The Lonely Sea (2 page)

If ever a man had a right to be happy, you would have thought it was George. In the eyes of any reasonable man, especially a parched and dusty city-dweller, George, at that very moment, was already halfway to Paradise.

Above, the hot afternoon sun beat down from a cloudless summer sky; on either side the golden stubble fields of the south slid lazily by; beneath his feet pulsed the sleek length of a 25-foot cabin cruiser; and immediately ahead stretched the lovely and unruffled reaches of the Lower Dipworth canal—not to mention the prospect of an entire month's vacation. Halfway to Paradise? The man was there already.

Dr George Rickaby, BSc, MSc, DS, AMIEE, considered himself the most unfortunate of mortals. How grossly deceived the world would be, he thought bitterly, if it judged by what it saw. What if he had sufficient money to indulge his taste for
inland cruising and plenty of time to enjoy it? What if he had for his crew his devoted and industrious ex-batman whose sole aim in life was to prevent George from overexerting himself? What if he was spoken of as a coming man in nuclear fission? What, even, if the Minister of Supply had been known to clap his shoulder and call him George?

Dust and ashes, mused George disconsolately, easing the cruiser round a wooded corner of the canal, just dust and ashes. But he supposed he shouldn't judge the foolish imaginings of an ignorant world too harshly. He mournfully regarded the spotless deck of white pine. After all, in the days of his youth, he had been criminally guilty of the same thing himself. Why, only three months ago—

‘Look out! You're going to hit me!'

The high-pitched, urgent shout cut through George's painful daydreams like a knife. He hurriedly straightened himself to the full height of his painfully lean six feet, clutched at his spectacles and blinked myopically ahead through his thick-lensed glasses.

‘Quickly, quickly, you idiot, or it'll be too late!'

George had a momentary impression of a barge, its bows fast on the bank and blocking threequarters of the canal, and, in its stern, a noisy and wildly gesticulating young female. All of this registered only superficially. George was not a man of
action and his upper centres were momentarily paralysed.

‘Starboard, you fool, starboard your helm!' she yelled frantically.

George awoke to life and grabbed the wheel. But, as said, he was not a man of action. He was not at his best in emergencies. Spin the wheel he did, and with tremendous speed and energy. But he spun it in the wrong direction.

A mile away on the Upper Dipworth green, smock-coated octogenarians stirred uneasily in their sleep as the sound of the crash reverberated across the peaceful meadows. But in no time at all they were again sunk in peaceful slumber.

Back on the canal, however, matters showed every sign of taking a much more lively turn. The shock of the collision had flung the female bargee, in most unladylike mid-sentence, on to the bows of George's cruiser. At the same time, George had been catapulted forward. For the space of ten seconds they eyed each other malevolently from a distance of two feet.

The lady spoke first.

‘Of all the bungling fools! Are you completely blind, you—you—you roadhog?' she demanded fiercely. ‘Or perhaps, poor man—' this in a tone of vitriolic sweetness—‘too much of the sun?' She tapped her head significantly.

George rose to his feet in a hurt and dignified silence. With this latest injustice his cup of bitterness
was full to overflowing. But he had been brought up in a stern school. He hoped he knew how to behave like a gentleman.

‘If either your boat or yourself is in any way damaged, please accept my apologies,' he said coldly. ‘But you must admit it is unusual, to say the least of it, to see a barge sailing broadside up a canal. I mean, one doesn't expect that sort of thing—'

Here George suddenly broke off. He had adjusted his spectacles and now saw the lady clearly for the first time.

She was well worth looking at, George admitted to himself dispassionately. Burnished red hair, intensely blue—if unfriendly—eyes, long golden limbs, a sleeveless green sweater and very abbreviated white shorts—she had, he privately confessed, everything.

‘Sailing broadside, you clown!' she snapped angrily, brushing aside his proffered hand and climbing painfully to her feet. ‘Broadside, he says.' She flexed a speculative knee, while George stood by admiringly, and seemed relieved to find that it still worked.

‘Can't you see I'm stuck right into the bank?' she enquired icily. ‘It's just happened and I haven't had time to move. Why on earth couldn't you pass by my stern?'

