The Island Where Time Stands Still (28 page)

As he turned away he saw that A-lu-te was still sitting on the divan, but she had covered her face with her hands, and from between them there came a low moaning. Stooping towards her he said:

‘I must apologise for giving such an exhibition of brutality in front of you. But I don't want to die just yet, and this was my one chance of putting my would-be murderer out of action.'

At that moment several people came pounding round the corner of the screen. Ah-moi was leading, closely followed by the officer of the watch and two sailors.

‘What the hell is going on here?' bellowed the hefty Captain.

Gregory pointed first to the shuddering, groaning figure in the chair, then to the fireman's axe lying in the scuppers.

‘He went off his head and tried to kill me. Apparently he took exception to my dancing with the lady A-lu-te; though why he should have done God alone knows, as we've danced together most nights since we first went ashore in San Francisco.'

The Captain bent over Wu-ming, and asked, ‘Is what he said true?'

Still gasping with pain Wu-ming heaved himself up a little, and whispered, ‘I … I attacked him, yes; but I did so to protect the lady A-lu-te's virtue.'

Taking a pace forward, Gregory snapped, ‘Repeat that lie and I will throw you overboard.'

Ah-moi laid a large restraining hand on his shoulder and, turning to A-lu-te, said, ‘Please give me your version of this most distressing affair.'

She had already taken her hands from her face. Large tears were running down her cheeks, but she replied in a perfectly controlled voice: ‘It is true that Mr. Wu-ming Loo attacked Mr. Sallust with the axe, and it is quite untrue that Mr. Sallust was attempting to seduce me.'

The Captain made a sign to his officer. ‘Have Mr. Wu-ming Loo put to bed, and send the doctor to him.' Then, having given a not unfriendly nod to Gregory, he bowed to A-lu-te and said in a voice that brooked no denial, ‘The strain of witnessing this scene of violence must have quite exhausted you. Permit me to see you to your cabin.'

For the time being that was the end of the matter, and a few minutes later, although it was only just half-past ten, Gregory was getting ready to turn in. As he settled himself in bed, and relived his third narrow escape from death within three weeks, he thought, not for the first time, that it was
better to be born lucky than rich. To have put Wu-ming out of the game was a considerable relief; but he was a little worried about the effect that this brutal treatment of his enemy might have had on the delicate susceptibilities of A-lu-te, and the possibility that a formal inquiry would be held, at which Wu-ming would insist, in his own defence, that he had actually caught her ‘slave' in the act of kissing her.

It transpired that he need not have concerned himself on either count. Next morning A-lu-te greeted him as usual with a smile, and made no mention whatever of the previous evening's events. Apparently, with the practical philosophy of the Chinese, she had accepted the outcome of their plot as one of those passionate eruptions which occasionally disturb the river of life without preventing its flowing on. Captain Ah-moi's attitude was somewhat similar. Having sent for Gregory he said he regarded Wu-ming's outbreak as most regrettable, but that fortunately it had no ill results except to himself; and that, since Gregory had already administered rough justice to his attacker, he hoped that he would spare all concerned further embarrassment by leaving matters as they stood.

Bearing in mind the facts that Ah-moi knew nothing whatever about the poisoned cocktail or the affair of the banana crates, but that he could not have failed to observe Wu-ming's morbid passion for A-lu-te, so had good grounds for believing him to have been the victim of a temporary aberration, the line the Captain took could not be considered as an attempt to evade his responsibilities. The suggestion that sleeping dogs should be allowed to lie could not have suited Gregory better, and by readily falling in with it he earned both Ah-moi's esteem for not bearing malice and his gratitude for being freed from having to give further time to the affair, as other matters of major importance were now calling for his attention.

It was their sixteenth day out of San Francisco; so the yacht was now about to cross the major shipping lane that ran down from the great Japanese ports of Yokohama and
Nagasaki to Singapore, and thence to Europe. While crossing the great wastes of the Pacific they had sighted less than half-a-dozen ships; but now they might expect to encounter several during the course of a single day and, although they were still well outside any of the war zones, Captain Ah-moi evidently thought the time had come to take precautions against unwelcome questioning.

