A Bridge Of Magpies by Geoffrey Jenkins

Author:Geoffrey Jenkins [Jenkins, Geoffrey]
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2009-11-28T15:00:00+00:00

C H A P T E R N I N E

I slipped Gaok's cable and Kaptein Denny had the diesel roaring in under a minute. We got under way and tore off in the direction of Sang A.

Jutta joined me on the bridge. I took a long look at the black ship.

'We're in danger of making fools of ourselves. That ship's not up-anchoring at all.'

'What's all the activity about then?'

I shouted to Kaptein Denny to cut our speed and join us. Sang A wasn't more than a mile and a half away now. 'They'

re trimming her head,' I pointed out. 'Look, it's beginning to point towards Doodenstadt.'

'There's another mooring buoy astern.' Denny could make it out but I couldn't. 'There's a cable out to it and they're winching her stern round.'

'What the hell are they up tor

°There are a couple of boats, too,' added Jutta.

They were light launches and they were putting off from Sang A's side-trailing something between them. I saw what it was as Denny spoke.

'A hawser. They're dragging for something.'

'We don't want to break up this interesting little party,' I said. 'We'll just stooge around with the engine off.'

While Kaptein Denny attended to the motor Jutta and I kept watch on the launches. They worked their way slowly and deliberately between Sang A and a point on Possession, holding so straight a course that it was clear they were steering on a fixed bearing. Gaok lost way and lay rising and falling in the easy swell.

'Looks as if they're dragging for something on the sea bed,' I said.

'Perhaps they lost an anchor in the storm-' suggested Jutta.

Denny paused before replying-until the launches had made more progress towards the island.

'No, They're much too close inshore. Any skipper who 120

anchored there would need his head read.'

'Maybe he does anyway,' I retorted. 'See what they're doing with the ship itself.'

Swig A's head was pointing all wrong, to lie meeting the upchannel current but it was clear that was the way it was intended because they'd now secured her stern to the buoy and I could make out the tight thread of cable out of the water between the two.

'Take us close now,' I told Kaptein Denny. 'The top of Gaok's crow's nest is about level with the portholes in that odd shack of Sang A's. I mean to find out what's inside.'

'A sneak look seems the only way to do it-judging from their previous reception,' said Jutta.

Kaptein Denny grinned. Whatever Sang A was up to seemed to have put him in a relaxed mood.

'There's nothing to prevent us sailing round and round Sang A. You could always be looking after the interests of your darling birds?

The way he put it could have implied anything or nothing. Anything being that he guessed I was no more a headman than I was a gannet.

'Let's go.'

Our run-in was from astern of Sang A. I'd circled over towards Possession to get into position, and Kaptein Denny was to take the wheel while I made my eye-in-the-sky inspection.

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