Read Online Depths by Henning Mankell - Free Book Online Page A

round the mast was not patched and the sheets were whole rather than being knotted together from odds and ends of line. The nets, hanging neatly from the hooks, were small-meshed and evidently intended for catching herring. Furthest in was a well-worn path leading towards dense thickets of dog rose and sea buckthorn. The path meandered on beyond the thickets and between two large outcrops. Beside it, to his surprised delight, he observed a freshwater spring.
    Then he came upon a patch of level ground and a little cabin squatting in the shadow of a cliff wall. It had a brick chimney, and a thin wisp of smoke was rising skywards. The foundation was of rough stones, and the walls were made of grey planks, varying in width, none of them planed. The roof was patched with moss, but its base was a layer of turf. There was only one window. The door was closed. There was a little vegetable patch alongside the cabin. Nothing was growing in it at present, but somebody had made the effort of covering it with bunches of seaweed, to act as fertiliser. Further away, next to the cliff wall, was a potato patch. He estimated it to be twenty square metres. It too was blanketed in seaweed mixed with old, dried potato haulm.
    At that very moment the door opened. A woman emerged from the cabin. She was wearing a grey skirt and a dishevelled cardigan; she was carrying an axe, and her hair was long, golden and braided into a plait tucked into her cardigan. She caught sight of him and gave a start. But she was not scared and did not raise the axe.
    Tobiasson-Svartman was embarrassed. He felt as if he had been caught in the act, without knowing what the act was. He raised his hand to the peak of his cap and saluted her.
    'I didn't mean to come creeping up on you,' he said. 'My name is Lars Tobiasscn-Svartman, I'm a commander but not the master of the naval vessel that's anchored off the east side of the skerry.'
    Her eyes were bright and she did not lower her gaze.
    'What are you doing? I've seen the boat. It anchors here day after day.'
    'We're sounding depths and checking if the sea charts are reliable.'
    'I'm not used to seeing ships lying at anchor out here among the shallows. Even less to finding people on the island.'
    'The war has made it necessary.'
    She did not take her eyes off him.
    'What war?'
    He could tell that she was genuine. She did not know. She walked out of the door of a cabin on Halsskär and did not know that there was a major war in progress.
    Before answering, he glanced at the door, to see if her husband might put in an appearance.
    'There has been war for several months now,' he said. 'A lot of countries are involved. But here in the Baltic it's mainly the German and Russian Fleets stalking each other and hoping to strike a telling blow.'
    'What about Sweden?'
    'We're not involved. But nobody knows how long that will last.'
    Silence. She was young, could not have been thirty. Her face was entirely honest, like her voice.
    'How's the fishing going?' he asked politely.
    'It's hard.'
    'No herring about, then? Any cod?'
    'There are fish about. But it's hard.'
    She put the axe down on a chopping block. Next to it was a collection of branches and driftwood for making firewood.
    'I rarely have visitors,' she said. 'I've nothing to offer you.'
    'Oh, that's all right. I'm going back to my ship now.'
    She looked at him. He thought she had a pretty face.
    'My name's Sara Fredrika,' she said. 'I'm not used to being with people.'
    She turned and vanished into the cabin.
    Tobiasson-Svartman stared for ages at the closed door. He hoped against hope that it would open and that she would come out again. But the door remained closed.
    Then he went back to the Blenda. Lieutenant Jakobsson was smoking by the rail as he clambered on board.
    'Halsskär? Is that what the skerry's called? What did you find there?'
    'Nothing. There was nothing on it.'
    They continued with their work, lowering and raising the sounding leads through the water.
    All the