Picking themselves up, Derek and Gervaise scrambled down to the engine-room, and operating the levers, drew in the keel and rudder; upon which the Ark righted itself, bobbing gently.
‘We’d best tow her in as far as possible,’ Hemmingway suggested. ‘Then, as we lost our anchors, we’ll throw out some kedges made of weighty objects we’ve got among the stores.’
Having fixed a tow-rope, Sam and Hemmingway got into the collapsible boat again and laboured manfully for half an hour to bring the sphere nearer to land. They got it to within ten feet of the shore-line, where it grounded again, but kedge-anchors were found to be unnecessary as the water was going down with the quickness of an outgoing tide.
When Hemmingway and Sam came aboard again their hands were blue with cold and they were both shivering. By four o’clock it had started to snow, blotting out most of the landscape, and the big white flakes continued to fall softly and persistently until darkness hid them from view.
The joy of finding land again was marred for Sam by his domestic contretemps. The scene in which he had participated early that morning had never since been absent from his mind. Margery seemed normal, and even cheerful, while Lavina gave no indication that anything unusual had occurred. But Sam was so nervy that he could not sit still happily for five minutes together. In an agony of suspense he waited for bedtime, wondering if Lavina would give him her usual good-night kiss.
His torture was prolonged by the fact that they stayed up much later than usual as Gervaise had brought up some bottles of wine and spirits to celebrate their having survived the flood, and for a couple of hours after dinner they speculated uselessly but garrulously as to what the future might hold in store for them.
At last Lavina said, ‘Well, it’s been an exciting day but I’m going to bed,’ and stood up.
The others followed her example and Sam watched on tenterhooks to see what she would do. She kissed her father, smiled round at the others and, apparently forgetting him, went towards her cabin.
‘Lavina,’ he called after her, with a tremor in his voice, ‘if you don’t mind, I’d like a word with you before you turn in.’
‘Right you are,’ she answered, without turning her head. ‘I’ll come back again in my dressing-gown.’
It was Lavina’s habit to take a long time preparing herself for bed. Sam had never quite discovered why it was necessary for her to sit so long in front of her mirror after she had brushed her hair, but she never spent less than three-quarters of an hour tinkering with her face. To-night she deliberately took nearly double that time, then strolled out of her cabin with a cigarette dangling from her newly carmined lips. The others had all retired so husband and wife had the living-room to themselves.
‘Well?’ said Lavina, sitting down in an armchair and crossing her well-formed legs.
Now that the moment had come, Sam’s nervousness had disappeared. He went into action just as he would have done if faced with any other tricky situation.
‘About this morning,’ he began. ‘You saw me kissing Margery. First of all, I’d like to assure you that there’s been nothing else between us. We haven’t been having any private sessions below deck of the kind you and I used to have during our first weeks in the Ark, or anything of that sort.’
Lavina smiled. ‘Knowing Margery, I didn’t suppose for one moment that you had. She’s in love with you, of course; has been for a long time. Any woman could see that. But Margery’s the sort who would demand marriage before she went to bed, and I can hardly see her playing slap-and-tickle with you among the packing-cases. Are you in love with her?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then you’re not in love with me any longer?’
‘I wouldn’t exactly say that.’
‘Hell! You can’t have it both ways.’
‘I didn’t say I could, but it’s quite possible to be in love with two people at the same time.’
‘It all depends on what you call love.’
‘I mean that I love you both in different ways.’
‘What you mean, Sam, is that you don’t love me any longer but you still desire me; whereas you do love Margery—for her worthiness, and all that. But you’ve no particular desire to sleep with her.’
‘On the contrary. I think one thing goes with the other; anyhow, for a man like myself. And most people would consider Margery darned good-looking if you didn’t happen to be about.
‘Yes, she’s only twenty-six, and decidedly attractive in a saintly sort of way. I suppose what’s got you down is that you’ve been a casual bad-hat all your life but never before run into a good-looking woman who goes about clad in woollens and a halo. But that’s beside the point. What I imagine you’re trying to tell me is that if we were living in a normal way you’d ask me to divorce you so that you could marry her?’
‘Oh, God!’ Sam groaned. ‘This is simply frightful. We’ve only been married ourselves just under three months.’
‘I know. But having been cooped up for so long in this thing, where we haven’t been out of each other’s sight except when asleep, has made all the difference, and that has come practically on top of our five weeks’ honeymoon when we hardly saw a soul. We’ve spent more hours together since our marriage than most married people do in a couple of years. Besides, life in the Ark is so totally unlike the sort of life we’d be living if the comet had never appeared. This sort of existence has brought out all my very worst points. I’m lazy, thoughtless, unpractical, and very easily get bored; whereas Margery, being the perfect hausfrau, has had a marvellous opportunity to do her stuff. Naturally, by comparison, she appears as a shining example of what a good woman should be. I’m not a good woman, Sam, and I’ve never pretended to be, but I would never willingly have let you down.’
