· 6 June 1939 ·
HAWKE CASTLE
It’s open.”
A deep, gruff voice came from somewhere behind the thick carved double doors of Lord Hawke’s private study. Hobbes opened them and silently ushered them all inside. The room took Nick’s breath away. Circular, round as a compass, completely encircled in glass, it had panoramic views in every direction!
The floor, Nick saw, was a Mercator projection map of the English Channel inlaid in brilliantly colored marble. Nick found himself standing astride a compass rose inlaid in silver, and, looking west for the mainland of England, he saw its green marble coastline disappearing under Lord Hawke’s large mahogany desk. Little Kate stood, one foot on the green coast of France, the other in the blue stone channel. A fleet of scale-model battleships and cruisers were arrayed across the floor. So, Nick saw, Hawke waged mock sea battles too, on this vast likeness of the Channel!
“I suppose I should introduce myself, shouldn’t I?” Hawke said, walking around a large round table set with silver and china. He was uncomfortable, Nick could tell, clearly unused to the company of strangers. “And then you can all tell me your names, won’t you? I believe that’s still how it’s done, when uninvited strangers intrude on one’s closely guarded privacy.” He began filling his cup with tea and sat down, frowning, and folding his hands before him on the table. He was met with silence.
Hobbes looked stricken. “I’m terribly sorry, m’lord, but I thought you wished us to come up. We won’t trouble you now, if it’s not convenient, surely.” Hawke looked at Hobbes for a moment, unsmiling, and then turned his gaze to the window, staring in brooding silence at the sea below.
“As you wish,” Hawke said quietly.
“It’s my fault, your lordship,” Nick said, nervously. “We thought it was important to bring some things to your attention, and—”
“Yes, yes, come along, children. Gunner,” Hobbes said, gathering them up, “his lordship feels perhaps another time would be best.” Hobbes was already moving toward the door. “We’ll set a proper time for a formal visit. I think that would be best.”
“Yes,” Nick said, backing toward the door. “Some other time. We’ll come back some other time. Come along, Kate.” Nick took his sister’s hand and joined Hobbes at the door. They were all backing out the way they’d come in, pulling the door closed after them when Hawke finally spoke.
“No, no, no,” Hawke said, turning to them, a pained expression in his eyes. “Don’t go. Please. I’m terribly sorry. You must understand that I am not used to having anyone but Hobbes for company. You’re all here, aren’t you, so I insist that you have some tea. Please sit. I insist.” Nick looked at Hobbes, who nodded, and they all returned to the table and took their places, staring at each other as the embarrassing silence deepened and filled the room.
“Well,” Lord Hawke finally began, “as you may have guessed, I am Lord Hawke, the reclusive proprietor of this rather drafty old establishment,” he said, smiling when they acknowledged his feeble joke. “Now, tell me who all of you are, won’t you?” He looked at Hobbes. “Hobbes, you’re exempted, of course,” he said with a smile. “I already know who you are, don’t I?”
Nick guessed that Hawke was making these small jokes in an effort to ease the strain of the situation and he found himself both grateful and impressed.
“I see you’ve all met Commander Hobbes. He’s far too modest to tell you this, but he is the Royal Navy’s most brilliant weapons designer. All of the experimental craft you must have seen moored in my underground basin are his work.” Nick looked at Hobbes with the kind of reverence normally allotted to the gods. Here, then, was the genius behind the two-man sub! And the tri-motor seaplane!
“Who might you be, child?” Hawke suddenly asked Kate, swiveling his head in her direction. He had a fierce gaze, and you knew when he was looking at you.
“Katie McIver, age six,” Kate said shyly, “almost seven.”
“Ages, too? I’ll excuse myself from that one, if you don’t mind,” said Hawke. “But, thank you, Kate. This poor room hasn’t known the sound of children’s voices in many, many years, I’m terribly sad to say.”
A haunted, wounded look passed across his face and Nick had a sense of deep mourning about the man, of a heavy sadness filling the castle. Sorrow seemed to have settled in here, like dust on the chandeliers and in the draperies. Hawke, though hardly older than Nick’s father, had the look of a man aged prematurely by grief.
Hawke was tall with sharply chiseled features, and wore long curly blond hair that brushed the collar of his loose-fitting white cotton shirt. He certainly didn’t look anything at all like Nick had expected an English lord to look. Although he’d never met a peer of the realm before, Nick more or less expected them all to be short and rather plump, with red cheeks and wavy white hair. And wearing blue pinstriped suits with gold watch chains spangled across their waistcoats.
Lord Hawke looked, Nick thought—well, he looked more like one of the Three Musketeers! Behind his sadness, there remained a faint sparkle in his crinkly blue eyes, the look of someone who, once upon a time, had gotten a great deal of fun out of life.
“I’m Archibald Steele, m’lord,” Nick heard Gunner say, interrupting his study of Lord Hawke. “Royal Navy gunnery, retired. Me friends call me Gunner, sir, and I’m most sorry to have intruded upon your privacy.”
