The Key West Citizen

island fishing village. For lack of streets no vehicles pass and all supplies are toted. The fire department consists of a cart empowered by galloping volunteers. lights go off with the Diesel at midnight, and the long winter has few recreations other than drinking and conducting extra-marital and inter-marital affairs. She grows to love the independence of Alaskan life. There is abundant food, and some kinds of insecurity and slavery to which insecure people in more civilized areas submit, are unknown. She loves her friends. Shorty, Plum Duff, and Hel-and-a-Bear. One she grows very fond of! Robbie's trolling boat is small. When he takes her for a ride, there is no way he can steer it except by reaching his arm around her shoulder. The upshot is: they get married, and buy a bigger boat. As shipmate, wife and mother, Mrs. Hadman has adventures enough for six books. It is a wonder she found time to write this one, or stayed alive long enough! She encounters whale killers, sharks, icebergs, and the worst villain of all - the Weather. Weather, hovering over the horizon or howling on deck, is a vital life-and-death topic in Alaska. It is the only thing that is important when one is desperately ill and there is no way to reach the doctor a hundred miles away except in a tiny mercy plane which cannot fly till the gale lets up. Mrs. Hadman took several rides in that plane, and there are grim passages in the book when the issue of a life hangs on how the wind is blowing. And there are lovely passages. The author knows as well how to write a picture as paint one.