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reading the Koran. It was a mythological story, a Maldivian version of St
. George and the Dragon that represented the islanders' conversion to the
Muslim faith, and long before he had finished it I was seated in his house
with a drink of palm juice in my hand. It made a very strong impression o n me
sitting there, conscious of the bed at the far end of the room swayin
g and the old man talking as the sun went down and the dhonis came in with the
men from Gan.
The point of the story was to explain to me that men were not afraid to die if
they believed in something. 'Now Ali Raza is making all Midu vedi ready and we
are sailing to find your friend and the new land. If Allah wills it
,' he added, and the old eyes stared at me, the whites yellowed with age. O
ne of the vedis now afloat was apparently his. 'I am not sailing my vedi fo r
three years now because those Male men making piracy on the sea. But now
I am going for I am - how you saying - odi vari meeka, and wishing to see t
his new land.' The words odi vari meeka mean owner rather than captain. The re
is no word for captain in Adduan, doubtless because they are a seafaring race
and any owner would automatically sail his own boat.
A pressure lamp had been lit and the glare of it showed a crowd of men in the
open doorway. Others were arriving all the time and soon Ali Raza came in and
with him his son who spoke good English and wore a khaki shirt and an
aircraftsman's beret.
When I left I took them both back to the ship with me. Even if he couldn't p
oint the island's position out on the chart, I thought his determination to
sail his vedi in support of Don Mansoor's expedition might spur Canning into
flying a new search.
The wind had dropped away and the warm night air was still, not a ripple on
the surface of the water as the Strode Venturer ploughed south across the bl
ack lagoon. The sky was clear, a bright canopy of stars, and standing with A
li Raza on the open wing of the bridge I could see the palm reed fringe of t
he islands away to port gradually closing in on us. The beauty of the night,
the warmth, the absolute tranquillity - it was an island paradise and it se
emed tragic to me that these people should have such a desperate longing for
something different, all because we had broken in upon their centuries of s
olitude with our flying machines, our parade of wealth and mechanical power.
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We dropped anchor off the Gan jetty and as our engines stopped the scream o f
a jet tore the stillness of the night apart. The runway lights were on an d I
could see the Strode Trader grounded on the foreshore only a few cables away.
Seen like that, black and sharp against the runway glare, she looked a
complete wreck, and clear in my mind I saw the island again and the ligh tning
stabbing.
The plane took off, the wink of its navigation lights arcing against the st
ars as it swung eastward for Singapore. The marine craft officer arrived. I
heard his voice immediately below the starboard wing. He was talking to Fi
elds and shortly afterwards the crew began clearing the hatch covers from N
o. 2 hold. One of the R.A.F. barges was being manoeuvred alongside, the win
ches were manned and by the time Canning came out in a launch from the jett y
the first of the stores was being off-loaded. I met him at the head of th e
gangway. He had Reece with him and the police officer, Goodwin. 'I'd have been
out before,' he said as he shook my hand, 'but I had an Air Vice-Mars hal
passing through.' He reached into his pocket and handed me a letter. 'T
his arrived for you two days ago.' It was from Ida and the fact that he had
remembered to bring it out with him reminded me how isolated Gan was, how
important to them the mail from home.
I took him up to the bridge, and when he saw AH Raza and his son waiting the
re he said, 'I've done my best to stop them sailing their vedis off into the
blue,' He knew about my visit to Midu and he added, 'I hope you've not been
encouraging them. I'm very concerned that they're risking their lives unnec
essarily.'
'They don't need encouragement,' I said. 'They've made up their minds.' His
concern was genuine. I knew that. But I couldn't help feeling that the organ
ised routine of an R.A.F. station made it difficult for him to understand th e
urgent emotional forces that were driving them. 'You're faced with somethi ng
as inevitable as the suicidal migration of a bunch of lemmings,' I told h im.
'That island is important to them. And so is Peter Strode.' I spread the
Indian Ocean chart out in front of him. I had ringed my area of probability in
red and I was watching Reece as I explained how it had been arrived at.
His eyes looked tired, the skin below them puffy. Like all Celts he was gift
ed with imagination, and imagination can play the devil with a man in moment s
of stress. I wondered how near he was to cracking up. Very near, I though, for
he didn't let me finish, but leapt at once to his own defence.
'I kept a note of all courses steered. Compass course, you understand.' He
turned to Canning. 'This position is based on nothing more solid than the r
andom observations of a bunch of Chinese seamen.'
'It's confirmed by Captain Deacon,' I said.
'Deacon!' He put his hand to his head. 'My God, man! Are you serious?' He g
ave a quick little laugh. 'Deacon wouldn't have a clue where he was. Nor wo
uld the crew.' He had become very excited and when I reminded him that what
we were discussing might mean the differences between life and death to th e
men on that island, he stared at me, the muscles of his jaw bunching. 'Th
ey're dead,' he said. 'And the island's gone.' And I knew by the way he sai d
it that he had convinced himself that it was true.
'Then why have those two vedis sailed?'
'Natives. They know nothing about navigation.'
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'Excuse please.'
Ali Raza moved forward, but Reece brushed him aside. 'Do you think I'd make an
error of navigation of over 500 miles? If they want to kill themselves, t
hat's their affair. It proves nothing. The shallows on which we grounded wer e
volcanic. You know that as well as I do. So was the island in my opinion -
all part of a volcanic instability.'
'Then why didn't you make an attempt to get the shore party off?'
It pulled him up short and the sweat burst out on his forehead. 'I have
explain ed all that in my report. My first consideration was for the safety of
the ship
.'
'Yes,' I said. 'I've read your report. It's very convincing, but if you
thought th e island -'
'You're trying to blame me for what's happened. It's not my fault - it's Strod [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]