while jack talked , using his usual funny string of negatives ( nothing , no how and never ) and it seemed to me that he might be making sense to the adults , although in fact he was talking in nervous circles about what people ought to know , meredith gave me the eye -- the significant eye , a sort of peculiar twitchy wink she had in her lazy eye -- shed had to have an operation on that eye that kept going out and jack was going to have to have the same operation -- which meant we were going to have to skedaddle , make a break for it and head for the rocks .