An Old Captivity Read Online Free PDF Page A

off the Greenland coast, and thought grimly to himself that this was going to be a lot of fun. He nodded slowly, and said aloud: “How many of us will there be?”
    Lockwood hesitated. “I should like to take an assistant, but he isn’t really essential. The basic points are—I must go myself, and we must get a good set of photographs. Then, during the winter I can study the air photographs, in preparation for a digging party next year.” He paused. “This air survey is really a preliminary to the main work, which will be next year.”
    Ross nodded. “I see.”
    Presently he said: “Have you considered at all what a survey like this is going to cost?”
    The archaeologist shook his head. “I really have very little idea. How much would it cost?”
    Ross had to think quickly. He liked Lockwood, in spite of the fact that the don was grossly ignorant of what he was proposing. The pilot could see a mass of difficulties ahead already. Still, he liked the man and he liked the idea of the expedition; in spite of all the difficulties and dangers, hewould like to have a crack at it. He did not want to kill the proposition at this stage by giving an inflated cost. What would it run out to, now? He would have to have a single-engined cabin seaplane. He could pick up a Bellanca or a Cosmos second-hand in Canada for five or six thousand dollars in that time of slump—not much to look at, but sound enough, Petrol, oil, shipping the seaplane and erecting it, moorings to be laid at all the harbours they would visit—the camera, and all the photographic gear; the making up of the mosaic from a couple of thousand photographs. He calculated quickly in his head.
    “I think you’d have to reckon on at least four thousand pounds,” he said.
    To his relief Lockwood smiled. “These expeditions always cost more than one thinks,” he observed. “You’ll have to talk it over with my brother.”
    “Oh!”
    The pilot ground his cigarette out in an ash-tray. “You won’t mind if I speak plainly?”
    The other looked surprised. “Not at all, Mr. Ross.”
    Ross said: “I’m not sure that you quite realise what it is that you’re proposing.”
    The don nodded slowly. “Would the flight be so difficult?”
    The pilot said: “It’s not impossible, but it’s very unusual. Only four or five aeroplanes have ever been to Greenland, and those have met with difficulties and troubles that you don’t get normally. Maintenance is difficult, because there’s literally nothing there at all. The ice is a devil, I believe. The machines that have been there have been taken by powerful and wealthy expeditions after six months of preparatory work. And even then they had difficulties, and crashes. You want to go without the backing of a ground expedition, and with only six or seven weeks from now before we have to start.”
    Lockwood took off his glasses and polished them on his handkerchief. “There seem to be more difficulties than I had supposed,” he said mildly.
    Ross smiled. “I think that is so. Don’t think I’m saying that the flight can’t be done, or that we can’t get your photographs. I think we probably can. But you’ll have to realise from the start that there’s a good bit of risk about it.”
    The don said: “I suppose you mean—danger to life?”
    The pilot shrugged his shoulders. “Well, of course, there’s that as well. It won’t be as safe as sitting in this chair. But I wasn’t thinking about that. I was thinking of the money risk. You may spend thousands of pounds, and still get no results. We may get out there, and lose the ship at her moorings in a gale of wind. We may crash her. Anything could happen on a flight like that, with any pilot that you like to give the job to. Then you’ll have spent your money, but you won’t have any photographs to show for it.”
    There was a momentary silence.
    “But is there any other way to get these photographs?”
    The pilot laughed shortly. “No, there’s not. To