Taffy called out, “I don’t want even that, skipper. Just give me the
bastard who fired that hospital!” The laughter turned to an ugly
growl, and I pitied Hadley if any of these men came across him.
Campbell held up his hand again for silence. “That’s settled then. If
any of you want to know more about these nodules you’d better ask Mike;
he’s our expert. and now I think we’d better get on with the job
before Sirena shows up.” He stepped down from the winch and the work
began.
On the first drop the dredge touched bottom at 13,000 feet and when we
hauled it up there were plenty of nodules in it.
The crew had all seen plenty of them before but this time they were
more curious. Danny picked one up and said, “These could be
valuable?”
“They could, and I hope they are. You’ll be the first to know, “I
said.
I took the first few samples down to the lab and began working.
On deck I heard the crew securing the dredge and the bellowed orders
of
Geordie as Esmerelda got under way again. I hadn’t been working long
when Paula and Clare came in.
“We came to see if we could help,”said Clare. “You’ll have a lot of
work on your hands.” I rubbed my chin. Neither would be able to use
the spectroscope without training, but for the Test they could be very
useful. “I hope you’re good dishwashers,” I said, and waved at the
glassware. “This lot needs taking down and clea rung after every
run.”
“I’ll do that,” said Paula. She looked at my set-up. “It looks like
something out of one of those horror movies.” “I’m not the mad
scientist yet, although I might be if this whole thing turns out to be
a bust. Clare, there’s a hell of a lot of record keeping. You help
your father with that kind of thing. Can you cope with this?”
“Sure.
Just tell me what you want.” I got cracking on the analysis. Working
in a sailing ship heeled over under canvas wasn’t anything I’d been
trained for but it was surprising how much I’d learned, and I had
rigged up some interesting systems to cope with the movement. We
couldn’t afford to stay hove-to while I assayed each time, and in fact
we’d tried it and that motion was worse. I was checking some rough
results when I felt her slacken off and presently the winch engine
started again. I knew Geordie had taken up station for another dip
over the side.
I said, “Paula, can you start dismantling this set-up ready for
cleaning, please? There’ll be another load of nodules here soon.” She
got to work and I turned to help Clare with the records. , I “There’s
the winch report which gives position and depth.
There’s the spectrograph report, together with the photographic
negative list. That’s the quantitative analysis, and there’s a
numbered half-nodule. All that lot must be filed together. This time
I’ve written it out myself, but next time I’ll call out the figures.”
I was pleased. This help on routine work made a lot of difference and
I reckoned the work would be speeded up pect considerably. There was a
long grind ahead – I didn’t ex to hit the jackpot at the first dip, and
I hadn’t. The result of the first dredge was about average, just what
the orthodox.” oceanographer would expect to find in a normal Pacific
nodule.
Clare and I went on deck to get a breath of fresh air and were just in
time to see the dredge go over the side. I watched the bubbles rising
to the surface and then we strolled away and sat down on the foredeck
and I offered her a cigarette. As we went past heads turned and Ian
called from the winch, “Any luck?” I smiled and shook my head.
“Not yet, Ian, but it’s early days.” “I’m Clare said, “Pop told me
about the questions you asked Kane. Do you think he was telling any of
the truth?” “Not a chance. He was lying in his teeth.” She said,
“You didn’t expect him to admit to killing anyone did you? Of course
he would lie.” “That isn’t what I meant, Clare. Curiously enough, I
don’t think he did kill anyone-not directly. I believed him when he
said it was Hadley all the time. I don’t think Kane has enough guts to
kill anyone, but I could believe anything of Hadley. I think he’s a
psychopath, Kane implied that even Ramirez can’t control him. It won’t
make any difference in the long run, of course – if we get them all
Kane will be as guilty as any of them, and be punished accordingly.”
you think he was lying about something else.” “That’s right but I’m
damned if I know what it is. It was just something about his manner
when I questioned him about Mark. There was a look of fear about him,
something in his eyes I couldn’t place. I think something much more
terrible happened. But the outline of the story is clear enough.”
Clare shivered. “I didn’t have much sympathy for Mark not after what
he did to me – but I can’t help feeling sorry for him. What a pitiful
end for any man.” I nodded. “I wouldn’t think about it too much,
Clare.
He’s dead and beyond feeling anything any more. The world is for the
living.”
And you are one of the living, I thought, looking at her.
tic moon shining across the water; inThere was no roman stead we were
in the hard white glare of the tropic sun. There was no love song
echoing from the saloon, just the rhythmic clanking of the winch and
the throb of a diesel. I said, “Clare, if we come out of this
successfully I’d like to get to know you better – much better She
slanted her eyes at me. “And if we don’t come through successfully
will you just walk away and never want to see me again?” “That’s not a
nice way to put it.” “That’s the way I have to put it.” I said
nothing, fumbling for the right words “This is rather a new experience
for me,” said Clare with a warmth of humour in her voice. “I’ve never
had to work at it myself. Most times I’ve had to fend off the
advances- “I’m not making. . ..” , because I wasn’t sure if I liked
the man, or because I sometimes thought they were after me as Pop’s
daughter the
ones who never found his money a hindrance. I don’t that’s your
problem though. Or do you think that rich p should only marry rich
people?” I was about to reply angrily until I suddenly realized that
she was teasing me. Her eyes were alight with mischief – and, I
thought in astonishment, with fondness. I said lamely, “Clare, there
are all sorts of. . .
She waited but I was still fumbling.
“Complications? But we could weather them all. Oh I you’re an awful
fool – but I love you all the more for it.” I said after a pause,
“Damn it, Clare, it isn’t the way I intended this.” “Am I driving you
to the wall, Mike? Why don’t you’ say what’s on your mind?” So I
did.
I said, “Will you marry me, Clare?” She hung her head for a moment and
then looked at me. “Of course I will,”she said. “We’ll get married by
the first priest we come across. I thought you’d never get to the
point.
Girls are only supposed to propose in Leap Year, but I nearly had to
break that rule.” I felt exhilarated and weak simultaneously. “Well,
I’ll be damned,” I said, and we both burst out laughing out of sheer
joy. I wanted to do the obvious thing and take her in my arms, but
there was too little privacy even up here, so we simply clutched each
other’s hands.
Clare said, “Mike, let’s not tell anyone just yet. Pop has enough else
on his mind right now. I think he’ll be fine about it but I want to be
sure when we tell him, and nobody else should know first.”
I agreed with her. I’d have agreed with anything she said just then.
We talked a lot of nonsense until the dredge came up. I can’t remember
us walking down to the laboratory – I think we floated.
We dredged and dredged, stopping every ten miles on the way to Minerva
Reefs – We dredged during every scrap of daylight hours and I worked a
sixteen-hour day, taking my meals in the laboratory. The girls were of
great service but there was still a lot of work, and I began to fear
that my supplies of chemicals would soon run out.
One thing bothered me. We were being continually pestered by members