Hammond Innes The Strode Venturer

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the lamp. It was heavy - heavy and hard, with a metallic gleam. 'Lava?
' I asked, thinking of a visit I had once paid to the island of Stromboli.
'No. They're manganese. Manganese nodules to use the geological term.' He s at
down again facing me. 'Listen,' he said. 'I'm not telling you where they came
from. All I'll tell you is this: When I came out of the Hadhramaut I
found Don Mansoor at Mukalla just about to sail. He was bound for Addu Atol l
on the monsoon. That was how I came to visit the Maldives and write that paper
for the Royal Geographical Society. That's how Don Mansoor and I beca me
friends. He's not only a damn' fine navigator - he's a very brave man. L
ast year he had a crack at running the blockade. Down here on the equator t he
monsoon winds are light, mere trade winds. Storms aren't very common - n o
storms of any duration. But he hit one and it carried him into an area th at
he'd never been in before. Probably no one has. It's right off the track of
any shipping, away from any route that aircraft take, even R.A.F. plane s.' He
paused there. I think he was afraid that he was being betrayed into telling me
too much.
'An undiscovered island?'
'Perhaps.' He picked up one of the lumps of ore and held it in his hand, st
aring at it as though it contained some magical property. 'Strange, isn't i
t? Here's a people desperate for independence and this little fragment coul d
be the answer - for them and for me. For you, too, perhaps.' He set it do wn
on the table carefully. 'But I was telling you about Don Mansoor. In the end
he did reach Ceylon. He sold his cargo of dried fish privately instead of
doing it through the Male Government representative. As a result his sh ip was
impounded and his crew sent back to the Maldives. Don Mansoor and an other
intrepid character, Ali Raza - he's over there.' He pointed to a smal l,
wrinkled old man standing in the shadows. 'They worked their passage to
Singapore knowing that at Singapore they could catch the Strode Venturer ba ck
to Addu. I was down at Strode House the day they applied to ship as crew
. That's how I learned what had happened to them - that's how I got hold of
these. They'd kept them as souvenirs to prove that they really had seen so
mething strange. Do you know anything about seismology? Did you know a tida l
wave had struck this atoll, that there has been evidence for several year s of
submarine volcanic activity in the Indian Ocean?'
I nodded, my mind going back to Hans Straker and what he had told me on the
plane between Singapore and London. 'Isn't there a plan for a porper hydro
graphical survey of the Indian Ocean this year? If you wait a few months yo
u'd probably get . . .'
'Wait? I'm not waiting a day longer than I have to. The International Indian
Ocean Survey - The HOS they call it - includes the Russians as well as ours
elves. It's a fully international survey and if I wait for them to confirm w
hatever it was that Don Mansoor saw, then I'll have missed the chance of a l
ifetime.' His fingers reached out, toying with the metallic nodules on the t
able between us. 'I've had this analysed. It's high-grade manganese, about f
orty-five per cent. There's a ready market for it - in Britain, in Germany, in
any of half a dozen industrialised countries. Now do you understand?' And he
added, pounding on the table, 'But I must have confirmation. I must know it's
there in quantity and not part of a blazing ash heap that can't be wor ked.
And I've got to find out ahead of the International Survey. Now then -
are you going to help me or not?'
Page 57
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Somebody had moved the pressure lamp to the table and I could see the excite
ment blazing in his eyes. He was like a prospector who has come upon a pile of
nuggets. The ore-black lumps gleamed balefully. But my service-trained mi nd
saw it from Canning's point of view, not his. Canning would never let him
sail. I tried to explain this, but he wouldn't listen. He was one of those men
who refuse to accept defeat once they have got an idea into their heads.
'I'm going. Tell Canning that, and if he tries to sink the ship ..."
'Don't be a fool,' I said. 'He's not going to sink a vedi.'
'Then what is he going to do?'
'Arrest you and ship you out to Aden. Why else do you think he's holding the
Strode Ventured 'The Strode Venturer. . . Yes, I'd forgotten she was still in
the lagoon. So that's what he's going to do.' He sat there thinking about it,
suddenly much quieter. 'Have you got that letter on you? The one Henry wrote?'
I took my wallet out and handed him the letter. He held it to the la mp,
reading it through carefully. Finally he folded it and placed it on the table,
using a manganese nodule as a paperweight. 'When will you be in London?'
'I'm leaving for Singapore in the morning.' I started to explain the reasons,
but he wasn't interested in my personal affairs. 'When you get to Singapore yo
u can cable them that I accept their offer.'
His change of front was so abrupt it was almost disconcerting. His mood had
changed, too. He seemed suddenly relaxed. At the time I accepted it as con
firming a certain instability in his make-up. Some men have an unpredictabl e
quality that is not very easy for more disciplined minds to understand. I
t didn't occur to me then that what I was witnessing was the behaviour of a
man who could change plans in the face of necessity with lightning rapidity.
After that he talked about other things, relaxed and at ease as though every
thing were now settled to his satisfaction. He insisted I had another drink
and even talked about his sister. 'Ida and I were always very close. It will
be good to see her again. Give her a ring, will you, and tell her I'll be b
ack soon.' When I left he accompanied me to the beach. The coral surface of
Midu's main street glimmered white between the black walls of tropical growt h
and the stars above showed through the dark fingers of the palms. The sens e
of peace was absolute for no breeze penetrated the denseness of the trees.
The dhoni was waiting, the crew squatting on the coral strand beside it, an d
as he saw me into it, he said, 'What I told you tonight is in confidence.
I want your word that you won't repeat it - to anybody, do you understand?'
'Of course,' I said.
His eyes were fixed on me, luminous in the starlight. He seemed to accept my
assurance for he nodded slightly. "And when you get to Singapore I'd be glad
if you'd phone Alexander. Tell him I'm now a director. He'd like to know
that.' I said I would and climbed into the dhoni, and in a moment the beach
was gone and we were out in the lagoon with the sail up and the wat
er creaming past as the night breeze took us south towards Gan. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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