Posted by John Wilson on August 16, 2002 at 12:05:14 from 202.154.130.29 user hugo.
Dick is absorbed in what he is doing and unaware of what is happening around him, eg in PP where Captain Flint arrives while he is testing the “gold” ie the copper pyrites. So Dorothea suggests he needs to hang a sign out to say when he is in!
But Dorothea easily forgets about steering Scarab when she is at the tiller and in charge of her. At least Dick concentrates on what he is doing!
In PM (Chapter 16, hb page 155) where they are having their first sail in Scarab, Dick “glanced back at their wake that showed by a big curve that Dorothea had been thinking of something other than sailing”.
Later in PM (Chapter 26, hb page 269) when they are going for sanctuary in the houseboat but are distracted by Colonel Jolys’s firefighters who are looking for the GA:
“Look out Dot, she’s right off the wind”
“Sorry, let’s go round”
“All right”
Dick looked critically at the swirl in the water where Scarab had come about, but he did not say anything.