Sam knew that every word she spoke was true, and he marvelled at the cold logic with which she summed up the situation. ‘It’s my fault entirely,’ he admitted unhappily. ‘You’ve got qualities that Margery hasn’t, but you’ve had little chance to show them in the last few weeks; whereas she’s had all the opportunities she could possibly wish for to show hers. That doesn’t excuse me, I know, but it is a fact; and I’m desperately worried as to what to do about the future. You see, I want to be fair to both of you, but I don’t see how it’s possible.’
Lavina smiled a little bitterly. ‘As far as I can see, the future isn’t going to be very different from the past few weeks. The whole world has been drowned; so there’s no prospect of our getting anywhere, and very little of our meeting any other people. We’ll have to pig it in some collection of ruins, I suppose, and I shall be no more use to anybody than I am now. But Margery could run a derelict cottage for you perfectly, cook your meals, clean your house, put your slippers by the fire to warm, and all the rest of it; while you cultivated a bit of land with some of the seeds and things we’ve got. Besides, she could give you children, and you’d like children—wouldn’t you, Sam?’
‘Yes,’ he nodded.
‘Well, I’m not playing. I might have, if I could have had a Harley Street gynaecologist to look after me and all the usual comforts; but I’m damned if I’m going to have a baby like a peasant girl in a cow-shed, and work myself to death bringing the brat up.’
‘No. I shouldn’t ask you to. You weren’t made for that sort of thing; nor, for that matter, to slave in any workaday world. You were born to be served, and to reward men for their service only with your beauty. Where you’re unfortunate is that, our civilisation having gone down the drain, it looks as if we’ll have to live out the rest of our lives in primitive conditions; and in primitive societies there is not much call for idle women however decorative they may be. But what do you suggest?’
‘Well, as it happens, Sam, I’m rather fond of you and, as I am your wife, I have first claim to your protection and support in this lousy dead world that is all that’s left to us. You took me on knowing my qualities and I’m still good entertainment. I suppose you agree that by all the laws of God and man, and all th
e decencies, it’s still up to you to fend for me even if I refuse to do a hand’s turn?’
‘Yes, I quite agree about that.’
‘Then I think we’d better leave things for a month. During that time I can make up my mind as to whether I want to keep you; and, since you say you do still love me, you’ll have a chance to decide if that’s really true. You’ll be able to say definitely by then if Margery’s good-womanishness and Victorian morality are quite enough compensation for all you’d lose if you lost me.’
‘That’s very sound,’ Sam agreed, ‘and damned decent of you. I think you’ve behaved frightfully well about this and I’m more grateful than I can say; but then, you never were a mean-spirited person. I don’t think you’ve ever done a mean thing in your life.’
‘Thanks,’ said Lavina calmly, standing up. ‘Anyhow, we know where we are now and I’ll let you know my decision on the 7th of September. In the meantime, though, I shall consider myself perfectly free to amuse myself, if I wish, with Derek—or Hemmingway.’
She had already turned her back as she uttered the last words, and before Sam could say anything further, she had closed her cabin door behind her.
25
CALAMITY
As Sam moved over to the table to mix himself a drink, he was thinking that Lavina had really behaved very fairly. The interview that he had been dreading so much all day was over and there had been no fireworks or bitter recriminations. But then, he had been unjust to Lavina in even thinking that there might be. In any emotional crisis she could always be counted upon to preserve her dignity, which was one of the reasons why her father referred to her as The Princess.
How damnably attractive she looked, Sam thought, in that old dressing-gown she had dug out before leaving Stapleton Court. He had long ago decided, in fact, that she was even more bewitching in the oddest garments than when wearing the most expensive clothes; with the exception, perhaps, of evening dress, in which she became breath-takingly lovely.
He dismissed her mention of Hemmingway without a second thought but her statement that she would consider herself free to amuse herself with Derek gave him much food for uneasy speculation. Although he had always tried to regard their casual intimacy as the natural outcome of a very old friendship he had never liked it, and now, here was Lavina threatening to ‘amuse’ herself with Derek. What sort of amusement could Lavina have in mind in which she did not already indulge with her good-looking friend? Too late, Sam saw that, owing to his own action, he had put himself in a situation in which he could no longer complain about their friendship. Margery, of course, was a wonderful woman but Lavina had a lot of things that no other woman he’d ever met had got, and he had not yet entirely lost her. By the time he went to bed the wretched Sam was as miserable as he had been an hour earlier, and hopelessly undecided as to which of the two sisters he wanted to have as his constant companion for the rest of his life.
When morning came the snow was still falling, the sphere was high and dry and the edge of the flood had receded a mile or more southwards. The whole landscape was now a wintry scene of ice and snow.
The change in the weather provided them with one advantage: they would no longer have to plod about in ankle-deep mud as Sam and Hemmingway had had to on the previous day. The land was now frozen, so after breakfast, having wrapped themselves in their warmest garments, the whole party were able to walk across it with comparative ease as they set out to explore the surrounding country.
On the other hand the snow limited their range of vision, and although they spent the whole morning trying to find the grey stone house that had been sighted on the previous day, they were unable to locate it. By midday they had decided to give up the search and turned back along their tracks in the snow towards the Ark.
