Sword in Sheath Read Online Free PDF Page B

Operation Lincoln — a hush-hush job. Lord, Lorens, what has happened to you?”
    “I do not understand.” Van Bleeker looked from one to the other. “Can it be that you are already friends of long standing?”
    “Friends that never saw each other in the flesh before,” Lorens van Norreys explained. “Our friendship was a paper one, but nonetheless real for that We wrote regularly for several years before the war and were most ardent correspondents before I joined the Underground. After that it was much better for all to believe that Lorens van Norreys was truly dead — and so he was — very effectively, it now appears. It is indeed a strange trick of fortune which brings us two aboard the Sumba thus. Old Klaas would have said that it had been written so at our birth — ”
    “Klaas — that half-Malay follower of your grandfather — “ Kane remembered. “Is he with you now?”
    Van Norreys made a curious little gesture. “Klaas, like so many other worthy ones, is gone.”

    All the other questions which had been on Kane's tongue got no further. But Lorens smiled again.
    “Sit down,” he suggested, “and let me help you to some of this very excellent fruit We have days of voyaging before us in which to catch up on ancient history. But first — tell me what brings you to the Sumba — to my great good luck!”
    “A man hunt” Kane outlined the Safield story. “And now — what are you doing here?”
    “Nothing so romantic — merely trying to open again the House of Norreys. For three hundred years we have bought jewels in these islands to resell in the world. Now I am attempting to pick up the scattered pieces of what was once a flourishing business. Being the last of the Norreys line I must be buyer, designer, and perhaps goldsmith all in one. But that is how my ancestors started the House, and we can do it again!”
    “The last of the Norreys — but what of your cousin Piet — ”
    “Piet was a flyer — remember. And as a flyer he went to Arnhem. He did not return. Now it is left to me to prove that my grandfather's blood is not altogether lost in my veins. So I came here to the Indies to buy enough jewels to start work again. Maybe within a year or two you shall be able to see our mark on a ring or a necklace — if I am lucky.”
    “Jewel buying!” Sam repeated, regarding the young Netherlander with the same round-eyed wonder he would have shown had the other declared he was hunting for dragons.
    “Yes. Pearls, black coral, minor stones. Whatever has been overlooked by the looters during the past few years. I have designs here, ready and waiting” — he touched his forehead with the tip of an artist's finger — “but I need the raw materials with which to bring them to life. Some of my grandfather's agents are still in trade, and with afew of them the House of Norreys still possesses a favorable balance — which I am now attempting to collect. Not in the least an adventurous or exciting occupation, believe me.”
    “Mijnheer Captain!”
    The Eurasian second officer of the Sumba burst through the door and crowded past the tray-laden Chinese steward.
    “The hatch, Captain — ”
    “And what is the matter with the hatch?” But van Bleeker was already on his feet and moving.
    “It is bewitched, Captain!”
    “What? What foolishness are you bleating now, Felder?”
    “The truth only, sir. Come and see!”
    Not only the captain but his passengers too crossed decks and climbed down ladders to the large amidships hatch. Ringing it was a crowd of native seamen who were standing there silently, just staring at what Kane first thought to be a crooked billet of wood fastened in some way to the canvas cover of the hatch.
    Van Bleeker stopped short a foot or so away from the thing and squatted down to examine it closely. But he made no move to touch it. The seamen retreated as the others came up so that Kane was able to see that the object was really a crudely carved staff or cane which had