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how incompressible water can be at that speed; every now and then we’d slam into something that felt like concrete. I tried to steady the girl beside me, but she shrugged my hand away.
    At last she burst out with the thing she’d been brooding about: “How could you talk about my father that way? You made him sound like a madman!”
    I said, “Well,
there’s
a sudden access of filial devotion! A bit slow, aren’t you? If you’d given him something to hang around for yesterday, like a reconciliation, he might not be out here today looking for death in the large economy package.” Her face lost color, and she looked away. I was sorry I’d said it. I went on quickly: “Anyway, I thought it was myself I was representing as the madman. And if you’d think about it a little instead of going off half-cocked in your usual immature fashion, maybe you’d see that the more dangerous and crazy I make your daddy sound, the less likely they are to go charging up to him at full throttle with a lot of arrogant demands and ultimatums designed to make even the mildest character flip his lid.”
    She drew a long breath and looked up at me. “I see. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were deliberately exaggerating…” Her voice trailed off. She looked away again. “And I wasn’t aware of displaying any conspicuous immaturity, Mr. Helm.”
    I grinned at that, and she gave me a resentful glance and didn’t speak again for a long time. In bright sunshine, under a clear blue sky, the boat charged on up the Florida Straits. It’s a fifty-mile slot, as Sanderson had indicated, between the solid, densely populated mainland of Florida, and the widespread reefs and often uninhabited islands and islets of the Bahamas. We’d long since lost all land from sight.
    I spoke to the girl: “Doug put you in my charge. Did he tell you that? If anything should happen to him, I’m your substitute papa.”
    She started to speak quickly, perhaps in protest, then she smiled instead, rather maliciously. “Then you’d better stop ogling my nylons hoping for a better view, hadn’t you, Mr. Helm? I mean, when I’m wearing nylons. Under the circumstances that’s practically incest, isn’t it?” Her smile faded and she shook her head quickly. “I’ve been getting along without a father most of my life. And if I did have to pick a new one, it certainly wouldn’t be you.”
    “Nobody asked you,” I said. “Who the hell gets to pick their parents? No, shut up and listen while we’ve got a little time to ourselves. I’m to tell you that there are twenty-five thousand dollars available to you at any time just by calling the Washington number you called before. You can use it to buy diamonds or ice cream cones or a fancy sports car. If you want. But he put it there originally for emergencies, like if you lost your job or got sick or something while he was off sailing where he couldn’t be reached. And when he dies you’ve got two hundred grand coming, more or less, depending on how the lawyers make out with the IRS. It’s Babcock and Phillips, St. Petersburg, Florida. Can you remember that? Well, if you forget, they’ll get in touch with you.”
    She licked her lips and said stiffly, “Of course I can’t accept it.”
    I said, “You really are a bitch, aren’t you? You won’t even give him the satisfaction of leaving his daughter in pretty good shape financially! This is danger pay he’s saved up over the years because he had nobody to spend it on, just the boat. Where do you think he’d rather have it go, to, his own flesh and blood or some lousy charity? Or the IRS? Think about him for a change instead of your lousy little pride and your lousy little self.”
    She drew a long breath. “You don’t exactly practice the bedside manner, do you? Did he tell you all this just before he saw me?” When I nodded, she breathed, “If he was thinking of my… my welfare then, why did he have to be so
impossible
when he talked to me only a