"Woods, Stuart - White Cargo" - читать интересную книгу автора (Woods Stuart)

"Christ," the man called to his wife, who was sunning herself in the
cockpit, "now they've stolen our god damned spare alternator.

What next, the mast?"

Cat winced. Katie and Jinx, untying the mainsail, burst into helpless
laughter. Denny was still below. Cat hesitated for just a moment, then
kept going.

"Hoist the mainsail!"

he laughed. By the time they had been an hour under sail, to Cat's
relief, Denny had integrated himself smoothly into the running of the
boat. Cat had enjoyed giving him an extensive tour of Catbird, showing
off the details of his careful planning and superior electronics layout.

Denny had been particularly interested in the small touches Cat had
installed, like the large chart cabinet and the "gun deck"--the
stainless steel, light shotgun in its hidden compartment. Denny had
proved his worth with his expert handling of sail, sheet, winch, and
helm, and Cat was already feeling relaxed and confident with his
presence on the boat. Katie and Jinx had grown highly competent with the
yacht, but it was good to have another man's strength and expertise
available in the event of some emergency.

Denny seemed to have grown somewhat more reticent, less ebullient, since
their sailing, and Cat attributed this to the young man's realization
that he was, at last, on his way home. Cat wondered whether Denny's
reunion with his family, who, no doubt, disapproved of him, would be
accomplished with more success than his own attempts to achieve some
reconciliation with his own son. Dell. A scab never seemed to fully form
over that wound, and Cat wondered, wearily, if it ever would.

Denny insisted on taking the eight-to-midnight watch so that the family
could dine together. Cat would always remember that dinner--rare,
because before Denny, the three of them could never sit down at the
saloon table for dinner together. Their talk at that dinner seemed a
summary of all the good things in their relationship. Over a bottle of a
good California cabernet, they had fallen to reminiscing. Cat and Katie
about their early married years, when Dell was small and Jinx tiny, and
Cat was a struggling young engineer; Jinx about her memories of them in
those days. They had laughed about the time when Jinx, three, had
climbed high into a tree, then fallen asleep in the crutch of two limbs.

They had been afraid to wake her for fear she would fall, and it had
only been with some difficulty that Cat had finally managed to reach
her. They had never been able to figure out how a three-year-old could
have made such a climb. Cat thought of the incident as an early sign of
the determination Jinx had always shown. He felt a pride and pleasure in