The Hammond Innes Collection Volume Two by Hammond Innes

Author:Hammond Innes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2017-07-27T00:00:00+00:00

Witness:

We couldn’t go on.

Counsel:

Why not?

Witness:

We struck a sill of igneous rock. We were operating a cable-tool drill and it was too light for the job.

Counsel:

At what depth was this?

Witness:

About five thousand six hundred feet. We had to have a heavier drill and that meant more capital.

Counsel:

And so you came to England?

Witness:

Not at once. I tried to raise money in Canada. Then the war came …

I leaned back and closed my eyes. Five thousand six hundred! And our geophysical survey showed an anticline at five thousand five hundred. The anticline was nothing but the sill of igneous rock that my grandfather had struck in 1913. God, what a fool I’d been not to get hold of the account of this case before starting to drill. Why hadn’t my grandfather mentioned it in his progress report? Afraid of discouraging me, I suppose. I got to my feet and went over to the window and stood there staring across the alfalfa to the rig, wondering what the hell I was going to do. But there wasn’t anything I could do. It hadn’t stopped my grandfather from trying to drill another well.

‘I wish somebody from back home would write me nice long letters like that.’

I swung round to find Jean standing beside me. ‘It’s just a business letter,’ I said quickly. I folded it up and put it back in the envelope. I couldn’t tell her that what she had brought me was the full account of Stuart Campbell’s trial.

That night the stars shone and it was almost warm. The second shift was working and we strolled down to the rig where it blazed like a Christmas tree with lights rigged up as far as the derrick man’s platform. We were talking trivialities, carefully avoiding anything that could be regarded as personal. And then in a pause I said, ‘Didn’t you like it in Vancouver?’

‘Yes, I was having fun—dancing and sailing. But—’ She hesitated and then sighed. ‘Somehow it wasn’t real. I think I’ve lost the capacity to enjoy myself.’

‘So you came back to Come Lucky?’ She nodded. ‘To escape again?’

‘To escape?’ She looked up at me and there was a tired set to her mouth. ‘No. Because it was the only place I could call home. And then—’ She walked on in silence for a bit. Finally she said, ‘Did you have to slap Peter Trevedian in the face like that?’

‘I had to get the rig up here. It was the only way.’

She didn’t say anything for a moment. Then she sighed. ‘Yes. I suppose so.’

We came to the rig and climbed on to the platform and stood there watching the table turning and the block slowly inching down as the drill bit into the rock two hundred feet below us. Beneath us the screen shook and the rock chips sifted out of the mud as it returned to the sump. Bill was standing beside the driller. ‘What are you making now?’ I shouted to him.

‘About eight feet an hour.’

Eight feet an hour. I did a quick calculation.

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