that if I didn't stop drinking the club port he couldn't guarantee my life for longer than a year. But everything's changed now, of course.' He raised his glass of sherry. 'Well, here's thanks for your safe home-coming. I suppose one ought to pour it on the ground as a libation or something, but the situation is too serious for that. Do you know we've got over three thousand bottles of vintage port still left in the cellars of this club, and only about six months left to go, if what you scientists say is right?'
John Osborne was suitably impressed. 'Fit to drink?'
'In first-class condition, absolutely first class. Some of the Fonseca may be just a trifle young, a year or two maybe, but the Gould Campbell is in its prime. I blame the Wine Committee very much, very much indeed. They should have seen this coming.'
Peter Holmes repressed a smile. 'It's a bit difficult to blame anyone,' he said mildly. 'I don't know that anybody really saw this coming.'
'Stuff and nonsense. I saw this coming twenty years ago. Still, it's no good blaming anybody now. The only thing to do is to make the best of it.'
John Osborne asked, 'What are you doing about the port?'
'There's only one thing to do,' the old man said.
'What's that?'
'Drink it, my boy, drink it-every drop. No good leaving it for the next comer, with the cobalt half-life over five years. I come in now three days a week and take a bottle home with me.' He took another drink of his sherry. 'If I’m to die, as I most certainly am, I’d rather die of drinking port than of this cholera thing. You say you none of you got that upon your cruise?'
Peter Holmes shook his head. 'We took precautions. We were submerged and underwater most of the time.'
'Ah, that makes a good protection.' He glanced at them. 'There's nobody alive up in North Queensland, is there?'
'Not at Cairns, sir. I don't know about Townsville.'
The old man shook his head. 'There's been no communication with Townsville since last Thursday, and now Bowen has it. Somebody was saying that they've had some cases in Mackay.'
John Osborne grinned. 'Have to hurry up with that port, Uncle.'
'I know that. It's a very terrible situation.' The sun shone down on them out of a cloudless sky, warm and comforting; the big chestnut in the garden cast dappled shadows on the lawn. 'Still, we're doing our best. The secretary tells me that we put away over three hundred bottles last month.'
He turned to Peter. 'How do you like serving in an American ship?'
'I like it very much, sir. It's a bit different to our navy, of course, and I've never served in a submarine before. But they're quite a nice party to be with.'
'Not too gloomy? Not too many widowers?'
He shook his head. 'They're all pretty young, except the captain. I don't think many of them were married. The captain was, of course, and some of the petty officers. But most of the officers and enlisted men are in their early twenties. A lot of them seem to have got themselves girls here in Australia.' He paused. 'It's not a gloomy ship.'
The old man nodded. 'Of course, it's been some time, now.' He drank again, and then he said, 'The captain- is he a Commander Towers?'
'That's right, sir. Do you know him?'
'He's been in here once or twice, and I've been introduced to him. I have an idea that he's an honorary member. Bill Davidson was telling me that Moira knows him.'
'She does, sir. They met at my house.'
'Well, I hope she doesn't get him into mischief.'
At that moment she was ringing up the commander in the aircraft carrier, doing her best to do so. 'This is Moira, Dwight,' she said. 'What's this I hear about your ship all getting measles?'
His heart lightened at the sound of her voice. 'You're very right,' he said. 'But that's classified information.'
'What does that mean?'
'Secret. If a ship in the U.S. Navy gets put out of action for a while, we just don't tell the world about it.'
'All that machinery put out of action by a little thing like measles. It sounds like bad management to me. Do you think Scorpion's got the right captain?'
'I'm darned sure she hasn't,' he said comfortably. 'Let's you and me get together someplace and talk about a replacement. I'm just not satisfied myself.'
'Are you going down to Peter Holmes' this weekend?'
'He hasn't asked me.'
'Would you go if you were asked? Or have you had him keel-hauled for insubordination since we met?'
'He never caught a sea gull,' he said. 'I guess that's all I've got against him. I never logged him for it.'
'Did you expect him to catch sea gulls?'
'Sure. I rated him chief sea gull catcher, but he fell down on the job. The Prime Minister, your Mr. Ritchie, he'll be mighty sore with me about no sea gull. A ship's captain, though, he's just so good as his officers and no better.'
She asked, 'Have you been drinking, Dwight?'
“I’ll say I have. Coca-Cola.'
'Ah, that's what's wrong. You need a double brandy-no, whisky. Can I speak to Peter Holmes?'
'Not here, you can't. He's lunching with John Osborne someplace, I believe. Could be the Pastoral Club.'
'Worse and worse,' she said. 'If he happens to ask you down, will you come? I'd like to see if you can sail that dinghy any better this time. I've got a padlock for my bra.'
He laughed. 'I'll be glad to come. Even on those terms.'
'He may not ask you,' she pointed out. 'I don't like the sound of this sea gull business at all. It seems to me that there's bad trouble in your ship.'
'Let's talk it over.'
'Certainly,' she replied. 'I'll hear what you've got to say.'
She rang off, and succeeded in catching Peter on the telephone as he was about to leave the club. She came directly to the point. 'Peter, will you ask Dwight Towers down to your place for the week-end? I'll ask myself.'
He temporized. 'I'll get hell from Mary if he gives Jennifer measles.'
'I'll tell her she caught it from you. Will you ask him?'
'If you like. I don't suppose he'll come.'
'He will.'
She met him at Falmouth station in her buggy, as she had before. As he passed through the ticket barrier he greeted her with, 'Say, what happened to the red outfit?'
She was dressed in khaki, khaki slacks and khaki shirt, practical and workmanlike. 'I wasn't sure about wearing it, meeting you,' she said. 'I didn't want to get it all messed up.'
He laughed. 'You've got quite an opinion of me!'
'A girl can't be too careful,' she said primly. 'Not with all this hay about.'
They walked down to where her horse and buggy stood tied to the rail. 'I suppose we'd better settle up this sea gull business before meeting Mary,' she said. 'I mean, it's not a thing one wants to talk about in mixed company. What about the Pier Hotel?'
'Okay with me,' he said. They got up into the jinker and drove through the empty streets to the hotel. She tied the reins to the same bumper of the same car, and they went into the Ladies' Lounge.
He bought her a double brandy, and bought a single whisky for himself. 'Now, what's all this about the sea gull?' she demanded. 'You'd better come clean, Dwight, however discreditable it is.'
'I saw the Prime Minister before we went off on this cruise,' he told her. 'The First Naval Member, he took me over. He told us this and that, and among other things he wanted us to find out all we could about the bird life
