The Light Between Oceans Read Online Free PDF

hatch.
    ‘Morning.’
    ‘Talk about brass-monkey weather! Hope you’ve packed your woollen underduds. If it’s like this here, it’ll be a bloody sight worse on Janus,’ said Bluey, breathing on his hands.
    While Bluey showed Tom over the boat, the skipper ran through his final checks. He gave the brine-smeared glass in front of him a wipe with a scrap of old flag, then called, ‘Ropes at the ready now, lad. Prepare to cast off.’ He opened the throttle. ‘Come on, old girl, off we go,’ he muttered, to coax the boat out of its berth.
    Tom studied the map on the chart table. Even magnified on this scale, Janus was barely a dot in the shoals far off the coast. He fixed his eyes on the expanse of sea ahead and breathed in the thick salt air, not looking back at the shore in case it made him change his mind.
    As the hours passed, the water deepened below them, its colour taking on the quality of a solid. From time to time Ralph would point out something of interest – a sea eagle, or a school of dolphins playing at the bow of the boat. Once, they saw the funnel of a steamer, just skirting the horizon. Periodically, Bluey emerged from the galley to hand out tea in chipped enamel mugs. Ralph told Tom stories of evil storms and great dramas of the Lights on that part of the coast. Tom talked a little of life at Byron Bay and on Maatsuyker Island, thousands of miles to the east.
    ‘Well, if you’ve lived through Maatsuyker, there’s a chance you’ll survive Janus. Probably,’ Ralph said. He looked at his watch. ‘Why not grab forty winks while you can? We’ve got a way to go yet, boy.’
    When Tom re-emerged from the bunk below, Bluey was speaking in a low voice to Ralph, who was shaking his head.
    ‘I just want to know if it’s true. No harm in asking him, is there?’ Bluey was saying.
    ‘Asking me what?’ said Tom.
    ‘If …’ Bluey looked at Ralph. Torn between his own eagerness and Ralph’s bulldog scowl, he blushed and fell silent.
    ‘Fair enough. None of my business,’ said Tom, and looked out at the water, which had now turned seal-grey, as the swell rose around them.
    ‘I was too young. Ma wouldn’t let me bump up me age to join up. And it’s just that I heard …’
    Tom looked at him, eyebrows raised in question.
    ‘Well they reckon you got the Military Cross and that,’ Bluey blurted. ‘Told me it said on your discharge papers – for the Janus posting.’
    Tom kept his eyes on the water. Bluey looked crestfallen, then embarrassed. ‘I mean, I’m real proud to be able to say I’ve shaken the hand of a hero.’
    ‘A bit of brass doesn’t make anyone a hero,’ Tom said. Most of the blokes who really deserve the medals aren’t around any more. Wouldn’t get too worked up about it if I were you, mate,’ he said, and turned to pore over the chart.
    ‘There she is!’ exclaimed Bluey, and handed the binoculars to Tom.
    ‘Home, sweet home, for the next six months,’ Ralph chuckled.
    Tom looked through the lenses at the landmass which seemed to be emerging from the water like a sea monster. The cliff on one side marked the highest point, from which the island sloped down gently until it reached the opposite shore.
    ‘Old Neville’ll be glad to see us,’ Ralph said. ‘He didn’t take kindly to being dragged out of retirement for Trimble’s emergency, I can tell you. Still. Once a keeper … There’s not a man in the Service’d leave a light go unattended, however much he carried on about it. I warn you, though, he’s not the happiest corpse in the morgue. Not much of a talker, Neville Whittnish.’
    The jetty stretched a good hundred feet out from the shoreline, where it had been built up tall, to withstand the highest of tides and fiercest of storms. The block and tackle was rigged, ready to hoist the supplies up the steep ascent to the outbuildings. A dour, craggy man of sixty-odd was waiting for them as they docked.
    ‘Ralph. Bluey,’ he said with a perfunctory nod.