The Golden Rendezvous (3 page)

the senor understood, that a car spring would go or a shock absorber snap. When wilson had innocently inquired if this was because the revolutionary government had no money left to pay for the filling in of the enormous potholes in the roads, the agent had become even more nervous and said indignantly that it was entirely the fault of the inferior metal those perfidious Americanos used in the construction of their vehicles. Wilson said he had left with the impression that detroit had a special assembly line exclusively devoted to turning out deliberately inferior cars destined solely for this particular corner of the caribbean. Wilson went away. The cargo continued to move steadily into number four hold. About four o'clock in the afternoon I heard the sound of the clashing of gears and the asthmatic wheezing of what sounded like a very elderly engine indeed. This, I thought, would be the passengers at last, but no; what clanked into view round the corner of the dock gate was a dilapidated truck with hardly a shred of paint left on the body work, white canvas showing on the tyres, and the engine hood removed to reveal what looked, from my elevation, like a solid block of rust. One of the special detroit jobs probably. On its cracked and splintered platform it carried three medium-sized crates, freshly boxed and metal-banded. Wrapped in a blue haze from the staccato backfiring of its exhaust, vibrating like a broken tuning fork and rattling in every bolt in its superannuated chassis, the truck trundled heavily across the cobbles and pulled up not five paces from where macdonald was standing. A little man in white ducks and peaked cap jumped out through the space where the door ought to have been, stood still for a couple of seconds until he got the hang of terra firma again, and then scuttled off in the direction of our gangway. I recognised him as our carracio agent, the one with the low opinion of detroit, and wondered what fresh trouble he was bringing with him. I found out in three minutes flat when captain Bullen appeared on deck, an anxious-looking agent scurrying along behind him. The captain's blue eyes were snapping; the red complexion was overlaid with puce, but he had the safety valve screwed right down. "Coffins, Mister," he said tightly. "Coffins, no less." I suppose there is a quick and clever answer to a conversational gambit like that, but I couldn't find it, so I said politely, "coffins, sir?"

"Coffins, Mister. Not empty, either. For shipment to New York."

he flourished some papers. "Authorizations, shipping notes, everything in order. Including a sealed request signed by no less than the ambassador. Three of them. Two British, one American subject. Killed in the hunger riots."

"The crew won't like it, sir," I said. "Especially the goanese stewards. You know their superstitions and how "it will be all right, senor," the little man in white broke in hurriedly. Wilson had been right about the nervousness, but there was more to it than that; there was a strange overlay of anxiety that came close to despair. "We have arranged "shut up!" captain Bullen said shortly. "No need for the crew to know, Mister. Or the passengers." you could see they were just a careless afterthought. "Coffins are boxed that's them on the truck there."

"Yes, sir. Killed in the riots. Last week." I paused and went on delicately: "in this heat "lead-lined, he says. So they can go in the hold. Some separate corner, Mister. One of the - um-deceased is a relative of one of the passengers boarding here. Wouldn't do to stack the coffins among the dynamos, I suppose." he sighed heavily. "On top of everything else, we're now in the funeral-undertaking business.

Life, First, can hold no more."

"You are accepting this-ah-cargo, sir?"

"But of course, but of course," the little man interrupted again.

"One of them is a cousin of senor carreras, who sails with you. Sefior miguel carreras. Sefior carreras, he is what you say, heartbroken.

Senor carreras is the most important man "be quiet," captain Bullen said wearily. He made a gesture with the papers. "Yes, i'm accepting. Note from the ambassador. More pressure. I've had enough of cables flying across the atlantic. Too much grief. Just an old beaten man, First, just an old beaten man. He stood there for a moment, hands outspread on

the guardrail, doing his best to look like an old beaten man and making a singularly unsuccessful job of it, then straightened abruptly as a procession of vehicles turned in through the dock gates and made for the

Campari. "A pound to a penny, Mister, here comes still more grief."

"Praise be to god," the little agent murmured. The tone, no less than the words, was a prayer of thanksgiving. "Senor carreras himself!

your passengers at last, captain."

