Curtis felt for his pipe, his thoughts racing angrily through his brain. It was his fault. He should have been more prepared for something like this. If only she’d speak. Anything would be better than the great emptiness which seemed to fill her dark eyes.

  ‘I have my responsibility, signorina,’ he said, his voice flat, `just as you have yours.’

  She looked at him with a long, calculating stare. `You do not understand, Lieutenant. You are a hard man, yet,’ she shrugged, as if dismissing him, `you were not always so, I think. Why do you try to prove what is not there? Why must everyone suffer because you must satisfy your own soul?’

  Curtis trembled. `What the hell are you talking about? We are at war, in case you have forgotten, and I don’t intend to sacrifice the men under my charge to please you or any other damned-‘ He broke off, angry with himself, and frustrated by the small smile on her lips.

  `Because of any damned Eye-tie? Is that what you’re trying to say?’ Her smile vanished and she dashed the loose hair from her face. `You are like the Germans! You delight in this war! As if it was some sort of game!’

  Curtis saw the expression of agony on Jervis’s face as he reached the girl’s side in two strides.

  `Don’t you ever say that to me again, signorina!’ She moved back against the hatch, as if expecting a blow. `I’m sorry I

  trusted you, that’s all! And if the Germans are relying on your people as allies, I’m sorry for them also!’ His eyes blazed with suppressed emotion. `Now get to your cabin, and keep out of my way! See that she and her father understand what I mean!’ He glared at Jervis. `And then carry on with the navigation!’

  He walked stiffly to the rail, trying to shut out the sounds of her feet on the ladder.

  Duncan stood up and sat on the rail facing him. `That was quite a potful, Ralph! Still, I reckon you can’t blame her exactly. How would you feel under the circumstances?’

  ‘For God’s sake stop it!’ Curtis turned on him, his body trembling. `I’m sick to bloody death of being told what I must do!’

  Duncan took the weight of his body on his hands and leaned slightly forward. `Take it easy, Ralph. I’m just sayin’ that you can’t blame the girl, that’s all!’

  `I’m not blaming her, or anyone else! I don’t give a damn what she thinks, or how she feels, so long as she doesn’t interfere with what we have to do!’ Curtis’s eyes swept furiously across the horizon. `And if you want to start giving me lectures, you can think again!’

  Duncan stood up, his face impassive. ‘In that case, I’ll leave you alone for a bit, an’ go below. I’ll be havin’ a spot of shut-eye if you want me.’

  He waited a while, watching Curtis’s stiff shoulders black against the sun. He was about to add something more, but with a grimace, he lowered himself down the ladder.

  What in hell’s name is the matter with us? he pondered. It irritated him to feel this vague threat of discord between them, but it annoyed him still more that he was unable to root it out and destroy it.

  All at once he wanted to be alone with his thoughts. Everywhere he looked in the ship he found either soldiers or seamen, and now as he entered the cabin, he found the mayor once more in the chair, sitting gloomily with his feet resting on a locker, his eyes staring into space. The two soldiers were asleep, and in the light which filtered through the skylight, their faces appeared grey with fatigue and shock.

  Jervis looked up from the chart and smiled wanly. `Hello, Steve. I’ve just laid off that course the skipper wanted.’ He scratched his head with the ruler, his nose wrinkling with distaste. `God alone knows if it’s anywhere accurate. Even with the vaguest sort of dead reckoning it’s pretty hopeless without any proper navigation instruments. I don’t know how they’ve managed I’m sure.’

  Duncan fell heavily on the bunk and sighed. `Don’t give it a thought, kid. We’re zigzagging all over the flamin’ ocean, so I don’t suppose it makes a blind bit of difference whether it’s accurate or not!’ He sighed again, and pulled a bottle from his inside pocket.

  `Is that whisky?’ Jervis stared with surprise.

  `Sure is. Our little friend here left it lyin’ on the table when we left his house.’ He held it up to the light and frowned. `Not enough to keep a dog alive! Want a lick?’

  Jervis shook his head. `Couldn’t we give some to the wounded?’