It seemed, however, that in their attempts to find the house they had covered more country than they remembered. The tracks meandered all over the place and gradually became fainter until, after half an hour’s walk, they gave out altogether, having become filled up with fresh snow. This placed them in an extremely serious predicament as it meant that if they could not find the Ark they would have to remain out all night. Their only indication of the Ark’s direction was that it must lie on lower ground, so they trudged down a slope hoping eventually to come to the water, which would give them the line of the shore. But the slope ended in a valley-bottom which rose to a steeper hillside, so, now silent and anxious, they turned back and tried the other way.
Lavina, who loathed the cold, was feeling absolutely desperate and cursed herself for having allowed her curiosity to overcome her reluctance to accompany the others on the expedition. But she knew no good purpose could be served by worrying the men, who were doing their best to find the way, so she said nothing. It was Margery who began to complain and irritated the others by nagging at them until Gervaise abruptly told her that she would do better to save her strength for further walking than to dissipate it in pointless criticisms.
For three hours they wandered, first in one direction and then in another, their spirits sinking lower and lower, until at last Hemmingway stumbled over the dead horse. They knew from its colour and position that it was the one which they had seen on first landing, so the Ark could not be very far away. While the rest remained near the horse, Derek set off at a brisk walk down the gentle gradient and kept in touch with the others by yodelling to them every few minutes. His first cast took him too far to the right; but when he felt that he must have passed his objective he turned back and began to move in a constantly increasing spiral, until he eventually came upon the giant snowball that the sphere had become in their absence. He then returned to the others and led them in along his last tracks.
It was past four in the afternoon when they wearily dragged themselves up to the door of the Ark, and as they had left it at nine o’clock in the morning they had been out in the snow for over seven hours, walking nearly the whole time; and for four of those hours they had been lost. In consequence they were frozen to the marrow, ill-tempered and thoroughly tired out. It was not until they had drunk some hot tea laced with rum that any return of cheerfulness manifested itself among them and they all agreed that never again would they leave the Ark during a snow-storm.
Even the tea and rum failed to warm Lavina. She sat shivering in a chair, her small face pinched and miserable until Derek, who thought of little else but her well-being, suggested that he should get her some hot bottles and that she should go to bed.
She thanked him with a pale smile and agreed that would be best; but she had a bad night and was feverish when she woke the following morning, having caught a nasty chill.
Gervaise doctored her and said that she had better stay in bed until she felt all right again, so she did not get up for the next three days; but she did not miss anything by remaining in her cabin as the snow continued to fall without interruption and the others did not leave the Ark except to stretch their limbs in its immediate vicinity.
The fact that they were now able to get away from each other by going outside their steel home enabled Sam and Margery to have some long talks while walking up and down in the snow. Sam reported the conversation he had had with Lavina and Margery derived much secret satisfaction from the way things had gone. She was surprised and pleased that Lavina had made so little trouble but gave her sister little credit for the fact that it was her direct mind and generosity which really formed the basis of the agreement.
In Margery’s eyes, Sam had done the right and manly thing in tackling Lavina without delay, and she felt sure that it must have been Sam’s own firmness which had carried the tricky interview through to a successful conclusion. The very fact that Sam insisted on giving Lavina full marks only made Margery admire him the more for his strength and modesty, and she felt that her sister, although impetuous and self-willed, must be a weak creature underneath to have surrendered her man with hardly a struggle. Margery had no doubts in her own mind that with Lavina nominally out of the way she could now safe
ly count on having Sam to herself; but then, she did not really know Lavina.
Being able to leave the sphere made a great difference to Derek as he was able to get as much exercise as he wanted without being dependent on the weather, and whenever he was not engaged trying to amuse the sick Lavina in her cabin, or asleep in his own, he was out in the frosty, snow-filled air which he thoroughly enjoyed.
As he soon grew tired of walking up and down within sight of the Ark he decided to employ himself in banking the snow up under its platform and cutting a set of steps in the bank up to its door. Some of the others helped him in his shovelling from time to time and the business was completed by the end of the second day of Lavina’s indisposition.
It then occurred to him that it would be a good thing for Fink-Drummond, too, to have some exercise, so he brought the madman up from his prison, muffled him in a warm coat and, taking him outside, walked him up and down. As he could only take very short paces, owing to the chain which linked his ankles, the experiment did not prove very successful and such slow-going was anything but pleasant with the thermometer well below zero.
It was a long time now since Fink-Drummond had had one of his fits of insanity, although he still remained apparently dumb; so, having decided that there was little risk of trouble as long as he was in this quiet mood, Derek borrowed Hemmingway’s loaded crop in order to defend himself if he was attacked and undid the padlock which secured the chain round the prisoner’s legs. The result justified his humane gesture as the lunatic seemed delighted at the chance to stretch himself properly, and behaved quite perfectly, even when he was led back to his cell afterwards and had the chains replaced on his feet.
Sixty Days to Live Page 31