Sea Fury (1971)
Page 17
“I’ve booked rooms at an hotel,” he said. “Got some business in Fremantle tomorrow. That suit you?”
“Anything suits me,” Holt said. It was only twelve miles to Perth; the Jaguar could have made it in fifteen minutes maybe. But he did not remark on this. If Mr. Roylance wanted to put up at a Fremantle hotel, that was his business.
It was in a quiet street away from the waterfront. Everything about the hotel seemed quiet. Perhaps that was how Roylance liked it. There was a quiet lobby, quiet stairs, a quiet room with a view of trees. The trees were quiet too; there was no wind.
“I think you’ll be comfortable here for the night,” Roylance said. “I’ve got the next room.”
He crossed to the window and looked out at the quiet trees. Then, casually, “Did you bring something for me?”
“Oh, yes,” Holt said, as though for the moment it had slipped his memory. “A box of China tea.”
He put one of the suitcases on the bed and opened it. He took out the plywood box. When he looked up he saw that Roylance had moved to the bed.
“China tea is one of my vices.”
“A small vice, Mr. Roylance.”
Roylance chuckled. “As you say, a small vice.”
He took the box from Holt. He had it in his hands when the plain-clothes men came in. The way they handled Roylance made Holt feel thankful that he had decided to put himself on the right side of the law. If Mr. Saunders ever set foot in Australia again no doubt they would handle him in much the same way.
Grade was in a bar drinking beer. Grade considered that he had had a raw deal. First there had been Lycett; he had spent half the voyage getting the major nicely hooked, feeding him that stuff about an uncle with interests in nickel mines; and then, before he could even complete the con, Lycett had had to go and kill Johansen and throw himself overboard. Downright unsporting of him, in Grade’s opinion. And if that were not enough, there was Nick Holt coming over all moral and law-abiding when they could have split forty thousand dollars between them. Hell, it made you want to spit, too true, it did.
He drained his glass, put it down on the bar. “Gimme another.”
He looked in his wallet. Ten dollars. Ten lousy Australian dollars. How far could you go on that, for Pete’s sake? He paid for the beer and took a long, cool drink. There was only one thing for it: he would have to look for another sucker. There was one born every minute.
Leach was also drinking—alone, in his cabin. He knew that the Chetwynd was finished. The owners would never consider her worth the money it would take to make her sea-worthy again. They would sell her to some ship-breaker for what they could get. She had had a long life but now she was near the end of it; she had fought her last fight with the old enemy, the sea.
Leach raised his glass, looked at the whisky. And what about him? Where did he go from here? To another Barling-Orient ship? Always supposing there was one for him. What did it matter? What in hell did it matter?
He drank the whisky, put the glass down, rammed his cap on his head and walked out of the cabin. He climbed up to the bridge and looked at his battered ship. So still she was now, so quiet. Difficult to cast one’s mind back to that night when he had had to crawl on hands and knees because of the fury of the wind. He had thought it was the end then, but he was still alive. And for what purpose? What point was there to it all when you came down to it? What point?
He saw someone walking down the gangway to the quay. A woman. Mrs. Lycett. He thought she looked lonely, stepping slowly, uncertainly, as though she did not know where to go. Lonely; so terribly lonely.
He turned away with a muttered curse. Well, that made two of them.
By the Same Author
Freedman
Soldier, Sail North
The Wheel of Fortune
Last in Convoy
The Mystery of the Gregory Kotovsky
Contact Mr Delgado
Across the Narrow Seas
Wild Justice
The Liberators
The Last Stronghold
Find the Diamonds
The Plague Makers
Whispering Death
Three Hundred Grand
Crusader’s Cross
A Real Killing
Special Delivery
The Spanish Hawk
Ten Million Dollar Cinch
The Deadly Shore
The Rodriguez Affair
The Murmansk Assignment
The Sinister Stars
Watching Brief
Weed
Away With Murder
Ocean Prize
A Fortune in the Sky
Search Warrant
The Marakano Formula
Cordley’s Castle
The Haunted Sea
The Petronov Plan
Feast of the Scorpion
The Honeymoon Caper
A Walking Shadow
The No-Risk Operation
Final Run
Blind Date
Something of Value
Red Exit
The Courier Job
The Rashevski Icon
The Levantine Trade
The Spayde Conspiracy
Busman’s Holiday
The Antwerp Appointment
Stride
The Seven Sleepers
Lethal Orders
The Kavulu Lion
A Fatal Errand
The Stalking-Horse
Flight to the Sea
A Car for Mr Bradley
Precious Cargo
The Saigon Merchant
Life-Preserver
Dead of Winter
Come Home, Toby Brown
Homecoming
The Syrian Client
Poisoned Chalice
Where the Money Is
A Dream of Madness
Paradise in the Sun
Dangerous Enchantment
The Junk Run
Legatee
Killer
Dishonour Among Thieves
Operation Zenith
Dead Men Rise Up Never
The Spoilers
With Menaces
Devil Under the Skin
The Animal Gang
Steel
The Emperor Stone
Fat Man From Colombia
Bavarian Sunset
The Telephone Murders
Lady from Argentina
The Poison Traders
Squeaky Clean
Avenger of Blood
A Wind on the Heath
One-Way Ticket
The Time of Your Life
Death of a Go-Between
Some Job
The Wild One
Skeleton Island
A Passage of Arms
On Desperate Seas
Old Pals Act
Crane
The Silent Voyage
The Angry Island
Obituary for Howard Gray
The Golden Reef
Bullion
Copyright
© James Pattinson 1971
First published in Great Britain 1971
This ebook edition 2012
ISBN 978 0 7090 9740 2 (epub)
ISBN 978 0 7090 9741 9 (mobi)
ISBN 978 0 7090 9742 6 (pdf)
ISBN 978 0 7090 7713 8 (print)
Robert Hale Limited
Clerkenwell House
Clerkenwell Green
London EC1R 0HT
www.halebooks.com
The right of James Pattinson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
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