  ‘I’ve already given ‘em the other bottle, and some brandy I found in the crew’s quarters. ‘Sides, I don’t reckon they ought to have too much till they’ve been seen again by a doctor.’ He took a long sip from the bottle and let his head fall back on the pillow. His creased face seemed consumed by inner thought and worry, which was so unlike his normal demeanour, that Jervis squatted on the edge of the bunk and peered at him closely.

  `What’s the matter, Steve? Is there anything I can do?’

  ‘I’m all right.’ He glared over Jervis’s shoulder at the silent figure in the chair, and lowered his voice. `No, I’m damn well not all right! For once I’m out of my depth, and I don’t feel … well … how shall I put it? … at home.’

  `Everything’s going well so far,’ began Jervis cautiously, but was silenced by the gleam in the Australian’s eyes.

  `How can you talk like that, man? Anything might happen. Right now; this afternoon; or at midnight. Surely you realize that?’

  ‘Yes, but that’s a chance we have to take.’

  Duncan gripped his wrist fiercely. `Don’t tell me! I know

  all that! I suppose it’s this situation, and this flamin’ ship. Before, it was better. Just the four of us.’ He smiled with the nearest approach to sadness that Jervis had ever seen. `Four against the- world! That’s how it was. Now look at us!’ He snorted. `All bits an’ pieces hangin’ together for mutual support. It’s ragged, an’ I don’t like it. I like to be able to deal with anything I’m called on to meet. I’m useless at this sort of game.’ He drank some more whisky and closed his eyes.

  `What about the skipper?’ Jervis asked cautiously. `What does he plan to do if we’re spotted again?’

  Duncan smiled sourly. `Ralph? He’s so twisted up inside that he doesn’t know whether to spit, or have a haircut! What with him an’ that girl, well, I give up!’

  `She saved my life, Steve.’

  `Sure. I know that.’ Duncan sounded completely weary. `But what’s she up to? Blow hot, blow cold! One minute she’s a little heroine helpin’ us jokers, and the next she’s yellin’ for the Duce to come an’ rescue her! Huh, women!’

  `I don’t know a lot about women, I’m afraid.’ Jervis waited, half expecting Duncan to laugh at him, but he merely grunted, and lifted the bottle once more. `But she’s really lovely. I’ve never seen anybody like her.’

  `Well, if that’s how you feel, go an’ have a yarn with her. It’ll do you good.’ He grinned crookedly. `And it’ll give me a chance to get some sleep!’

  Jervis picked up the chart and moved quietly from,the cabin. He paused outside the other door, then knocked.

  She opened the door immediately and stared at him in surprise. `Well? Have you come to taunt me?’

  Jervis coloured and fumbled with the chart. She stood easily in the centre of the small cabin, her hands on her hips and her lips parted in an expression of smouldering resentment.

  `I wanted to know if there’s anything you need.’ He swallowed and stumbled on. `Please don’t be upset about what has happened. I know how you feel. It’s all such a beastly business.’

  Her mouth softened and her slender body seemed to relax. `Come and talk to me, Ian. You do not mind my using your first name?’

  he lowered his face to hide his pleasure. `No. No, of course not. Tell me what is worrying you.’

  She shrugged and sat on the side of the bunk. Jervis’s eyes strayed to her slim neck and the dark shadow at the top of her dress. She had not noticed, and seemed intent on watching a small beetle which explored the bulkhead opposite her.

  `Well, Ian, I cannot tell you what happened to me. You will not believe me, because you are a man, but when I saw that ship, that Italian ship, I was so overcome that I acted without thought.’

  `It was a dangerous thing to do, signorina.’

  `For you, yes. I understand that well enough. And believe me, Ian, I would not wish anything to happen to you. But,’ her mouth quivered momentarily, `what about my father and I? What will happen when you reach your friends?’

  ‘You will be well looked after. I can promise you that! We shall say how you saved my life, and everything else you have done.’

  She smiled sadly. `You are a good person to know, Ian, but I am afraid that you have forgotten that we are enemies. My father is a Fascist and loyal to the regime. When our country is overrun, as it will be, for the Germans will not try to hold such difficult territory, there will be a new government, with different ideas. When my father is released, it will be like returning to a foreign country. No one will want to remember him, or what he has helped to do!’

  `Could it have been any different?’

