but they’re the
Tuamotus on the charts.
They’re east of. ..” “I know where they are,” I interrupted.
“Okay. Well, we thought there was a chance of picking up a few pearls
so we were just cruising round calling on the inhabited islands.
Most of ’em aren’t and most of ’em don’t have names – not names that we
can pronounce. Anyway we were passing this one when a canoe came out
and hailed us.
There was a boy in this canoe – a Polynesian, you know – and Jim talked
to him. Jim Hadley’s my partner; he speaks the lingo – I don’t savvy
it too good myself.
“What he said was that there was a white man on the island who was very
sick, and so we went ashore to have a look at him.” “That was my
brother?” :Too right, and he was sick; my word yes.” What was wrong
with him?” Kane shrugged. “We didn’t know at first but it turned out
to be appendicitis. That’s what we found out after we got a doctor to
him.”
“Then there was a doctor?” “If you could call him a doctor. He was a
drunken old no-hoper who’d been living in the Islands for years. But
he said he was a doctor. He wasn’t there though; Jim had to go fifty
miles to get him while I stayed with your brother.” Kane took another
pull at his beer. “Your brother was alone on this island except for
the black boy. There wasn’t no boat, either. He said he was some sort
of scientist something to do with the sea.” ‘ An oceanographer.”Yes,
like me an oceanographer. Mark had always felt compelled, driven, to
try and beat me whatever the game. And his rules were always his
own.
“Too right. He said he’d been dropped there to do some research and he
was due to be picked up any time.” “Why didn’t you take him to the
doctor instead of bringing the doctor to him?” I asked.
“We didn’t think he’d make it,” said Kane simply. “A little ship like
ours bounces about a lot, and he was pretty sick.” “I see,” I said.
He was painting a rough picture.
“I did what I could for him,”said Kane. “There wasn’t much I could do
though, beyond cleaning him up. We talked a lot about this and that
that was when he asked me to tell his wife.” “Surely he didn’t expect
you to make a special trip to England?” I demanded, thinking that even
in death it sounded like Mark’s touch “Oh, it was nothing like that,”
said Kane. “You see, I was coming to England anyway. I won a bit of
money in a sweep and I always wanted to see the old country. Jim, my
cobber, said he could carry on alone for a bit, and he dropped me at
Panama. I hummed a job on a ship coming to England.” He smiled
ruefully. “I won’t be staying here as long as I thought – I dropped a
packet in a poker game coming across.
I stay until my cash runs out and then I’ll go back to Jim and the
schooner.” I said, “What happened when the doctor came?” “Oh sure,
you want to know about your brother; sorry if I got off track. Well,
Jim brought this old no-good back and he operated. He said he had to,
it was your brother’s only chance. Pretty rough it was too; the doc’s
instruments weren’t any too good. I helped him – Jim hadn’t the
stomach for it.” He fell silent, looking back into the past.
I ordered another couple of beers, but Kane said, “I’d like something
stronger, if you don’t mind,”so I changed the order to whisky.
I thought of some drunken oaf of a doctor cutting my brother open with
blunt knives on a benighted tropical island.
It wasn’t a pretty thought and I think Kane saw the horror of it too,
the way he gulped his whisky. It was worse for him – he had been
there.
“So he died,” I said.
“Not right away. He seemed okay after the operation, then he got
worse. The doc said it was per … peri. .
“Peritonitis?” “That’s it. I remember it sounded like peri-peri sauce
– like having something hot in your guts. He got a fever and went
delirious; then he went unconscious and died two days after the
operation.” He looked into his glass. “We buried him at sea. It was
stinking hot and we couldn’t carry the body anywhere – we hadn’t any
ice. We sewed him up in canvas and put him over the side. The doctor
said he’d see to all the details – I mean, it wasn’t any use for Jim
and me to go all the way to Papeete the doc knew all we knew.” “You
told the doctor about Mark’s wife – her address and so on?” Kane
nodded. “Mrs Trevelyan said she’d only just heard about it that’s the
Islands postal service for you. You know, he never gave us nothing for
her, no personal stuff I mean. We wondered about that. But she said
some gear of his is on the way – that right?” It might be that,” I
said. “There’s something at Heathrow now. I’ll probably pick it up
tomorrow. When did Mark die, by the way?” He reflected. “Must have
been about four months ago. You don’t go much for dates and calendars
when you’re cruising the Islands, not unless you’re navigating and
looking up the almanack all the time, and Jim’s the expert on that. I
reckon it was about the beginning of May. Jim dropped me at Panama
in
July and I had to wait a bit to get a ship across here.” “Do you
remember the doctor’s name? Or where he came from?” Kane frowned. “I
know he was a Dutchman; his name was Scoot-something. As near as I can
remember it might have been Scooter. He runs a hospital on one of the
Islands – my word, I can’t remember that either.” “It’s of no
consequence; if it becomes important I can get it from the death
certificate.” I finished my whisky. “The last I heard of Mark he was
working with a Swede called Norgaard.
You didn’t come across him?” Kane shook his head. “There was only
your brother. We didn’t stay around, you know. Not when old Scooter
said he’d take care of everything. You think this Norgaard was
supposed to pick your brother up when he’d finished his job?”
“Something like that,” I said. “It’s been very good of you to take the
trouble to tell us about Mark’s death.” He waved my thanks aside. “No
trouble at all; anyone would have done the same. I didn’t tell Mrs
Trevelyan too much, you understand.” “I’ll edit it when I tell her,” I
said.
“Anyway, thanks for looking after him. I wouldn’t like to think he
died alone.”
“Aw, look,” said Kane, embarrassed. “We couldn’t do anything else now,
could we?” I gave him my card. “I’d like you to keep in touch,” I
said.
“Perhaps when you’re ready to go back I can help you with a passage. I
have plenty of contacts with the shipping people.” “Too right,” he
said. “I’ll keep in touch, Mr Trevelyan.” I said goodbye and left the
bar, ducking into the private bar in the same pub. I didn’t think Kane
would go in there and I wanted afew quiet thoughts over another
drink.
I thought of Mark dying a rather gruesome death on that lonely Pacific
atoll. God knows that Mark and I didn’t see eye to eye but I wouldn’t
have wished that fate on my worst enemy. And yet there was something
odd about the whole story; I wasn’t surprised at him being in the
Tuamotus – it was his job to go poking about odd corners of the seven
seas as it was mine – but something struck a sour note.
For instance, what had happened to Norgaard? It certainly wasn’t
standard operating procedure for a man to be left entirely alone on a
job. I wondered what Mark and Norgaard had been doing in’the
Tuamotus;
they had published no papers so perhaps their investigation hadn’t been
completed.
I made a mental note to ask old Jarvis about it; my boss kept his ear
close to the grapevine and knew everything that went on in the
profession.
But it wasn’t that which worried me; it was something else, something
niggling at the back of my mind that I couldn’t resolve. I chased it
around for a bit but nothing happened, so I finished my drink and went
home to my flat for a late night session with some figures.
The next day I was at the office bright and early and managed to get my
work finished just before lunch. I was attacking my neglected