Uncharted Seas by Dennis Wheatley Read Free Book Online

you’re sitting on? If not, rum’ll do.’
    The Finn’s fair-skinned, freckled face set grimly. ‘I’m afraid you’ll have to cut out the drinking for a while. I’ve had no chance to examine our stores as yet, but if there’s any spirits they’ll be held for medicinal purposes. Maybe you’ll get a half-cup of water when I issue the morning rations.’
    ‘Thank you, my brave Viking. There’s no need to be so darned pleased and pious about our lack of civilised liquor though. I’m a medical case at the moment if ever there was one. Come on, give me a swig of something to pull me together.’
    ‘You heard me!’
    ‘I heard you talking like a pussyfoot schoolboy who doesn’t understand the needs of a grown man.’
    ‘Sir! You forget yourself,’ Colonel Carden interposed sharply. ‘Mr. Luvia is the officer in charge of this boat. To his skill in handling her, his example, and the manner in which he kept his men at bailing her out all night, while you were in a disgusting, drunken sleep, we owe our lives.’
    ‘Oh, Lord, defend me from these thy heroes,’ muttered Basil: upon which the Colonel’s face turned a bright brick red.
    ‘Now, Daddy, now!’ Unity exclaimed, clutching at the old man’s arm as he began to struggle to his feet. ‘Don’t take any notice of him—he’s not worth it.’
    ‘Your servant, Madam,’ Basil bowed unsteadily, ‘and my congratulations on your perspicacity.’
    As he turned away he felt a touch on his elbow. Snyolda was holding out a small flask which she had taken from her bag. ‘It’s Van der Hum,’ she said. ‘I can guess what you must be feeling like. Go ahead.’
    He took the flask, swallowed two medium-sized gulps, and, screwing the top on again, handed it back to her. The rich tangerine-orange flavoured South African liqueur brought new life to him. It warmed his inner man and sent the blood coursing more rapidly through his veins. He smiled down at the girl who looked like a rather shop-soiled Marlene Dietrich.
    ‘That was darned decent of you. I’m very, very grateful.’
    She pursed the full lips of her now reddened mouth, and shook her head. ‘It was decent of you to wrap me up in your oilskins last night. I should have died of cold if you hadn’t, and one good turn deserves another.’
    ‘It very seldom gets it though. Anyhow, you’re a darling!’ Cheered by that brief, friendly encounter in this little crowd of people made unnaturally hostile by misery and dejection, he stumbled forward across two thwarts and sat down on the third, next to Hansie, the fat barman.
    There was ample room on the thwarts for two men to pull at each of the big oars, and all six were already in motion. Basil had chosen to double bank Hansie because, as the barman’s best customer on the seven days’ run from Cape Town, he had come to know him well.
    ‘Glad to see you with us, Hansie,’ he remarked, grabbing the oar as it swung back in the tholes, and lending his weight on the next stroke.
    ‘Glad ter be here, Mister Sutherland. ‘Fraid I can’t offer to fix you an eye-opener this morning, though.’ Like most Swedes, the little man was multilingual. He had served in many ships and his English had an indefinable accent, something between that of a Bowery American and a London Cockney. ‘How d’you figure we’ll make out?’
    ‘Lord knows! There’s not much shipping in this area.’
    ‘And no islands neither.’
    ‘Where does the Second Engineer think he’s taking us, I wonder?’
    ‘Sun’s in yer eye, so we’re moving due west, seein’ it’s only just risen. If we keep pulling long enough we’ll hit the coast of South America.’
    ‘If?’ Basil repeated sceptically. ‘We’re a thousand—perhaps fifteen hundred—miles from land. Allowing for winds and currents we couldn’t row that distance in a month. We’ll be sunk by another storm or dead of thirst long before that.’
    ‘Sure, Mister Sutherland, sure. We’re in pretty bad unless we get picked