To Risks Unknown (45 page)

Crespin sat back in the chair, the brief announcement moving through his mind, as if he was hearing it spoken aloud.

He had last seen the
Thistle
in Brindisi sixteen months ago, since when so much had happened, and yet as he read the paragraph once more it felt as if it was yesterday. Now she was gone, taken by the Atlantic which she had fought for so long and with only one pause. And that pause, her efforts and disappointments, her final victory over the
Nashorn
had not even been mentioned. Perhaps, like all the other acts and sacrifices, hers was just a brief episode after all. An episode which he had shared, and now, would never forget.

He stood up and walked unseeingly round the cabin, his mind filled with pictures and memories, of faces and names, of all the things which had made that one battered little ship so different.

Perhaps she had never really recovered from the wounds she had received, and when she had again challenged her common enemy, the Atlantic had triumphed.

He thought, too, of Wemyss and Porteous, Magot and Joicey, and all the others. She was in good company wherever she was, and would keep her last secret forever.

He realized that someone had knocked at the door, and when he turned he saw his first lieutenant framed in the entrance.

‘Just wanted to discuss arrangements for leave and so forth, sir.' He saw Crespin's eyes and added, ‘I'm sorry, sir. Is something wrong?'

Crespin looked away from the lieutenant's sleeve with its interwoven gold lace. Like Wemyss. Wemyss who had loved the ship, perhaps more than any of them.

He said, ‘Nothing wrong.' He had even replied to Wemyss like that when he had received Penny's letter. Now Penny was over there in the hotel with their child, waiting for him, as she always did. He recalled too how Wemyss had tried to comfort him when the aircraft had been reported missing. Perhaps in his own way he had wanted to share his grief.

He picked up his cap and looked slowly round the cabin. ‘I just read something in the paper. About an old friend.' He broke off. Who did he really mean? ‘I'll tell you about it one day.'

Then he brushed past him and walked out into the rain.

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Epub ISBN: 9781448106134
Version 1.0

Published by Arrow Books 1969

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Copyright © Douglas Reeman, 1969

Douglas Reeman has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

First published in Great Britain in 1969 by Hutchinson

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9780091801199