A Bridge of Magpies

C H A P T E R E I G H T

What sort of ship?'

'A deep-sea trawler, so she says'

'Why, so she says?'

'I'm used to seeing all sorts on the fishing grounds, Not one like this, though.'

'What's different about her?'

'Big. Too big for a trawler. Perhaps a thousand tons. And too small for anything else.'

I could sense Jutta tensely wondering while I questioned Kaptein Denny, whether I would return to Possession. I intended to, but hadn't committed myself. The summons let Jutta off reprisal and me off the hook as far as she was concerned. It was my big face-saver. It solved one problem and created others. Yet I was uneasy that Koch felt he couldn't cope.

`What was she up to?'

`Nothing that I could see. She came in during the storm

"and anchored in the channel as far away out of sight of the huts as she could.'

'That's no reason for me to rush back.'

It was curious that Koch hadn't sent me a note giving the reasons for his anxiety. Disquieting, too, that he'd dispatched Kaptein Denny, post-haste and unrestricted-when he'd been so keen to keep him incommunicado on Possession.

'No, it's not. She's foreign built and decked-in for'rd with a kind of whaleback. You don't get that in a trawler. She's also carrying a lot of heavy gear on deck'

'What sort of gear-man?'

I didn't go aboard, Dr Koch did. With Breekbout, And then?'

'He came back to Possession looking worried. All he said was, take your boat at once and go and find Captain Weddell. That ship stinks.'

`You asked no questions?'

`You don't, when the jail doors are suddenly thrown wide open.'

'Also you knew exactly where to find me?'

'You used sail from Possession. That left one answer in the storm: Alabama Cove?

'My engine packed up.'

'J thought so. But that didn't stop you.'

Jutta said, We had a narrow escape getting here. Struan hurt his side:

Bad?'

'I can still handle a ship.'

'Good. Let's go then. I'll tow you out.'

'You'll – what?'

Tow. The gale's dying. I know a way back close inshore all the way.'

'You're a devil for punishment.'

'It's safer-really. After a blow like we've had you have to keep a weather eye open for rogue rollers. They seem to come out of nowhere. Jf one caught us out to sea, towing, we'd be in big trouble.'

'By the same token, why wouldn't that happen inshore too?'

The shoals and reefs would break up a wave before it could reach us there.'

There was a controlled zest about the man: he was itching to go. Either I was going to put my trust- possibly my life and Jutta's too-in his hands or I wasn't. He hadn't let me down over Alabama Cove.

'Coffee-' said Jutta. 'We can talk below.'

'No time.'

His hurry reawakened a tiny spark of suspicion in my mind. Why was he so anxious to move out? One would have thought a couple of hours' wait-until the wind finally dropped-wouldn't do any harm. I let it ride. Perhaps it had something to do with negotiating the coast?

'Right – shoot l' I said. 'Give me a hand with the anchors first.'

He came for'ard to help me. His eyes were everywhere-on the sea, on the land, on the sky.

I said, 'Towing will use up a lot of your fuel. We'd better transfer what's in Ichabo's tanks before we start. Her old clanker's had it: it won't want fuel this trip.'

'No time.'

Again there didn't seem all that much need for his bustle. I must have shown something of what I was thinking because he added, with a grin which disarmed me, 'If I run out of pa piss in the tanks.'

The down-channel tow wasn't a milk-run. It was a sweat, even in the relatively calm water of Tuscaloosa's lee, to fix the rope so as to avoid snarl-ups. But Kaptein Denny knew his business: he handled things surely and expertly. I sent Jutta aboard Gaok, to be safe in case we ran into trouble and had to cut Ichabo adrift. She wanted to stay-on the grounds that my injury needed further attention. It didn't-but it was nice to hear her.