‘I'm sorry,' said George stiffly, ‘but, after all, your boat is lying in a patch of shadow where these trees
are. Besides—er—I wasn't paying much attention,' he concluded lamely.

‘You certainly wasn't—I mean weren't,' retorted the redhead acidly. ‘Of all the inept and panic-stricken displays—'

‘Enough,' said George sternly. ‘Not only was it your fault, but no damage has been done to your old barge anyway. But look at my bows!' he exclaimed bitterly.

The redhead tossed her head in a nice blend of scorn and indifference, swung round, picked her way delicately over the cruiser's splintered bows and buckled rails and gracefully stepped aboard the barge. George, after a moment's hesitation, followed her aboard.

She turned round quickly, stretching her hand out for the tiller, which lay conveniently near. To George, her hair seemed redder than ever. Her blue eyes almost sparked with anger.

‘I don't remember inviting you aboard,' she said dangerously. ‘Get off my barge.'

‘I didn't invite you aboard either,' George pointed out reasonably. ‘I have merely come,' he added loftily, ‘to offer what assistance I can.'

She tightened her grip on the tiller. ‘You have five seconds. I'm perfectly capable of looking after—'

‘Look!' cried George excitedly. ‘The tiller rope!' He picked up a loose end, neatly severed except for a broken strand. ‘It's been cut.'

‘What a brain,' remarked the lady caustically. ‘Do you think the mice have been at it?'

‘Very witty, very witty indeed. The point is, if it's been cut, somebody cut it. I don't suppose,' he added doubtfully, ‘that you go about cutting tiller ropes.'

‘No, I don't,' she replied bitterly. ‘But Black Bart does. He'd cut anything. Tillers, mooring ropes, throats—they all come alike to him.'

‘A thorough going villain, it would seem. Possibly you are biased. And who might Black Bart be?'

‘Biased!' She struggled incoherently for words. ‘Biased, he says. A man who robs my father, puts him in hospital, steals carriage contracts, sabotages barges. Right now he's on his way to the Totfield Granary to steal the summer contract from me. First come, first served.'

‘Oh, come now,' said George peaceably. ‘Piracy on the Lower Dipworth canal. In 1953, England and broad daylight. I am, I have been told, a more than normally gullible character—'

‘Do you see any Navy around to prevent it?' she interrupted swiftly. ‘Or any witnesses—this is the loneliest canal in England.'

George peered thoughtfully at her through his bifocals. ‘You have a point there. Fortunately, you are not alone. Eric—my man—and I—'

‘I'm too busy to laugh. I can take care of all this myself. Get off my boat.'

George was nettled. He forgot his well-bred upbringing.

‘Now, look here, Ginger,' he burst out, ‘I don't see why—'

‘Did you call me “Ginger”?' she enquired sweetly.

‘I did. As I was saying—'

Barely in time, he saw the tiller swinging round. He ducked, stumbled, clawed wildly at the air and fell backwards into the murky depths of the Lower Dipworth canal, clutching his precious bifocals in his left hand. When he surfaced, the redhead was no longer there, and in her place was the ever ready Eric, boathook in hand.

An hour later the cruiser was chugging along the canal at a respectful distance behind the barge. George, clad in a pair of immaculate tennis flannels and morosely watching his duck trousers and jersey flapping from the masthead, had once again fallen prey to his bitter thoughts.

Women, he brooded darkly, were the very devil. Three months previously he had been the happiest of men. And today—this very day was to have been his wedding day. The least his fiancée could have done, he considered, was to have switched her wedding date with the same ease and facility as she had switched prospective husbands.

But women had no finer feelings. Take this redhead, for instance, this termagant, this copperheaded Amazon, this female dragon in angel's
clothing. Perfect confirmation of his belief in women's fundamental injustice, unfairness and lack of sensibility. Not that George needed any confirmation.

‘Lock ahead, sir,' sang out Eric in the bows. ‘And another boat.'

George squinted ahead into the setting sun. The redhead was steering her barge skilfully alongside the canal bank and, even as he watched, she jumped nimbly ashore, rope in hand, and made fast. Just beyond hers, another and much more ancient barge was gradually disappearing behind the lock gate. One gate was already shut, the other was being slowly closed by a burly individual who was pushing the massive gate handle. This, George guessed, might very possibly be Black Bart. The situation had interesting possibilities.

