The Man who Missed the War by Dennis Wheatley

undertaking.’
    ‘So long as they are decent fellows I don’t mind how rough they are.’
    ‘Leave it to me then. But it’s early yet, and there’s no point in your paying retainers for longer than you have to. Towards the end of July will be time enough to get your crew together.’
    The next few weeks slipped by very quickly. During thedaytime Philip was busy buying the miscellaneous cargo which he intended to ship on his Number One raft, and arranging for such supplies as oil for the launch and beacons, additional sails, medical stores and food for the voyage; all of which were to be shipped in the Number One raft owing to the launch’s limited accommodation. In the evenings and over week-ends he continued to enjoy a hectic time with Jean and Lexie and their friends. New York was now stiflingly hot, so he often slept out at the Foorde-Bilson house, and at the beginning of July they at last persuaded him to move out there permanently. Jean was the prettier of the two girls, but Lexie was more fun. She also took much more interest in Philip and was making him into quite a passable dancer. Not unnaturally, this propinquity with an attractive young woman was having its effect, and Philip found himself devoting much more time than ever before to thinking about red lips, dark curling eyelashes and the graceful curve of long silk-stockinged legs; yet he did not allow his mind to be distracted from any essential preparation for his voyage.
    There was one bad hitch over the construction of the cargo containers which prevented the completion of the rafts by the promised date; but they were delivered a week later, on July the 27th, and, after Philip, Eiderman and Thorssen had given them a very thorough inspection, declared to be satisfactory.
    Thorssen had in the meantime secured a crew, which he presented to Philip down at the dock. Their leader, Hans Auffen, who was to act as bo’sun, was a huge man with a cast in one eye. A small, scrawny-necked man called Dirk had been taken on as wireless operator and cook; a third, Jan Schmaling, admitted to being an engineer who had lost his ticket, and there were two others, both big, bovine-looking men with cropped heads and china-blue eyes.
    They all spoke some English and appeared willing enough, but they were as tough a looking bunch as could have been found on any dockside. As he surveyed them, Philip wished that he had taken the trouble to go down to the British Seamen’s Mission and try his luck there, before appealing to Eiderman. It was only now brought fully home to him that he would have to share extremely cramped quarters with five such habitués of the fo’c’sle for many weeks and, since that had to be, he would have muchpreferred them to be men of his own nation. However, he felt that it was too late to alter the arrangement that had been made for him, so, having satisfied himself that all the men fully understood for what they were signing on, he took them over one of the rafts, explained the sails and the beacons and gave instructions as to how the cargo was to be stowed.
    It was August the 8th before the loading was finally completed, and now it only remained to await a suitable wind. Thorssen had arranged that one of the ships in which he had an interest, the S.S.
Regenskuld
, then in New York harbour, should tow the launch and convoy down the Hudson and out to sea, releasing it only when there was no longer any danger of its fouling other shipping, or being driven back on to the shore through a sudden veering of the wind. Philip and Eiderman’s company were the only people interested in the venture, and Eiderman said that he was greatly in favour of keeping the whole thing quiet in case other people should muscle in on it; so, as there was to be no special send-off, Philip agreed that there was nothing to prevent his sailing the moment conditions were considered favourable.
    For three days he waited with an impatience that even Lexie could not banish; then, on