3/2/2023 0 Comments Warroom appAll of it-the livelong day." He lifted his recharged glass. The only good thing you can say about a today is that at any given moment such and such a portion of it is already irrevocably past'-he paused to admire his speech control-"Irrevocably past, as I say, and, with the passing of every moment, so much less of it to come. I don't want to, mind you, for tomorrows, We found, are always distressingly similar to todays. The day after tomorrow? Well, yes, if I must, I'll face the day after tomorrow. "And that, my dear boy, is the whole point of the exercise, I don't want to get up tomorrow. Lonnie, unsurprisingly, was still at his station in the lounge when I reached there. I closed the door behind me, carefully wedging a spent book match between the foot of the door and the sill: that door would have to open only a crack and the match would drop clear. I then locked my medical bag-it was considerably larger and heavier than the average medical bag but then it held a considerably greater amount of equipment -and put it out in the passage. In spite of the trawler's wildly erratic behaviour those coins would remain where they were, held in place by the pressure of the clothes inside but as soon as the lid was opened, the pressure released, and the lid then lifted even partway towards the vertical, the Coins would slide down to the feel? of the pockets. Both my cases had elasticised linen pockets in the lids and in each pocket in each lid, holding the lids as nearly horizontal as possible, I placed a small Goin just at the entrance to the pocket. As far as I could recall everything was as I had left it and nothing had been disturbed but, then, a practised searcher rarely left any trace of his passing. If anybody had been in my cabin and gone through my belongings, he'd done it in a very circumspect way. Otto will have you drawn and quartered if he finds you here." Anyway, doctor's orders and do me a favour-get to hell out of here. I don't think he quite meant it in that way, Lonnie. "Now that we have touched, inadvertently chanced upon, as one might say, this topic-spirit, the blushful hippocrene-I wonder if by any chance you would care to join me in a thimbleful of the elixir I have here-?' Now I just looked at her, wondered if she had been expecting me to take a peck at her, then made my way foreword and down to the passenger accommodation. Ten years ago I'd have been back in that saloon pretty rapidly, arms round her and telling her that all her troubles were over. I peered through the plate-glass window and she was sitting as I'd left her, only now she had her elbows on her knees and her face in her hands, shaking her head slowly from side to side. Once outside I remained still for twenty seconds or so, ignoring the vagrant flurries of snow that even here, on the lee side, seemed bent on getting down my collar and up the trouser cuffs, then walked quickly foreword. On our stumbling descent of the companionway he said: Clearly, he had his emergency supplies cached in his cabin. But I have a sensitive nature and I don't want to be around when you find out that your assessment of Otto is a hundred percent wrong." Lonnie came without a single murmur of protest. "Neither am I being heavy-handed and moralistic. "Otto? Do you know something?" Lonnie leaned forward confidentially. "As long as you don't hit anybody it's none of my business how you drive, Lonnie." Why don't you get to bed? If you keep it up like this, you won't be able to get up tomorrow." I put the book down and headed for the lee door. "The kindly healer with his bag of tricks. "Aha!" He regarded his empty glass with an air of surprise, then reached out with an unerring hand. "I'm not trying to deprive you of the necessities of life," I explained. Most people are good, my dear chap, don't you know that? Most people are kind. "Lonnie," I said, I don't think you're the least little bit like Macbeth." He stumbled into his cabin, sat heavily on his bed, then moved with remarkable swiftness to one side: I could only conclude that he'd inadvertently sat on a bottle of Scotch.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |