beady eyes on me.
“What on earth’s happened to you, young man?” she demanded.
“To tell you the truth, miss harrbride, I don’t really know
myself.”
“You what?”
“It’s true.” I put on my best shamed face. “I was standing up on
the boat deck last night and the next thing I knew I was lying in the
scuppers with my head cut must have struck it against the davit when I
fell.” I had my story all prepared. “Dr. marston thinks it was a
combination of sunstroke-i was loading cargo most of the day yesterday
and I can assure you that the sun was very hot-and the fact that, owing
to our troubles in kingston and the delay caused by it, I haven’t had
very much sleep in the past three days.”
“I must say things do keep happening aboard the campari,” miguel
carteras said. His face was grave. “One man dead from a heart attack
or whatever it was, another missing -they haven’t found our chief
steward yet, have they?”
“I’m afraid not, sir.”
“And now you get yourself banged up. Let’s sincerely hope that’s
the end of it.”
“Troubles always happen in threes, sir. I’m sure this is the end
of it. We’ve never before
“Young man, let me have a look at you,” a peremptory voice demanded
from the captain’s table. Mrs. beresford, my favourite passenger. I
twisted round in my seat to find that mrs. beresford, who normally sat
with her back to me, had herself turned completely round in hers.
Beyond her the duke of hartwell, unlike the previous night, was having
no trouble at all in devoting his entire attention to susan beresford:
the usual counterattraction on his right, in the best traditions of the
theatrical world, rarely rose before noon. mrs. Beresford studied me
in silence for the better part of ten seconds.
“You don’t look well at all, mr. carter,” she pronounced finally.
“Twisted your neck, didn’t you? you didn’t have to turn round in your
chair to talk to me.”
“A little,” I admitted. “It’s a bit stiff.”
“And hurt your back into the bargain,” she added triumphantly. “I
can tell from the peculiar way you sit.”
“It hardly hurts at all,” I said bravely. It didn’t, in fact, hurt
me in the slightest, but I hadn’t yet got the hang of carrying a gun in
my waistband and the butt kept sticking painfully into my lower ribs.
“Sunstroke, eh?” her face held genuine concern. “And lack of
sleep. You should be in bed. Captain bullen, i’m afraid you’re
overworking this young man.”
“That’s what I keep telling the captain, ma’am,” I said, “but he
doesn’t pay any attention to me.”
captain bullen smiled briefly and rose to his feet. His eyes, as
they roved slowly over the room, held the expression of a man who wanted
both attention and quiet: such was the personality of the man that he
got it in three seconds flat.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he began. The duke of hartwell regarded
the tablecloth with that smell-of-bad-fish expression he reserved for
tenants wanting a cut in rent and merchant navy captains who forgot to
preface public addresses with the words “your grace.”
“I am most distressed,” the captain went on, “as I am sure you are
all distressed, by the events of the past twelve hours. That we should
lose our chief wireless officer through death by natural causes is, god
knows, bad enough, but that our chief steward should vanish the same
evening-well, in thirty six years at sea I have never known anything
like it. “What happened to chief steward benson we cannot say with any
certainty, but I can hazard a guess and at the same time issue a
warning. There are literally hundreds of cases of men vanishing
overboard at night, and I have little doubt but that benson’s death is
due to the same reason which probably accounts for 99 per cent of all
the other cases. Even on the most experienced sailors the effect of
leaning over the rail at night and watching the black water passing
below has a weirdly hypnotic effect. I think it’s something akin to the
vertigo that affects a great number of people, people who are convinced
that if they go near, say, the parapet of a high building, some strange
force will make them topple over, no matter what their conscious minds
may say. Only, with leaning over the rails of a ship, there is no fear.
Just a gradual mesmerism. A man just leans further and further over
until his centre of gravity is suddenly displaced. And then he is
gone.”
as an alibi or explanation for benson’s disappearance it was as
good as any; as a general statement it was also unfortunately true.
“And so, ladies and gentlemen, I would counsel you all, most
strongly, never to approach the ship’s rails at night unless you are
accompanied by someone else. I would be most grateful if you would all
bear that strongly in mind.”
I looked round the passengers as far as my stiff neck would allow.
They would bear it in mind all right. From now on wild horses wouldn’t
drag them near the campari’s rails at night.
“But,” bullen went on emphatically, “it will help neither
of those unfortunate men and only do ourselves a great disservice
if we allow ourselves to brood over those things. I cannot ask you to
dismiss those deaths from your minds at once, but I can ask you not to
dwell on them. On a ship, as elsewhere, life must go on especially, I
might say, on a ship. You are aboard the campari to enjoy the cruise;
we are aboard to help you enjoy it. I would be most grateful if you
would give us your every assistance to get shipboard life back to normal
as soon as possible.”
there was a subdued murmur of agreement, then julius beresford,
rising from his seat beside the captain, was on his feet.
“Do you mind if I say a few words, sir?” he could have bought the
blue mail line without even denting his bank balance, but still he asked
permission to speak and called old bullen sir.
“Certainly, mr. beresford.”
“It’s just this.” julius beresford had addressed too many board
meetings to be anything other than completely at ease when speaking to
people, no matter how many million dollars they represented. “I agree,
and agree completely, with everything our captain has said. Captain
bullen has said that he and his crew have a job to do and that that job
is to look after the every comfort and convenience of his passengers.
Under the rather sad circumstances in which we have to meet this
morning, I think that we, the passengers, have also a job to do-to make
things as easy as possible for the captain, officers, and crew and to
help them to bring things back to normal as soon as possible.
“I’d like to start the ball rolling by asking you all to be my
guests for a brief period this evening. To-day, ladies and gentlemen,
my wife celebrates her birthday.” he smiled down at mrs. Beresford.
“She forgets exactly which one. I cannot invite you to a birthday
dinner, for what could I offer you as a special meal that antoine and
henriques do not give us every night of the week? but mrs. Beresford
and I should be grateful if you would be our guests at a cocktail party
this evening. Seven forty-five. In the drawing room. Thank you.”
I looked round the table. Miguel carreras was nodding slightly, as
if in grave acceptance and appreciation of beresford’s underlying
motives. Miss harrbride was beaming with pleasure: she doted on the
beresfords, not for their money, but for the fact that they were one of
the very oldest american families, with goodness only knew how many
generations behind them. Mr. greenstreet, her husband, studied the
tablecloth in his usual intent fashion. And tony carreras, more
impossibly handsome than ever, leaned back in his chair and regarded
julius beresford with a slightly amused, speculative interest. Or maybe
it was susan beresford he was looking at. I was more certain than ever
that there was something wrong with tony carreras’ eyes; it was almost
impossible to tell in what direction they were looking. He caught my
glance and smiled.
“You’ll be there, mr. carter?” he had that relaxed, easygoing
manner that comes from having a bank account bursting at the seams but
none of the usual hint of condescension: tony carreras I could get to
like.
“Briefly only, i’m afraid. I have to go on watch at eight o’clock
this evening.” I smiled. “If you’re still at it at midnight, i’ll join
you.” like hell i’d join them: at midnight i’d be showing the nassau
police over the ship. “And i’m afraid you’ll have to excuse me now. I
have to relieve the officer of the watch.”