Aden in a hurry. We were the only ship available and the Catalina wasn't due for a week.'
     
     
Kane flicked his cigarette in a glowing spiral into the night.
     
     
'Then I won't hang about. No sense in waking her up. She might get curious.'
     
     
Guptas nodded in agreement. 'I think that would be wise. A strange thing happened just before dawn yesterday.'
     
     
'What was that?'
     
     
'The Catalina - Romero's Catalina. We saw it on the horizon about thirty miles out. It landed beside some Portuguese freighter. They were offloading crates.'
     
     
'So what's the difference between that and what we're doing now? So Romero's doing a little smuggling too.' Kane shrugged. 'We've all got to get by. I'll see you next month.' And he went down the ladder to the deck.
     
     
He leaned over the rail and watched two Lascars lower an oil drum down to Piroo on the deck of the launch. A voice said quietly from behind, 'Do you happen to have a light?'
     
     
He turned quickly. She was rather tall and the smooth rounded face might have suggested weakness had it not been for the firm mouth. She wore a scarf and a light duster coat.
     
     
He held out a match in his cupped hands. 'Rather late for a promenade round the deck.'
     
     
She blew smoke out and leaned against the rail. 'I couldn't sleep. The facilities for passengers on this ship are strictly limited.'
     
     
'That I can believe.'
     
     
'A strange place to meet a fellow-American.'
     
     
He grinned. 'We pop up everywhere these days.'
     
     
She leaned over the rail and looked down at the launch. 'That's your boat, I presume?'
     
     
He nodded. 'I'm a deep-sea fisherman out of Bahrein. Got caught in a storm and ran out of fuel. It's lucky the Kantara came along.'
     
     
'I suppose it is,' she said.
     
     
Her perfume hung disturbingly in the air and, for some reason, he could think of nothing more to say. And then Piroo hailed him from the launch and he smiled. Til have to be going.'
     
     
'Ships that pass in the night,' she said.
     
     
He went down the ladder quickly and Piroo cast off the line. The Kantara pulled away from them at once and, when he looked up, he could see the woman in the yellow glare of the deck lights, leaning over the rail watching them until they faded into the night.
     
     
He dismissed her from his mind for the moment, because there were more important things to think of. The two-gallon oil can stood on the deck where Piroo had left it. Kane checked it quickly and then went below to the saloon.
     
     
Piroo had the air tank ready, and Kane stripped to his shorts and the Hindu helped him on with it. They went up on deck. Piroo vanished into the wheelhouse and emerged with a large, powerful spot-lamp on a long cable, specially designed for underwater use, which plugged into the boat's lighting system.
     
     
A ring bolt had been welded to each end of the oil can, and Piroo threaded a manilla rope through them as Kane pulled on his diving mask and gripped the mouthpiece of his breathing tube firmly