"That's what I said," Bullen growled. "More grief." the little man looked at him in puzzlement, as well as might anyone who didn't understand Bullen's attitude towards the passengers, then turned and hurried off towards the gangway. My attention was diverted for a few moments by another crate swinging aboard, then I heard captain Bullen saying softly and feelingly, "like I said, Mister, more grief." the procession, two big, chauffeur-driven prewar packards, one towed by a jeep, had just pulled up by the gangway and the passengers were climbing out. Those who could, that was-or very obviously there was one who could not. One of the chauffeurs, dressed in green tropical drills and a bush hat, had opened the boot of his car, pulled out a collapsible hand-propelled wheel chair, and, with the smooth efficiency of experience, had it assembled in ten seconds flat, while the other chauffeur, with the aid of a tall, thin nurse clad in over-all white from her smartly starched cap to the skirt that reached close down to her ankles, tenderly lifted a bent old man from the back seat of the second packard and set him gently in the wheel chair. The old boy-even at that distance I could see the face creased and trenched with the lines of age, the snowy whiteness of the still plentiful hairdid his best to help them, but his best wasn't very much. Captain Bullen looked at me. I looked at captain Bullen. There didn't seem to be any reason to say anything. Nobody in a crew likes having permanent invalids aboard ship: they cause trouble to the ship's doctor who has to look after their health, to the cabin stewards who have to clean their quarters, to the dining-room stewards who have to feed them, and to those members of the deck crew detailed for the duty of moving them around. And when the invalids are elderly and very infirmand if this one wasn't I sadly Missed my guess-there was always the chance of a death at sea, the one thing sailors hate above all else. It was also very bad for the passenger trade. But as long as the illness was of neither a contagious nor infectious nature and that a certificate could be produced from the invalid's own doctor to the effect that the invalid was fit for the proposed voyage, there was nothing that could be done about it. "Well," captain Bullen said heavily, "i suppose i'd better go and welcome our latest guests aboard. Finish it off as quickly as possible, Mister."

"I'll do that, sir." Bullen nodded and left. I watched the two chauffeurs slide a couple of poles under the seat of the invalid chair, straighten and carry the chair easily up the sparred foot planks of the gangway. They were followed by the tall angular nurse and she in turn by another nurse, dressed exactly like the First, but shorter and stockier. The old boy was bringing his own medical corps along with him, which meant that he had more money than was good for him or was a hypochondriac or very far through indeed or a combination of any or all of those; on the credit side was the fact that both had that indefinable competent no-nonsense look of the professional nurse which would make the lot of our ship's surgeon, old Dr. marston, who sometimes had to work a whole hour in one day, all that much easier. But I was more interested in the last two people to climb out of the packards. The First was a man of about my own age and size, but the resemblance stopped there. He looked like a cross between ramon novarro and rudolph

valentino, only handsomer. Tall, broad-shouldered, with deeply tanned, perfectly sculpted latin features, he had the classical long, thin moustache, strong, even teeth with that in-built neon phosphorescence that seems to shine in any light from high noon till dark, and a darkly gleaming froth of tight black curls on his head; he would have been a lost man if you'd let him loose on the campus of any girls' university.

For all that, he looked as far from being a sissy as any man i'd ever met: he had the strong chin, the balanced carriage, the light, springy boxer's step of a man well aware that he can get through this world without any help from a nursemaid. If nothing else, I thought sourly, he would at least take Miss Beresford out of my hair. The other man was

a slightly smaller edition of the First, same features, same teeth, same moustache and hair, only those were greying. He would be about fifty-five. He had about him that indefinable look of authority and assurance which can come from power, money, or a carefully cultivated phoneyness. This, I guessed, would be the sefior miguel carreras who inspired such fear in our local carracio agent. I wondered why. Ten minutes later the last of our cargo was aboard and all that remained were the three boxed coffins on the back of the old truck. I was watching the bo'sun readying a sling round the First of those when a well-detested voice said behind me: "this is Mr. carreras, sir. Captain Bullen sent me." I turned round and gave fourth officer dexter the look I specially reserved for fourth officer dexter. Dexter was the exception to the rule that the fleet commodore always got the best available in the company as far as officers and men were concerned, but that was hardly the old man's fault: there were some men that even a fleet commodore has to accept and dexter was one of them. A personable