The first of these struck Gregory as a great piece of impudence, but he was in no situation to prevent it. As soon as their interview was over, Ah-moi asked him to come aft and there, with his own hands, he ran up the White Ensign. Turning to Gregory with a beaming face, he said:

‘There! Previously when sailing in dangerous waters I have always flown the Stars and Stripes, but as I happened to have this in my collection of flags I thought it would be a nice compliment to you. It should prove just as effective and I am proud to sail under it, for your British sailors are the finest in the world.'

‘I … er, appreciate the honour,' Gregory replied with a somewhat unhappy smile. ‘But isn't it a bit risky? I mean, you might get into serious trouble if we happen to run into a British warship.'

‘That is true, but very unlikely so far from both Hong Kong and Korea as we shall be during the next few days. And the risk is well worth running. You see, apart from her superstructure, this ship still has the lines of a destroyer, and the range of deck cabins might have been added to convert her into a survey or supply ship; so in the eyes of all but experts she will pass as an auxiliary of the Royal Navy. In consequence, should I refuse to disclose our business or destination in reply to signals, very few Captains would dare to hold us up.'

As this was just the sort of trick that, in similar circumstances, Gregory might himself have played, his disapproval gave place to a sneaking admiration; and, as the day progressed, he had ample opportunity further to admire the capabilities that Ah-moi displayed for blockade running. He ignored junks and other sailing vessels, but each time a
smudge of smoke appeared on the horizon he promptly altered course. Once, when two steamers were sighted approaching one another, so that they would pass somewhere ahead of the yacht, he even turned her right round and ran back on his track for half an hour.

These numerous changes of course naturally slowed down the yacht's progress westwards, but by late afternoon they were approaching a group of tiny islets called the Tokaras about a hundred and thirty miles south of the southernmost tip of Japan. Just before sundown they made a landfall and altered course slightly to pass between two of them.

Meanwhile, as neither the outline of the ship, nor the flag she was flying, would be visible in the darkness, other precautions had been going forward against her being halted and boarded during the night. At Ah-moi's orders the portholes of all the deck cabins and the upper lounge had been screened, A-lu-te was informed that for the future she must not use her sanctum in the stern after dark, and even the navigation lights were not switched on; so the yacht was totally blacked out.

Wu-ming had not emerged from his cabin all day and Gregory expected that, even if his injuries permitted him to get up, he would remain there for the rest of the voyage rather than expose himself to the loss of face inevitable as a result of his beating. The doctor was treating him with a fearsome mixture of magical formulae and herbal remedies; so, although Gregory knew that the age-long experience the Chinese had had with herbs made many of their ointments valuable, he was not surprised to learn that his victim was still in very poor shape.

However, no open mention of Wu-ming was made over dinner; and after it, as A-lu-te was to grace the upper deck lounge that night, some of the officers had got up a concert for her entertainment. Gregory was rather bored, as he had never been able to acquire an appreciation of Chinese music; but out of politeness he sat through it till it ended at about half-past eleven, and after a little desultory conversation they all went down to turn in. The sky was overcast; so it
was very dark, and the ship was proceeding at only half speed through a calm sea. As they dispersed to their cabins and their chatter subsided, Gregory remembered afterwards noticing how almost unnaturally silent the ship became.

At the bridge end of the range of deck cabins there were two bathrooms. The one on the port side was reserved for the passengers and that on the starboard for the senior officers; apart from Ah-moi, who had his own. It so happened that something had gone wrong that morning with the hot-water supply to the passengers' bathroom, and it was not until Gregory was about to go down to dinner that Foo told him that the repair had been completed; so he had not had a bath that day. As the night was so sultry, and it had been very stuffy in the blacked-out lounge, he decided to freshen himself up with a dip before going to bed.

Gregory's cabin was at the extreme end of the port range and Wu-ming occupied the one next to him. As he passed it on his way to have his bath no sounds from it attracted his attention; neither did he expect to hear any, as it was reasonable to suppose that by that hour the wretched man had been given a few pipes of opium and gone to sleep. The next three cabins were those of engineer officers, then came Kâo's, and lastly that of A-lu-te, who had been given the one next to the bathroom.

