Horse Under Water

25 Ready to jump?

The big droplets of rain dabbed at the grey slate windows. The bad weather had moved south from Lisbon as the radio forecast had predicted. The wind and rain gave no sign of relenting before tea-time, and we all sat around the house and moped. Albufeira was a town designed for the sun to shine upon. When rain came it looked confused and betrayed. In the market place rain dripped from the trees on to wet shiny vegetables and fruit, and in the café the proprietor whiled away the time playing draughts with his son and drinking his own coffee.

At Number 12 we had a late breakfast. Attention was now equally divided between devouring vast amounts of coffee and pancakes and watching Giorgio refolding his rubber suit in talc for the sixth time. He finally got it away into the polythene bag and dusted the surplus talcum from his cashmere sweater. Every day, whether he dived or not, Giorgio inspected his rubber suit, carefully pulling at the seams under each arm and leg where it had the most wear. Charly told me that he always did it with the same amount of care and professional attention, and each day his hands shook a little more than the day before.

Giorgio wasn’t keen on the idea of my going down, as I had decided to do when the weather eased off. ‘It will be too dark to see,’ he said. Singleton disagreed. He said that since they were using large underwater torches powered by batteries in the boat, ‘there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be better to dive at night than by day. We could go across the beach ready dressed. No one would notice what we were wearing even if anyone saw us.’

I watched him look towards Giorgio to see if he would veto it from a technical point of view. I forestalled that. ‘I’m not putting it in the form of a resolution,’ I said. ‘If the weather eases at slack water — we dive.’

‘Great,’ said Charly; it was as sincere as a singing commercial, but it indicated that Charly, at least, would jump if I said ‘jump’.

I continued: ‘The first dive will be me and Giorgio. Then a dive by Singleton, then Giorgio and me again.’

Singleton said, ‘Do you think it’s wise? It’s quite tricky to …’ I fixed him with a malevolent eye. ‘Yes sir,’ he said.

‘I’ve been very quiet lately, sonny,’ I said to Singleton, ‘but I’ve just been ruminating. Not mellowing.’