  She walked to the bulkhead and watched the beetle scurry into a crack.

  `If we had gone to the hiding place I told you about, it might well have been different. My father has friends and certain property, which would help considerably.’ Her eyes lifted to his face, bright and warm. `You do see that, don’t you? Please tell me that you at least can understand!’

  `I think I do.’ Jervis felt suddenly humble. It was true what she had said. There would be little warmth left for a proFascist when the old regime had fallen.

  Her eyes were moist but she smiled across at him. `Thank

  you. I could not bear to think that I brought all this on my father without any reason at all. It has been driving me mad! But I know that the Germans would have killed him, just as they would you. When someone is useless to them, they destroy him, like cutting off an infected limb!’

  She began to plait her hair, her hands moving with new life.

  `Come, you must take me to the wounded. I will change their dressings.’

  Jervis looked at the chart, aware that Curtis was on deck waiting for him.

  `I’ll tell him what you’re going to do.’ He grinned sheepishly. `He ordered you below, remember.’

  She patted the plait into place and tossed it over her shoulder. Jervis thought that at the moment she looked like a child, although he guessed that she must be at least four or five years his senior.

  `Yes, you tell him. I will look after those men, no matter what he says! You go and tell him that, and I will tell my father that you have said all will be well!’

  She ran past him, and instinctively Jervis caught her wrist. She halted, quivering like a doe in flight.

  `Thank you for your confidence,’ he said awkwardly.

  Her look of surprise faded, and she regarded him gravely. `You are good, Ian.’ Rising on her toes, she kissed him briefly on the cheek, then with a smile, she had left him.

  For some moments he stood staring at the door, his hand on his cheek. ‘Carla,’ he said softly, but only the beetle heard him.

  He looked up anxiously as he heard Curtis call harshly from the deck, `Ian! What the hell’s taking you so long?’

  Jervis blinked as he arrived on the poop, aware of the sudden change in the weather. Most of the cloud banks had broken, and the heat rose from the baked deck to greet him, like steam from a boiler. He turned his face from the sea, blinded by the millions of shimmering lights which stabbed from every dancing wave and from the white-hot stare of the sun.

  Curtis studied the chart and compared the markings with those in the German’s notebook.

  Jervis stood back, watching his engrossed face with fresh curiosity. Remembering what Duncan had said, he felt a pang of uneasiness as he studied the young-old face with the cold eyes. Eyes which were now scanning the chart with fanatical eagerness, as if amongst the scrawled lines and symbols were the answers to his secret fears.

  `It’s the best I can do, Skipper.’ Jervis spoke warily. `The gear is pretty crude for this sort of thing.’

  Curtis grunted and watched a wheeling gull, which like a lone watcher, swooped and dived across the wake.

  `The girl is going to attend to the soldiers,’ added Jervis after a long pause. `Is that all right?’

  Curtis nodded vaguely. `Girl? Oh yes, of course.’

  He squinted up at the masts and studied the uneven shape

  squatting on the yard. A leg swung easily with the motion of

  the ship, as the old Italian seaman scanned the horizon. Jervis followed his gaze and gasped. `Can he be trusted?

  I mean, do we have to rely on his lookout?’

  Curtis eyed him slowly. `Who else d’you suggest? One of

  the wounded perhaps? Or yourself?’ His tone was deceptively

  mild, but Jervis had now learned to recognize the danger signal. `Sorry, Skipper. I expect he’ll be fine for the job.’ `That’s a comfort to know.’

  Curtis watched the girl’s shadow cross the deck as she hurried past, carrying a roll of freshly torn cloth. She kept her eyes averted, but there was the hint of a smile on her soft mouth.

  Curtis waited until she had vanished into the hold, his expression watchful.

  `Alter course. Steer due east.’

  He followed the captain’s plump hands as they spun the worn spokes over to port. A ruby ring flashed incongruously on one finger, and Curtis stared at it, as if fascinated.

  `How long will it be before we make towards the land again?’ Jervis saw the shutter drop again in Curtis’s eyes, as he brought his mind to bear on the question.

  `Soon, I hope. I can’t delay too long.’ For a moment Jervis thought he would open up a little more, but he merely added, `The wounded need attention badly.’