Having run a luke-warm bath, Gregory splashed about in it for a time then lay still while a variety of thoughts drifted through his mind. The sound of A-lu-te moving about next door came faintly to him, and he wondered a little uneasily if the kiss he had given her the previous night was going to upset their happy relationship. As was not unnatural in a virile man towards an unattached girl who was charming in both mind and body, and in whose company he had spent many weeks, he already felt attracted to her in a way that was not wholly platonic; but Erika's death was still too near for him to be capable of falling in love with anybody. As far as A-lu-te was concerned, he felt that if she had really fallen for him she would have given some clear indication of it much sooner, but her ready response to his ill-considered
impulse had shown that she was equally attracted to him. It looked therefore as if, given further encouragement, she might easily become seriously enamoured of him. That, he felt, would be most unfair to her, and, in view of Chinese convention should they be caught in a compromising situation, highly dangerous for them both. Obviously, therefore, he must watch his step, and, if she made any reference to what had occurred between them, even at the risk of temporarily hurting her, pass the matter off as a piece of fooling that had no significance.

Having taken this decision, he got out of the bath, and dried himself. He had just finished when he heard a shout. As he listened there came another and it sounded like a cry for help. Wriggling into his dressing-gown, he slipped on his shoes, pulled open the door and stepped out on deck.

Outside it was pitch black, except for one bright streak of light some fifty feet away. As far as he could judge it came from Wu-ming's cabin. Hurrying towards it he saw that the door was wide open and its interior masked only by the curtain.

‘Are you all right?' he called. There was no reply, so he jerked the curtain aside. Wu-ming's bed-clothes were tumbled on the floor, but he was not there.

Gregory was still grasping the curtain when a figure came running up out of the darkness. It was little Foo, and on seeing the cabin empty, he exclaimed:

‘Then it was Mr. Wu-ming! I think he's thrown himself overboard.'

Two more figures appeared, coming from round the end of the range of cabins. They were Kâo and his man P'ei.

‘Did you see what happened?' Gregory asked quickly.

‘No,' Kâo wheezed, gasping to get his breath. ‘P'ei was reading me to sleep. We heard a shout and ran out on deck. We thought it came from our side of the ship, but there was no one there. Then we ran across to the other, but there was no one there either.'

By this time shouts and the patter of running feet were coming from all directions. Two of the engineer officers
came up behind Gregory and two sailors arriving from the opposite direction only just avoided cannoning into Kâo's broad back. One of the sailors cried:

‘I told you it wasn't this side! The struggle I heard took place over to starboard.'

‘Who was it called for help?' asked one of the engineers.

‘It must have been Mr. Wu-ming Loo,' Gregory replied. ‘We all know he wasn't himself, and his cabin's empty.'

‘He's thrown himself overboard,' Foo said again. ‘I feel sure I heard a splash just after those two cries.'

‘What's all this? What's happening here?' boomed Ah-moi's rich voice, and the beam of a torch suddenly lit up the group.

It was Kâo who answered. ‘No one seems to know for certain, but they say Wu-ming has jumped overboard.'

Turning, the Captain bellowed orders to the bridge for the ship to be put about and her lights switched on. Then he asked Kâo: ‘Who says so?'

‘He is not in his cabin,' said Gregory, ‘and my man thinks he heard a splash.'

‘I thought I did too, Sir, P'ei now volunteered. ‘As I was still fully dressed I was out of the cabin before Mr. Kâo Hsüan and ran on ahead of him. But I didn't see anyone.'

‘Yes. I heard the splash distinctly, Sir,' one of the sailors put in. ‘And before that there were two cries for help.'

‘That's right,' added his mate. ‘And there was a struggle.'

‘How do you know?' Ah-moi asked sharply. ‘You could not have seen anything, owing to the darkness.'

‘I heard it, Sir. Me and my mate had just met in the stern, him coming from the port and me from the starboard. We'd been doing a round of the ship to see that no lights were showing, on orders from the Bosun. There was a trampling of feet. It was not like a man running, but a slithering sound, as if someone was being dragged across the deck.'