Archibald? Nick looked at Gunner, astounded. He’d never heard Gunner divulge his real name before.
“May I count myself among their number, Gunner, and call you that as well?” Hawke asked.
“I’d be honored, m’lord,” Gunner said, smiling nervously. He still had the air of a man who was feeling lucky just because he’d not yet been shot at point-blank range. He hadn’t wanted to come here, and clearly Hawke was making an enormous effort to be polite about their intrusion. In an odd way, though, Gunner felt that the man was glad they were there.
“Well, Gunner, have some tea and tell me more about this mysterious sea chest. Hobbes assures me it’s something I should see, or I should never have subjected the three of you to my black moods and poor manners.”
“It’s here, m’lord, let me place it on the table,” Gunner said, and he did, the muscles in his massive forearms bulging with the effort.
Lord Hawke looked at the chest for a long moment, running his hand over it, and then at Nick, and once again Nick had the feeling he was undergoing the careful scrutiny of Hawke’s appraising eye.
“And you, of course, must be young Nicholas McIver,” Hawke said, pausing before going on. “Although we’ve never met, I’m sure you’ve guessed our common interest in, shall I say, ‘migratory birds,’ Mr. McIver?”
Once again, a little joke to ease the terrible tension that still filled the room.
“Were you aware that your father and I were in fact, comrades-in-arms?”
Nick was both astounded and delighted. To be involved in such an important mission, keeping an eye on the Nazis for Churchill, and to possibly have the help of a famous detective such as Lord Hawke, and Hobbes too—well, it defied belief. “No, sir! What with all the island rumors, Gunner and I, why, we weren’t even sure if you still lived here! Much less that you were one of Father’s fellow birdwatchers!”
“I expect not! No one did! In fact, until today, Hobbes and I have been one of the best kept secrets in all England!” His face turned suddenly grave, remembering that a serious breach of security had just occurred. Two children and an old navy warhorse had just penetrated his impenetrable fortress. His manner turned deadly serious once more.
“Sadly, Nick, it’s unfortunate that you’ve come here. This is a top-secret military installation. Our systems are all designed specifically to prevent just such intrusions as yours. But, now that you’re here, you must swear yourselves to solemn secrecy. In the name of His Majesty, King George, I must have your sacred oath that you will reveal nothing of what you have seen or will hear today. Lives are at stake, including that of Commander Hobbes and your own father, Nick.”
He looked at them each in turn. Katie and Gunner looked as if they had fallen off the planet and landed in a different world. And, in a way, they had. A top-secret naval installation? On an island where nothing ever happened?
“His lordship is correct. Do you so solemnly swear, upon your sacred honor?” Hobbes asked.
“Upon our sacred honor, your lordship,” they answered as one.
“In the name of His Majesty the King,” Kate added, in an awed little whisper. This, she thought, was secret-keeping at its very best!
“I only allowed Hobbes to bring you up here,” Hawke said, “because there are three issues of grave importance. The first being the appearance, according to what Hobbes tells me, of William Blood on this island. Is this true?” he asked, looking directly at Nick.
“I’m afraid so,” said Nick. “Although I just met him myself, the fellow has kidnapped my dog, sir.”
Lord Hawke regarded him in solemn silence for a moment.
“I’m sorry,” Hawke said. “You must all understand that Blood’s appearance is an event of enormous significance to me personally. I will explain why that is so in due course. However, I understand that your encounter with Blood was preceded by the discovery of this particular chest. An officer’s seagoing chest that would appear to be of the type common in the Navy in the beginning of the nineteenth century, and yet it has the finish of a brand-new one, doesn’t it? Odd, I must say. And, finally, Hobbes and I have seen a dramatic increase in U-boat activity round the island in recent weeks. Apparently, Nick, there’s an Alpha-Class lurking about?”
“Gunner and I were nearly able to put a clock on an Alpha-Class, sir,” Nick said, with a mixture of excitement and modesty. “We estimate she was doing at least seventeen knots, your lordship. Submerged!”
“Seventeen submerged!” Hawke’s eyes widened in amazement. “Do you hear that, Hobbes? Nick, I want you to give the commander a complete account of this submarine’s performance. Did you identify her?”
“U-33, your lordship,” Nick said. “May I borrow a pen to write it all down, sir?”
“I insist that you do so immediately, while it’s fresh,” Hawke said, handing the boy his own fat black Mont Blanc pen.
Commander Hobbes drew a sharp breath. “U-33. That’s the one we’ve been looking for, your lordship! I knew she was cruising in these waters, I knew it! Well done, lad, splendid effort!”
“We’ll need every scrap of information on her, lad,” Hawke said, his eyes gleaming with excitement as Nick scribbled furiously. “And the sooner this new intelligence gets across the Channel to Chartwell the better, eh, Hobbes? Tonight, if that’s at all possible? Uncle Winston will be delighted!”
“Tonight, sir,” Hobbes said, nodding in agreement. “Thor is fueled and ready.”
