A Hero for Leanda

Thalia all night under engine, with the throttle well open. Now that he had no log he could only guess at the ship’s progress, but in a dead flat sea he reckoned she must be doing a good eight knots. The morning sights confirmed it. The little cross that he put on the track chart was more than a hundred miles further to the west.
    “That means we’ve about three hundred and fifty miles to go,” he told Kastella, as he handed over. “And I must say I’ll be damned glad when we get there.” He sounded very tired. This second unbroken watch of twelve hours, with the engine pounding away at his feet all the time, seemed to have drained him.
    Kastella looked around the empty sea. Directly astern of them, the sun was shooting up in a hot ball, threatening another blazing day. There was no hint of wind.
    “It’s a pity we haven’t enough fuel to motor all the way,” Kastella said.
    “Well, we haven’t....” Conway ran his hand over his eyes in a weary gesture. “All right, Kastella—keep the sun behind you and you won’t go far wrong. I’m going to get some sleep.”
    He went below. Leanda was lying on her bunk, her face turned away. She didn’t stir. For a moment he sat looking at her, thinking nostalgically of the companionable trip they’d had on the way out. Then he stretched out on the berth and tried to compose himself. The engine beat sounded in his ears like a sledge hammer. He got up and closed the door and tried again. Without air, the heat was stifling. After about five minutes he gave it up and went out into the cockpit.
    “You’ll have to switch that damn thing off for a bit, Kastella,” he called irritably. “I’ll never get to sleep.”
    “Why don’t you go into my cabin?” Kastella said. “The engine didn’t worry me there.”
    “It’ll worry me. Engines always do—I hate the bloody things. Give it a rest—we can only use the fuel once.” He waited while Kastella switched off. “If the wind gets up, call me, and I’ll come and make sail for you. If it doesn’t, for God’s sake let me sleep. I’m just about all in.”
    He went back into the saloon and lay down again. Thalia was rocking gently on the quiet sea. In a few moments he was asleep.

    It was well on in the afternoon when he reappeared— washed, shaved and wearing a clean shirt. The long rest seemed to have transformed his spirits. He nodded briskly to Kastella and took a quick look round. A breeze was beginning to get up, still from the west, and there were a few clouds about. “Right,” he said, "shall we get cracking?”
    “It’s about time,” Kastella said surlily. “I was just going to call you.” He was sitting hunched in the cockpit with the gun on his lap.
    “Oh, come, you mustn’t grudge the maestro his sleep!” Conway said. “After all, we want to keep this a happy ship, don’t we?” He climbed to the coach roof and prepared to hoist sail. Leanda was up in the bows. “Hullo, Leanda!” he called.
    “Hullo!” she said in a flat voice.
    He grinned. “It’s good to be alive—you ought to try it sometime.” He hauled the mainsail up and swigged the luff taut. Kastella took the tiller, and in a few moments they were under way, on the same southwesterly course as before.
    Presently Conway got out the patent log and the soldering outfit and went into the saloon to try and fix tire sheared cog. It was a fiddling job, and it took him over an hour. Even then he wasn’t very satisfied with it. “Let’s give it a try, anyway,” he said. Kastella moved away from the helm while he fitted it and streamed the line. In about ten minutes there was a perceptible movement in the figure on the clock face. For an hour, the log worked normally. Then Kastella reported that it had stopped again.
    Conway shrugged. “To hell with it, then! We’ll do without it.”
    There was too much cloud for sight taking at dusk. In any case, Conway said, it would hardly have been worth the effort, since their position had changed so little during the day. The transfer at six was made without incident. Kastella, following what had now become his regular routine, got food for himself in the saloon and then went immediately into the forecabin and shut himself up there. Leanda left the deck, and Conway settled down to another long night watch.
    The wind blew steadily from the west until just before dawn. Then it backed to the southeast. Conway looked thoughtful. Presently he hove to and went to have a look at the