‘You remember the diver who was after an aero engine. Maybe they were farther out. Difficult to tell in this mist. But I thought they were just about here. I remember that island was just where it is now when Dick hailed them.’ He nodded in the direction of the island we were approaching.
‘That’s right,’ Dick agreed. ‘This is about the spot.’
Curtis glanced up at the burgee. It was fluttering. ‘There’s a breeze sprung up. Look, the mist is clearing now.’
‘Pity it didn’t do that earlier,’ Dick said. ‘Might have saved Schreuder’s life.’ The mist was clearing fast. The sun shone through. ‘Not a sign of the divers,’ he added.
‘Probably packed up for the day,’ Curtis suggested.
But Dick shook his head. ‘No. They wouldn’t do that. I don’t expect they often get a sea as calm as this up here. This is just right for diving. And it’s early, too. They’d only just started the day’s operations.’
I looked at him. I think we all had the same idea. ‘Do you think Schreuder could have swum to the divers’ boats and persuaded them to take him ashore?’ I asked. Dick shrugged his shoulders. ‘We didn’t find his body. And we didn’t find the boats. And if they had moved off we wouldn’t have heard their little engines above the sound of ours. Nor would Lovaas on the catcher. But how could he persuade ‘em to up anchor and get away as quickly as that?’
‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘But it’s just a chance that he did.’ I ordered Carter to stop the engine and jumped down into the chartroom. I cleared the litter of pencils and rulers from the chart and stared at the outline of Nordhordland. The others crowded round peering over my shoulder. ‘Curtis,’ I said. ‘This is your sort of problem. Schreuder for some reason was desperate. He wanted to escape. Now if you were Schreuder and you’d persuaded those divers to help you, where would you get them to take you?’
He leaned forward over the chart and studied it. ‘He wanted to get away from Lovaas,’ he murmured. ‘And to him Lovaas would be Bovaagen Hval. In that case I’d steer clear of any place on the same stretch of land as Bovaagen. And I wouldn’t go out to the islands, however much I wanted to get across to England. I’d feel cut off out there. No. I think I’d get them to take me to the next island to the north of here and land me at some quiet inlet near Austrheim. From the other side of the island I could probably get a fishing boat to take me across Fensfjord to Halsvik on the mainland. And from there I could get up into the mountains and lose myself until the hue and cry had died down.’
‘Or he could stop one of the steamers going to Sognefjord,’ Jill put in. ‘They’ll always take on passengers from boats that hail them.’
‘Fine,’ I said. ‘We’ll make for Austrheim then. If we’re right, we should meet the divers coming back to their work here.’
Shortly afterwards a breeze sprang up and the mist cleared to bright sunshine. But we saw no sign of the divers’ boats. They weren’t in Austrheim, nor was there any sign of them in any of the inlets along the coast. Reluctantly we put about.
On the way back to Bovaagen Hval something occurred which, in a strange way upset me. Austrheim was disappearing in the haze astern. I went down to the saloon to fix drinks for the crew. But outside the door, I stopped. It was not properly shut and through the crack I could see Jill and Curtis standing close together. Jill’s eyes were wet with tears. Curtis held a watch in his hand — the same gold watch that I had seen him with when he first came aboard. ‘I’m sorry,’ he was saying. ‘I should have given it to you before. But I wasn’t certain he was dead. Now I am certain. So’ — he thrust the gold timepiece into her hands — ‘It was his father’s. When he gave it to me, your address was inside the back. I opened it foolishly in the assault craft. The wind swept the piece of paper with your address overboard. Only your picture remained. That’s why I recognised you at once.’
She had clutched hold of the watch. ‘You — saw us, that time in Bergen, didn’t you?’
‘Yes.’
‘That was the last time I saw him.’ She turned away. She was crying quietly. ‘Was there any message — when he gave you this?’
‘Yes,’ Curtis answered. ‘A line from Rupert Brooke-’
I turned quietly away then and went back on deck. Why was she crying? Was she still in love with him? I took the wheel from Carter. I didn’t want to think about her being in love with Farnell.
