'That should earn you a trip to Buckingham Palace,' Swanson murmured.
'The hell with Buckingham Palace,' Kinnaird said violently. 'How about my mate, eh? How about young Jimmy Grant? Can he make the trip to Buckingham Palace? Not now he can't, the poor bastard. Do you know what he was doing? He was still «inside» the radio room when I went back in, sitting at the main transmitter, sending out an S.O.S. on our regular frequency. His clothes were on fire. I dragged him off his seat and shouted to him to grab some Nife cells and get out. I caught up the portable transmitter and a nearby box of Nife cells and ran through the door. I thought Grant was on my heels, but I couldn't hear anything, what with the roar of flames and the bursting of fuel drums, the racket was deafening. Unless you'd been there, you just can't begin to imagine what it was like. I ran far enough clear to put the radio and cells in a safe place. Then I went back. I asked Naseby, who was still trying to bring Dr. Jolly round, if Jimmy Grant had come out. He said he hadn't. I started to run for the door again, and, well, that's all I remember.'
'I clobbered him,' Jeremy said with gloomy satisfaction. 'From behind. I had to.'
'I could have killed you when I came round,' Kinnaird said morosely. 'But I guess you saved my life at that.'
'I certainly did, brother.' Jeremy grimaced. 'That was my big contribution that night. Hitting people. After Naseby had brought Dr. Jolly round, he suddenly started shouting, 'Where's Flanders and Bryce, where's Flanders and Bryce!' Those were the two who had been sleeping with him and Hewson in the cookhouse. A few others had come down from the main bunkhouse by that time, and the best part of a minute had elapsed before we realized that Flanders and Bryce weren't among them. Naseby started back for the cookhouse at a dead run. He was making for the doorway, only there was no doorway left, just a solid curtain of fire where the doorway used to be. I swung at him as he passed, and he fell and hit his head on the ice.' He looked at Naseby. 'Sorry again, Johnny, but you were quite crazy at the moment.'
Naseby rubbed his jaw and grinned wearily. 'I can still feel it. And God knows you were right.'
'Then Captain Folsom arrived, along with Dick Foster, who also slept in the main bunkhouse,' Jeremy went on. 'Captain Folsom said he'd tried every other extinguisher on the base and that all of them were frozen solid. He'd heard about Grant being trapped inside the radio room and he and Foster were carrying a blanket apiece, soaked with water. I tried to stop them but Captain Folsom ordered me to stand aside.' Jeremy smiled faintly. 'When Captain Folsom orders people to stand aside… well, they do just that.'
'He and Foster threw the wet blankets over their heads and ran inside. Captain Folsom was out in a few seconds, carrying Grant. I've never seen anything like it: they were burning like human torches. I don't know what happened to Foster, but he never came out. By that time the roofs of both Major Halliwell's hut and the cookhouse had fallen in. Nobody could get anywhere near either of those buildings. Besides, it was far too late by then. Major Halliwell and the three others inside the major's hut and Flanders and Bryce inside the cookhouse must have been dead already. Dr. Jolly doesn't think they would have suffered very much: asphyxiation would have got them, like enough, before the flames did.'
'Well,' I said slowly, 'that's as clear a picture of what must have been a very confusing and terrifying experience as we're ever likely to get. It wasn't possible to get anywhere near Major Halliwell's hut?'
'You couldn't have gone within fifteen feet of it and hoped to live,' Naseby said simply.
'And what happened afterward?'
'I took charge, old boy,' Jolly said. 'Wasn't much to take charge of, though, and what little there was to be done could be done only by myself — fixing up the injured, I mean. I made 'em all wait out there on the ice cap until the flames had died down a bit and there didn't seem to be any more likelihood of further fuel drums bursting. Then we all made our way to the bunkhouse, where I did the best I could for the injured men. Kinnaird here, despite pretty bad burns, proved himself a first-class assistant doctor. We bedded down the worst of them. Young Grant was in a shocking condition — 'fraid there never really was very much hope for him. And — well, that was about all there was to it.'
'You had no food for the next few days and nights?'
'Nothing at all, old boy. No heat, either, except for the stand-by Coleman lamps that were in the three remaining huts. We managed to melt a little water from the ice, that was all… By my orders everyone remained lying down and wrapped up in what was available in order to conserve energy and warmth.' -
'Bit rough on you,' I said to Kinnaird. 'Having to lose any hard-earned warmth you had every couple of hours in order to make those S.O.S. broadcasts.'