Within half an hour of his arrival Kaptein Denny dragged Ichabo clear of her funkhole, at the end of a tough manila hawser. We left the miserable little island behind, with birds clustered over it like flies on a kill. Near New Bedford Point the sea showed signs that the gale was on its way out: the water glistened darkly instead of breaking white and there were patches of green amidst the universal-monotonous grey, Kaptein Denny took the hazards of the whalebone point in his stride but the way he squeezed the two cutters through, until white water came churning over lchabo's side, almost turned my seasoned stomach! Ichabo cavorted at the end of the hawser like a yo-yo free-falling in space with only a string to bring it up short. He repeated the act a little farther down the coast at the cost of much adrenalin. I never guessed there were such routes. The wind decreased; our speed increased. By afternoon the wind had fallen to a fresh breeze. Denny and I had agreed, on leaving Tuscaloosa, that when this happened (he had slated Seventy-four Rock, another half-submerged islet well down the coast as the place where it would happen and he was right) we would drop the tow and use sail, so as to make better time. But the wind was veering west, and with my injured side I couldn't manage the short, sharp tacks that were necessary. So Gaok took up the hawser again and strung Ichabo aJong that frightening shoreline, working up to a useful speed of six knots. Seals appeared as the water smoothed: one huge fellow, a sort of cheer-leader, led his pack round the cutters for nearly an hour, playing waterborne ring-o'-roses.

When night came I didn't want to blow our luck by carry. ing on, but Captain Denny wouldn't hear of anchoring. His knowledge of the way was uncanny. He rigged a light in Gaok's stern and I held station on it-as tense and nerve. 105 racking a business as flying a plane dual control when you can't hear the pilot and don't know what his next move will be. About midnight -I hadn't an idea where we were -

Kaptein Denny hailed me to say we were about to anchor. He cast off: Ichabo freewheeled on, and I felt utterly helpless. But I needn't have worried. Kaptein Denny ran the smartest shop, Gaok's guide light did a quick flipper turn, disappeared-and then the boat was back alongside Ichabo again, made fast, and sheep-dogging my powerless craft to anchor.

We had a quick hard-tack supper aboard Gaok and turned in. The last sound I remember hearing before dropping off was the thunder of the surf close by.

We started off again in the morning before the sun broke up the fine spidery structure of the fog. There was no wind and an almost uncanny quiet. Jutta joined me in Ichabo. Kaptein Denny told us that the switchback part of the trip was over and that it wasn't far to Possession, but he made a minor mystery out of the ship's position. I thought it boosted his ego.

Jutta stood by me at the wheel-watching the silvery splash from the hawser as it dipped and tightened-dipped and tightened. In the confined space the sweet slept-in woman's clothing smell of her stirred my senses. The fact that my attention was on her made it all the more remarkable that my subconscious should have thrown up something about Kaptein Denny.

‘Jutta! For crying out loud! He said, U-1601' '

Who?'

`Kaptein Denny, of course. He said, U-1601'

'Why shouldn't he?'

'There at the grave- U-160!'

'After all, he knew it:

'But he didn't, Jutta! That's what I'm saying! He was aware that the City of Baroda had been sunk by a U-boat. A U-boat. He didn't know specifically which U-boat! Then, before he has heard your tape which identifies it-he comes up with U-160. Not any old U-boat, but a particular one, What a give-away

'I don't get you, Struan;

'What I'm saying is that if Kaptein Denny knew the U-boat's number he wasn't at the Bridge of Magpies that wartime 106 oight, just fishing as he'd have us believe. He's playing a very deep game. He must have been part of that spy operation. Don't you see what I'm driving at?'

'Yes, I do now. That he came to the Bridge of Magpies knowing all about U-160 and her rendezvous to pick up one spy and land another.'

`His function may have been to ferry the Jap Tsushima from Luderitz under cover of his fishing; then take back to port the man they landed-what was his name?'

'Swakop. It jells, Struan! Then everything came unstuck for him when U-160 tangled with the liner and Gousblom. Maybe that's why Swakop had to make his way across the desert to Luderitz. Frau Hager said he was nearly all in when he arrived.'

`Kaptein Denny's liner rescue act could have been a blind. He'd have been obliged to provide a very sound reason for being around that night. He'd also have had Tsushima on his hands after he'd missed the U-boat. That's why he remained so unbelievably modest about the whole business. Jt was a gigantic bluff!'

'He even dodged the warships.'

'With reason, if he had a Japanese spy aboard. But all that doesn't really concern us, Jutta. What does, is the fact that he's back here now-as he's been every winter for thirty years, on his own admission. What's the drawing-card? Loot from the lost city? Loot from U-160? Whatever it is can't be easy to get at, because he keeps coming back. And only at one season of the year, when conditions must be favourable for his operations'

'I wasn't going to tell you-Struan, but he wouldn't charge for bringing me here.'

