then asked to be put through to the captain. While I was waiting, miss
beresford gave me her smile again, the sweet one with too much malice in
it for my liking. “My, my,” she said admiringly. “Aren’t we efficient?
phoning here, phoning there, crisp and commanding, general carter
planning his campaign. This is a new chief officer to me.”
“A lot of unnecessary fuss,” I said apologetically. “Especially
for a steward. But he’s got a wife and three daughters who think the
bun rises and sets on him.” she coloured right up to the roots of her
auburn hair, and for a moment I thought she was going to haul off and
hit me. Then she spun on her heel, walked across the deep piled carpet,
and stood staring out through a window to the darkness beyond. I’d
never realised before that a back could be so expressive of emotion.
Then captain bullen was on the phone. His voice was as gruff and
brusque as usual, but even the metallic impersonality of the phone
couldn’t hide the worry. “Any luck yet, mister?”
“None at all, sir. I’ve. A search party lined up. Could I start
m five minutes?” there was a pause, then he said, “it has to come to
that, I suppose. How long will it take you?”
“Twenty minutes, half an hour.”
“You’re going to be very quick about it, aren’t you?”
“I don’t expect him to be hiding from us, sir. Whether he’s sick
or hurt himself, or had some urgent reason for leaving the passengers’
quarters, I expect to find him in some place pretty obvious.” he
grunted and said, “nothing I can do to help?” half question, half
statement. “No, sir.” the sight of the captain searching about the
upper deck or peering under lifeboat covers would do nothing to increase
the passengers’ confidence in the campari. “Right then, mister. If you
want me, i’ll be in the telegraph lounge. I’ll try to keep the
passengers out of your hair while you’re getting on with it.” that
showed he was worried all right, and badly worried; he’d just as soon
have gone into a cage full of bengal tigers as mingle socially with the
passengers. “Very good, sir.” I hung up. Susan beresford had
recrossed the cabin and was standing near, screwing a cigarette into a
jade holder about a foot in length. I found the holder vaguely
irritating as I found everything about miss beresford irritating, not
least the way she stood there confidently awaiting a light. I wondered
when miss beresford had last been reduced to lighting her own
cigarettes. Not in years, I supposed, not so long as there was a man
within a hundred yards. She got her light, puffed out a lazy cloud of
smoke, and said, “a search party, is it? should be interesting. You
can count on me.”
“I’m sorry, miss beresford.” I must say I didn’t sound sorry.
“Ship’s company business. The captain wouldn’t like it.”
“Nor his first officer, is that it? don’t bother to answer that
one.” she looked at me consideringly. “But I could be uncooperative
too. What would you say if I picked up this phone and told my parents
i’d just caught you going through our personal belongings?”
“I should like that, lady. I know your parents. I should like to
see you being spanked for behaving like a spoilt child when a man’s life
may be in danger.” the colour in the high cheekbones was going on and
off like a neon light that evening. Now it was on again, she wasn’t by
a long way as composed and detached as she’d like the world to think.
She stubbed out the newly lit cigarette and said quietly, “how would it
be if I reported you for insolence?”
“Don’t just stand there talking about it. The phone’s by your
side.” when she made no move towards it, I went on: “quite frankly,
lady, you and your kind make me sick. You use your father’s great
wealth and your privileged position as a passenger on the campari to
poke fun, more often than not malicious fun, at members of the crew who
are unable to retaliate. They’ve just got to sit and take it, because
they’re not like you. They have no money in the bank at all, most of
them, but they have families to feed, mothers to support, so they know
they have to keep smiling at miss beresford when she cracks jokes at
their expense or embarrasses or angers them, because if they don’t, miss
beresford and her kind will see to it that they’re out of a job.”
“Please go on,” she said. She had suddenly become very still.
“That’s all of it. Misuse of power, even in so small a thing, is
contemptible. And then, when anyone dares to retaliate, as I do, you
threaten them with dismissal, which is what your threat amounts to. And
that’s worse than contemptible, it’s cowardly.” I turned and made for
the door. First i’d look for benson, then i’d tell bullen I was
quitting. I was getting tired of the campari anyway. “Mr. carter.”
“Yes?” I turned but kept my hand on the doorknob. The colour
mechanism in her cheeks was certainly working overtime; this time she’d
gone pale under the tan. She took a couple of steps towards me and put
her hand on my arm. Her hand wasn’t any too steady. “I am very, very
sorry,” she said in a low voice. “I had no idea. Amusement I like, but
not malicious amusement. I thought well, I thought it was harmless,
that no one minded. And I would never dream of putting anyone’s job in
danger.”
“Ha!” I said. “You don’t believe me?” still the same small
voice, still the hand on my arm. “Of course I believe you,” I said
unconvincingly. And then I looked into her eyes, which was a big
mistake and a very dangerous thing to do, for those green eyes, I
noticed for the first time, had a curious trick of melting and
dissolving that could interfere very seriously with a man’s breathing.
It was certainly interfering with my breathing. “Of course I believe
you,” I repeated, and this time the ring of conviction staggered even
myself. “You will please forgive my rudeness. But I must hurry, miss
beresford.”
“Can I come with you, please?”
“Oh, damn it all, yes,” I said irritably. I’d managed to look away
from her eyes and start breathing again. “Come if you want.” at the
forward end of the passageway, just beyond the entrance to cerdan’s
suite, I ran into carreras senior. He was smoking a cigar and had that
look of contentment and satisfaction that passengers invariably had when
antoine was finished with them. “Ah, there you are, mr. carter,” he
said. “Wondered why you hadn’t returned to our table. What is wrong,
if I may ask? there must be at least a dozen of the crew gathered
outside the accommodation entrance. I thought regulations forbade
“they’re waiting for me, sir. Benson you probably haven’t had the
chance to meet him since you came aboard; he’s our chief steward’s
missing. That’s a search party outside.”
“Missing?” the grey eyebrows went up. “What on earth -well, of
course you haven’t any idea what has happened to him or you wouldn’t be
organising this search. Can I help?” I hesitated, thought of miss
beresford who had already elbowed her way in, realised i’d now no way of
stopping any or all of the passengers from getting into the act if they
wanted to, and said, “thank you, mr. carreras. You don’t look like a
man who would miss very much.”
“We come from the same mould, mr. carter.” I let this cryptic
remark go and hurried outside. A cloudless night, with the sky crowded
with the usual impossible number of stars, a soft, warm wind blowing out
of the south, a moderate cross swell running, but no match for our
dennybrown stabilisers that could knock twenty-five degrees off a
thirty-degree roll without half trying. A black shape detached itself
from a nearby shadowed bulkhead and archie macdonald, the bo’sun, came
towards me. For all his solid fifteen-stone bulk he was as light on his
feet as a dancer. “Any luck, bo’sun?” I asked. “No one saw anything;
no one heard anything. And there were at least a dozen folk on deck
tonight, between eight and nine.”
“Mr. wilson there? ah, there. Mr. wilson, take the engine room
staff and three a.b.s. Main deck and below. You should know where to
look by this time,” I added bitterly. “Macdonald, you and I will do the
upper decks. Port side you, starboard side me. Two seamen and a cadet.
Half an hour. Then back here.” I sent one man to examine the boat
positions-why benson should have wished to get into a boat I couldn’t
even imagine, except that lifeboats have always had a queer attraction