An Old Captivity by Nevil Shute Read Free Book Online Page B

later the secretary reappeared.
    “Would you come in?” he said. “Sir David would like to see you.”
    Ross went through into the next room, a large officefurnished with rather shabby chairs, and a large desk. A thick-set, heavy man in a black coat was sitting at the desk. He was going bald; he had a firm, determined face with much the same features as the don. The relationship was evident. The face was vaguely familiar to Ross from the illustrated papers; Sir David Lockwood was not a Lord Nuffield, but he was a very wealthy man.
    He raised his head, gave Ross a long, appraising look, and motioned to a chair with the end of the fountain pen in his hand. “Sit down.”
    Ross obeyed in silence.
    “You’ve been in Canada?”
    “I was there for about four years.”
    “What sort of a car did you drive out there?”
    “A Packard.”
    “Like it?”
    “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    This, Ross felt, was not what he had come to talk about at all, but he began to talk diffidently about motor cars to the man who had forgotten more than Ross had ever known. Sir David kept him talking upon varied subjects for ten minutes by the clock. At the end of that time he had satisfied himself that the pilot talked good sense, that he was modest, probably competent to maintain things mechanical, probably honest and hardworking.
    He turned to the letter that Hanson had laid before him. “You spent last night with my brother, I see. He tells me that he’s decided to go on this Greenland trip. He wants you to take him.”
    “Yes, sir.” The pilot hesitated. “There’s one thing that I’m a bit worried about.”
    The grey eyes of the manufacturer fixed his own. “Well, what’s that?”
    Ross said: “His daughter seems to be very much against the flight. She had a talk with me about it this morning.”
    “Alix? What’s it got to do with her? What’s she got against it?”
    “She thinks her father is too old to go off on a trip like that.” The pilot hesitated. “I thought you’d better know the way she feels.”
    The manufacturer gave a snort. “Too old? I never heard such nonsense in my life. That girl wants a good whipping—that’s what she wants. Too old! Has she said that to my brother?”
    “I really couldn’t say.”
    “You don’t want to pay any attention to that. Is there any reason, in your view of it, why my brother shouldn’t go?”
    Ross considered before answering. “I don’t think so,” he said at last. “There’s a certain risk in flying so far over the open sea, of course. I should go by Reykjavik; that splits it up into two hops of about six hundred miles each over sea. But flying down the coast of Greenland ought to be all right if we wait and pick a decent day for it, and when we get to this place Brattalid we make a camp and operate from there quite normally. At least, that’s how I see it at the moment.”
    Sir David nodded. “My brother has had good health all his life. He’s fifty-eight years old. Are you afraid of trouble if you take him with you.”?
    “Not in the least.”
    “Of course not. Too old!” He sat brooding at his desk for a moment. Then he shot a sidelong glance at Ross. “He’s three years younger than I am.”
    The pilot could not think of anything to say to that.
    The manufacturer turned to the secretary. “Twelve thousand, Hanson?”
    “Yes, Sir David. That was the outside figure—it includes the whole cost of the machine. It should come out a good deal less.”
    The older man scrutinised the list of figures for a moment, then turned back to Ross. “It’s a lot of money. You’ll have to show results for that amount of money.”
    The pilot shook his head. “I wouldn’t take this job if I had to guarantee results, sir. It’s too unusual. I’ll do my best, and in my judgment we can get the photographs Mr.Lockwood wants without much difficulty. But we may run into sheer bad luck.”
    “I don’t want you to take more risks than are essential to the job. Especially if