Ah! How did he react when you first approached him about chartering his boat?'

'Surprised. Pleased.'

'He wasn't worried about operating in forbidden territory?' '

He laughed it off. I was touched by his willingness to help.'

'We're beginning to discover why.'

`He's kept his nose clean up to now. He didn't object when you ordered him off the shore.'

'With reservations. He still wasn't going to shift from his boat, remember.'

'It doesn't add up, Struan! If he wanted you out of the way-why has he made such an effort to bring you back again? Why risk his neck in the storm? It would have been an easy enough excuse to say he couldn't find us. Why be in such a hurry to get back to Possession?'

'Koch's no-good ship seems to have complicated the issue.' '

Look, there she is!'

We broke clear of the wisps of fog and I realized immediately where we were-off Elizabeth Point's ghost town. There were only about four miles of open water now between us and Possession. In the channel, somewhat to the south of the usuaJ anchorage, as though avoiding the huts ashore, was the ship.

'Sure, that's no trawler.'

The vessel was too far away for me to make out her name but my glass showed a low black hull with a whaleback fo'c'sle, a straight up-and-down outmoded cutwater, and a single, high, old-fashioned stack with a white band painted round it. Two very tall ventilators towered almost as high as the marking. She had a very square bridge and a box-like structure in the stern which on a warship would have been a radio or radar shack. But she wasn't a warship. Her masts were squat and sturdy, with heavy booms and derricks, their strength out of keeping to her size. No crew was visible.

`She looks… sort of slnister, Struan.'

'All black ships do. I'll find out soon enough. go aboard once we've tied up.'

Possession advertised its presence in its usual nostril-assaulting manner. The two cutters plugged slowly across the sea to the anchorage. They were white with salt-as if they'd taken a pasting on the Iceland cod run. We remained visible for miles but there was no sign from the stranger that she'd sighted us. Her decks remained empty of men.

'Where the devil's Breekbout?' I asked irritably. 'He should be getting out the whaleboat to fetch us.'

Jutta took a look through the binoculars.

'Not a sign. Having breakfast in bed, perhaps-while the cat's away.'

I tried to relax.

'Baths are on the house today.'

She smiled back. 'Think of all that lovely drinking water 108 going down the drain.'

'You tempt me to rush in on you and switch off the tap? '

Possession chivalry to ladies-in-the-nude.'

I wanted more of her in that mood. We'd taken up where we'd left off in Alabama Cove, but the business of making the two cutters fast cut across it, and Kaptein Denny bad us rushing backwards and forwards in the process of manoeuvring up to the mooring buoys.

When it was done we went aboard Gaok.

'They haven't hung out the flags for our return, Kaptein Denny.'

'Breekbout I could understand: Dr Koch puzzles me.'

I'd come prepared to read anything into his words but they were neutral enough.

'I'd have expected him to be chewing his nails waiting for us to heave over the horizon, the way you spoke.' 'He was, when I set out.'

All the time his eyes were scanning the anchorage, the channel, the black ship, the shoreline and the island. There was no smoke from the bunkhouse chimney and a gobbledygook of bird noises floated across the water. The place had a never-never air, like a stage with props but no actors. They might all have been there for ever. The Sperrgebiet has that trick of making time scales wobble.

After ten minutes' waiting I'd had enough. The others were uneasy too.

'We'll use your dinghy,' I told Kaptein Denny. Even the splash of oars sounded unnaturally loud as we rowed to the jetty. So did our footsteps on the concrete path leading to the bunkhouse door.

I threw it open.

'There's no one here. You two scout around. Koch may have left a note for me. I'll take a look-see at the cottage.'

The door was half-open and Breekbout was sitting at the radio transceiver. His eyes were half shut and his mouth had the beginnings of a silly grin, as if lied shaken loose a laugh out of hls own death.

His head was smashed open like a pomegranate.

The radio was also wrecked and bits of its innards lay around like Breekbout's brains.

I wanted to puke. But I had enough remaining sense not to leave before I'd taken a look at the remains of the radio. 109

The transceiver switch was on 'Send'. The dial pointer stood at the Silvermine frequency. No one on Possession besides myself knew that frequency. I crashed my rifle butt into the dial's face so as to make it unreadable.

