Paddy sniffed the air. He seemed unsure now that he was on deck that this was where he wanted to be. He voiced his concerns about the height of the swell. The wind ruffled his deep fur.
‘Now, Paddy. There’s no point complaining. We all need a walk in the fresh air!’ That was what Ivy told her when she had pies to make and wanted to be left alone.
‘We are going to be such a good team,’ she went on. ‘The Commander will be so pleased with us.’ Maybe she could get the dogs so fit that they could run for twenty hours a day!
Paddy yowled uncertainly as the boat pitched.
‘Let’s keep moving,’ Marina said. She jogged across the deck, pulling Paddy along. He began to look more confident. And in fact, could run very quickly. Rather too quickly. ‘Steady on,’ she cried. ‘You’ve got four legs and I’ve only got two.’
Brown and Perkins were nowhere to be seen. What a shame. Still, she had another seven dogs to put through their paces, so they might still see how good she was at her job. And Jones was coming out of the Signals Room. At last, here was someone she could impress with how hard she could work.
16
Feeling very pleased with herself, Marina ran
Paddy across the deck again. The waves smashed about the prow, the spray soaked them both, but she felt that only made her dedication and her efforts more impressive. But Jones didn’t seem remotely interested in her or in Paddy.
‘I’m just putting this dog through his paces,’ she called out.
Perhaps Jones couldn’t hear her, because he said nothing, leaning over the side of the boat and staring into the water.
‘Are you feeling all right?’ Marina asked him, wiping seawater from her face. ‘I thought you weren’t meant to leave the signals machine?’
‘The Commander is in the Signals Room,’ Jones said to the waves. ‘He’s not in a good mood. The machine is not working properly. He probably thinks I broke it.’ He bit his lip, blinked away tears, or the wind – Marina couldn’t be sure. ‘Oh, don’t worry. I didn’t tell him I let you use it. That would have sent him into a dreadful mood, and he’s bad enough as it is.’ Jones shook his head. ‘I don’t think the machine is broken. I think something is jamming the signal. But the Commander won’t listen to me: he says there’s nothing for miles around that could jam anything. And I just don’t see why that coded message is so important.’
‘Jones?’ Marina’s father called from the door of the Signals Room.
‘Sir!’
‘Get in here! I need help with the transponder!’
The waves rose up. Marina decided to get Paddy back in the hold. She pulled him along. But Paddy tensed, his thick fur bristling, his head lifted to the sky. He growled.
‘Paddy!’ She tapped him on the nose. ‘Manners, please.’ His ears were flat against his head. His growl got deeper and more hostile. ‘What are you trying to tell me?’
An arc of black in the sky. She just caught it before it was lost behind the crest of a rising wave, but as the water fell, it reappeared.
‘You big silly,’ Marina said. She pulled the dog closer, held him tightly to her chest. ‘It’s just a bird.’
She screwed up her eyes against the salt spray. Viewed this way, the bird looked as if it were dragging the fleet of steel-grey clouds towards the boat.
‘Stop growling, Paddy. You’ve seen birds before.’
But never a bird like this, warned Paddy’s insistent growl.
The creature flew very low over the water, rising and falling above the waves, always keeping the same distance between its wings and the water. Unlike the herring gulls with their raucous screeching, this bird was silent.
Perkins stopped his work and stared up at it.
‘Oi!’ Brown shouted, looking up from the rope he was coiling. ‘No daydreaming.’
‘Have you seen that?’ Perkins indicated the bird with a nod of his head.
Brown looked up. He dropped the rope and walked purposefully to the side of the boat. Paddy started growling again.
‘What is that?’ Marina heard Brown say. ‘It’s . . . It’s not an albatross, is it?’ Perkins had dropped his broom and joined Brown. They both stared up the bird.
‘There’s none of them in these skies,’ Brown said. ‘They’re southern birds. You know that. And their plumes is white.’
‘But what else would be flying this far out from land and staying so close to the boat?’ Perkins asked, his voice anxious.
‘If you don’t like the look of it, just get rid of it.’
‘And how am I going to do that? Climb up on the winch? You know I can’t stand heights. When I was a boy and we still had sailing ships, they had to send someone else up the rigging to trim the sails. I couldn’t do it.’
‘Well I’m not climbing up to get it. I’ve got a bad hip!’ And Brown clutched his waist and pulled a face.
‘First I’ve heard of it,’ Perkins grumbled. ‘Urgh. That bird gives me the collywobbles.’ Perkins was still looking at it. ‘I’m afeared it will peck my eyes out.’
‘It’s only come to say hello,’ Brown jeered. ‘Look, it’s coming closer. Coming to say hello to you and take a nibble of them eyeballs.’
Perkins backed away. ‘I’m going to tell the Commander about it.’
‘And what’s he going to do? Other than tell you you’re a complete ninny!’
‘I tell you, I don’t like the look of the thing. It’s . . . it’s . . . malevolent! It’s a bird of ill omen!’
Brown went back to his work. But he, too, seemed bothered by the bird, looking up, uneasy. Marina felt that if she could just get up high enough, she could swipe it right out of the air. The bird seemed to
