:, The usual crew share. Eight percent of the gross."

'Which was?"

"Eighty-three hundred bucks."

His eyes widened. "Wow. Eighty-three hundred? For eight days work?" He gave a respectful whistle. "Hell, that's, what, that's almost eleven hundred a day, isn't it?" She nodded. "Wow," he said again. "Marry me and support me in the style in which I intend to become accustomed."

She stretched out her inconsiderable length in one long, lazy reach. She fluttered her eyelashes and patted the bunk. "Mmm, I don't know. Let me review your application one more time."

She didn't have to ask him twice.

THREE

THEY rose early the next morning, hungry from no dinner the night before, and went looking for a restaurant. Over breakfast at the Unisca Restaurant, equally beguiled by the eggs Benedict and the view of the old submarine dock, Kate said impulsively, "Let's fly out there."

"Out where?" Jack said around a mouthful of Canadian bacon.

"Anua." Kate waved a hand at the clear sky. "It'd be flying in the face of Providence not to take advantage of that, so let's fly out there and take a look for ourselves.

You have got Cecily with you, right? You're supposed to be caribou hunting and sight-seeing, you must have brought her along."

He swallowed. "How far is it?"

"If that map you gave me last night is accurate, I figure about a hundred and sixty miles from Dutch."

"Hmm." He studied the ceiling and chewed, figuring.

"Shouldn't take us more than an hour and twenty minutes, each way, and we'll have fuel to spare, just in case.

I suppose we could."

"Please? I'd like to see for myself the place where whatever the hell it was happened, happened."

He wiped his mouth with a paper napkin. "Let me check with Flight Service on the forecast. If the weather's with LIS, we'll do it."

After breakfast Kate left Jack to check in with the Avilda.

Nordhoff, Skinner and Gault were all off somewhere, leaving Andy on watch. "Hey, Kate!" he called across the boats between the Avilda and the boat slip. "And where were you last night, little girl?'

"None of your business," she told him sweetly. "We still leaving tomorrow morning?"

He nodded. "If that part comes in. The skipper doesn't seem to be in much of a hurry."

"Good," Kate said, although she wondered why, after such a successful run, Harry Gault wasn't hot to get hot on the crab again.

"Look what I got!" Andy said, delving into his coat pocket and producing a small object wrapped in butcher paper. He unfolded the paper with exquisite care and displayed the object therein with immense pride.

Kate looked and saw a small rectangular lump of what might have been ivory, carved into the very rough image of a fat, smiling little Buddha. "A billiken," she said.

" 'As a good luck bringer, I'm a honey, to bring good luck, just rub my tummy.' "

"Oh, you know the verse!" Andy said, disappointed.