  Sergeant Dunwoody clattered noisily towards them. His red face was beaded with sweat, and he had discarded his jacket. Jervis noticed that his khaki shirt was spotted with blood.

  Curtis stiffened. `What’s wrong, Sergeant?’

  `That other chap, sir. Lake. He’s dead I’m afraid. ‘E ‘adn’t a chance anyway. But it’s something else as well, sir. The dressin’s are pretty bad, an’ I’m a bit worried about it. The lads need seein’ to quick, sir.’ He watched Curtis, squinting his good eye and plucking nervously at his sling.

  `I see. I’ll do my best, Sergeant.’ Curtis bit his lip and nodded. `I’ll do my best.’

  `I’m sure you will, sir.’ Dunwoody forced a smile and stared round the empty sea. ‘Cor, like Ramsgate, ain’t it?’

  ‘Go with the sergeant, Ian. See what you can do to help. I’ll have the hatch taken right off so that they get a bit more fresh air.’

  Jervis faltered. `It’s not your fault, Skipper. You’ve done more than anyone could expect.’ He stopped, aware that Curtis was not listening. The pale eyes were on the move again, searching the horizon, watching and calculating.

  `Are you comin’, sir?’ The sergeant fidgeted at his elbow.

  Jervis still hesitated, feeling that he should try to explain his thoughts to Curtis. `Perhaps we shall find it easier to miss the patrols than we thought.’

  Curtis seemed to jerk himself together with a great effort. He glanced briefly from Jervis to the sergeant, and gestured towards the hold. `Get to it, Ian. There’s a lot to do yet.’

  Jervis sighed and followed Dunwoody’s broad back into the deep recess of the hold.

  The sunlight swayed back and forth through the wide hatchway like the beam of a drunken lantern, as the ship rolled uneasily from side to side. The sea, driven by the short gusts of wind, was furrowed into long, lazy rollers, and the schooner’s course took her broadside along them, making the very masts groan in their sockets.

  Jervis steeled himself for the job he had to do, as he met the sour stench which was trapped by the high sides of the hold, and carefully avoided the still body at the foot of the ladder, with its face covered by a piece of blanket.

  The first wave of joy and enthusiasm which had greeted Curtis and Duncan when they had boarded the schooner had spent “itself on the shock and misery which had now made itself felt in the hidden menace of the soiled bandages and discoloured skin.

  A soldier rolled painfully on his side and tried to vomit into a basin. Each time he turned, his injured legs thudded helplessly on the deck, and he fell back, retching and exhausted. There was a flurry of movement, and the girl hurried to his side, her feet stepping and dodging the sprawled limbs and torn bandages. Even in his wretchedness, the soldier feebly tried to push her away, unwilling for her to see him in his pitiable state. She brushed his hands aside and knelt down on the deck, the man’s head firmly pillowed on her knees.

  Her voice was low and husky, as she smoothed away the hair from his damp face. `Come on, Tommy. Gently now.’

  Jervis turned away and went after the sergeant, who was stooping alongside another man and talking in low tones with the corporal, Bert.

  He looked up as Jervis joined them, and shook his head worriedly. `Look at this lot, sir. I don’t quite know what to make of it.’

  They had removed the bandage from the man’s thigh, and Jervis swallowed hard, the spittle thick in his throat. What had once been a mere flesh wound in the man’s leg, had blossomed angrily into a savage mass of discoloured and weeping tissue.

  ‘Er, what is it? Can we clean it up a bit?’

  The corporal sucked his teeth and sat back on his haunches. `Gone rotten, that’s what! He’ll lose that leg, I’m thinking!’

  “Is leg? ‘Is bleedin’ life, you mean!’ hissed Dunwoody fiercely. “E needs penicillin an’ transfusions,’ he added vaguely.

  The man in question opened his eyes and stared glassily at Jervis’s uniform. His thin body began to shake with silent laughter, and the corporal gingerly covered up the wound.

  `Can’t you stop this bloody ship rolling about, sir?’ The

  man’s voice was a mere whisper. `It’s making me feel numb all over. Can’t feel my legs at all.’

  Jervis forced a smile. `Won’t be long now. We’ll have you home soon.’