'Not only me,' Kinnaird said. 'I'm no keener on frostbite than anyone else. Dr. Jolly insisted that everyone who could should take turns sending out the S.O.S.'s. Wasn't hard. There was a pre-set mechanical call-up, and all anyone had to do was to send this and listen in on the earphones. If any message came through, I was across to the met office in a flash. It was actually Hewson here who contacted the ham operator in Bodd and Jeremy who got through to that trawler in the Barents Sea. I carried on from there, of course. Apart from them, there were Dr. Jolly and Naseby to give a hand, so it wasn't so bad. Hassard, too, took a turn after the first day — he'd been more or less blinded on the night of the fire.'
'You remained in charge throughout, Dr. Jolly?' I asked.
'Bless my soul, no. Captain Folsom was in a pretty shocked condition for the first twenty-four hours, but when he'd recovered from that, he took over. I'm only a pillroller, old boy. As a leader of men and a dashing man of action — well, no, quite frankly, old top, I don't see myself in that light at all.'
'You did damned well all the same.' I looked around at the company. 'That most of you won't be scarred for life is due entirely to the quick and highly efficient treatment Dr. Jolly gave you under almost impossible circumstances. Well, that's all. Must be a pretty painful experience for all of you, having to relive that night again. I can't see that we can ever hope to find out how the fire started, just one of those chancein-a-million accidents, what the insurance companies call an act of God. I'm certain, Hewson, that no shadow of negligence attaches to you and that your theory on the outbreak of the fire is probably correct. Anyway, although we've paid a hellishly high cost, we've learned a lesson: never again to site a main fuel store within a hundred yards of the camp.'
The meeting broke up. Jolly bustled off to the sick bay, not quite managing to conceal his relish at being the only medical officer aboard who wasn't «hors de combat». He had a busy couple of hours ahead of him: changing bandages on burns, checking Benson, X-raying Zabrinski's broken ankle and resetting the plaster.
I went to my cabin, unlocked my case, took out a small wallet, relocked my case, and went to Swanson's cabin. I noticed that he wasn't smiling quite so often now as when I'd first met him in Scotland. He looked up as I came in in answer to his call and said without preamble, 'If those two men still out in the camp are in any way fit to be moved, I Want them both aboard at once. The sooner we're back in Scotland and have some law in on this the happier I'll be. I warned you that this investigation of yours would turn up nothing. Lord knows how short a time it will be before someone else gets it. For God's sake, Carpenter, we have a murderer running loose.'
'Three things,' I said. 'Nobody's going to get it any more, that's almost for certain. Secondly, the law, as you call it, wouldn't be allowed to touch it. And, in the third place, the meeting this morning was of some use. It eliminated three potential suspects.'
'I must have missed something that you didn't.'
'Not that. I knew something that you didn't. I knew that under the floor of the laboratory were about forty Nife cells in excellent condition — but cells that had been used.'
'The hell you did,' he said softly. 'Sort of forgot to tell me, didn't you?'
'In this line of business I never tell anyone anything unless I think he can help me by having that knowledge.'
'You must win an awful lot of friends and influence an awful lot of people,' Swanson said dryly.
'It gets embarrassing. Now, who could have used those cells? Only those who left the bunkhouse from time to time to send out the S.O.S.'s. That cuts out Captain Folsom and the Harrington twins — there's no question of any of the three of them having left the bunkhouse at any time. They weren't fit to. So that leaves Hewson, Naseby, Dr. Jolly, Jeremy, Hassard and Kinnaird. Take your choice. One of them is a murderer.'
'Why did they want those extra cells?' Swanson asked. 'And if they had those extra cells why did they risk their lives by relying on those dying cells that they did use? Does it make sense to you?'
'There's sense in everything,' I said. 'If you want evasion, Carpenter has it.' I brought out my wallet, spread cards before him. He picked them up, studied them and returned them to my wallet.
'So now we have it,' he said calmly. 'Took you quite a while to get around to it, didn't it? The truth, I mean. Officer of M.I.6. Counter-espionage. Government agent; eh? Well, I won't make any song and dance about it,
