ones. I'm hiring and firing all the
time. Paying thirty-eight now and that leaves me short-handed even with
the boats I'm working."

"How many boats has Mascola?"

The girl was silent for a moment. Then she answered:

"Can't say. Somewhere about fifty, maybe more. It's hard to check him
up. His boats cruise a long way out and some of them don't put in to
Legonia at all."

"What kind of fish are you catching now?"

"Halibut mostly, some barracuda. Haven't tried for sardines or albacore
since your cannery shut down."

The _Petrel_ rolled lazily in the trough of the swell as she sped down
the coast. Suddenly the darkness ahead was blurred by an indistinct
shape and the man at the wheel put the vessel over sharply. As he did so
he narrowly escaped a collision with an unlighted boat which loomed
directly across their bow.

"Trawler fishing within the three-mile limit without lights," the girl
explained to her passenger.

Gregory remembered Dickie Lang's words concerning alien interference. He
knew that running without lights was illegal. Why was the law not
enforced?

In answer to his question, the girl burst out: "You just wait. I
couldn't take the time now to tell you of all the laws Mascola breaks
and if I did you wouldn't believe me."

"How can he get by with it?" Gregory asked.

Dickie Lang walked to the rail and searched the dark water in the
direction of the shore before she replied: "There are three different
kinds of laws out here. The navigation laws are made by the government,
the fishing laws by the state, and the law of the sea is made by the
fishermen. If you break the pilot-rules they'll haul you up before the
local inspector at Port Angeles and fine you, take away your license or
put you in jail. But they've got to have the proof and that is hard to
get. If you break the state's laws you run up against the fish
commissioner. His deputies do their best to protect the fish and see
that the fishermen use the right kind of gear. If they catch an outfit
with the goods, they put them over. But it's hard to do."

She stared away into the faintly graying darkness.

"Cut through the kelp, Tom. It will save us a little and we're going to
need it."

"And the fisherman's law you spoke about. What is that?" Gregory
queried.

She faced him suddenly. "I don't know how to explain it," she said.
"Every one has to learn it for himself. It's the law of the biggest and
fastest boat. The law of the longest an