"It could have been worse," Dappa said, after an especially bracing out-burst of van Hoekian execration burgeoned from an open hatch. "We are light-laden just now, and there is little difficulty in making a thorough search. A fortnight from now we’d have been laden to the scuppers and it would have been awkward." He withdrew the glass from his eye and squinted at Daniel. "They are scratching our guns."