“They’re not too keen on hanging around the dock area at night. It’sa rough place and taxi-drivers are obvious targets.” He grinned. “That goes double for good-looking young women, by the way.”

She smiled ruefully. “Don’t rub it in. I’d no idea what I was letting myself in for, but I was getting desperate. I’d been waiting in Lulworth for someone for most of the day. When it became obvious that he wasn’t going to show up I decided to come looking for him.”

“Van Sondergard?” Mallory said. “I heard you ask the barman about him.”

“Did you know him?”

“He had a room along the corridor from here. I had a drink with him once when he came in the bar. Nothing more than that. Where did you meet him?”

“I didn’t,” she said. “The whole thing was arranged through the seamen’s pool. I told them I need someone to take a motor-cruiser across to the Channel Islands for me and captain her for a month or so until my sister-in-law and I were capable of looking after her ourselves. I also told them we’d prefer someone who’d done a little skin-diving. They put me in touch with Sondergard.” She sighed. “He seemed rather keen on the idea. I’d love to know what changed his mind.”

“It was very simple really. He was sitting in the bar half drunk, feeling rather sorry for himself, when one of his old captains walked in, due out on the morning tide for Suez and short of a quartermaster. Three drinks was all it took for Sondergard to pack his duffel and go off with him. Sailors have a habit of doing things like that.”

He swallowed his brandy, took out an old leather cigarette case and offered her one. “Are you a sailor, Mr. Mallory,” she asked as he struck a match and held it forward in cupped hands.

He shrugged. “Amongst other things. Why?”

“I wasn’t sure. If I’d been asked I’d have said you were a soldier.”

“What makes you say that?”

“I think you could say I know the breed. My father was one and so was my husband. He was killed in Korea.”