Wealth of the Islands (9 page)

“
I
’
m fine!
”
Anita insisted.
“
I
’
ll be seeing you. Goodbye for now.
”

“
Goodbye,
”
Helen responded.
“
Until tomorrow.
”
She replaced the receiver in its rest and stared moodily down at it until she became aware of Peter
’
s cough
in
the doorway to warn her of his presence.

“
Finished?
”
he asked her.

She nodded.
“
It was my sister-in-law. You were quite right.
”

Peter Hannon looked pleased.
“
And she
’
s
coming
here?
”

Helen nodded again.
“
Look,
”
she said,
“
I
’
ve persuaded Gregory to give Anita a job getting all our provisions and things. Gregory said she could do that through the hotel. Will that be all right?
”

“
Sure. Why not?
”
He sounded cool and a bit distant.

“
Will it be a trouble for you?
”
Helen pressed him, wondering why he didn
’
t sound a little more enthusiastic.

“
No, no trouble.
”
He hesitated.
“
I was only wondering if your sister-in-law didn
’
t want to find her own job? I
’
d maybe have given her one. Does she want to have it all laid out for her?
”

Helen, was frankly astonished.
“
You don
’
t understand,
”
she said.
“
You
’
ve never met Anita. She
’
s never been away from her mother before and—
”

“
And now you know best what
’
s good for her?
”
Peter suggested. He said it so charmingly that Helen couldn
’
t possibly have taken offence.

“
I hadn
’
t thought about it like that,
”
she admitted.
“
But I think I do. At first, anyway. You
’
ll see tomorrow when she comes. You
’
ll help her, won
’
t you? You see, she hasn
’
t any confidence in herself and more than anything else I want this whole trip to be a success for her.
”

Peter Harmon smiled at her formally.
“
The hotel will do all it can to help, you can be sure of that, Mrs. Hastings. I
’
ll see to it personally.
”

Helen felt oddly defeated as she thanked him and left his office to go back into the main part of the hotel, to where Miss Corrigan had ordered coffee for them both on the terrace. Outsiders, she thought, people who didn
’
t know the Hastings well, would never understand how nervous Anita was, how her confidence had been sapped away by her mother. She sighed. She supposed that it did look as though she were being a busybody and over-protective, but what else could she do? Anita had to be given her chance, and she was going to give it to her, no matter what anyone else thought or did!

Helen had to run to
the
jetty the following morning, for she was afraid
she
would be late. When she had woken in her splendid bedroom to find the sun already lighting up the peacock colours on the chair opposite her and knew that it was late. From then on it had been a mad rush to get herself ready for the long day out on the
Sweet Promise.

“
The Boss is waiting for you!
”
Na-Tinn called out to her.
“
Here, jump aboard here!
”

Obediently, Helen cast herself into the air and landed beside him in a heap on the narrow deck. His
strong arms rescued her from falling backwards into the sea, his grinning teeth a great deal nearer to her than she quite liked.

“
Very good morning
!”
he laughed happily.

“
Very!
”
she agreed, rather less sure than he had been.

“
Ah, there you are!
”
Gregory greeted her from the top of the companionway.
“
I thought you
were goin
g to be late,
”
he said dryly.

“
So did I,
”
Helen admitted ruefully.
“
I overslept.
”

His face softened into a smile.
“
It happens to all of us. I expect you were tired—
”

Helen
’
s head went up sharply.
“
Not too tired!
”
she interrupted him quickly, just in case he should think that the diving was going to be beyond her.
“
My sister-in-law rang up from New Zealand. She
’
s—she
’
s coming today—
”

“
And you want us to pick her up on the way back?
”
he finished for her.

She nodded hopefully.
“
If it isn
’
t too much trouble,
”
she said anxiously.

