Found floating, p.17
Found Floating, page 17
‘There again it’s possible, though not very likely. That coast is different since the Spanish took charge: it’s now quite a law-abiding place. If Mant had fallen, let us say, over a cliff and had been found by some of the lower type, they might, of course, have robbed him and tipped his body into the sea. But then what could he have been doing on the edge of a cliff in the dark? Besides, the cliffs are a considerable way from where the ship was lying, and he said he was only going ashore for a short time.’
‘An attack by robbers?’
‘Very unlikely, I should say, and the police agreed with me. No, it does seem a puzzle.’ Jellicoe puffed slowly at his pipe, staring vacantly in front of him.
‘Tell me exactly what you did last night,’ Katherine said presently. ‘I haven’t heard in detail.’
‘There’s not much to tell. When Jim and I met at the cruise office Artt was there. He asked what photographs of Mant we had. I had brought two snaps, both rather poor, but Jim had a fairly decent one in a group. We went ashore and had the devil’s own job to find the police station. No one seemed to be about. However we got it at last. There was a sleepy policeman in charge: I don’t know what he was, a civil guard or something. He was quite polite, but when he heard of the reward, he undoubtedly did wake up. He said he would call his superior, and he phoned for him. Presently the chief officer turned up. Artt apologised for disturbing him and all that, and then he told our story. The officer took down details very quickly and efficiently. He asked at once for photographs and a description. We did our best. Then he wanted to know what clothes Mant was wearing, and if he had valuables in his pockets. We didn’t think he had valuables, but, of course, didn’t know for sure. He inspected our go-ashore cards, and noted the number of Mant’s. It was all very thorough. Artt tried to get his opinion, but he wasn’t committing himself. He asked me through Artt about Mant’s health, and about attacks of giddiness or paralysis, or if he ever took too much to drink. Showed what was in his mind.’
‘Was anything actually done while you were there?’
‘Oh, yes, he sent us round with a policeman to some cafés. In three of them we had to knock up the proprietors. In two of these people from the ship had been, but no one like Mant. One where there was dancing was where Jim had been, but again there was no trace of Mant.’
‘Did the officer seem hopeful?’
‘Well, he thought they would find out what had happened. He said that for some years there had been no case of a disappearance of a European, and that he didn’t think the natives were likely to be responsible, though of course he couldn’t be sure.’
Once again silence reigned. That dreadful doubt which had before entered Katherine’s mind was again clamouring for admission. She tried to banish it, but at last heard herself saying: ‘What was Jim doing last night? He must have come home late. You remember he was still dressed at half-past twelve.’
Runciman puffed away deliberately at his pipe. She wondered if he purposely avoided looking at her. ‘I asked him that,’ he replied. ‘He said he went ashore with the Tremaines and they wandered about for a time, finding it cold and dull. Then they saw a café with native dancing and went in for a little. But the Tremaine girls got bored, and soon wanted to go back to the ship. They walked back together part of the way to the harbour. But Jim thought it was too soon to go aboard, and he left them and returned up the town. He went into the café again and stayed longer than he intended. I think he took too much native spirit: in fact he said so. He didn’t get aboard till nearly midnight, and then he felt hot from the drink and decided to stroll about on deck and watch the start. Then the stewards began to ask about Mant, and of course he didn’t go to bed.’
‘Was he alone in the café?’ Katherine tried to make her voice careless.
‘Yes, so he said. When the Tremaines left he couldn’t find anyone else from the ship.’
Katherine tried to reassure herself, but it did look horribly badly. Suppose when he had left the Tremaines, he had met Mant … But no, she wouldn’t suppose anything of the kind. Jim might be passionate, but he could never bottle hatred up in his mind for a long period, as she was suggesting.
And yet … Jim had been drinking native spirit. Could it not be that …?
No! Desperately she strove to put the horrible thought out of her mind. No; she mustn’t even think of Jim in such a connection.
‘By the way,’ she said suddenly, ‘what about Uncle William this morning? Is he better?’
