25/42 How are you, anyway ?" "Barely able to sit up and take nourishment," she admitted, demurely. I don't think you look particularly vigorous," she added, more seriously. "You are brown but thin." "Thin as a scorched pancake," he nodded. "The ocean was like a vast plate of clam soup in which I simmered several times a day until I've become as leathery and attenuated as a punctured pod of kelp.... Where's the rig we depart in, Valerie ?" he concluded, looking around the sun-scorched, wooden platform with smiling interest. |