The Querulous Effect (13 page)

The ‘Grampus' hove into Reykjavik Bay late the next morning and made its way into the old harbour. Captain Claythorne explained that the name, Reykjavik, meant ‘bay of smoke,' so named by the Vikings because of the billows of steam from the hot springs which bubbled up from underground in the area. This visit, however, there would be no time for him or his crew to explore the hot springs or enjoy Reykjavik's thermal baths. Once his passengers were safely ashore, Captain Claythorne planned to sail off again next morning for his regular fishing grounds far away from Icelandic waters. Having delivered the Prof's equipment safely to Greenland, he did not intend to return home with an empty ship's hold. He and his crew were anxious to complete their long voyage by securing a bumper catch to sell at the fish market back home on the Yorkshire coast.

Nor did it look likely that the children and the Prof would have any time to spare for touring Iceland. This, as Tim remarked, was a great pity but after the delays in Greenland they all needed to get home as quickly as they could. For the children the school holidays were almost at an end and even though Tim pointed out to the Prof the educational benefits of a few days in Iceland, the Prof was unmoved.

As they said their farewells to the Claythornes and the crew of the ‘Grampus,' Jay spotted the McDoons' flying boat moored at a jetty at the far side of the old harbour. The McDoons had seen the ‘Grampus' arrive and by the time the children and the Prof were down the gang-plank, Sandy and Jeannie McDoon were there at the quayside to greet them. It was a very welcome re-union and it was hard to say amongst all the handshakes, hearty back-slaps and hugs, who was the most relieved to join up again, the Prof or the McDoons.

As they trundled their luggage along the quay towards the flying boat, Sandy explained that the weather forecast for the next day was particularly good. Accordingly, with the promise of clear skies and a following wind, his plan was to fly out early the next morning. As Tim immediately pointed out, departure the next day would also allow for the children to have a short tour of Reykjavik that afternoon. So, after a bowl of lobster soup and crusty bread in a restaurant by the old harbour, Jay, Tim and Ella were, after all, able to visit some of the interesting sights in the area. Sandy and Jeannie had made friends with many locals during their enforced stay in Reykjavik and one of these, Jon Jonsson, took the children and Prof on a tour in his large four-wheel-drive wagon. First they visited the great waterfall, east of Reykjavik, which tumbles over a hundred feet into the Gullfoss canyon. Then they saw two of the hot springs – the Great Geysir (after which all the geysers in the world were named) and Strokker – which sent streams of hot water and steam high into the air accompanied, as Ella noted, by some pretty awful smells of rotten eggs.

Over supper that night the children told the McDoons about their tour that afternoon. The McDoons were certainly interested but what was of much greater interest to them was to learn of all that had happened to the children since the flying boat had left the Inuit settlement in Greenland all those days ago. They listened intently as Jay, Tim and Ella told of the new friends they had made, the games and sports they had played and the trips on the dog sled. Jeannie McDoon frequently tut-tutted and raised her eye-brows as they related how the great iceberg had slid majestically past the mouth of the bay and she nodded, sharing their excitement, as they recounted the details of the arrival of the ‘Grampus' and the ‘Boundless' and the joint farewell party with the crews and their Inuit hosts.

The Prof was unusually quiet whilst they recounted all these exciting events. He just seemed very relieved that it was all over and that he and Cosmo were back in touch in such a positive way.

“It seems to me,” added Sandy McDoon, smiling at the Prof, “that despite all the challenges, it was a job well done. All we have to do now is to get you all safely back to England tomorrow. Then it really will be ‘mission accomplished'. And that means an early start. With the cargo hold now empty of all the equipment you delivered, we've set up sleeping bags in there for everyone. It'll be cosy enough for one night and I suggest we hit the sack and get some shut-eye right now.”