I went back to the bunkhouse. .. he had three ghost lights burning,' Kaptein Denny was telling Jutta when I entered.

'It didn't help him,' I said. 'Besides, ghosts don't bash in heads with sealing clubs.'

'Oh God I' she'd seen my face.

Then hot and cold sweat chased one another across my face and body and reaction shakes set in.

Jutta grabbed me by the sleeves of my jersey. 'What.. I passed my rifle to Kaptein Denny, whose face was a mask. '

You'd better take this for the moment. I couldn't manage to fire it even if someone was about to kill me too.'

Struan I What happened!'

I tried to pull myself together and tell them but I made such a poor job of it that Jutta went for some brandy. She found the bottle but it was empty. Breekbout had seen to that.

'I could have grown to like that stupid sonafabitch? I managed to say it and it helped the mind-numbing shock of that hideous object at the radio, plus my wavelength discovery. Breekbout had been a clown pointing his laugh lines in the appealing idiom of the gamat and that seemed somehow to make his dreadful end the worse.

Kaptein Denny left Jutta to do the fussing over me. He took up guard just inside the door where he couldn't be seen, with my rifle in his hands and an ugly commando knife in his belt.

When I'd got my composure back I said to Jutta, 'Blow out those lights. They give me the creeps. They may have guided the killer.'

She did so. J turned to Kaptein Denny. 'He can't stay like that. .. a piece of sail or something to cover him.'

He handed me back the gun. 'There's no one around-absolutely nothing.'

I took over his observation post but it did seem rather ridiculous. There was no sign of anyone ashore and no activity aboard the black ship.

Kaptein Denny found a tarpaulin.

We three stick close together from now on,' I said. 'You stay outside the cottage, Jutta, while we see to him, but close enough to yell if you spot anything. But anything.'

Kaptein Denny and I went inside and masked the bloody cameo. I watched him closely but he paid no special attention to the transceiver.

'Look at the bloodstains,' he pointed out. 'They're old and dried.'

'he birds have been at him too.'

`That means he's been dead a couple of days.'

'That makes it as soon as you left.'

'He was fine then. One loses track of time in a storm.'

What did he mean by that sidestep? I asked myself. Could he have killed his jailer and escaped… no, that line of argument broke down when you thought he'd come after me and brought me back. As a bluff, though? A cover?

'No one had anything to gain by killing this poor bastard,' I said.

'No?'

'Who, then?'

'He was the only one except yourself who could work the radio.' He gestured. 'Whoever it was made it clear that he didn't want you to communicate.'

'Bastard,' I said automatically. True, I'd myself taught Breekbout to transmit. But neither he-nor anyone else-knew about my hot line to the C-in-C,

'Where is Koch?'

'Most likely on his way to Luderitz to report this.'

'And very considerately sent the whaleboat back empty across the channel and let it tie itself up at the jetty.' '

Then possibly he's over at that ship.'

'We've been back for over an hour. The cutters were in sight long before that. Koch's bad plenty of time to make his number if he's around.'

'Why shouldn't he be?'

'That ship. Not a man's visible. Either the crew's devoted to the 'tweendecks or they've been ordered to stay out of sight.'

'Why?'

'We'll soon find out. I'm going across to her -now.' '

Alone?'

'All three of us. As I said, we keep dose.

Ill

I checked that the rifle's magazine was full and worked a shel! into the breech. I put the safety-catch on.

'Let's get cracking.'

We rejoined Jutta-who accepted my decision without comment. We used Kaptein Denny's dinghy instead of the heavier whaleboat, since he had to do the rowing because of my side. It was a long pull. Not much was said. All kinds of. random explanations and accusations wheeled through my brain. Some of them were so way-out as to be pure nonsense. It was the carry-over of shock-of course. I was prepared to suspect Kaptein Denny's silence, even. Cut it out, I told myself, the man's simply saving his breath for rowing. By the time we were half-way across I'd got control of my thoughts and dumped my overheated fears overboard. My mind was empty and cool and ready for what I'd find aboard the ship.

'They're coming up on deck!' exclaimed Jutta.

Jf they'd been as shy as the ten virgins up to now, that's where the resemblance ended. They were as tough and motley a bunch as could be raised in any waterfront bordello. A man in a peaked cap-presumably the captain – joined the population of the hitherto empty decks. He took up station on a narrow cat-walk surrounding the bridge, and watched us approach.

