No Highway by Nevil Shute Read Free Book Online Page A

sink.”
    Honey had finished at the window. He crossed to the bed, and bent down and kissed his daughter. “Go to sleep now,” he said. “Good night.”
    I said, “Good night, Elspeth. Sleep well.”
    “Good night, Daddy. Good night, Dr. Scott. Will you say good night to Mrs. Scott for me?”
    “I’ll tell her. Good night from her.”
    We went downstairs again to that dirty, littered room with the great drawing-board. “It’s all very well to think about the scientific value of that prototype crash,” I said, taking up from where we had left off. “But thirty or forty people must have lost their fives in it, and if it was the tail we’ve got to make darned sure that doesn’t happen again, Honey.”
    “The important thing is to find out if the tailplane really was the cause of that accident,” he said. “You see, it may affect the programme for this tail that we are testing now. I’ve been thinking. A confirmatory experiment is valuable, of course, but it may not be making the best use of the material at our disposal. We might alter the frequency, for example. It’s not easy to do that in the middle of a trial, but I’d like to think around it.”
    “That’s for the long-term programme,” I said patiently. “What I’m bothered about is—ought we to ground all the Reindeers that are in service now?”
    “I suppose that is important, too,” he said.
    “It’s the most important thing of all, Honey, because it’s got to be decided now, or very soon, at any rate.”
    He said thoughtfully, “Of course, we don’t really
know
any more than we did yesterday. We don’t
know
that that tail failed in the air.”
    “An examination of the wreckage will show that, though, won’t it?”
    “Oh, yes. If there’s a fracture of the main spars of the tail, and if the structure of the metal at the fracture should be crystalline, that would be positive evidence of failure in fatigue.”
    I stood for a moment deep in thought. Somebody would have to go and have another look at that tailplane; it really ought to be brought back to Farnborough for metallurgical examination. But it was a big unit to transport and it was urgent that the matter should be settled one way or the other. Where was the wreckage now? In Montreal? Or still in Labrador? I should have to find out that, and find out quick.
    “I’m going up to London in the morning to see the Inspector of Accidents,” I said at last. “That’s why I came in tonight, Honey. I shan’t be in the office tomorrow. But I saw the Director this evening and told him about this, and he agreed to running your trial night and day from now on.”
    “Did he? That’s very good news. I only wish he’d done it earlier, though. It’s a pity that you have to have an accident to impress on people the urgency of basic research.”
    I disregarded that one, and went on to tell him about young Simmons and to discuss with him the detailed arrangements that he would have to make next day in my absence. Mr. Honey was quite wide awake and businesslike in any matter that concerned his trial, and having worked for so long in the R.A.E. he knew all the ropes. At the end of ten minutes I was satisfied that everything would go ahead all right in my absence, and I turned to go.
    “Well, I’m sorry to have disturbed you, Honey,” I said. “I’ll be away all day tomorrow, but I’ll let you know what happens in London when I come in on Thursday.”
    “It was good of you to come round,” he said. He came with me to the front door, and then he stopped me just as I was going out to the car. “There’s just one thing I wanted to ask you, if you could spare a minute …”
    “Of course,” I said.
    He hesitated. “I wonder if you could tell me where you got that hot-water-heater? Are they very expensive things?”
    “Why, no. They’re very cheap. I don’t know what they cost to buy outright, but you can hire them from the electricity company, you know. We hire ours. I forget what