Jellicoe seemed relieved at the change of subject. ‘Indeed, he’s not at all well,’ he answered. ‘He’s got a nasty enough internal attack. He was very sick when I was in with him this morning and seemed to be in pain. I can’t make out what he’s eaten, because he seems to have had the same as the rest of us. However, since he was sick he’s easier. I’ve kept him in bed.’
‘Lucky you came with us, Runciman.’
‘Oh, I don’t know. The ship’s doctor seems a nice fellow and is thoroughly qualified. Your uncle would have been all right with him.’
Presently Eva made her appearance, followed by Luke and Jim. ‘We’re going ashore,’ she announced. ‘I don’t see what good we’re doing by staying here, and we may as well see something of the town. Come along, Katherine. Put your hat on and join us. Don’t you think she should, Runciman?’
Jellicoe got up. ‘I really do,’ he agreed. ‘As you say, we’re doing no good here, and to see the town would take us out of ourselves.’
Katherine also stood up, ‘I’ll go,’ she said. ‘Somehow at first it didn’t seem decent, sightseeing and all that. But I think you’re right. Let’s all go.’
‘We have a couple of hours before lunch,’ Luke pointed out. ‘I think a walk would be quite pleasant, and it’s not too hot.’
Boats were constantly running between ship and shore, and soon they were rising and falling over the long smooth swells. These seemed quite large when they were down close to them, though Patricia lay steady as if rooted to the bottom. The harbour, which they soon entered, was larger than Katherine had expected, and much busier. Three quite big steamers lay alongside the wharfs or at anchor in the outer harbour, while several tramps of moderate tonnage were loading or discharging. At the steps where they landed was a small crowd of loafers, who wanted to supply them with postcards and flowers and seats in phaetons or taxis.
‘Let’s take a taxi and drive round,’ Luke suggested. ‘There are just five of us and these are decently large vehicles.’
‘No,’ said Katherine, ‘a taxi goes too fast. We’d run through the entire place in about ten minutes. Let’s take two of these phaetons. It’ll be quite an experience to drive again behind a horse.’
Eva smiled slightly as she agreed, and Katherine and Jellicoe got into one vehicle, leaving the second for the other three. The drivers required no instructions, but started off to the cathedral as a matter of course. A service was in progress, and the party tiptoed about, admiring the carving of the choir stalls and silently resisting demands for money from choirboys. Katherine thoroughly enjoyed the excellent playing of the fine organ. Then to the bullring, where Luke’s halting Spanish and a fee gained them ingress. Katherine was interested and rather shocked to find that the first thing they were shown was a small hospital with thoroughly up-to-date operating theatre. It threw, she thought, a rather vivid sidelight on Spain’s national sport. Then they saw the enclosure itself, with its sandy floor, its surrounding barricades, and the tier after tier of seats stretching up, the lower ones open to the sky, the upper ones, in two storeys, covered with a roof supported internally on pillars. Next they were driven through the residential area to the east of the town, and back to a new and apparently endless garden city along the river at the west. Finally they visited a huge wine-exporting concern, where they sipped samples and from which they could have ordered barrels to be delivered ‘free of duty’ at their several homes.
They returned to the ship for lunch, and from a hurried enquiry learnt that there had been no news. It did not seem worthwhile going ashore again, so they made themselves comfortable on deck, and read and chatted and thought the afternoon away.
In time for a late dinner that evening, the two parties arrived from Granada, those who had left the ship at Cadiz and gone overland through Seville and Cordoba, and those who had started that morning. All were tired but enthusiastic, and Katherine wondered whether her party had done the right thing in sticking to the ship. Before these late diners had finished, Patricia had weighed anchor and was steaming eastward on her two-day run to Marseilles.
The question of whether the party should leave the ship at Malaga had been discussed and rediscussed. While on the previous night there had been little doubt that they should go on to Malaga, they found it much harder to decide about continuing to Marseilles. To return from Malaga to Ceuta in case of need was a matter of a few hours, but once they left Malaga, they could not get back under several days. However, the balance of opinion had been in favour of carrying on. Now the die was cast irrevocably. Patricia was once more at sea.