Kaptein Denny read out the vessel's name: Sang A. '

Never heard it before. Where she from?'

'J can't make out -it's some sort of Eastern writing.'

'She could be, with those lines and a name like that.'

Jt wasn't her lines, though, which caught our interest when we came closer, but some big tarpaulins concealing unknown bulky objects abaft the bridge. There was another big, mysterious hidden hump near the foremast. An armoured rubber hose snaked across the whaleback from some machinery in the bows, and ended up looped in the forward rigging.

'Those men are Chinese-' said Jutta.

They certainly looked it, but more obvious than any nationaJ characteristic was the rough-tough unwelcoming look on their faces. They didn't offer to make us fast when we came alongside. However, it was not really necessary because about fifty feet of heavy chain cable hanging in scallops from the rail offered a natural securing point. More of the cable was lying on the deck. There was also a clutter of wire rope, 112 cables and powerful block-and-tackle gear. If the ship had been bigger I'd have thought she was a cable-layer. '

Attention!'

The arrogance of the Teutonic form of address made me dislike the man on the catwalk before even I knew his name. '

You the captain?' la. Come here.'

We had to skirt round to reach the ladder leading to him. There was clutter everywhere and more tarpaulin-masked objects. The shack aft which had puzzled me from a distance intrigued me more from close to. It didn't appear to have a deck entrance and its portholes were so high you couldn't see in. However, it was inhabited: a face looked out from one of them as I mounted the ladder.

'Emmermann. Sang A:

The captain was a chunk of a man in his middle fifties; as tall as my own six-foot one, with a craggy face, big nose and short iron-grey hair. His lips were indrawn and his very large eyes were trenched with crow's feet at the corners. A scar ran from the corner of his left eye to his ear. His manner was one of controlled hostility.

I introduced the three of us.

Since summoning us to the cat-walk he'd been joined from inside the bridge by another man, like the rest of the crew an Oriental.

'First Officer Kenryo.'

His introduction was as unwilling as the rest of our reception had been. If it had been on Kenryo's account, I could have understood it. He had a flat-golliwog face, with a smashed nose and the emptiest black eyes I'd ever seen. He was short and stocky and wore jeans and a greasy flannel tartan shirt. And I didn't care for the way he undressed Jutta with his eyes.

'Is it all right to speak English?'

'For us, but not for the crew.' There was a trace of American in Kenryo's accent

'They're Chinese?'

'No-' replied Emmermann. 'Korean. Sang A means shark. Our home port's Pusan.'

'We're here with the Korean trawler fleet offshore,' added Kenryo.

A couple of the crew had gathered under the cat-walk, which 113 wasn't very high above their heads; and seemed to be idly listening, despite Kenryo's statement that they should not understand our conversation. He leant over the rail and said something to them. A flash passed through Kaptein Denny's eyes but it was gone again as quickly as it had come. One of the crew came back with a repartee and they all sniggered. I guessed it had something to do with Jutta.

'No fishing is permitted here. There's a strict twelve-mile offshore limit'

Maybe I pulled my authority too hard, out of reaction over the crack about Jutta.

'So?'

'That's the law.'

'So? And you carry out the law?'

'If necessary. I'm the island headman. These waters fall under my authority.'

'You come aboard my ship with a gun and threaten me, eh?'

'I'm not threatening: just getting the record straight. There's no problem-provided you don't fish.'

'The record is straight then. Good morning!'

'If you don't know the law, you should.'

'Now I know it.'

'Good. Another thing. There's been a death on the island. One of my men..

I left out the details and purposely made Breekbout's end sound more like an accident. I wanted to hear what they had to say before I started talking about murder.

Kenryo cut me short. 'None of our men has been ashore. Sang A isn't in a hot seat'

'J didn't say you were. I'm investigating. I was away when it happened. It could be something more than an accident.'

Their faces remained blank.

'J'm also looking for a colleague of mine who seems to have disappeared: Dr Koch.'

'Never heard of him. We saw no one.' Kenryo's eyes were black and beady.

'Didn't you see the whaleboat being ferried around?' 'There was the storm. You couldn't see much. If he used the boat in the gale maybe he drowned.'

'The boat's safe at the island.'

'Then he didn't drown.'

