But we saw no sign of Schreuder — only his discarded jacket floating half submerged with the sleeves held out like a man drowned. There was not a breath of wind. The sea was like glass. And the mist was so thick we were often out of sight of the catcher. I had a bucket of sea water brought up and dipped my hand in. It was as cold as ice. No man could live for long in water that cold. After half an hour I gave up and followed the catcher as it made off slowly through the mist to Bovaagen Hval.
As we left the spot I saw Jill gazing over the stern. 'If only we could have saved him,' she said. 'He could have told us so much. I'm sure he could.' She turned suddenly to me.
'What do you think happened up there on the Jostedal?'
'I don't know,' I said. The less she thought about it the better.
'But something must have happened,' she murmured. 'He was there with George. And then after — the accident — he tries to make for England. He's afraid to stay in Norway. So afraid that he's willing to take a chance in that icy water. And those samples of ore. He must have taken them from George's body. Bill!' She caught at my arm and her voice was tense. 'Do you think — do you think he killed George?'
'I d6n't know what to think,' I replied. I didn't look at her. I didn't want to see that hurt expression in her eyes.
'Well, whatever he did,' Curtis said, 'the poor devil's dead now. And we'll never know the truth of what happened.' He turned and gazed aft. 'Hallo! Mist's lifting a bit. I wonder what happened to those two boats?'
'What two boats?' I asked.
'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.
It was midday by the time we got back to the whaling station. Two catchers lay at the quay. And as we landed the winches were clattering and a huge white whale was being dragged up the slipway by its tail. We stood and watched for a moment. It was all strange and exciting. When the winches stopped, the great animal stretched the whole length of the flensing deck. Its gigantic tail lay by the winches. Its mouth, wide open to show the finners and the huge pink tongue, overhung the slipway. In an instant half a dozen men, armed with flensing knives, set to work. The winch hawsers were attached to the flaps of the hide cut out from either side of the head behind the jaw. Then flensing began, the winches tearing at the blubber whilst the flensers cut it clear with their knives. This exposed the meat along the backbone. Then the winch hawsers were re fixed, run through blocks and the whale was winched over to expose the grey-white belly of the animal to the flensing knives.
Kielland came up as we stood watching. He was dressed in ex-German jackboots and an old khaki shirt. 'Ah, you have returned, eh?' He shouted instructions to one of the men and then said, 'I hear this man, Schreuder, jumped into the sea. You did not recover him, eh?'
'No,' I said. The workmen were swarming round the whale now. The meat was being hacked out in great chunks and hooked on to trolleys to be carried to the packing sheds. 'Where's Jorgensen?' I asked.
'He has gone to Bergen in the meat boat.' There was a jauntiness about Kielland that suggested he was glad to see the last of his director.
'And Lovaas?'
He smiled, crinkling the corners of his eyes. 'He is sick with himself.'
'What about Schreuder's possessions?' I asked. 'What's happened to them?'
'Kaptein Lovaas handed them over to Jorgensen to deliver to the police.'
'Did you see what they were? Did they include any pieces of what would look like dull, grey rocks?'
His brows lifted. 'So that was why you were all so interested in Schreuder, eh? What was it — gold, silver, something valuable?'