Part 9 (1/2)

”What kind of fish are you catching now?”

”Halibut mostly, some barracuda Haven't tried for sardines or albacore since your cannery shut down”

The _Petrel_ rolled lazily in the trough of the swell as she sped down the coast Suddenly the darkness ahead was blurred by an indistinct shape and the man at the wheel put the vessel over sharply As he did so he narrowly escaped a collision with an unlighted boat which loo within the three-irl explained to her passenger

Gregory re alien interference He knew that running without lights was illegal Why was the law not enforced?

In answer to his question, the girl burst out: ”You just wait I couldn't take the time now to tell you of all the laws Mascola breaks and if I did you wouldn't believe ory asked

dickie Lang walked to the rail and searched the dark water in the direction of the shore before she replied: ”There are three different kinds of laws out here The navigation laws arelaws by the state, and the law of the sea is made by the fishermen If you break the pilot-rules they'll haul you up before the local inspector at Port Angeles and fine you, take away your license or put you in jail But they've got to have the proof and that is hard to get If you break the state's laws you run up against the fish commissioner His deputies do their best to protect the fish and see that the fisherear If they catch an outfit with the goods, they put them over But it's hard to do”

She stared away into the faintly graying darkness

”Cut through the kelp, To to need it”

”And the fisherory queried

She faced him suddenly ”I don't kno to explain it,” she said

”Every one has to learn it for hiest and fastest boat The law of the longest and strongest arory felt his pulse quicken as she went on:

”You see we have to depend on ourselves out here to settle our troubles

Whatever happens, happens quick Generally there are not ht get a deputy to come out, but the chances are ten to one they wouldn't They would say it was only a fishero to law, Mascola will bring five witnesses for each of yours and they'll outswear you every time for they can lie faster than a ain she paused and searched the gray border of the receding curtain of night Far away Gregory could hear the roar of the breakers Froray dusk ahead appeared the shadowy outline of a rugged pro far out into the sea

”Keep close in, To's dead ahead, off Peeble Beach

When you get around the point swing on the outside of Coward Rocks and give her all she'll stand”

She walked slowly about the deck with her eyes fixed on the ashed shore-line

”So you see each outfit makes its os and it's up to theet the fish The only lae break is Mascola's He tries to tell us where to fish He bullies the ones he can and fights the ones he can't in any way that is easiest and safest He's a thief and a crook and he'd coet by with it”

The idea lodged in her brain She leaned closer and exclaiet by withelse? There'sthe coast as a 'floater' that nobody kno he drowned”