Next morning they were off the coast of Murcia, with Cartagena hidden somewhere at the base of the blue hills and Cape Palos coming up on the port bow. They studied the chart on the main staircase, on which their course was laid down in pencil and a tiny flag marked their eight o’clock position. During the day they would pass Alicante and Cape Nao, and before sundown would see the outline of Iviza, of the Balearic group, away to port.
But before long they had something other than geography to think about. Presently a steward came along to offer Captain Goode’s compliments and to ask if they would kindly see him in his cabin.
They went forward and up the companion marked ‘Officers Only’ to the lower bridge. There the captain met them and with ceremony ushered them into his sitting room. It was small but comfortably furnished, with a well-padded armchair and sofa, a writing-desk, an electric fire, a fan, and other fittings. Major Artt was already there, and there was some little difficulty in fitting all the party in. However, at last a seat was found for everyone, and Goode began to speak.
‘I’m sorry for disturbing you all and squeezing you like this,’ he apologised, and Katherine could not but think how grave both he and Artt looked, ‘but some news has come in that I think you should hear. I regret to say it’s bad news: about Mr Mant Carrington.’
He paused for a moment and looked round. Katherine could not refrain from doing the same. Without meaning to, she found herself contrasting the contours of the seven faces in her view. The captain’s, round and chubby, with his mouth like the f-hole of a violin, up at one corner and down at another; Major Art’s a trifle hatchety; William’s pale and a little haggard—he was better today, though not yet quite well; Jim’s dreamy with his small red moustache and heavy-lidded eyes; Luke, heavy-cheeked and bulldoggish, already slightly blue where he shaved; Eva, so charmingly pretty even with her distressed appearance … And Runciman! So good, so strong, so kindly, so—so—noble-looking. How infinitely superior he looked to all the others! Such a man! In a moment of time Katherine took them all in, each so individual and unlike the others, and yet each with a similar grave and anxious expression. In the case of Artt and the captain, worried; in the others, sorrowful and apprehensive. It was indeed what she felt herself. Sorrowful and apprehensive.
For a moment Captain Goode seemed doubtful as to how to proceed. Then, making up his mind, he spoke, quietly and decisively.
‘We got this information late last night, but there was nothing to be gained by waking you up. I regret to tell you that Mr Mant Carrington is dead.’
Katherine felt as if a hand had clutched her heart, though the news was no surprise. It was, indeed, what in their secret hearts they had all expected. For a moment no one spoke. Then Runciman Jellicoe asked in a low voice, ‘Tell us the particulars.’
‘I’m going to do so,’ the captain replied, ‘but I’m afraid you will be distressed. The first thing we had was a wireless from Gibraltar’—he picked a paper up from his desk, waved it in the air, and let it fall again—‘saying that on Sunday morning the dead body of a man had been picked up from the sea some miles inside the Straits by a British tramp. The body was landed at Gib, and was identified by the Gib police as that of Mr Mant Carrington.’
There were looks of bewilderment and incredulity, but again no one spoke.
‘I’m afraid,’ Goode went on, ‘there’s worse to come. The skull had been fractured and the police believe it was not an accident.’
‘Murder!’ exclaimed Luke in a small voice.
‘They think so.’
Once again the hand gripped Katherine’s heart, and she felt panic rising within her. Mant murdered! An attempted murder in Bromsley: a successful one at Ceuta! Oh, no! Dreadful! There could be no connection. This was some native who had killed Mant to rob him.
‘Any further details?’ Luke asked presently, also in a low and rather hoarse voice.
‘Nothing, I think,’ the captain answered, though he made no attempt to pass over the message.
Again there was silence and then Jim moved suddenly. ‘We should go to Gib, shouldn’t we?’ he asked, looking round. ‘Or some of us should?’ He turned to Goode. ‘Could you transfer us or put us ashore, or what do you recommend?’