Despite the gentle roll and sway as the flying boat strained on its moorings with the changing tide, the improvised sleeping quarters were, as the Squadron Leader had suggested, ‘cosy enough.' Jay, Ella and Chip were soon asleep. Tim delayed a little while, consulting his encyclopaedia by torchlight on ‘the properties of Icelandic geothermal springs' but soon he was also asleep, with half the article unread.

The take-off from Reykjavik Bay early next morning was exciting but thankfully uneventful. As had been predicted in the weather forecast, the sun shone brightly in a clear sky and a light wind helped the great sea plane on its journey home. No-one would say that a flight from Iceland to England in a restored flying boat is an everyday experience but everyone on board was very relaxed and looking forward to the familiar comforts of home, now only a few hours away.

As Jay settled back in his seat, looking down at the sea far below and listening to the rhythmic throb of the flying boat's engines, he thought of all the amazing events of the past few weeks. The advertisement in the post-office; the long summer days in the garden and fields at ‘The Cedars'; the Prof's mysterious laboratory; the visits to the factory in the gypsy caravan and the red-faced Mr. Knibbs and, above all the encounters with the Inuit and Cosmo Querulous in Greenland. What a quest it had been.

And the best part of it all, thought Jay to himself, was to have made two great friends. He looked across the aisle to see Ella looking intently out of her window with Chip curled up contentedly on the chair beside her. Tim, who was sitting opposite Jay, looked up from his book, grinned, and then buried his head in the book once more in his constant search for remarkable facts. “Yes,” thought Jay, “friends for life.” It was a very happy thought on which to conclude a quest.

With clear skies for most of the journey, there were fine views of the Atlantic Ocean sparkling far below. Each of the children spent some time in the cockpit alongside Sandy as he explained all the dials and controls and all of them helped Jeannie McDoon in making sure there were regular supplies of sandwiches and cups of cocoa. After a few hours, wispy clouds began to form below them. Then, suddenly, in between the breaks in the clouds they saw the coastline and the green fields of the British Isles. This welcome sight was accompanied by the voice of Sandy McDoon over the intercom.

“Please fasten your seat belts. We will be landing back on Grafton Water in twenty minutes and there's going to be a welcoming party. I've been in touch on the radio and Mr. Stiggles is bringing Toby with the caravan for your luggage. Your Aunt Mavis will also be there, Jay. She will, apparently, be especially pleased to see you!”

Jay was a bit embarrassed by this last bit of information but he was relieved to note that no-one else seemed to think anything of it. Tim, for one, seemed to have other things on his mind.

“Do you think Mrs. Stiggles will bake one of her special chocolate cakes to celebrate our return?” he asked, looking mischievously at the Prof.

The Prof didn't answer but as a matter of fact that is just what Mrs. Stiggles did. After a great reunion on the shores of Grafton Water, especially between Ella and Toby, everyone piled into the gypsy caravan and Aunt Mavis' old car and made their way back to ‘The Cedars' to enjoy one of Mrs. Stiggles' extra-special ‘specials.'

Sandy and Jeannie McDoon joined them all for this celebration. The Prof had hoped they would stay longer but they decided to fly back that evening to their home base at Kilgardie Loch. Sandy pointed out that he was keen to “check out the old crate” in case he got called out for another adventure. Jeannie added that the children and the Prof were welcome to come and see them at Kilgardie at any time whether they were embarking on another perilous adventure or not; preferably not.

While the Prof drove the McDoons back to Grafton Water and Aunt Mavis helped Mrs. Stiggles wash up after the meal, Jay, Tim and Ella unpacked all the luggage from their Arctic travels. Then Tim and Ella helped Jay sort out his belongings into a separate pile and pack them all up again. This time into his own bag for the very much shorter journey he was to make to Aunt Mavis's house and from there back home.

With his bag almost full to bursting, Jay pushed into the top the last, precious item, the set of juggling pebbles Minik had helped him choose from the Greenland shore. Then he zipped his bag firmly closed. His summer holiday had finally come to an end and with it, so had his amazing holiday adventure.