This sort of thing was getting me nowhere. The ball was back in my court-if I'd ever managed to get it into theirs.

'Fair enough. This becomes a police matter, of course.'

They shrugged as if they realized, as I did, just how much that meant on the Sperrgebiet! There was nothing else to do but leave. We headed back to our boat. The group of plug-uglies, who had been standing chinning between themselves, fell silent; I'd get no more change out of their sullen faces than I had out of the officers.

We pushed off. I took the oars because I wanted to test my side. It was one of Possession's rare beautiful days: birds trailed over the anchorage like a king-sized paper-chase, fishtailing down after the shoals in the water. I hadn't much inclination to admire: I was smarting inwardly at the way my show of authority had fallen flat on its face on Sang A's deck.

'Captain Weddell!' Kaptein Denny was straining and peering at the land. 'It's the Land-Rover!'

Before I could turn to look, Junta exclaimed. 'There's been a fire.'

I looked. 'Not a fire. A conflagration?

The blackened skeleton of the vehicle stood out clearly against the champagne-coloured sand.

'No sign of Dr Koch,' Kaptein Denny observed.

`We'll soon check. Help me with the oars. We'll take the boat in.'

'It would be a mistake.'

'Mistake! Koch could be lying there…'

'Keep your voice down! They'll hear you aboard Sang A.' '

Well, say it, for pity's sake!'

'If Sang A wanted to fix us by taking a crack at our cutters while we're ashore, we'd be playing right into their hands by going there now.'

I eyed him with a new respect. The more so when I noted that Sang A's hoodlums were still lining the rails-watching us. 'What do you suggest?'

'We'll go ashore all right but we'll use both cutters for the trip.'

'It'll look pretty silly towing each other across such a small stretch of water.'

'It'll be sillier still if we should lose them. Without boats we'd be hamstrung.'

'Right.'

'Jt will also be a subtle demonstration of no confidence in our new neighbours.'

Jutte never stopped looking at the burnt-out vehicle. She was very withdrawn.

When we reached the cutters-Kaptein Denny took Ichabo in tow and made as wide a detour of Sang A as possible. The water was deep off the landing beach and we anchored close in. From our position a sandhill barred further view of the Land-Rover.

I took the rifle and made as much show of it as I could, for the benefit of Sang A. I was sure every move of ours was being watched through binoculars.

We landed. When we obtained our first clear sight of the vehicle I ordered Jutta to stay right where she was. It looked like a charred tree-trunk behind the wheel(

It was Koch.

I didn't feel the same revulsion for his remains as I had done for Breekbout's. Maybe the earlier shock had conditioned or numbed my reactions. It was only a faceless, blackened outline, really. We'd also come haJf-prepared for tragedy.

Kaptein Denny and I fanned out to approach the LandRover from both sides, J with the rifle cocked. As I walked cautiously through the sand I had a curious impression-one of those ready-made pictures the mind throws up in times of stress-that I'd seen it all before. It was coupled with the foreboding of a pattern of future tragedy, into which these two deaths were inexorably grooved.

I reached the driver's side of the Land-Rover at the same moment as Kaptein Denny got to the other.

'All clear!'

He straightened from the half-crouch he'd gone into when he'd circled round, and put away his knife.

'Look at this!'

The steel fascia was blackened and buckled. The bonnet was also starred with glass fragments from the windscreen. 'An explosion did this,' he said.

I tried not to give way to my doubts and suspicions before testing all the every-day possibilities.

'Of course it did. The tank went up. It's right behind the driver's seat?

'Jf it had, the force of it would have thrown him forward and out.'

'Some sort of freak accident.'

'It wasn't an accident. Come over to my side and see. His left leg's gone.'

I went round and joined him.

'Someone sneaked up aJongside and threw something next to him on the floor.'

'Something?'

'Grenade. That would account for all the buckling and glass out front.'

Bastards…l' I began and then took hold of myself: cursing wasn't going to help. 'This was done days ago.'

'Seker – for sure. The gale swept away the footprints. You couldn't prove anything against anyone now.'

'Except the grenade.'

'The trail's already cold. By the time the experts sort that one out it'll be in deep freeze. And Sang A will be over the horizon.'

'She's not bloody well going over any horizon! I'm going right back on board

'A lot of men have died in unexplained ways on the Sperrgebiet, Captain Weddell. You don't want to be among them.'

