'I hope New York is very near Chicago,' said Zaphia.

'rhen you can come and see me when I am the mayor,' said Jerzy expansively.

She sniffed disparagingly. 'You're too Polish, Jerzy. You can't even speak nice English like Wladek.'

'I'll learn,' said Jerzy confidently, 'and I'll start by mak. ing my name American. From today I shall be George Novak. Then I'll have no trouble at all. Everyone in the United States will think I'm American. What about you, Wladek Koskiewicz? Nothing much you can do with that name, is there?'

Wladek looked at the newly christened George in silent resentment of his own name. Unable to adopt the title to wWch he felt himself the rightful heir, he hated Koskiewicz and the continual reminder of his illegitimacy.

'I'll manage,' he said. 'I'll even help you with your English if you like.'

'And I'll help you find a girl.'

Zaphia giggled. 'You needn't bother, he's found one.'

Jerzy, or George, as he now insisted they should call him, retreated after supper each night into one of the tarpaulincovered lifeboats with a different girl. Wladek longed to know what he did there, even though some of the ladies of George's choice were not merely filthy, as they all were, but would clearly have been unattractive even when scrubbed clean.

One night after supper, when George had disappeared again, Wladek and Zaphia sat out on deck, she put her arms around him and asked him to kiss her. He pressed his mouth stiffly against hers until their teeth touched; he felt horribly unfamiliar with what he was meant to be doing. To his sur - prise and embarrassment, her tongue parted his lips. After a few moments of apprehension, Wladek found her open mouth intensely exciting and was alarmed to find his penis stiffening. He tried to draw away from her, ashamed, but she did not seem to mind in the least. On the contrary, she began to press her body gently 'and rhythmically against him and drew his hands down to her buttocks. His swollen pems throbbed against her, giving him almost unbearable pleasure. She disengaged her mouth and whispered in his ear.

'Do you want me to take my clothes off, Wladek?'

He could not bring himself to reply.

She detached herself from him, laughing. 'Well, maybe tomorrow,' she said, getting up from the deck and leaving him.

He stumbled back to his bunk in a daze, determined that the next day he would finish the job Zaphia had started. No sooner had he settled in his berth thinking of how he would go about the task than a large hand grabbed him by the hair and pulled him down from his bunk onto the floor. In an in - stant his sexual excitement vanished. Two men whom he had never seen before were towering above him. They dragged him to a far comer and threw him up against the wall. A large hand was now clamped firmly on Viladek's mouth while a knife touched his throat.

'Don't. breathe,' whispered the man holding the knife, pushing the blade against the skin. 'All we want is the silver band around your wrist.'

The sudden realisation that his treasure might be stolen from him was almost as horrifying to Wladek as had been the thought of losing his hand. Before he could think of anything to do, one of the men jerked the band off his wrist. He couldn't see their faces in the dark, and he feared he must have lost the band for ever, when someone leaped on to the back of the man holding the knife. This action gave Wladek the chance to punch the one who was holding him pinned to the ground. The sleepy immigrants around them began to wake and take an interest in what was happening. The two men escaped as quickly as they could, but not before George had managed to stick the'knife in the side of one of the assailants.

~Go to the cholera,' shouted Wladek at his retreating back.

'It looks as if I got here just in time,' said George. 'I don't think they'll be back in a hurry.' He stared down at the silver band, lying in the trampled sawdust on the floor. 'It's magnificent,' he said, almost solemnly. 'There will always be men who want to steal such a prize from you.'

Wladek picked the band up and slipped it back on to his wrist.

'Well, you nearly lost the damn thing for good that tirne,' said George.

'Lucky for you I was a little late getting back tonight.'

'Why were you a little late getting back?' asked Waldek.

'My reputation,' said George boastfully, 'now goes before me. In fact, I found some other idiot in my lifeboat tonight, already with his pants down.

I soon got rid of him, though, when I told him he was with a girl I would have had last week but I couldn't be sure she hadn't got the pox. I've never seen anyone get dressed so quickly.'