"I ain't highly in favor myself either," said Jayne.  "But we ain`t got no choice.  Now get off and to it."

Elspeth nodded, took a deep breath.  "Aye, alright," she said, set the compass back in Jayne`s hands, then walked off back to bully on the boilers.

Jayne looked over the compass, slipped it in a pocket, then waded out into the sea to wash himself off.

      *

Night falling, Grammaton bonging a distant echo for All Hallows, and the work went on by freshly mulled whale-oil light, tallow-smoke swimming up on the breeze like incense.  Jayne and Elspeth stood by the strip-work peeling of the whale`s front, up by the stomach slit, watching the new boiling crew rousting about the cauldrons.

"Reckon we got least a day, if the sun holds off," said Elspeth.  "Fore a storm rolls in."

Jayne hummed agreement. 

The whale behind them was stripped clean of skin down its sides, black rubber hide sloughed off like old wall-papering and paste.  Long oblong tracts had been carved out in the blubber, the jelly white blocks of fat now slicking to boil in the raging cauldrons.

"Good crew," said Elspeth.

Aye," said Jayne. 

"Won`t be asking more than a fiftieth part a piece," she said.  "Seeing as it’s a Ptarmigan."

Jayne nodded, watched two of the firelight flecked rousters step up to the blubber-side with a long hacking blade, set into sawing a fresh block clear. 

"Already filled 11 barrels," she said.  "Shay reckoned we can have it shipped and sold within the week."

"Good," said Jayne.  "Sounds good."

 "Y`ain`t listening a speck," said Elspeth, half-head cocked, long hair hanging down loose in the salt-scrub night wind.  "Ye`re thinking on that child, aren`t ye?"

"Hmm?" asked Jayne.  "What?"

"Y`ain`t even listenin."

Jayne smiled.  "I am, lass," he said.  "Just, aye.  What`s right, ye see?"

Elspeth waited.