We’d just got Oakley approximately upright, no easy task, for he was practically a dead weight and we required one hand for him and one for ourselves, when Goin and the Count appeared at the top of the ladder.
‘Thank God, at last!’ Goin was slightly out of breath but not one hair was out of place. ‘We’ve been looking for you every—what on earth! Is that man drunk?’
‘He’s sick. The same sickness as Antonio had, only he’s been lucky. What’s the panic?’
‘The same sickness—you must come at once, Marlowe. My God, this is turning into a regular epidemic.’
‘A moment.’ I helped Oakley inside and lowered him into as comfortable a position as possible atop some kapok life-jackets. ‘Another casualty, I take it?’
‘Yes, Otto Gerran.’ Maybe I lifted an eyebrow, I forget, I do know I felt no particular surprise, it seemed to me that anyone who had been within sniffing distance of that damned aconite was liable to keel over at any moment. ‘I called at his cabin ten minutes ago, there was no reply and I went in and there he was, rolling about the carpet—’
The irreverent thought came to me that, with his almost perfectly spherical shape, no one had ever been better equipped for rolling about a carpet than Otto was: it seemed unlikely that Otto was seeing the humorous side of it at that moment. I said to Allison: ‘Can you get anyone up here to help you?’
‘No trouble.’ The quartermaster nodded at the small exchange in the corner. ‘I’ve only to phone the mess-deck.’
‘No need.’ It was the Count. ‘I’ll stay.’
‘That’s very kind.’ I nodded at Smithy and Oakley in turn. ‘They’re not fit to go below yet. If they try to, they’ll like as not end up over the side. Could you get them some blankets?’
‘Of course.’ He hesitated. ‘My cabin—’
‘Is locked. Mine’s not. There are blankets on the bed and extra ones at the foot of the hanging locker.’ The Count left and I turned to Allison. ‘Short of dynamiting his door open, how do I attract the captain’s attention? He seems to be a sound sleeper.’
Allison smiled and again indicated the corner exchange. ‘The bridge phone hangs just above his head. There’s a resistance in the circuit. I can make the call-up sound like the QE2’s fog-horn.’
‘Tell him to come along to Mr Gerran’s room and tell him it’s urgent.’
‘Well.’ Allison was uncertain. ‘Captain Imrie doesn’t much like being woken up in the middle of the night. Not without an awfully good reason, that is, and now that the mate and bo’sun are all right again, like—’
‘Tell him Antonio is dead.’
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