‘STEER EAST.’
‘Steer east, Sir.’
MacGregor looked at Hutchins. ‘D’you think the set’s all right?’ Hutchins nodded violently. The Captain went over to him and slid the spare set of ’phones over his own ears: they were alive, all right. He told the operator, ‘Train all round, slowly.’
Hutchins stopped at the bearing of Green four-two. He muttered, There it is, Sir. Very faint now, goin’ away. Can’t ’ardly ’ear it, can you?’
The sound of the screws was so faint that there couldn’t be any doubt about it: at least one of the trawlers was going away, to the south east. It could be both of them: at that distance the sound of the two ships would be merged into one.
They couldn’t have lost contact and be searching over there: first because they couldn’t have lost it, when they’d been on to Set