‘Take her alongside, Eric, and tie up,' said George. ‘The presence of a man of tact is called for up there, or I'm much mistaken.' With that, he leapt ashore and scrambled up the bank to the scene of conflict.

Conflict there undoubtedly was, but it was very one-sided. The man who had been pushing the gate shut, a very large, swarthy, unshaven and ugly customer with the face of a retired prizefighter, continued to close it steadily, contemptuously fending off the redhead with one arm. Such blows as she landed had no effect at all. An elderly and obviously badly frightened lock-keeper
hovered nervously in the background. He made no attempt to interfere.

‘Now, now, Mary, me gal,' the prize-fighter was saying. ‘Temper, temper. Assaulting a poor innocent feller like myself. Shockin', so it is. A criminal offence.'

‘Leave that dock gate open, Jamieson,' she cried furiously. ‘There's plenty of room for two barges, and you know it. Cutting people's tiller ropes! It'll cost me an hour if you go through alone. You—you villain.' The redhead was becoming a trifle confused. She struggled fiercely but to no effect at all.

‘Language, language, my dear.' Bart grinned wickedly. ‘And tiller ropes'—he started in large surprise—‘I don't know what you are talking about. As for letting your barge in…No-o-o.' He shook his head regretfully. ‘I couldn't risk my paint.' He spat fondly in the direction of the battered hulk which lay in the dock below.

‘Can I be of any assistance?' interrupted George.

‘Beat it, Fancypants,' said Bart courteously.

‘Oh, go away,' snapped the redhead.

‘I will not go away. This is my business. This is everybody's business. An injustice is being done. Leave this to me.'

Jamieson paused in his efforts and regarded George under lowered eyebrows. George ignored him and turned to the redhead.

‘Mary, me gal—er—I mean, Miss—why won't this ruffian let your barge into the lock?' he asked.

‘Because, don't you see, it'll give him an hour's start on me. His barge is far older and slower. It's sixty miles to the Granary yet. He's determined to get there first, so he'll use any method to stop me.' Tears of rage welled up in her eyes.

George turned and faced Black Bart.

‘Open that gate,' he commanded.

Bart's mouth fell open, just for a second, then tightened ominously.

‘Run away, sonny,' he scoffed, ‘I'm busy.'

George removed his yachting cap and placed it carefully on the ground.

‘You leave me no alternative,' he stated. ‘I shall have to use force.'

Mary clutched his arm. Her blue eyes were no longer hostile, but genuinely concerned.

‘Please go away,' she pleaded. ‘Please. You don't know him.'

‘That's right. Oh please,' Bart mocked. ‘Tell him what I did to your father.'

‘Silence, woman,' George ordered. ‘And hold these.'

He thrust his spectacles into her reluctant hand and swung round. Unfortunately, without his glasses, George literally could not distinguish a tramcar from a haystack. But he was too angry to care. His normal calm had completely vanished. He took a quick step forward and lashed out blindly at the place where Black Bart had been when last he had seen him.

But Black Bart was no longer there. He had thoughtfully moved quite some time previously. Further, and unfortunately for George, Black Bart had twenty-twenty vision and no finer feelings whatsoever. A murderous right whistled up and caught George one inch below his left ear. From the point of view of weight and the spirit in which given, it could be in no way compared to the encouraging clap he had so recently received from the Minister of Supply. George rose upwards and backwards, neatly cleared the edge of the lock and, for the second time in the space of an hour, described a graceful parabolic arc into the depths of the Lower Dipworth canal.

The girl, white-faced and trembling, stood motionless for a few seconds, then swung frantically round on Black Bart.

‘You swine,' she cried. ‘You vicious brute! You've killed him. Quickly, quickly—get him out! He'll drown, he'll drown!' The redhead was very close to tears.

Black Bart shrugged indifferently. ‘I should worry,' he said callously. ‘It's his own fault.'

Mary, colour returning to her cheeks, looked at him incredulously.

‘But—but you did it! You knocked him in. I saw you.'

‘Self-defence,' explained Black Bart carefully. ‘I only stumbled against him.' He smiled slowly, evilly. ‘Besides, I can't swim.'