" Norwegians' lives," added Reidar Bull. " Young Norwegians, who did not have your killer ways, Captain. I saw them. They flew right into your bullets. Your shooting was good-too good. Now you and your friends will pay for it.
" he glanced down at his shattered hand, as if something in his past were bringing alive again the seaplane crew's agony when the bullets went home.
" I have put these friends of mine, as you call them, in irons because they intended to kill me," I said. " Not only G.I. myself, but Sailhardy here. Look at his face, if you don't believe me."
I told them briefly about Norris' chart, Thompson Island, and what I had overheard on the Tannoy.
Reidar Bull replied with a four-letter word. The other two laughed harshly.
" I don't give a bloody damn for your fine stories-you can tell them all to Thorshammer," Reidar Bull said. " My job is to take you back to the destroyer, and I shall. We've got the catchers moored against the ice-edge about five miles from here. It will mean a slog across the ice, and I would not advise you to try any tricks. Now get down there!" He jerked the Schmeisser's muzzle towards the ice-platform. " Hanssen! Yours and Lars go and fetch the others there too. And get these gaping clots away-" indicating the crew-" I want a little talk with all the prisoners before we set off." Reidar Bull, Sailhardy and I waited fully ten minutes on the flag-marked platform for the others. When the three of us arrived, Helen swung herself slowly down from the helicopter cockpit. She said nothing. Our eyes met. In her sealeopard coat, she seemed to merge with the surroundings. The curtain of snow saved us the embarrassment of being stared at by Antarctica's crew.
Upton led, followed by Walter, Bjerko and Pirow, with Hanssen and Lars Brunvoll bringing up the rear. When Upton spotted Reidar Bull, he pushed back the hood of his bright blue weatherproof jacket, the flap of which was brilliant sky-blue and hung down on his chest like the bib under a locust's chin, and hurried towards him, smiling.
" Ah, Reidar Bull!" he exclaimed. " I am glad to see you! Yes, keep that man and the islander guarded. I knew you would come and rescue me. Now get these damn manacles off me and we'll make a plan."
Reidar Bull looked nonplussed. Hanssen and Brunvoll had obviously not told him about Thorshammer. The Norwegian's face became more sullen and angry. " You are all under arrest-no, not you, Bjerko, but you must make no attempt to help these men, do you understand?"
Upton dropped his manacled wrists slowly. His voice was full of menace. " By whose orders, Reidar Bull?" " Thorshammer's," he replied.
Upton rounded on the three skippers. " None of you has the guts of a wingless Bouvet fly," he said. " As soon as the going became a little tough, you ran off and blabbed everything to Thorshammer! Bah! You could have been rich men if you'd gone after the Blue Whales!"
Brunvoll broke in. " The hell with you and your Blue Whales! We've all had a bellyful of you, Sir Frederick. We don't know yet what you're up to, but it has ceased to include us, see? Your daughter sighted a big school of Blue Whales, but then we left them and went off at high speed into the worst ice I've ever seen. Blast your Blue Whales, and your blue ice also! All we're likely to get by staying with you is a blue arse as well."
Hanssen had his say, too. " In all our experiences, none of us has ever seen ice like this. Your fine ship's finished, and it serves you damn-well right."
Upton looked contemptuously at the blond Viking. " You're so scared, you're wearing your lucky charm."
The spur of a Wandering Albatross, mounted in silver at the base, was pinned in Hanssen's lapel. He started to finger it sheepishly, but Reidar Bull went on in a hard voice. " When we started out from Tristan, we knew we would take some risks. We knew we would come inside Norwegian territorial waters technically. That is nothing. A chance to make a little money, and a little risk on the side-that is fair enough. But the seaplane-we say Captain Wetherby, Walter, Pirow and you are bloody murderers. You're all in this together. We are turning you all in."
Upton swung on his toes. He tried his comradely charm. " Sailhardy had no part in the shooting. He was unconscious in his cabin. Let him go!"
Sailhardy's voice had an edge like the wind. " True, I was unconscious. I was unconscious because what Captain
Wetherby told you is true-they knocked me out."
Reidar Bull waved the Schmeisser. " You can go free, Sailhardy, but be careful. That is all I say. Try and help your captain and see what happens."
" If he goes, I go," retorted the islander. " If you march him to the catchers, I march too."
" Listen," I said roughly, " I'm not taking the blame for what Walter did. I didn't shoot down the seaplane. Ask the Aurora's helmsman."
" We did," said Brunvoll. "He saw you and Walter go up to the gun. He heard it fired."
" It is a weapon for two men, not one," Hanssen filled in. " Petersen the helmsman heard both the Spandau and the Hotchkiss. Two men fired that gun."
" Walter…" I started to say.
Neither Hanssen nor Brunvoll nor I are here to pass judgment," said Reidar Bull. " We are under orders-orders from a warship of my country, and we shall carry them out." Walter flicked a quick glance at Upton. " It is true I went up to the gun platform with Captain Wetherby," he said. " We crossed together from the factory ship to Aurora. It was Captain Wetherby's idea to shoot the seaplane down if it shadowed the fleet. At that time, I too agreed, but my heart failed me when I saw those poor boys come into the s i g h t s. I t o o a m a N o r w e g i a n. A m I t o k i l l m y o w n countrymen just because this English captain says so? Just for the sake of a few Blue Whales? I pull the gun harness to one side-you saw how the first burst of tracers went wide. But he is good on a gun, this captain. He is also strong. He pulls the gun round and gets in a burst with the quick-firer, the Hotchkiss. Then he tries to kill me with the same gun. He is kill-crazy. I have to shoot him with the Luger to stop this madness."
" Walter, you bloody lying bastard!" I snapped. "Reidar Bull, Brunvoll, Hanssen! These men are evil, and they are after something which is evil too. I have come to Bouvet to see what The Albatross' Foot is all about. I have no other interest."
" So," said Reidar Bull, " you are so keen on this current that you shoot down a seaplane? We are simple men, Captain Wetherby, but not as simple as that."
" It was I who pulled Walter off the gun," I protested. Their faces were hard with disbelief. "It was I who turned aside the first burst."
Reidar Bull waved aside what I was saying. " You can tell all this to Thorshammer. We are not very good men, Captain, and not very honest men, but we have seen two of our own kind killed coldly and ruthlessly. That is all we know. That is what made us signal Thorshammer." He turned to Pirow. " Get up there in the helicopter and signal Thorshammer. No tricks." He tossed the Luger across to Brunvoll. " Go with him, Lars, and see to it. Pirow, tell Thorshammer, I, Reidar Bull, have arrested the men who shot down the seaplane and will rendezvous with her at Bouvet, as arranged before." When Pirow had come across the ice to the platform, he had looked utterly worn out. Now his fatigue seemed to drop like a cloak. He shot a glance at Upton and shrugged slightly. He turned to me, showing off. " The Herr Kapitan reads Morse," he smiled. " Perhaps he will come to the door of the cockpit and assure you that I am sending the right message."
Reidar Bull looked puzzled, but agreed. I walked with Brunvoll and The Man with the Immaculate Hand to the helicopter. Helen stood back, white-faced, silent. There was a pause while Pirow, encumbered still with the manacles, went to the machine's radio.