‘Whale meat for export has to be got away pretty quickly,’ Jill said. ‘If the consignment was dispatched to England on the 9th, it means that it was either packed that day or on the 8th. It couldn’t possibly have been packed earlier.’
‘Exactly,’ I said. ‘That doesn’t leave Farnell much time to get up to the Jostedal.’
‘He could do it by boat,’ Dick said.
‘Yes,’ I agreed. ‘But he’d have to be in an awful hurry to get there.’ I traced the route with my finger. It would be north for twenty miles or so from Bovaagen and then east up the long cleft of Norway’s largest fjord. The better part of a hundred miles to Balestrand and then another twenty up the tributary fjord to Fjaerland. ‘It’s a day’s journey by boat,’ I said. And after that he’d got to climb the 5,000 feet to the top of the Jostedal and then fall on to the Boya Glacier. He’d be running it a bit fine. I turned to Jill. ‘There’s a steamer service, is there?’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘But from Bergen. He’d have to pick the steamer up at Leirvik and then stay a night at Balestrand. He couldn’t possibly reach Fjaerland till the evening of the 10th — not by the ordinary steamer service.’
‘That’s no good,’ I said. ‘He must have had a boat. If so we’ll find out whose when we get to Fjaerland. The only other alternative is that he was never at Bovaagen. In which case we ought to be able to get hold of the man who sent the message for him.’ I turned to Dick. ‘What was the reaction from our friend Jorgensen when this message came through?’ I asked.
‘Can’t say I noticed,’ he replied. ‘Afraid I wasn’t thinking about Jorgensen.’
‘Then I’ll go up and find out,’ I said.
Carter was at the wheel as I came out on deck. The wind was dying away and we were gliding over a long, oily swell. The sun had set and against the darkness of the eastern horizon was the darker line of Norway. ‘Dinna think we’ll get much wind the nicht,’ Carter said to me.
I glanced at the speed of the water slipping past the lee rail. ‘We’re still doing about four knots.’
‘Aye,’ he replied. ‘She’s a fine boat in a light wind. Slips along easy as a swan.’
‘Where’s Mr Jorgensen?’ I asked.
He nodded towards the chartroom. ‘Doon there, sir,’ he said.
I stepped down into the cockpit and entered the chartroom. Curtis was lounging on the chartroom bunk. Jorgensen was seated at the table. He looked up as I entered. ‘Just been checking the distance,’ he said, nodding towards the chart. ‘If the wind holds we should be in by dawn.’
‘In where?’ I asked.
He smiled. ‘I am presuming, Mr Gansert, that you are obeying orders and proceeding to Bovaagen.’
‘You heard the message then?’ I asked.
‘I could not help it,’ he answered. ‘I was sitting right beside Mr Everard. I was very intrigued to know just how George Farnell had contacted you. As you said, his method was a shade unorthodox. Does that suggest anything to you?’
I said, ‘Yes. It suggests he was scared to use the more normal postal methods.’
‘I find it very hard to believe that a man who had made a vital mineral discovery should communicate his information by this means.’ His voice betrayed his curiosity. ‘Did he give any reason? How was he to know where his message would finish up?’
‘I know only this, Mr Jorgensen,’ I said. ‘He was scared to use any normal method. And,’ I added, speaking deliberately, ‘he had a premonition he was going to die.’
His hand was on the heavy brass chart ruler. He began to roll it slowly back and forth across the table. His face was, as always, expressionless. But his eyes avoided mine and I sensed his agitation. In some way the information he had acquired was ‘And you have it?’ He laughed. ‘No, Mr Gansert. If you had you wouldn’t be chasing the ghost of dead Farnell. You’d be up in the mountains with metallurgical instruments, and the whole weight of the British Foreign Office would be supporting applications for concessions. But I do not wish to be regarded as discourteous to the representative of a big British industrial organisation. You may count on me to give you every assistance in your search, Mr Gansert. May I use your transmitter at eight this evening?’
‘Why?’ I asked.
‘As Dahler may have told you I took over his interests after the war. One of them was Bovaagen Hval. I own a controlling interest in the company. At eight o’clock the catchers report back to the whaling station. I can contact the manager then and arrange for water and fuel for your ship and for him to make a preliminary investigation into who smuggled that message into the consignment of whale meat. That is what you want to know, isn’t it?’
There was no point in refusing. I’d have Jill in the chartroom at the same time so that I’d know what he was saying. ‘All right,’ I said. And then I remembered the cripple lying in his bunk down below. ‘What about Dahler?’ I asked.
‘What about him?’ he inquired.
‘You threatened to have him arrested,’ I reminded him.
