'What I can't understand,' Sam went on, 'is why the Ark wasn't crushed like an egg-shell under all that weight of water. We must have been seven or eight hundred feet below its crest when the wave struck us and at that depth the pressure per square foot is simply enormous.'
Gervaise tied a neat knot at the end of the bandage he had been winding round the splints on his brother's arm. 'I think I can answer that. The pressure was mainly behind us and the sphere was free to move forward with the wave. Naturally, the Ark's buoyancy caused it to start moving upwards the second the water covered it. Where we were fortunate was, that it must have been carried up very quickly; otherwise it would have been smashed to pieces against the trees on the far side of the park.'
'Well,' said Lavina cheerfully, 'the great thing is we're still all alive and kicking. Come on, Margery, my dear; although I haven't got a bone left in my body, I'm going to put you to bed.'
Having attended to her sister while Gervaise got the electric light going again, she spent an hour tidying the cabin and generally took charge of all the arrangements in a way that Sam found surprising. As he could cook and she couldn't she made him cook the dinner, but with quiet efficiency she selected what they would have, laid the table herself and, when the meal was cooked, carried trays in for Derek and Hemming' way. None of them felt much like eating as the Ark was nov> rolling slightly but continuously yet she cajoled and bullied them into eating up the food so that they should preserve their strength. When she was at last able to get to her cabin an° undress, she found on her body a dozen great bruises whicn were already turning a yellowish purple, and her head was splitting with fatigue; but as she crawled into her bunk si1 had the satisfaction of knowing that she had shirked nothing and gone through with the hideous business as well as any 0 trouper would have done when called upon to play a similar part on a nightmare film set.
The night passed uneventfully, but in the morning no land was to be seen and it was impossible to take an observation of the sun as the sky was still overcast with thick layers of dull, grey clouds. The compass showed them to be drifting west. It was raining gently and persistently as though it never meant to stop and a sudden change in the weather had made the temperature fall to such a marked extent that it seemed as if they had passed straight from June to October; but Sam coped with the heating plant, which had been thrown out of action, and once he had got it going the temperature in the Ark was soon adjusted.
Derek and Hemmingway both wanted to get up but, having taken charge of them, Lavina insisted that it would be better for them to spend the day in bed as, in any case, there was nothing for them to do and nowhere to go.
With her sister she was less merciful. Margery had passed a miserable night, but Sam's ankle was now swollen and Lavina decreed that he must keep it up; as there was no one else who could do the cooking, Margery would have to bestir herself, for an hour or two at all events, to attend to it. With the air of a martyr Margery obeyed the commands of her imperious younger sister while Lavina, who considered that she had done everything that was necessary, employed herself in amusing Hemmingway and Derek.
The two of them had had a brief slanging match after Hemmingway had come to the previous evening, following which they had agreed to forget the borrowed car; but a definite animosity still lingered and Lavina's presence was not calculated to have a soothing effect.
Derek had known her for so long that they had many subjects in common to talk about of which Hemmingway knew Nothing. She treated Derek with the familiarity of a brother and now called him 'darling' or 'my sweet' in the same way ^at she had been accustomed to throw casual endearments about among her friends in the film world. Hemmingway kept telling himself that he had not a shadow of right to resent heir cameraderie but he did resent it nevertheless.
On the other hand, Derek had little but his good looks and self-confident manner with which to attract Lavina's attention, whereas Hemmingway had not only an infinitely finer brain but a much quicker tongue, so he was able to offer much better entertainment.
Each would have denied it hotly if anybody had accused him of wishing to arouse Lavin's interest in himself, as they were both only too conscious that being married to Sam placed her out of bounds, but each was wishing secretly that he had her to himself, and cursing the presence of the other.
Lavina was perfectly conscious of the way they felt and, without the least malice, was thoroughly enjoying the situation. As Derek had very little to talk about outside the normal interests of a gentleman-farmer she had no desire at all for a tete-a-tete with him but while a heart-to-heart with Hemmingway would have intrigued her a lot she felt that would be too dangerous, in view of the experience through which they had been together.
After cooking lunch Margery retired to bed again, bemoaning the misery which the constant rocking of the sphere caused her. As there was nothing whatever for them to do Gervaise and Oliver decided to take a nap in the men's cabin where the two invalids were also dozing in their bunks. In consequence Sam, who had volunteered to keep a look-out although there was nothing to be seen on the vast expanse of waters which encompassed them, at last got Lavina to himself.
As the wireless was out of action she had just put a selection of records on the gramophone when Sam called her over to him. He was sitting in one arm-chair with his injured foot resting on another and, switching off the gramophone, she sat down in his lap. He petted her a little and then said quietly:
'My sweet, I've been wanting to have a chat with you.'
'Well, now's your chance,' she smiled down at him.
'It's about Margery,' he hesitated. 'You're not being very kind to her, are you?'
'My dear, I never give her a thought. She's just one of those people one doesn't think about. I gave up trying long ago but 1 certainly haven't been unkind to her.' .
'Don't you call it unkind to drag anybody who's feeling " out of bed to cook lunch?'
'Oh, that!' Lavina lit a cigarette and, tilting her aristocrat!0 profile in the gesture that Sam had so often admired, puffed out the smoke. 'Well, somebody had to cook lunch and you're the only one among us who can cook except Margery. I ought not to have let you cook dinner for us last night with a bad ankle like this and you must keep it up.'
'I know, my dear, but surely you could have knocked up some sort of a meal for us yourself instead of idling away the whole morning with Hemmingway and Derek? There's plenty of cold stuff among the stores; it only meant opening a few tins.'
'Really, Sam, I think you're being rather stupid. Margery's quite all right; only a little sea-sick, that's all. Why should you want me to treat her like a pampered baby?'
'She's a woman like yourself and entitled to consideration. Think of the fuss there'd be if anybody expected you to do a job of work when you were ill.'
T have, often. Naturally, I like people to fetch and carry for me. Why shouldn't they? They enjoy it. But many's the time I've walked on to a film set feeling like death and gone right through till the small hours of the morning in order not to hold up the rest of the cast.'
'Then I take off my hat to you, darling. But, all the same, I think you've got to take a different view of things from now on. Last week you were Lady Curry, a famous beauty with a millionaire husband, lots of servants and other people, either paid or willing, to run your errands in the sort of life we all knew. Now you're just my darling wife, Lavina, but that's the only thing that hasn't changed.'