indrawn fragrance he relaxed. He smiled at me. “It does make sense that way, Jake. If I were a better Christian and you a better Jew, we might have understood earlier. Think! Doesn't our passenger remind you of anyone?"”

“He always did,” I acknowledged. “From the moment I first laid eyes on him. But I can't seem to— Wait a minute! Now I remember. An old rabbi I knew when I was a kid. A fiery old man, like an ancient prophet.”

“Your wireless worked, but received nothing. Suppose there were nothing to receive?”

“Skipper, I—”

“There was a man,” said the skipper softly, “who set forth from Joppa to Tarshish to escape the service of the Lord. But where he traveled, punishment pursued him. And his shipmates rose against him, casting him adrift . . .”

The small hairs tingled on my neck, and a coldness crept up my spine. I was remembering, now, the stories. The old, old stories told by taper-light, and he liquid cadence of the cantor's voice.

The skipper said, “Three days, Jake. He was three days our passenger aboard the Grampus. And you told him what a grampus is.”

“His name?” I whispered. “His name!”

“We called him Johnny,” sighed the skipper. “The nearest English equivalent to the first part of his long name. But his real name, Sparks, was . . .”

Heed ye! 'Ware and repent, I cry, and sue Their mercy ere it be too late; this do I bid and warn. For I have dwelt amongst Them; mine eyes have seen with awe Their strength and righteous anger. These have I seen; yea, even I . . . Jonah of Gath-hephur, prophet of the Lord!