And there I stood at the window and stared. And there on the spot where H.M.S. Uruguay with her crew of hundreds and all her complement of officers (largely R.N.R. and R.N.V.R. men like myself) had lain, stood that gigantic pillar of smoke. Then all at once I realised that everything living in that ship and most of her inanimate self was represented now only by that foul column.
I heard the doctor’s door open and his voice say: “Mr. Hobhouse! Hobhouse!”
I had presence of mind to clap my glasses hurriedly on my nose, before I rushed into the passage.
“What has happened? Is that the ship gone, do you think?” he asked in a low voice.
I noticed that he seemed a man with a good control over his feelings. I had mine, too, pretty well in hand, but to play the absurd Thomas Hobhouse at such a moment was more than I cared to do. I preferred to show a little of what I felt and get away from him on that excuse. So I stammered something, and then we looked at one another for a moment, and I hurriedly went back to my room.
IX
Bolton on the Teack
“Only one survivor.”
The doctor looked into my room about eight o’clock next morning to give me this brief bulletin. At breakfast he told me he had been out most of the night, but there had only been that single case for him. A boat from the island had picked a solitary living seaman out of the scum of oil, blackened by it like a negro and without a stitch of clothing. Some of the dead had been found, but not in a condition to be discussed, and of course many fragments of debris. And now a number of patrol boats were on the scene, he had handed over his patient to a naval doctor, and that was all the news of the tragedy up till eight o’clock.
I knew that John Whiteclett would certainly be in one of the patrol boats, and I spent the morning in looking out for him. Thus by an apparent accident when the Commander did land about noon he very soon walked into Mr. Hobhouse. My cousin’s face was grave and set, and there being no witnesses, neither of us luckily had to act.
“Well, Jack?” I said.
“Did you see it happen?” he demanded.
“I happened to be at my window.”
“Tell me what you saw,” said he.
I told him and he nodded at intervals.
“Just what a couple of other witnesses have told me,” he said.
“Submarines?” I asked.
He shook his head.
“The odds against a torpedo sending a ship straight up like that are enormous. And one would have heard two explosions—which nobody did. Besides, the one man who was picked up has luckily been able to talk a little already. I am certain there was no torpedo attack.”
“She simply blew up then?”
“That was it.”
“Accident or design?”
“God knows! Perhaps no one else ever will. It may have merely been the ammunition. As you know, that has happened before now. But it’s a very curious coincidence that it should have happened off Ransay, knowing what we know. I hear a lot of the men were ashore buying things. I wonder what they brought aboard with them!”
“I can tell you what one lot brought: eggs, poultry, cheeses, and a large parcel in newspaper which I took to be butter. But that was only one party I happened to see. They were all over the island.”
He thought in silence for a few moments, and then he glanced at his watch.
“Look here, old chap,” he said, “I’m afraid I must be getting off again now. Walk back with me as far as it’s safe and I’ll tell you something that you must know. We can discuss the evidence later, when a little more has been collected. The point that concerns you is that Bolton has been sent for again.”
“The devil he has! Do I retire then?”
“Not at all. You see nobody in these parts is in the Hobhouse secret, so they sent for Bolton at once to make his own kind of enquiries while we make ours. You of course go on making yours in your own way just the same. All the same I think it would be tactful to stand aside—with your eyes open of course—while Bolton is on the job.”
“Tactful,” I agreed, “but a little annoying.”
“Well, Roger, it can’t be helped, I’m afraid. I’m not the boss here and the man is on his way now as fast as he can travel. And now what about telling him who you really are? I’ve been thinking it over, and if you are agreeable I think I ought to.”
I saw that this meant that he had decided he was going to, so I merely said:
“If you think it best, certainly tell him. Only swear him to secrecy.”
“Certainly. And I’m sure the man himself will see the point in that. But you see if I didn’t tell him who you really were, he’d very likely put you down as a suspicious character and recommend your removal.”
“You’re quite right,” I agreed.
“Besides what you know may help him, and it would be a dog in the manger kind of game to keep back anything, now that he has taken up the business.”
“Right again. Well, I’ll keep my nose out of the business till Bolton has had his innings.”
“Good man!” said Jack. “Well, we’d better separate now. Good luck to you both!”
I trust I am not of an unduly jealous disposition, but being thus asked to take a back seat just as something really definite had happened was a
