“No, you can’t.” They went on coiling the hose.

Martin walked across the dock. He watched lumber being loaded onto the Liberty ship by sailors with heavy fantastic beards. The port was slowly closing down and he, for one, was not sorry. For a year now he had been at Andrefski as a first mate. He had fought constantly with Evans and he had known all the time that Evans was right: that he was no seaman. Martin had drifted into boat work in the army. After two years he had been made a Warrant Officer and assigned to this Freight-Passenger ship. The whole thing was unreal to him, the Bering Sea, these boats, the desolate stone islands. He wished he were in New England and the thought that he would be at least another year in these islands was maddening.

Thinking of these things, he walked to the warehouse where the mail was delivered. A door in the warehouse opened and Bervick came out. He carried a bundle of letters in his hand. “Hello, Johnny,” he said. “You up so soon?”

Martin smiled. There was no formality between them. Living together in the same small stateroom they understood each other well. “I thought a run in the fog would be just what I needed. Got something for me?”

Bervick thumbed through the bundle and handed Martin a letter. “How does it smell?” he asked.

[32]Martin inhaled the perfume that had been sprinkled on the envelope. “Like magnolias,” he said.

[32]

Bervick sniffed. “Smells like a Ketchikan whore to me.”

“Careful,” said Martin, “speak softly when you speak of love. Which reminds me, when are they going to load cargo?”

“Right after lunch, I suppose. That’s if the longshoremen can get together long enough to do some work.”

“Then you’d better move the boom over.”

“O.K.” Bervick walked away.

Martin stepped inside the warehouse. Standing close to the door—there was almost no light in the building—he read the perfumed letter. She thought a lot about him. She wondered how he was. She did not go out much. She wished he were back. She did not go out much, she repeated that. She wondered if he remembered when.... Martin folded the letter and put it in his pocket. Her 

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