EM EM : monthly magazine - 01.07.1941, Blaðsíða 33

Em Em
33
i Tne eapranrs eyes naraened as
|he met mine and a grim smile
jcame to his lips. “I can think,
'lieutenant, of a very excellent
jreason.”
I waited, but he did not say
jmore. He shrugged his shoulders
lat last, as though trying to shake
joff an oppressive and unpleasant
iburden. Then he stepped briskly
itoward the door.
“You’ll have to excuse me, lieu-
itenant,” he said tersely. “I want
ito talk to you again, after I in-
(vestigate this affair below. You
; can wait here or drop back in, say,
jhalf an hour.” He looked over his
jshoulder and added sharply: “And
' for the Lord’s sake, man, keep
íthis matter to yourself.”
"You needn’t worry, captain.
ril keep mum. There is just one
thing*more I want to^ mention.
Francisco Carretos, who is minis-
ter of finance of the Republic of
Andegoya, is aboard this ship. I
happen to know that he took pass-
age at the last minute; he was
scheduled to attend an important
cabinet meeting in Caimora to-
morrow.”
“Well?” The captain eyed me
curiously.
I shrugged. “Carretos is a mil-
lionaire. He has a 200-foot yacht
which is in commission and ready
to go. You must have seen her
anchored in the harbor at Cai-
mora.”
Eldridge nodded briefly. “I saw
her. . . . Well?”
I didn’t think ít necessary to
mention Mildred Baird. I said:
“Doesn’t it strike you as odd
that with a big steam yacht at his
disposal he should take passage
aboard the Alderbaron?”
“Perhaps.” The captain nodded
slowly. “Perhaps.”
I took a step toward him. “See
here, sir!” You said a moment ago
there was an excellent reason why
certain parties might like to sink
this ship. Does the presence of
Carretos aboard tie in with your
theory?”
Eldridge sighed. All at once he
looked older, and grayer, and
rather tired. “Carretos, you say,
is minister of finance. . . . H-m.
. . . Leslie,” he said shortly. “I
don’t see the pattem. The pieces
don’t fit. But I have a strong
hunch that the pattem is there.
And it is damnable, my boy.
Damnable!”
He turned then and hurried out
the door. I heard him say, before
the door slammed behind him:
“Come on, Bailey! Let’s look
jinto this thing.” r*
CHAPTER III
After a while I got up and went
down to C deck. I found the pur-
ser’s office still open. I got a pas-
senger list, found Mildred Baird
v/as in 205, and strolled up to the
smoking room. Mildred was gone.
But Carretos, with three or four
otlicr men, was drinking at the
bar. He saw me and hailed me.
“Lieutenant Leslie! Come and
have an absinthe frappe weeth
me.”
I had no desire to drink with
Carretos. Was he drunk ? I doubt-
ed it. He handled his liquor well.
But why that look of tension, of
excitement only partially sup-
pressed? And why had he asked
me to drink with him when but a
short while before I had deliber-
ately ignored him? I walked over
to the bar and leaned there, look-
ing at him.
“I’U have a Scotch and soda,” I
said. "You left Caimora rather
unexpectedly, didn’t you, Carre-
tos?”
His slack mouth twitched and
then grew tight. “Een Panama I
have business. Unexpected. Boy!
One Scotch and soda!”
I never knew exactly when the
Alderbaron started to list. There
had been three glasses of whisky
standing on the bar when I walked
over to it. Now they began to
slide to starboard. I watched them
sliding slowly along the smoothly
polished bar, and my heart began
to pound.
The steward caught the glasses,
said over his shoulder to his as-
sistant!
“Break out that rubber mat, Joe.
We’re running into a little sea.”
I looked at Carretos. The tall
Andegoyan was standing straight
and tense, steadying himself with
one hand on the bar. The color
had gone out. of his face and left
it a pasty yellow.
One of the other men at the bar
said: “I say, steward! What’s
gone wrong here?” He showed
no excitement, only a mild annoy-
ance.
“It’s nothing, sir,” the steward
answered solicitously. “Just a bit
of ground swell. I’ll put out a
mat, sir, and then the glasses
wont’ slide.”
Only Carretos and I seemed to
realize that the Alderbaron was
showing no inclination to return to
an even keel. On the contrary, the
list was very slowly but none the
less inexorably increasing.
The steward was spreading his
mat on the bar when Carretos ut-
tered a low, strangling cry and
leaped toward the deck. He dis-
appeared in the darkness outside.
I picked up my drink and downed
it in three swift gulps. As I put
the glass back on the bar one of
the men shouted:
“My tord, boys! The ship’s sink-
ing!”
I turned, as calmty as I could,
and got out of there.
The deck was still quiet when
I left the smoking room. Several
passengers who had becn dozing
in their deck chairs were stirring
restlessly. Three or four state-
room doors were open and inquir-
ing men and women were looking
out on deck. But as yet there was
no excitement or apprehension—
only a mild disquiet.
I walked forward with an out-
ward semblance of calmness. I
reached my cabin, threw open the
door and turned on the light. The
deck suddenly was dead; the faint
vibration which comes from whirl-
ing turbines was stilled.
“This,” I said grimly to myself,
“looks bad.”
Frorn the rack above the upper
berth I pulled two lifebelts. At
that moment I heard a woman
scream somewhere aft. A door
banged. Then another. A man
shouted, and his cry was taken up
and carried along the deck. Some
one raced past my door. Feet
pounded. A woman broke into
hysterical sobbing.
And then panic, like a fire
through tinder-dry grass, swept
the big liner from stem to stern.
With the lifebelts clasped under
my arms I dashed out on deck,
dodged into a passageway and
reached the port side. A moment
later I was at room 205. The door
was open and I saw at a glance
that the cabin was empty.
Then I heard my name called
and, swinging around, I saw Mil-
dred Baird and Carretos standing
at the rail. They both wore
tightly strapped lifebelts.
As I started toward them I was
struck by the singular fact, of all
the scurrying, frightened people on
the Alderbaron, Mildred and the
Andegoyan seemed to be the only
ones who had had time to find life
belts, get into them and strap
them properly across their chests.
Other passengers were dragging
them around, struggling with
them, trying to don thern. I won-
dered. Had Carretos and Mildred
known what was coming? Had
. they had time to rehearse their
J parts?
‘ The Andegoyan’s face was still
a dirty yellow. He had none of
5 his usual calm assurance and I
t knew he held tight to the rail to