Goode shook his head. ‘I’m afraid you’ll have to come on to Marseilles now,’ he returned. ‘If you then think it necessary you could return at once, either by steamer, or if there was no steamer, overland. But you’ll have to consider whether you’d really gain anything by going. You couldn’t be in time for the funeral, you know. That is, if you bury at Gib. You can, of course, get in touch with the authorities by wireless at any moment.’
‘Yes, it’ll take a bit of thinking over,’ Jim agreed and relapsed into silence.
‘Oh, isn’t it dreadful?’ Eva whispered with a shudder. ‘Poor Mant. Even if we didn’t all like him as much as we might, this is horrible beyond words. Oh, dreadful!’
‘Dreadful indeed,’ William agreed. He moved uneasily. ‘I think we ought to go to Gibraltar,’ he went on. ‘We must see that everything is done.’
‘I agree,’ Jim declared. ‘Sure, captain, you can’t do anything for us? Transfer us to another ship, eh?’
‘I’m sorry, Mr Musgrave, but I’m afraid that’s out of the question,’ Goode said with decision. ‘But, if I may say so, I think you may trust the police. You’re in their hands in any case. You see, if their fears are well founded, you will unfortunately have no say in what is done. They’ll take charge.’
‘The captain’s right, Jim,’ William agreed. ‘The matter isn’t in our hands. We couldn’t do anything.’
Then at last Luke asked the question that had been hanging on Katherine’s lips ever since she heard the news. ‘Have the police any theory as to what might have occurred?’
‘No,’ Goode answered; ‘or if they have, we haven’t been advised.’
‘I suppose nothing can be deduced from the fact that the body was picked up in the Straits?’
‘I’m afraid not. You see, we don’t know exactly where it was found. Of course there’s the obvious suggestion that it was taken out in a boat and put into the sea. As to its being found inside the Straits, as you know, a current flows inwards from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. Anything put into the sea off either Ceuta or Gib would go east.’
There was really not much more to be said, though for some time the anxious little party discussed the affair with the captain and Major Art. The Gibraltar authorities had promised to wireless the ship if and when they had further news to communicate, and Captain Goode undertook to pass this on directly he received it.
The conference looked like coming to an end, when William made a suggestion. ‘If we can’t go to Gibraltar, don’t you think we ought to wireless them that everything proper is to be done about the funeral? I don’t know whether we can wireless money, but I think they should know that all expenses incurred in connection with the funeral will be met. What can you do for us, captain, about that?’
‘No difficulty there, Mr Carrington. If you hand what you think right to our purser, he’ll wire it to our agents, who will pay it over to the authorities. I needn’t say that we shall all be only too glad to help in any way possible.’
William’s suggestion was unanimously approved and the old man went off to get the money. This move broke up the party, and the others returned to their chairs, though still discussing the affair in undertones.
On the whole, Katherine was relieved by what she had heard. It was dreadful of course about Mant, but she had already come to believe that he was dead, and the confirmation scarcely came as a shock. But she was relieved about that hideous fear which had occurred to her directly she had heard that he was missing. Immensely relieved. It couldn’t have been Jim. For Jim couldn’t have arranged the boat. He could only have obtained one by hire, and he would never have dared to take such a risk.
At first the general view was that the whole party should return as soon as possible to Gibraltar to pay a last tribute at Mant’s grave. But after discussion this opinion was revised. After all, what good could such a visit do? William, however, was insistent that some member of the party should attend, if only to indicate their feelings and to see in person that everything suitable had been done. He wanted to go himself, but Jellicoe vetoed that. Then Jim offered, and it was finally decided that he and Jellicoe should go together. They would see to everything, then if they could pick up Patricia, they would do so; if not they would complete their holiday in Spain or North Africa.
‘It will be at my expense, whatever you do,’ William declared, and though at first they protested, the offer was finally accepted.
But once again their plans were changed. Shortly before they were due at Marseilles a steward, for the second time, presented the captain’s compliments and asked them if they would step up to his cabin. Once again they assembled to meet both Goode and Major Artt. Both looked even more worried than before.
