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For that matter, there was another question, on the other side of the fence,
for why did Father Tide continue to associate with my uncle if he believed him
capable of such an act? It was completely out of character for both of them!
Father Tide remained cheerful to the very end. He talked about the fine flavor
of the sea-steaks, and the succulence of the new sea-fruits that were our
dessert; but my uncle Stewart hardly answered.
I was glad when the meal was over.
Father Tide left us, and I walked with my uncle back through the clattering,
cluttered streets toward his shabby office. He was still very quiet, and he
walked painfully, like an invalid.
But as we came to the entrance to Number 88 he abruptly stopped and seized my
arm.
His voice was vigorous; he said: "I'm sorry, Jim! I'd hoped you could come up
to the office with me, but
Well, I've got an appointment. It's very important to me;
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I know you'll understand."
"Yes, Uncle Stewart," I said, and I said good-by to him right there on the
street.
For I did understand.
There was a man who had peeped out of the shabby entrance to Number 88 just as
we approached it.
It was that man whom my uncle had seen a split second before he stopped me and
suddenly "remem-
bered" his appointment.
And I knew that man. I had seen him before. I had seen him, in fact, under
circumstances very like the present ones.
The man was the withered old Chinese I had seen with
Bob Eskow, in the barracks and again wandering the radials of Krakatoa Dome.
And he was holding a heavy little parcel wrapped in sea-pulp.
I couldn't help thinking that it was just about the right size to be the
missing model of the ortholytic sonde.
I found myself back at the Base, hardly knowing how I
had got there.
70
Bob Esfcow and Harley Danthorpe looked at me queer-
!y, enviously on the part of Harley Danthorpe and with an emotion that I could
hardly recognize from Bob, an emotion that seemed almost like fear.
"Lucky lubber!" exclaimed Harley. "Whafve you got on Lieutenant Tsuya, anyway?
That's the second pass!"
But Bob only said quietly: "The Lieutenant wants you to report to him at
Station K."
I hurried down the remaining few levels gratefully for
I did not want to stay and talk to Bob Eskow just then.
I found Lt. Tsuya busy at his desk in the damp, dead silence of the station,
inking in the isobars and isogeo-
therms and isogals on a deep-level plutonic chart.
"Well, Eden?" Fatigue and strain showed in his voice.
"Do you have anything to report?"
I hesitated only a second. "Nothing, sir!" For it was true that I had no facts
... and whatever my uncle might be doing, I was not going to go to this
lieutenant with mere suspicions.
Lt. Tsuya hesitated, his pumpkin face worried. "It is,'*
he said, "about what I expected."
Absently he picked up a red pencil and mechanically began to shade in the zone
of stress he had outlined on his plutonic chart. I noticed that the potential
fracture-plane was almost directly beneath the site of Krakatoa Dome.
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He looked up at me, blinking his swollen eyes. "I've given Cadet Eskow a
pass," he said abruptly. "He re-
quested it, and I decided he should have it."
It caught me off balance. "But I just saw him in the barracks," I protested.
"That's right. I held it up in Yeoman Harris's office until you got back,
Eden, because I want you to follow him."
"Follow him?" I blazed. "But I can't do that! He's my best friend. Why, I
wouldn't "
"At ease, Eden! the lieutenant barked. I stiffened and was quiet. More gently,
he said: "I know he is your friend.
That is the very reason why I want you to be the one to investigate. Do you
know what the alternative is?"
"Why why, no, sir. I mean, I haven't given it much thought."
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"The alternative," said Lt. Tsuya quietly, "is to turn the whole matter over
to the Security Division of the
Sub-Sea Fleet."
He paused.
"Once I do that," he reminded me, "the whole thing is out of my hands. If
Cadet Eskow is guilty of a severe breach of regulations, of course, that is
the place for it!
For I can't condone disobedience of orders, when the orders are as important
as they are in this case.
"But if Cadet Eskow is guilty only of shall we say
some error in judgment, then to turn the matter over to
Security might be to do him a grave injustice.
"It's up to you, Eden."
The lieutenant looked at me silently, waiting for me to answer.
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