Later that autumn, Jay was sitting at the kitchen table at home wrestling with his maths homework. Maths wasn't his favourite subject and it wasn't easy. But, after the excitement of the summer holidays, Jay had resolved to become a scientist and if he had to learn some maths to achieve that ambition then it just had to be done. Suddenly his dad's voice called out urgently from the lounge.

“Hey, quick, that professor chap you stayed with is on television!”

Jay rushed into the lounge, followed by his mum and the two of them flopped down on the sofa next to Jay's dad, staring at the television.

It was a special news report on the next year's Olympics. The Prof was standing in front of a half-built stadium being constructed to hold the main sporting events. He was explaining to the reporter that the wide roadway or boulevard, as he called it, that led to the stadium and all the streets in the athletes' village would be planted with trees which would light up by themselves at night. They would, he assured the reporter, be a spectacular sight.

“Of course,” the Prof continued, “apart from being something of a novelty, this will be a demonstration of what could be done on a much larger scale. It has applications in every city and village throughout the world. Think how wonderful Central Park, New York or Hyde Park in London would be lit up in this way. Think of the energy we could save.”

“And I suppose it's quite safe?” queried the reporter. “The trees won't catch fire or anything?”

“No, no they won't catch fire. The main challenge is to limit the luminescence to particular tree species and to make sure it doesn't spread to other species. I am not alone in working on this idea; scientists around the world are developing similar systems and I am sure they are thinking about the same issue. I call the danger of transfer between species the ‘Querulous Effect' in honour of my former colleague, Dr. Cosmo Querulous. It was his experiments that led me to develop the key controls. I'd go so far as to say that if it hadn't been for his work, I don't think I would have done the detailed research necessary to control these side effects.”

“So you owe Dr. Querulous quite a lot,” observed the reporter.

“I suppose in a way I do,” replied the Prof, pensively. “He was always, shall I say, a most stimulating colleague. Anyway, he is doing great work now based in the Arctic developing new food products from natural resources. A most dedicated scientist.”

“What are your own plans for the future?” asked the reporter.

“Well, if I can assemble the great team of young assistants that helped me this summer I am interested in an expedition to find and preserve a number of our endangered beetles and spiders.”

“Oh well. Good luck!” said the reporter hurriedly, thinking he was getting somewhat off the subject. “Thank you, professor; now back to the studio.”

“Ugh!” said Jay's mum. “I don't think I like the idea of collecting spiders.”

“He's an odd sort of character, your professor,” said Jay's dad. “Although from what you've told us of your time with him and all the troubles he had with that fellow, Querulous, he spoke about him in a very generous way. I guess the Prof must be quite a kindly man at heart.”

“He certainly is,” said Jay and thinking of next summer and the promise of another adventure with Tim and Ella, he gave both his mum and dad a broad grin.

Jay was still thinking with excitement of the prospects of the next summer as he lay in bed that night and he wondered if Tim had already started swotting up on the habits of spiders. The Prof certainly had. At that very moment, as he sat at the airport waiting for his flight home, he was jotting down in his notebook what he would need to create some comfortable spider habitats in his laboratory.

What neither Jay nor the Prof knew – nor, for that matter, did Cosmo as he looked out into the black, star-speckled Arctic sky – was that the events of last summer had not completely run their course. Deep in the Atlantic two humpback whales were making their way southwards. After a summer feasting on krill, plankton and small fish off the coast of Greenland, they were making for their mating and birthing grounds in the warm waters of the Caribbean Silver Bank. As they made their majestic progress, their great, sleek bodies glowed with an eerie greeny-purple light in the dark waters.

Like the polar bears, which had been missed by the otherwise watchful eye of Aksel Rasmussen on board the ‘Boundless' so many weeks ago, the migrating whales were elusive but glowing evidence of the continuing persistence of the unintended but potent ‘Querulous Effect'.