“It was locked?
“The damned thing was jammed. That was nothing unusual at night. During the day, when the heaters were going full blast to keep the huts at a decent working temperature, the ice around the doors tended to melt. At night, when we got into our sleeping bags, we turned our heaters down, and the melted ice froze hard around the door openings, sealing it solid. That happened most nights in most of the huts–usually had to break our way out in the morning. But I can tell you that I didn’t take too long to burst it open that night.”
“And then?”
“I ran out,” Kinnaird said. “I couldn’t see a thing for black smoke and flying oil. I ran maybe twenty yards to the south to get some idea of what was happening. The whole camp seemed to be on fire. When you’re woken up like that at two in the morning, half blinded, half asleep and groggy with fumes, your mind isn’t at its best but thank God I’d enough left of my mind to realize that an S.O.S. radio message was the one thing that was going to save our lives. So I went back inside the radio hut.”
“We all owe our lives to Kinnaird.” Speaking for the first time was Jeremy, a burly, red-haired Canadian who had been chief technician on the base. “And if I’d been a bit quicker with my hands, we’d all have been dead.”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake, mate, shut up,” Kinnaird growled.
“I won’t shut up,” Jeremy said soberly. “Besides, Dr. Carpenter wants a full report. I was the first out of the main bunkhouse after Captain Folsom. As Hewson said, we tried the extinguisher on Major Halliwell’s hut. It was hopeless from the beginning, but we had to do it–after all, we knew there were four men trapped in there. But, like I say, it was a waste of time. Captain Folsom shouted that he was going to get another extinguisher and told me to see how things were in the radio room.
“The place was ablaze from end to end. As I came around as close as I could to the door at the west end I saw Naseby here bending over Dr. Jolly, who’d keeled over as soon as he had come out into the fresh air. He shouted to me to give him a hand to drag Dr. Jolly clear, and I was just about to when Kinnaird came running up. I saw that he was heading straight for the door of the radio room.” He smiled without humor. “I thought he had gone off his rocker. I jumped in front of him to stop him. He shouted at me to get out of the way. I told him not to be crazy, and he yelled–you had to yell to make yourself heard above the roar of the flames–that he had to get the portable radio out, that all the oil was gone, and the generator and the cookhouse with all the food were burning up. He knocked me down, and the next thing I saw was him disappearing through that door. Smoke and flames were pouring through the doorway. I don’t know how he ever got out alive.”
“Was that how you got your face and hands so badly burned?” Commander Swanson asked quietly. He was standing in a far corner of the wardroom, having taken no part in the discussion up till now but missing nothing, all the same. That was why I had asked him to be present; just because he was a man who missed nothing.
“I guess so, sir.”
“That should earn you a trip to Buckingham Palace,” Swanson murmured.
“The hell with Buckingham Palace,” Kinnaird said violently. “How about my mate, eh? How about young Jimmy Grant? Can he make the trip to Buckingham Palace? Not now he can’t, the poor bastard. Do you know what he was doing? He was still _inside_ the radio room when I went back in, sitting at the main transmitter, sending out an S.O.S. on our regular frequency. His clothes were on fire. I dragged him off his seat and shouted to him to grab some Nife cells and get out. I caught up the portable transmitter and a nearby box of Nife cells and ran through the door. I thought Grant was on my heels, but I couldn’t hear anything, what with the roar of flames and the bursting of fuel drums, the racket was deafening. Unless you’d been there, you just can’t begin to imagine what it was like. I ran far enough clear to put the radio and cells in a safe place. Then I went back. I asked Naseby, who was still trying to bring Dr. Jolly round, if Jimmy Grant had come out. He said he hadn’t. I started to run for the door again, and, well, that’s all I remember.”
“I clobbered him,” Jeremy said with gloomy satisfaction. “From behind. I had to.”
“I could have killed you when I came round,” Kinnaird said morosely. “But I guess you saved my life at that.”
“I certainly did, brother.” Jeremy grimaced. “That was my big contribution that night. Hitting people. After Naseby had brought Dr. Jolly round, he suddenly started shouting, ‘Where’s Flanders and Bryce, where’s Flanders and Bryce!’ Those were the two who had been sleeping with him and Hewson in the cookhouse. A few others had come down from the main bunkhouse by that time, and the best part of a minute had elapsed before we realized that Flanders and Bryce weren’t among them. Naseby- started back for the cookhouse at a dead run. He was making for the doorway, only there was no doorway left, just a solid curtain of fire where the doorway used to be. I swung at him as he passed, and he fell and hit his head on the ice.” He looked at Naseby. “Sorry again, Johnny, but you were quite crazy at the moment.”
Naseby rubbed his jaw and grinned wearily. “I can still feel it. And God knows you were right.”
“Then Captain Folsom arrived, along with Dick Foster, who also slept in the main bunkhouse,” Jeremy went on. “Captain Folsom said he’d tried every other extinguisher on the base and that all of them were frozen solid. He’d heard about Grant being trapped inside the radio room and he and Foster were carrying a blanket apiece, soaked with water. I tried to stop them but Captain Folsom ordered me to stand aside.” Jeremy smiled faintly. “When Captain Folsom orders people to stand aside.. . well, they do just that.”
“He and Foster threw the wet blankets over their heads and ran inside. Captain Folsom was out in a few seconds, carrying Grant. I’ve never seen anything like it: they were burning like human torches. I don’t know what happened to Foster, but he never came out. By that time the roofs of both Major Halliwell’s hut and the cookhouse had fallen in. Nobody could get anywhere near either of those buildings. Besides, it was far too late by then. Major Halliwell and the three others inside the major’s hut and Flanders and Bryce inside the cookhouse must have been dead already. Dr. Jolly doesn’t think they would have suffered very much: asphyxiation would have got them, like enough, before the flames did.”
“Well,” I said slowly, “that’s as clear a picture of what must have been a very confusing and terrifying experience as we’re ever likely to get. It wasn’t possible to get anywhere near Major Halliwell’s hut?”
“You couldn’t have gone within fifteen feet of it and hoped to live,” Naseby said simply.
“And what happened afterward?”
“I took charge, old boy,” Jolly said. “Wasn’t much to take charge of, though, and what little there was to be done could be done only by myself–fixing up the injured, I mean. I made ’em all wait out there on the ice cap until the flames had died down a bit and there didn’t seem to be any more likelihood of further fuel drums bursting. Then we all made our way to the bunkhouse, where I did the best I could for the injured men. Kinnaird here, despite pretty bad burns, proved himself a first-class assistant doctor. We bedded down the worst of them. Young Grant was in a shocking condition–‘fraid there never really was very much hope for him. And–well, that was about all there was to it.”
“You had no food for the next few days and nights?”
“Nothing at all, old boy. No heat, either, except for the stand-by Coleman lamps that were in the three remaining huts. We managed to melt a little water from the ice, that was all.. By my orders everyone remained lying down and wrapped up in what was available in order to conserve energy and warmth.” –
“Bit rough on you,” I said to Kinnaird. “Having to lose any hard-earned warmth you had every couple of hours in order to make those S.O.S. broadcasts.”