A few nights later we were well into the South China Sea. I was chatting with the Mate about the old-time Chinese pirates who used to prey on the trading ships which ventured into this area while Mavis, concealed by the shadows, was tickling my blanket-covered naked thighs with her blonde hair. She was out of sight under the blanket and getting a kick out of teasing me by removing her mouth every time I was on the verge of ending things. Finally I grabbed her by one ear and held her there until I was satisfied. Like the Captain, the Mate was completely unaware of what was happening.
Then came the night when we sailed within sight of Vietnam. In a few more days, we’d be docking at Manila. I decided it was time to really cement the relationship with Mavis. I went looking for her and found her coming out of the wireless shack.
“Are you sendin’ a wire ahead then?” I greeted her.
“Yes.” She looked a little flustered, which was out of character for her. “To my sister,” she added hastily, “asking her to meet me when we dock."
“Might I be seein’ you back to your cabin?” I asked, letting her odd reaction slide past. “To speak with you in private, if I may.”
“All right.”
When we entered the cabin, she left the door open behind us. I closed it pointedly. “Now then—” I began.
“You know, there’s been something different about you today, Liam,” she interrupted.
“Different? I don’t take your meanin’.”
“I’m not sure.” She held a finger up to her cheek and looked at me.
I had the feeling suddenly that she was sure, that she was playing with me, playing some sort of cat-and-mouse game. “Sure an’ there’s nothin’ different,” I told her.
“Yes, there is.” She snapped her fingers. Again I had the feeling that she was putting me on, that whatever it was she was pretending to have just noticed had really been noticed by her before. “That’s it! ” she exclaimed, but still not convincing me. “It’s your eye-patch. Up until today, you’ve always worn it over your left eye. But now you’ve got it over your right eye.”
Damn! I’d really goofed. My left eye had been bothering me from constantly being kept in the dark. I hadn’t consciously decided to switch the patch, of course. But I had put it on the wrong eye without thinking. It was a dead giveaway.
I couldn’t think of any excuse, so I decided to try to steer Mavis away from the topic as quickly as possible. “Never mind that,” I told her. “ ’Tis somethin’ else I’ve got on my mind. We’ve only a few days left, an’ I’ll not be put off any longer.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean. this hanky-panky is all very well, but there comes a time when a man wants his woman as he’s meant to have her. In bed! Between the sheets! Naked in his arms! With all o’ the organs fittin’ togither as they should.”
“Surely, you’re not suggesting—”
“Just as surely, that I am!” I pushed Mavis onto the bed and started removing her clothes. “Just once, without our bein’ sneaky about it an’ without an unknowin’ audience,” I told her. “I’m goin’ to be makin’ love to you that way this once -- an’ perhaps more! There’s been enough now o’ this damn foolishness!”
“You are not! ” Mavis Wriggled free, ran over to the door and flung it wide open. “Now you get out of here with your indecent proposals!” she yelled, her head held high, her face the very picture of outraged virtue. “Just what kind of a girl do you think I am?”
I was damned if I knew the answer to that one!
chapter seven
Ba-room!
Prim-pom-pum!
Ba-room! Ba-room!
“Heave to!” The megaphoned voice echoed through the night. “Heave to and prepare to be boarded!”
It was only a few minutes since Mavis had slammed the door behind me. I’d slunk down the corridor and out onto the deck. The night had been dark and quiet. We were too far from the Vietnam coast to hear the artillery or any other sounds of battle2 . And our northeasterly course was taking us still farther from the trouble spot.
But not far enough! The sudden sound of naval cannon pegging shots well over our bow told me that. I heard the sound of the shells deliberately over-shooting us and then the voice before my eyes could make out anything in the darkness. It was only when the sound of our own engines ground to a halt that my eyes were able to pierce the blackness and make out the huge, ghostly shadow silently slipping through the sea until it was alongside us.
It was a U.S. destroyer. Huge and menacing, it towered over us. It was blacked-out and running silent as befit a warship patrolling a war zone. From the bridge hovering above us, the voice sounded again.
“Identify yourselves.”
“The freighter Luzona Maru out of Valetta and bound for Manila.” It was the Captain answering from our own bridge.
“What is your nationality? ”
“We fly the Portuguese flag.”
“Very well. We will board you now,” the voice from the ship announced.
“I protest! We are in international waters!” the Captain shouted back.
“Your protest has been duly noted. Prepare to receive a boarding party.”
Curious, I went up to the bridge and joined the Captain as two American naval officers and four sailors came aboard the Luzona Maru. The sailors remained on deck while the two officers came up to the wheelhouse. They saluted the Captain smartly.
“Our apologies for this intrusion, Captain,” the senior officer opened.
“It is your government which owes an apology to the Portugese government,” the Captain replied hotly. “This is inexcusable!”
“These are inexcusable times we live in, Captain,” the senior officer said smoothly. “We don’t wish any international incident over this. I hope you’ll try to understand. My government is engaged in some very bloody fighting in Vietnam. We owe it to our fighting men to maintain a naval blockade so that the enemy can’t be supplied.”
“I have nothing to do with all that,” the Captain insisted stiffly. “Vietnam is none of my concern. Manila is my destination. And I fly the flag of a noncombatant. Furthermore, this is an unpardonable infringement on the rights of a neutral nation. I shall see that Lisbon is informed immediately!”
“We would like to avoid trouble,” the senior officer told “If you cooperate, it will be simpler for all of us. And we won’t have to bother with filling out reports and exchanges of letters between our governments. I mean, Captain, let’s face it sensibly. What it boils down to is that Portugal will make a formal protest, my government will apologize, and in the end Portugal will accept the apology. But I am apologizing right now. Why don’t you accept my apology, an then it won’t have to go any further.”
The Captain considered it a moment. “Very well,” he decided. “If you leave my ship immediately.”
“I thought you had the look of a reasonable man, Captain. Now, I wonder if you mightn’t stretch that common sense a bit and allow my men to have a look at your cargo.”
“So that's it!” The Captain was angry. “The answer is absolutely not! ”
“And if I instruct my men to examine it anyway?”
“Then it will indeed become a matter between our governments.”
“So be it.” The naval officer sighed. “I had hoped I could persuade you to cooperate. But if you won’t, then there will simply have to be an international incident. I’m going to instruct my men to examine your cargo.”