Pitt stood and watched the shore recede until the dock became a dirty speck on the surf line. Then he hoisted his one hundred and ninety pounds onto the high tubular railing that circled the stern and sat with his buttocks hanging precariously over the boat's frothing white wake. From his unusual position he could feel the pulsations from the shaft, and by looking straight down, he could see the propeller drill its way through the water. The whaleboat was only a quarter of a mile from the First Attempt when Pitt noticed the young crewman at the helm eyeing him with a mild look of respect.

"Excuse me, sir, but you look like you've spent some time in a double-ender." The blond crewman nodded at Pitt's seat on the railing. The young man had an academic air about him that implied scientific intelligence. Well tanned from the Aegean sun, he wore Bermuda shorts and nothing else except a long, sparse, yellow beard.

Pitt wrapped a hand around the stern light staff for support and groped in a breast pocket with his other hand for a cigarette. "I used to have one when I was in high school," he said casually.

"You must have lived near the water," said the young crewman.

"Newport Beach, California."

"That's a great place. I used to drive up there all the time when I was taking post-graduate courses at Scripps in La Jolla." The young crewman cracked a crooked smile. "Man oh man, was that ever a great place for girls. You must have had a ball growing up there."

"I could think of worse places to go through puberty."

As long as the young man was talking freely, Pitt switched the subject. "Tell me, what sort of trouble have you been having on the project?"

"Everything went fine for the first couple of weeks, but as soon as we found a promising location to investigate, things turned sour and we've had nothing but rotten luck since."

"For instance?"

"Mostly equipment failure; broken cables, missing and damaged parts, generator breakdowns, you know, things like that."

They were nearing the First Attempt now and the young crewman turned back to the helm and maneuvered the small boat alongside of the boarding ladder.