“Let’s turn our attention to this sea chest, shall we?” Hawke said, pulling the chest toward him. “Nick, be so kind as to tell me everything you can remember about the circumstances of its first appearance. Then we’ll find out what’s inside.”
Nick found himself involuntarily taking a very deep breath.
I’m going to find out what’s inside the chest, and it’s going to change my life forever.
He told Lord Hawke about the discovery of the chest. About his shock at seeing his own name on the lid. And how surprised he’d been at its appearance when he’d noticed that, despite it’s age, it was still flawless, shiny, perfect. Or, rather, that it had become so while in his possession.
“And you say Billy Blood appeared on the very night you discovered the chest?” Hawke asked.
“Yes, sir,” Nick answered. “He was at the Greybeard Inn when we stopped in to get dry. It was cold and raining something awful and Katie’s timbers were shivering something fierce. We thought Gunner might have a fire going, and he did.”
“Gunner, you were there last night, you saw Blood when he first appeared?” Hawke asked. Nick noticed that he was making notes as everyone spoke.
“Appeared is the right word for it, your lordship, which it’s just what they did, all right,” Gunner replied, finally realizing that not only was Hawke not going to shoot them for invading his privacy, it looked like he was actually going to help them get to the bottom of all these strange goings-on! “They just appeared, sir, but I didn’t see ’em do it. Popped-in, sort of thing. Out of thin air, m’lord.”
“They? What do you mean?” asked Hawke. “They?”
“Well, there was two of ’em, wasn’t there, m’lord? Plus the bird? See, it was a dark and blowy night, as your lordship will remember. And all my lads as usually likes to lift a pint down at the inn had stayed home with the missus to keep warm and dry. Place was empty as a crypt, nobody there but meself and me old tomcat, Horatio, and wind howlin’ around the windows and down the chimney so I built us a nice fire, I did, sir. Horatio bein’ a cat as likes his nice warm fire.” Gunner stopped and took a look around to see if anyone was listening to his tale. Nick couldn’t remember a time when Gunner’d had this much to say, but he supposed having such a famous audience as Lord Hawke encouraged him to loosen his tongue.
“Please continue, Gunner,” Lord Hawke said, holding a match to his cigar and sending a stream of smoke from the corner of his mouth. “And please don’t leave anything out, no matter how unimportant you feel it may be.”
“Well, like I was sayin’, custom was scarce last night on account of the storm, and I stepped out into the kitchen to ladle a dollop of cream into Horatio’s bowl, him bein’ my only patron of the evenin’, and when I steps back, there’s this swervy-looking polecat sittin’ there, starin’ into the fire and smokin’ this long bony pipe. And his mate, lurkin’ back in the shadows, like he didn’t want no one lookin’ at him.”
Gunner paused and looked at his hands, trying to remember everything. Nick saw Katie shudder at this mention of Blood’s companion and he shuddered himself at the memory of the man’s horribly disfigured face in the firelight as Gunner resumed his tale.
“I didn’t hear the door bang open or bang shut, nor even the rain blowin’ in or blowin’ out! Or, anythin’ at all! But, there them piratical creatures sat, all cosy by the fire with that bright red parrot perched on the one’s shoulder, whisperin’ in his ear and—”
“Parrot! We didn’t see any parrot, Gunner!” Nick said, leaning forward and grabbing Gunner’s arm. He turned to Hawke. “Your lordship, I forgot to mention that there was a strange parrot guarding the chest when we found it! Bit my sister it did, too!”
“It doesn’t really hurt anymore,” Katie said, proudly holding up her bandaged finger for all to inspect.
“On my word, sir,” Gunner said. “Blood had a parrot he did, big, red, nasty-lookin’ bird, too. Shifty-eyed creature perched on his shoulder and talked a blue streak, too, though you couldn’t make out what it was sayin’. Parrot talked right in his master’s ear, he did, like he was tellin’ him secrets!”
“I’m sorry, sir,” Nick said to Hawke. “There was no parrot in the room when we saw Blood. Only a single red feather.”
“He’s correct, sir,” Gunner said. “Now I recollect it, the parrot was flown from this Blood’s shoulder when the young ones arrived. Never saw that bird again, either. Just disappeared, it did. Popped in, popped out. Blink of a ruddy eye, your lordship, that’s how they navigate, these three.”
“So, Hobbes, Bill’s brought old Bones with him this time,” Hawke said. “That’s not good.”
“Indeed he has, and Snake Eye, too, apparently,” Hobbes added, his face clouded with a dark frown.
“Yes!” Nick cried. “That’s right! Blood called the fellow hiding in the shadows, Snake Eye! Who is he, Commander?”
“Someone you never in this life want to meet again,” Hawke said, placing his hand on Nick’s shoulder. “If you can help it. I’m sorry, I must fetch some of our chronological equipment from my laboratory. Will you all excuse me for a few moments?” And with that, the famous detective stepped to the gleaming brass fireman’s pole, leapt onto it, and dropped instantly from sight.
So much for plump little lords in pinstriped suits, Nick thought with a smile.