'They'll send him down directly,' said the coastguard. 'They'll argue a bit first, like all foreigners. Here come the tugs.'
'They'll never do it,' said Frank. 'Look at the angle she's lying at. It's much shallower there than I thought.'
'That reef runs out quite a way,' said the coastguard; 'you don't notice it in the ordinary way, going over that piece of water in a small boat. But a ship with her depth would touch all right.'
'I was down in the first cove by the valley when they fired the rockets,' said Frank. 'I could scarcely see three yards in front of me where I was. And then the things went off out of the blue.'
I thought how alike people were in a moment of common interest. Frank was Frith all over again, giving his version of the story, as though it mattered, as though we cared. I knew that he had gone down to the beach to look for Maxim. I knew that he had been frightened, as I had been. And now all this was forgotten and put aside: our conversation down the telephone, our mutual anxiety, his insistence that he must see me. All because a ship had gone ashore in the fog.
A small boy came running up to us. 'Will the sailors be drowned?' he asked.
'Not them. They're all right, sonny,' said the coastguard. 'The sea's as flat as the back of my hand. No one's going to be hurt this time.'
'If it had happened last night we should never have heard them,' said Frank. 'We must have let off more than fifty rockets at our show, beside all the smaller things.'
'We'd have heard all right,' said the coastguard. 'We'd have seen the flash and known the direction. There's the diver, Mrs de Winter. See him putting on his helmet?'
'I want to see the diver,' said the small boy.
'There he is,' said Frank, bending and pointing — 'that chap there putting on the helmet. They're going to lower him into the water.'
'Won't he be drowned?' said the child.
'Divers don't drown,' said the coastguard. 'They have air pumped into them all the time. Watch him disappear. There he goes.'
The surface of the water was disturbed a minute and then was clear again. 'He's gone,' said the small boy.
'Where's Maxim?' I said.
'He's taken one of the crew into Kerrith,' said Frank; 'the fellow lost his head and jumped for it apparently when the ship struck. We found him clinging on to one of the rocks here under the cliff. He was soaked to the skin of course and shaking like a jelly. Couldn't speak a word of English, of course. Maxim went down to him, and found him bleeding like a pig from a scratch on the rocks. He spoke to him in German. Then he hailed one of the motor boats from Kerrith that was hanging around like a hungry shark, and he's gone off with him to get him bandaged by a doctor. If he's lucky he'll just catch old Phillips sitting down to lunch.'
'When did he go?' I said.
'He went just before you turned up,' said Frank, 'about five minutes ago. I wonder you didn't see the boat. He was sitting in the stern with this German fellow.'
'He must have gone while I was climbing up the cliff,' I said.
'Maxim is splendid at anything like this,' said Frank. 'He always gives a hand if he can. You'll find he will invite the whole crew back to Manderley, and feed them, and give them beds into the bargain.'
'That's right,' said the coastguard. 'He'd give the coat off his back for any of his own people, I know that. I wish there was more like him in the county.'
'Yes, we could do with them,' said Frank.
We went on staring at the ship. The tugs were standing off still, but the lifeboat had turned and gone back towards Kerrith.
'It's not their turn today,' said the coastguard.
'No,' said Frank, 'and I don't think it's a job for the tugs either. It's the ship-breaker who's going to make money this time.'
The gulls wheeled overhead, mewing like hungry cats; some of them settled on the ledges of the cliff, while others, bolder, rode the surface of the water beside the ship.
The coastguard took off his cap and mopped his forehead.
'Seems kind of airless, doesn't it?' he said.
'Yes,' I said.
The pleasure boat with the camera people went chugging off towards Kerrith. 'They've got fed up,' said the coastguard.
'I don't blame them,' said Frank. 'I don't suppose anything will happen for hours. The diver will have to make his report before they try to shift her.'
'That's right,' said the coastguard.
'I don't think there's much sense in hanging about here,' said Frank; 'we can't do anything. I want my lunch.'
I did not say anything. He hesitated. I felt his eyes upon me.
'What are you going to do?' he said.
'I think I shall stay here a bit,' I said. 'I can have lunch any time. It's cold. It doesn't matter. I want to see what the diver's going to do.' Somehow I could not face Frank just at the moment. I wanted to be alone, or with someone I did not know, like the coastguard.
'You won't see anything,' said Frank; 'there won't be anything to see. Why not come back and have some lunch with me?'
'No,' I said. 'No, really…'
'Oh, well,' said Frank, 'you know where to find me if you do want me. I shall be at the office all the afternoon.'
'All right,' I said.
He nodded to the coastguard and went off down the cliff towards the cove. I wondered if I had offended him. I could not help it. All these things would be settled some day, one day. So much seemed to have happened since I spoke to him on the telephone, and I did not want to think about anything any more. I just wanted to sit there on the cliff and stare at the ship.
'He's a good sort, Mr Crawley,' said the coastguard.
'Yes,' I said.
'He'd give his right hand for Mr de Winter too,' he said.
'Yes, I think he would,' I said.
The small boy was still hopping around on the grass in front of us.
'When's the diver coming up again?' he said.
'Not yet, sonny,' said the coastguard.
A woman in a pink striped frock and a hairnet came across the grass towards us. 'Charlie? Charlie? Where are you?' she called.
'Here's your mother coming to give you what-for,' said the coastguard.
'I've seen the diver, Mum,' shouted the boy.
The woman nodded to us and smiled. She did not know me. She was a holiday-maker from Kerrith. 'The excitement all seems to be over doesn't it?' she said; 'they are saying down on the cliff there the ship will be there for days.'
'They're waiting for the diver's report,' said the coastguard.
'I don't know how they get them to go down under the water like that,' said the woman; 'they ought to pay them well.'
'They do that,' said the coastguard.
'I want to be a diver, Mum,' said the small boy.
'You must ask your Daddy, dear,' said the woman, laughing at us. 'It's a lovely spot up here, isn't it?' she said to me. 'We brought a picnic lunch, never thinking it would turn foggy and we'd have a wreck into the bargain. We were just thinking of going back to Kerrith when the rockets went off under our noses, it seemed. I nearly jumped out of my skin. 'Why, whatever's that?' I said to my husband. 'That's a distress signal,' he said; 'let's stop and see
