The Midnight Watch by David Dyer

Author:David Dyer [Dyer, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Historical, Literary
ISBN: 9781466893085
Google: tuOLCgAAQBAJ
Amazon: B015CLB95Q
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2016-04-05T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

Herbert Stone knew as soon as he saw them that the two men walking down the wharf towards the gangway were reporters. He knew by the way they laughed and sauntered along, sniffing the air as if there might be news in the smell of the gas lamps. It was only a few hours since Stone had read of Mr Boxhall seeing a mystery ship and firing rockets, but the press were here already. Somehow they had found him out.

In a moment they were in the alleyway outside his cabin. He heard the chartroom door jerking open, the gangway watchman apologising to the captain, and the reporters announcing their newspapers. He slipped quietly along the alleyway, pressed himself flat against the bulkhead outside the partly open chartroom door, and listened. There were indistinct murmurings – complaints from the captain, apologies from the reporters – and then this: ‘What do you say, Captain Lord, about this statement from your carpenter that it was your ship the Titanic saw?’

Stone leaned closer to the door. A statement from the ship’s carpenter? Mr McGregor? The good and loyal carpenter, who kept himself to himself and always took off his cap when Stone spoke to him? The captain, too, must have been surprised, because he asked the pressmen twice for confirmation that the carpenter was their source. The men confirmed that he was. Stone closed his eyes. He tried not to breathe.

The captain’s voice was at a higher pitch than usual and his words were stretched tight. His denials were driven by barely suppressed rage. Sailors would say anything when they were ashore; the whole thing was an outrage; the captain had known nothing whatsoever of the Titanic’s plight until the next morning. All of which was true enough, Stone thought, but what about the rockets? ‘You can tell lies by telling the truth,’ Stone’s mother had once told him.

He could, he thought, stride into the room – right now – and tell the real truth: that he had seen the rockets and he had told the captain. He could say he was sorry, that he’d had no idea it was the Titanic and that she was sinking, and that he should have done more. He could do it now; he could end this whole sorry business once and for all.

A reporter said, ‘If your wireless had been working, you may have heard the distress call?’

‘Indeed,’ Stone heard the captain say, as if it were nothing of consequence.

‘And you would have gone?’

‘Of course.’

‘And everyone might have been saved?’

‘Very possibly. I only wish that I had known the Titanic was in danger. I would have been glad of the opportunity to go to her assistance just as fast as I possibly could.’

Stone drew in a breath. What sort of man could give such an answer? ‘I only wish that I had known…’ Stone felt like crying out, But you did know! I told you!

Behind him in the alleyway a man cleared his throat. Stone turned

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