“
It won
’
t have to be!
”
he grunted.
“
We can hardly leave her on an uninhabited island all night! Have you told her she
’
ll have a bit of a wait?
”

“
Yes. She doesn
’
t mind at all.
”

“
Well, that
’
s something!
C
ome on then, if we have to be back early, we
’
d better get going. Check the equipment, will you, while I cast off and make sure we
’
re going in the right direction.
”

Helen squashed past him to get down the companionway, thinking that she was not the only one who had woken up that morning with an edge to her temper. She was sorry that it had to be her first full day at work that Anita had come. It would have been easier to ask him to collect her at any time other than right at the beginning. It almost looked as if she had been waiting to get the job before bringing her sister-in-law to the Melonga Islands at all. She tried to
persuade herself that it didn
’
t matter what he thought, but at the back of her mind she knew that it did.

They would be on top of one another from dawn to dusk for many days to come and it would be easier if they could like and respect one another and, judging from this morning
’
s experience, it hardly looked as though he were going to suffer her gladly at all!

It was hot by the time they reached the wreck of the frigate. Helen wedged herself between the cabins and the deck-rail and began to climb into her diving gear. The flippers were a size too large for her, but she managed to tighten them behind her heels so that there was no danger of them falling off. Taine-Mal helped her to strap the cylinders of compressed air on to her back and she fixed the belt that held the lead weights around her waist. As always she felt weighed down by the sheer weight of what she had to carry and couldn
’
t wait to get into the water when the load would magically turn into nothing and the lovely clear water would flow free about her.

On the other side of the
Sweet Promise,
Gregory was getting ready too. He had the cutting equipment with him and was carefully winding the tubes that carried the oxygen down to the blowlamp round a wooden barrel to keep them from getting twisted and tied into knots.

“
Are you ready?
”
he asked her when he had
finished and the
Sweet Promise
was safely anchored above the wreck. She caught a glimpse of the real concern in his eyes and realised suddenly just how anxious he was about her diving with him.

“
I
’
m ready,
”
she said. She felt grotesque and awkward as she struggled down the side of the boat and into the water, but once there, she waited for him to join her, swimming out strongly to get out of his way as he entered the water beside her.

The metal-cutting equipment was handed down to them and the Polynesian sailors began unwinding the
oxygen pipes that would keep them going deep down I under the water. Gregory smiled briefly at Helen, placed his mask more securely over his eyes and nose and disappeared beneath the water. In a few seconds Helen had followed
him, allowing herself to sink down and down until she was level with the frigate before she pulled herself along the coral shelf to where it was lying
.

Gregory took one of the lamps and started cutting through the metal plate she had been working on the day before. Helen came to a standing position on top of the fra
c
tured metal of the wrecked ship and prepared herself to attack the place from the other end. Gregory handed her a lighted lamp and she started work. It was queer to see the Aflame burning through the water to reach the metal. It gave it a peculiar blue light, but it was pretty effective all the same. In half an hour they had cut their way through one side of the square that Gregory had marked on the hull, and he signalled to her that that was enough for one session and that it was time for them to surface. She nodded her agreement and turned out the flame she had been using, wedging the blowlamp into a coral ridge that was conveniently handy, and which held it securely.

Gregory struck out for the surface and she watched his long, lean sunburned body. She knew that she ought to follow him, but she was tempted to swim right round the wreck, to move her stiff muscles and get the blood flowing again after the long
time s
he had spent standing still in the water.

When she looked more closely at the frigate than she had the day before, she could see how badly fractured it had been when it had run aground on the reef. The whole of the front was twisted and dangerous. Worse, she suspected that underneath, somewhere in the side that was now lying on the shelf, there was a gaping hole which had caused the frigate to founder and sink. Anxious to find out, she swam as
close as she could to the twisted metal, avoiding the jagged pieces that threatened any approach. She was small enough to pull herself right into one of the gaps between the ship and the coral bed and then she was sure that sh
e was right. There was a large b
lack hole in the metal, not big enough for her to get through now, though it must have been amply big enough before the ship had turned on to its side.

