Mr. John Garland? I am Admiral Sir William Irvine.'

The C-in-C himself! I was not in any mood for him, or any of the others who were staging a Roman Holiday out of Peace's death. I was still short of breath from the fight.

I have been trying to get hold of you for three days.'

One of the officers looked shocked at my abruptness. Irvine remained bland. You'll appreciate that in view of the high public esteem in which Commander Peace was held, it was not possible to rush through the arrangements.'

Arrangements be damned,' I retorted. If Peace had had his way, he would have asked to be thrown over the side with some old iron at his feet to take him down.'

Commander Peace was very unorthodox, we know,' he replied thinly. He frowned at the whisky-blurred glass and the broken bottle. It appears that his friends are, too.'

Mac the engineer and I were saying goodbye to him in our own way,' I snapped back. We broke a bottle of whisky over his face. It's the sort of thing that would have appealed to him.'

The admiral looked pointedly at my dishevelled appear ance. May we sit down and discuss the arrangements?'

He and the officers found themselves chairs and one of them smoothed out a typewritten sheet.

Ackroyd?

The officer went into action with the smooth competence of a computer. He read: Funeral arrangements for the late C o m m a n d e r G e o f f r e y P e a c e. T h e b o d y w i l l l i e i n s t a t e aboard the yacht Bellatrix for three days..

Three days!' I exclaimed. You mean this sideshow-' I gestured at the coffin-' is to go on for three days just to satisfy the ghoulish whims of a lot of sightseers?'