enough youngster of twenty-one, with fair hair, slightly prominent blue eyes, an excruciatingly genuine public-school accent, and limited intelligence, dexter was the son-and, unfortunately, heir of lord dexter, chairman and managing director of the blue mail. Lord dexter, who had inherited about ten millions at the age of fifteen and, understandably enough, had never looked back, had the quaint idea that his own son should start from the bottom up and had sent him to sea as a cadet some five years previously. Dexter took a poor view of this arrangement: every man in the ship, from Bullen downwards, took a poor view both of the arrangement and dexter, but there was nothing we could

do about it. "How do you do, sir?" I accepted carreras' outstretched hand and took a good look at him. The steady dark eyes, the courteous smile couldn't obscure the fact that there were many more lines about his eyes and mouth at two feet than at fifty; but it also couldn't obscure the compensatory fact that the air of authority and command was

now redoubled in force, and I put out of my mind any idea that this air originated in phoneyness; it was the genuine article, and that was that.

"Mr. Carter? my pleasure." the hand was firm, the bow more than a perfunctory nod, the cultured english the product of some stateside ivy league college. "I have some interest in the cargo being loaded, and if you would permit "but certainly, senor carreras." Carter, that rough-hewn anglo-saxon diamond, not to be outdone in latin courtesy. I waved towards the hatch. "If you would be so kind as to keep to the starboard-the right hand of the hatch "'starboard' will do, Mr. Carter."

he smiled. "I have commanded vessels of my own. It was not a life that ever appealed to me." he stood there for a moment, watching macdonald tightening the sling, while I turned to dexter, who had made no move to go. Dexter was seldom in a hurry to do anything; he had a remarkably thick skin. "What are you on now, fourth?" I enquired. "Assisting Mr." that meant he was unemployed. Cummings, the purser, was an extraordinarily competent officer who never required help. He had only one fault, brought on by years of dealing with passengers-he was far too polite. Especially with dexter. I said, "those charts we picked up in Kingston. You might get on with the corrections, will you?" which meant that he would probably land us on a reef off the great bahamas in a couple of days' time. "But Mr. cummings is expecting "the charts, dexter." he looked at me for a long moment, his face slowly darkening, then spun on his heel and left. I let him go three paces, then said, not loudly, "dexter." he stopped, then turned slowly. "The charts, dexter," I repeated. He stood there for maybe five seconds, eyes locked

on mine, then broke his gaze. "Aye, aye, sir." the accent on the "sir"

was faint but unmistakable. He turned again and walked away, and now the flush was round to the back of his neck, his back ramrod stiff.

Little I cared; by the time he sat in the chairman's seat i'd have long since quit. I watched him go, then turned to see carreras looking at me with a slow, still speculation in the steady eyes. He was putting chief officer Carter in the balance and weighing him, but whatever figures he came up with he kept to himself, for he turned away without any haste and made his way to the starboard side of number four hold. As he turned, I noticed for the First time the very thin ribbon of black silk stitched across the left lapel of his grey tropical suit. It didn't seem to go any too well with the white rose he wore in his buttonhole, but maybe the two of them together were recognised as a sign of mourning

in those parts. And it seemed very likely, for he stood there perfectly straight, almost at attention, his hands loosely by his sides, as the three crated coffins were hoisted inboard. When the third crate came swinging in over the rail he removed his hat casually, as if to get the benefit of the light breeze that had just sprung up from the north, the direction of the open sea, and then, looking round him almost furtively, lifted his right hand under the cover of the hat held in his left hand and made a quick abbreviated sign of the cross. Even in that heat I could feel the cold cat's-paw of a shiver brush lightly across my shoulders. I don't know why; not even by the furthest stretch of imagination could I visualise that prosaic hatchway giving on number four hold as an open grave. One of my grandmothers was Scots; maybe I was psychic or had the second sight or whatever it was they called it up in the highlands, or maybe I had just lunched too well. Whatever might have upset me, it didn't seem to have upset senor carreras. He replaced his hat as the last of the crates touched lightly on the floor of the hold, stared down at it for a few seconds, then turned and made his way forward, lifting his hat again and giving me a clear, untroubled smile as he came by. For want of anything better to do, I smiled back at him.