Southtrap

'Sibirien — what does that mean?'

'It was the code-name for the whaling fleet's Antarctic rendezvous-point. Sibirien — Siberia — cold. It was a large area of sea divided into grids in order to fix an exact rendezvous.'

'What area did Sibirien cover?'

'It was a big rectangular stretch with Bouvet as western terminal and Prince Edward as eastern.'

'So it all comes back to Prince Edward Island, doesn't it?' I said. «Not that that threw any light on Holdgate's death, I added to myself. Why a volcanologist whose only interest in Prince Edward was its rocks should have been brutally stabbed to death all this time after the events Captain Jacobsen was speaking of was incomprehensible.

Jacobsen was breathing quickly and shallowly. I realized that he had reached the limit of what he would answer. So I switched to another tack.

'There's something else I want to discuss with you — or rather Captain Prestrud's daughter and I both want to discuss it with you,' I said. 'It's about tonight's celebration dinner.'

'I do not wish to celebrate anything tonight,' he replied. 'These are old wounds you have re-opened.'

I picked up the phone and while I was waiting to get through to Linn, I said to him, 'I didn't open them, Captain Jacobsen. It was someone else who did. Someone on board my ship at this moment, and I'd give my left arm to know who he is.'

He eyed me keenly. 'I don't like the way you've handled this affair, but I think we are on the same side. I'm beginning to like you better now, Captain.'

Linn answered at the other end and saved me from the awkwardness of having to reply.

'Linn,' I asked, 'can you come to my cabin, please? Captain Jacobsen is here.'

'I'll be right down.'

She shook hands formally with Captain Jacobsen, and then came and stood next to me.

He surveyed the two of us. Either he was shrewder than I had thought or else our feelings were more obvious than either of us was aware of.

'So,' he smiled. That's the way of it, is it?' He gave me a warmer glance than any we had exchanged during the interview. He said to Linn, 'I am happy for the daughter of my old comrade-in-arms. You have made a good choice in this man.'

Linn answered quickly, to cover her confusion. 'I thought we were going to discuss the celebration dinner.'

Jacobsen said, still smiling, 'Before you came in, Linn, I told the captain I was in no mood to celebrate, but I feel different now. Everyone else will think we are celebrating the anniversary of a war-time escape but we three, we'll be thinking of your future.'

She touched his arm with spontaneous warmth.

Thanks, Captain Jacobsen, you've done me good. I needed cheering up. All the passengers are standing around in little groups talking in hushed tones, and the whole ship is drenched in gloom. This weather isn't exactly helping matters, either.'

'I was afraid it would be like this,' I said.

Linn said, 'I thought it might help to cheer things up a bit if we staged an exhibition of the drifter buoy and the balloon and the instruments in the main lounge this afternoon. Everyone's curious about them, and about the launching tomorrow.'

'How did the met. boys react?' I asked.

'Jumped at it,' she replied. They've been checking and rechecking everything until they're seeing double. They'd welcome a break.'

'Right,' I said. 'Follow it up with a good dinner and plenty of wine and it'll be just what the doctor ordered.

Captain Jacobsen broke in. 'When your father and I used to get together, Linn, one of us always made a speech. I'm the only one of the three left, so I will make tonight's speech.'

I felt uneasy at the suggestion. 'No skeletons out of the past, please, Captain Jacobsen.'

He grinned and shook his head. 'We'll forget all that — and we'll forget what's been happening aboard this ship — for a few hours anyway. As I said just now, it's what I'll be celebrating in my heart — that's what matters.'

His enthusiasm fired Linn. She said, 'I'll find some volunteers and we'll decorate the dining-room this afternoon.'

'I saw some cases of Kaapse Vonkel coming aboard just before we sailed,' I said. 'Cape Sparkle. Genuine Cape champagne. I'm told it's good stuff.'

Jacobsen rubbed his hands. 'When a man talks like that, the party's halfway to success.'

He looked years younger. I hoped the afternoon in close proximity to his wet-nurse wouldn't kill his mood.

That's fixed then,' I said. 'Linn, will you make arrangements with the cook? He'll need both his assistants — aspirant cooks as he calls them. His English isn't all that hot. You'd better stick to Norwegian when you're dealing with Klausen.'

'There's no knowing what he'll serve if I don't.' She smiled.

Jacobsen was getting up to go. At the back of my mind was something else I'd wanted to ask him. I remembered it as he reached the door. 'Wait a minute, Captain Jacobsen. There's just one more thing.'

I went to the safe and took out the leather-framed picture of the beautiful, strange-looking woman.

Jacobsen studied it intently, without lifting his eyes. An expression of tenderness came over his face; there might have been nostalgia there too, but there was no trace of his light-hearted mood of a few moments before.

When he did not speak, I asked, 'Do you know who she is?'

Jacobsen snapped the case shut and returned the picture to me. 'No one will ever know her,' he said, and left the cabin.

His emotion remained after he had gone, invisible and yet there, like a radio-active cloud from a nuclear satellite which has burned itself up on re-entering the earth's atmosphere. Dangerous, too, when fall-out begins.

Linn said thoughtfully, 'John, there's an awful lot of things I still don't understand about this cruise.'

I locked the picture away. 'You can't be more puzzled than I am. Even after talking to Captain Jacobsen.'

She came close and held the lapels of my jacket. 'But there's one thing I can see perfectly plainly — you're dead on your feet, John. You need sleep, and I intend to see you get some — now.'

I threw her a mock salute. 'Aye, aye, Captain Linn.'

She looked at the time. 'I'll have a tray of lunch sent in to you here right away. When you've eaten you're to go straight to your cabin and sleep.'

I knew she was right. I could feel the stresses catching up on me. Ahead of me was the dinner celebration followed by a night of what I believed would be piloting the ship through the first ice-fields.

'If I sleep, it'll be in here,' I told her. 'With one eye open, next to the phone.'

She didn't argue, but kissed me and went away.

I must have been in poorer shape than I thought. I did not hear the lunch tray arrive but I was roused by the imperative ringing of the phone. I swung myself off the couch. I was wide awake as soon as my feet hit the floor. Automatically I noted two things — first, that it was half-dark and that the ship's motion was increasing; second, that I had been covered by the penguin-skin rug.

I snatched the phone from its cradle. 'Captain here.'

'Sir! It's Persson! Come quickly! It's a Mayday!'

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

I wrenched open the door. As I did so, something fell from the outer handle where it had been balanced. I snatched it up. It was a long envelope addressed to me.

I thrust it into my pocket and raced to the radio shack.

As I threw open Persson's door I was struck by a wash of sound. Sferics came screaming in over the volume-up loudspeaker, hissing like a steam locomotive. The sound grew, then ebbed.