Our eyes locked. I felt instinctlvely he'd not had anything to do with the killings.

'Thanks,' J said. 'I needed that reminder. Now let's do something about Koch.'

'I've got some spare canvas aboard Gaok? We went to Jutta, who had been waiting behind the sandhill-and told her what had happened.

'Why?' she burst out. 'Why kill him? Why kill Breekbout? They didn't have any secrets worth murdering them for…'

She caught my warning glance and remembered the lost city and that Kaptein Denny didn't know about it. What did he know, though? He'd now moved right out of my area of suspicion and was firmly aligned with us against Sang A. That was merely the end of the negative aspect, however: he'd done nothing positive yet to win my confidence. And he often indulged in a mannerism which, from my point of view, wasn't at all positive: a nick of quartering the anchorage 117 as if he expected to lee something there. His quick survey always began down by the Bridge of Magpies and worked its way up-channel. His eyesight was so phenomenal that I was sure he'd spot anything long before Jutta or L

'I'll fetch that canvas.'

Kaptein Denny went off in the dinghy, leaving Jutta and me.

'Keep out of sight of Sang A-' I warned.

'The fact that they're a lot of weirdies doesn't turn them into murderers, Struan.'

'Who else could it be?'

'Who knows?'

A very uneasy present had blown up in my face and swamped a very puzzling past. Until I'd been confronted by the two murders and the mysterious Sang A I'd felt mentally like a castaway wandering on the dint shores of that past -

Jutta's past, Kaptein Denny's past-Doodenstadt's past. Now, however, I'd snapped clean into the present. In doing so a new suspicion the size of Possession Island hit me: was the C-in-C's mission itself not a blind? Maybe it was a front for something much more sinister and deep-rooted that he couldn't-or wouldn't-reveal at our interview. That would make sense of the underhand way he'd brought me from Santorin and his insistence on secret, single-handed investigation on my part. All this carried the implication that Koch was part of his conspiracy. Then he would have been the one who had attempted to get off that emergency radio signal to the C-in-C, via Breekbout. Why not send it himself, though? It was confusing, but possible; and what the time sequence of events was in regard to the two killings I'd never know. I wondered if the little admiral was gambling on the expectation that I would see the lost city mission for the blind it really was, and get his real message when things started to hot up? They had now.

Jutta and I stood around without saying much more until Kaptein Denny returned. He and I shrouded Koch in the canvas and left the body in the Land-Rover. It was so charred that we reckoned the jackals wouldn't scent it. Then we rowed out to Gaok.

I sought a topic to defuse the underlying tension,

'Why'd you call her Gaok, Kaptein Denny?'

'It's short for Gaokhaosib -Hottentot for the Bridge of Magpies.'

Everything always seemed to come back to the Bridge of Magpies! That past again!

We went on in silence, each wrapped in his own thoughts. Finally when we three were seated in Gaok's cabin drinking coffee I said-'Priority number one is for me to go aboard Sang A again.'

'What purpose will it serve, Struan?' asked Jutta. 'They will deny any knowledge of Koch-they have already done so-just as they did in the case of Breekbout. It's a foregone conclusion.'

'It would look odder if I didn't inform them there'd been another murder. It mightn't sound too good in court one day.'

'They know already. It's a long way from here to court.'

'What if they did kill them both? What do you intend to do about it?' asked Kaptein Denny. He'd been very reserved up to now. 'You haven't even a radio link, now, with the outside world.

'You'll scare them off if you go at It like a bull at a gate,' said Jutta. 'They'll up-anchor and vanish. That won't do anyone any good.'

`They won't'

There was something about Denny's flat assertion that made the small bell of mistrust tinkle again at the back of my brain.

'What makes you so sure?'

I had a feeling he'd overplayed his hand and he knew it. He back-pedalled on the answer and merely said, Ira a move which could backfire disastrously on us.'

'How?'

'Look what happened to Breekbout and Koch!'

'They wouldn't dare..

Jutta interrupted me excitedly, 'Look! Look! Sang A fs getting up steam! '

We rushed to the nearest porthole. There was a thin wisp coming from the tall funnel, and a bow winch was taking in the slack of the anchor cable.

'That does it!' I rapped out. 'Move! She mustn't get away!'