Helen shone her torch into the black interior and caught a glimpse of space and further darkness. How odd it was, she thought, that the hole was so neat. It was the only place where the metal edges were not jagged or sharp. Here, they were smooth and
w
orn, almost as if they had been carefully designed and cut neatly out of the hull. Could someone have been there before them? she wondered. But that was scarcely possible. The Islanders would have noticed and reported anybody who had been seen messing about with the wreck. They all knew that the go
l
d it contained belonged to them, the wages for a whole year
’
s work in the copra plantations. Yet she was as certain as she could be that someone had deliberately made that hole, that it was not a freak holing that had resulted in the carefully even sides.

She was on her way back to the surface when she first thought that perhaps the hole had been made before the frigate had run on to the reef. She was not an expert in such matters, but
s
he could imagine that the frigate, thus holed, could have run a fair way before actually foundering. Perhaps the hole could even have been made while the frigate had been in harbour, before it had even set sail. Was it possible? She shrugged the whole idea away from her as she reached the surface and broke through the gay patterns the sun was making on the surface of the water. In a normal world of sun and sea, the fantasies of the deep seemed even more impossible. Who would want to hole the frigate? There wasn
’
t anyone who could possibly have benefited from such an action!
She was daft even to have allowed such an idea to cross her mind.

Gregory himself helped her on board the
Sweet Promise.
He had already cast off his own equipment and was wearing a towelling jacket of emerald green that suited him better than anything she had seen him in. With his damp hair curling in the sun, he looked very handsome and even more dangerous to her peace of mind.

“
It took you a long time to come up,
”
he said.

“
I was just looking around,
”
she answered him.

His eyes narrowed a trifle.

“
Indeed? Why?
”

She shrugged her shoulders, laughing.
“
Just to see what
’
s there
!”
she told him.
“
Why else
?”

“
It
’
s dangerous down there,
”
he said flatly.
“
And I don
’
t want that frigate turning any further.
”

She shivered.
“
I should think not! Was it ever the right way up? Or did it lie like that from the beginning? It seems so odd to me that it should have practically turned turtle.
”

We had a bit of difficulty down there,
”
Gregory answered her guardedly.
“
She shifted quite a bit and the entrance we had made was useless. So be careful! Any movement down there might knock her off that shelf!
”

Helen longed to ask him if Michael had been there when she had shifted that last time, but she didn
’
t like to bring up the subject of her dead husband again. They seemed to get on a great deal better when Michael was forgotten, she thought wryly, and pulled her bathrobe on over her shoulders, staring down over the side of the boat into the deep green waters that surrounded them.

She looked over her shoulder and grinned at him.
“
I am careful!
”
she said.

Is that so?
”
he drawled.
“
You don
’
t seem the careful type to me!
”

“
Well,
”
she said,
“
since we
’
re being personal, you don
’
t to me either!
”

His look of astonishment amused her.
“
Indeed? Well, don
’
t let it throw you,
”
he retorted.
“
I
’
m careful all right, especially when it comes to my work. I don
’
t approve of people fooling around with that sort of
thing
.
”

She wondered if that was meant as a warning to
h
er.
“
My father didn
’
t fool about either,
”
she answered sharply.
“
I don
’
t think I
’
ve given you any cause for complaint so far, have I
?”

“
Not so far,
”
he grinned at her.
“
D
’
you want something to eat?
”

She accepted the sandwich he held out to her and a mug of hot coffee, and sat down contentedly on the roof of the cabin, allowing the sun and the food to warm her through.

“
Of course,
”
she went on innocently,
“
if I had ever seen you in a pair of shoes, I might have a quite
different impression—
”

He laughed.
“
So you believe that clothes make the
man, do you?
”

“
No-o,
”
she said softly,
“
but they help somewhat,
don
’
t you think?
”

Gregory stretched himself along the top of the cabin beside her,
smiling
to
hims
elf.
“
I
’
ll
not be drawn on that topic,
”
he said firmly.
“
Tell me about this sister of yours. Is
s
he anything like you?
”

“
Not a bit!
”
she assured him.
“
She
’
s a gentle little
creature—
”