Part 16 (1/2)
We had better find so comfortable and central”
She looked across at me quizzically
”It would probably be a lot ot a double roo turn over in”Funny you should say that, I was just about to suggest the sahed for the first time in two hours
”I saved you the trouble” She shook her head, still laughing ”I'll stay with ot a spare room in his apartment in Pimlico, and there is a little pub around the corner It's friendly and clean you could do worse”
”I am crazy about your sense of humour,” I muttered
She Phoned the uncle from a call box, while I waited in the car
”It's fixed up,” she told er seat ”He's at horound-floor apartment in a quiet street near the river
I carried Sherry's bag for her as she led the way, -and rang the doorbell
The htly built He was sixtyish and he wore a grey cardigan, darned at the elbows His feet were thrust into carpet slippers The horey hair was neatly cropped as was the short stiff moustache His skin was clear and ruddy, but it was the fierce predatory glint of the eye and the military set of the shoulders that warned me This man are
”My uncle, Dan Wheeler” Sherry stood aside to introduce us
”Uncle Dan this is Harry Fletcher”
The Youngme about,” he nodded abruptly His hand was bony and dry and his gaze stung like nettles ”Come in Come in, both of you) ”I won't bother you, sir-” it was quite natural to call hio, ”I want to find digs ht she shook her head al beyond them into the apartment It was monastic, completely masculine in the severity and economy of furniture and Ornaments- Somehow that room seemed to confirm my first impressions of the e while seeing as much of Sherry as I possibly could
”I'll pick you up in an hour for lunch, Sherry,” and when she agreed I left them and returned to the Chrysler The pub that Sherry recommended was the Windsor Arested, they put me in a quiet back room with a fine view of sky and television aerials I lay on the bed clothed, and considered the North family and its relatives while I waited for the hour to run by Of one thing only was I certain that Sherry North the Second was not going to passto keep pretty close station upon her, and yet there was much about her that still puzzled me I suspected that she was a ested It was going to be interesting finding out I put the thought aside, sat up and reached for the telephone I made three phone calls in the next twentyin Fenchurch Street, another to the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich and the last to the India Office Library in Blackfriars Road I left the Chrysler in the private parking lot behind the pub, a car is more trouble than it is worth in London, and I walked back to the uncle's apartment Sherry answered the door herself, and she was ready to leave I liked that about her, she was punctual
”You didn't like Uncle Dan, did you?” she challenged me over the lunch table and I ducked
”Ifor is in Blackfriars Road It's in Westo down there after we've eaten”
”He really is very shen you get to know hiirl, he's your uncle You keep him”
”But why, Harry? It interests- army, navy?” She stared at me
”How did you know that?”
”I can pick them out of a crowd”
”He's army, but retired - why should thatto try ” I waved the o for the duck,” and she accepted the decoy, and concentrated on the food
The India Office Archives were housed in one of those square lass and airforcenue steel panels, Sherry and I arned the book We ue Room and thence to the marine section of the archives These were Presided over by a neatly dressed but stern, faced lady with greying hair and steel-rimmed spectacles
I handed her a requisition slip for the dossier which would include ht and she disappeared a
It enty minutes before she returned and placed a bulky dossier on the counter top beforea column on the stiff cardboard folder ”Funny!” she remarked ”You are the second one who has asked for this file in less than a year”
I stared at the signature JA Nard, in the last space We were following closely in Jined'RICHARD SMITH, below his name
”You can use the desks over there, dear” She pointed across the room ”Please try and keep the file tidy, won't you, then”
Sherry and I sat down at the desk shoulder to shoulder, and I untied the tape that secured the file
The Dawn light was of the type known as the Black'wall frigate, characteristically built at the Blackwall yards in the early nineteenth century The type was very siates of that period
She had been built at Sunderland for the Honourable English East India Coister tons At the waterline her dimensions were 226 feet with a beam of twenty-six feet Such a narrow beam would have made her very fast but uncomfortable in a stiff blow
She had been launched in 1832, just the year before the Company lost its China ed her whole career
Also in the file were a whole series of reports of the proceedings of various courts of inquiry Her first e he piled the Dawn Light on to the bank at Diahly River He was found by the court of inquiry to be under the influence of strong drink at the ti of hiroaned softly and roled her eyes at my wit
The trail of e in the South Atlantic the elderlywatch let her co helpless with her top haside, she was found -by a Dutched into Table Bay The Salvage Court made an award of 12,000 pounds
In 1846 while half her creere ashore on the wild coast of New Guinea they were set upon by the cannibals and slaughtered to a man Sixty-three of her crew died
Then on the 23rd September, 1857, she sailed from Bombay, outward bound for St Mary's the Cape of Good Hope, St Helena and the Pool of London
”The date” I placed e that Goodchild talks of in the letter”
Sherry nodded without reply, I had learned in the last few minutes that she read faster than I did I had to restrain her froe when I was only three-quarters finished Now her eyes darted across each line, her colour was up, a soft flush upon her pale cheeks, and she was biting her underlip
”Coed me ”Hurry up!” and I had to hold her wrist
The Dawn Light never reached St Mary's - she disappeared Three months later, she was considered lost at sea with all hands and the underwriters were ordered by Lloyd's to ood their assurances to the owners and shi+ppers
The o was impressive for such a so that consisted of
364 chests of tea 494 half-chests of tea 101 chests of tea 618 halfchests of tea 577 bales of silk 26 boxes various spices 72 tons on behalf of Messrs Dunbar and Green
65 tons on behalf of Messrs Sistone