Read Online Shute, Nevil by What Happened to the Corbetts - Free Book Online Page B

bacon and eggs. They consumed this in the dim light of an ecclesiastical candle; the electricity was dead again. The food made them feel better.
    Corbett lit a cigarette from the candle, and stared reflectively at his wife. ‘I don’t know what you think,’ he said, ‘but I’m getting a bit tired of this.’
    ‘You couldn’t be more tired than I am. How many more raids like this do you think we’re going to get?’
    ‘Lord knows. I think we ought to think about clearing out into the country.’
    She nodded. ‘I’ve been feeling like that, too. But where would we go? To the boat?’
    ‘It’s the only place we’ve got.’
    He gave her a cigarette, and held the candle for her while she lit it; they sat and smoked in silence over the remains of their meal. ‘It’ld be awfully difficult,’ she said at last, sighing a little. ‘I mean, three children on a little boat like that!’
    ‘It would be possible,’ he said. ‘Put Phyllis and John in the companion bunks, and rig up a sort of cradle in the forecastle for the baby.’
    ‘Over the lavatory, I suppose.’
    ‘That’s right. Then you and I could sleep in the saloon.’
    She shook her head. ‘It would be awfully difficult. There’s such a lot of washing to be done for the baby, and you know what it is, carrying water on board. Besides, what would we do for milk?’
    ‘Use tinned milk. But anyway, we’d be at Hamble. That’s in the country. You might be able to get milk more easily there than here.’
    ‘You should be able to.’
    ‘As regards the water,’ he said, ‘It seems to me that wherever we are we’ll have to start carting it before long. I haven’t noticed any water coming in here yet, except the rain. I don’t know how much there is left in our tank upstairs, but I bet it’s not much. We might get better water there than here.’
    He paused. ‘You couldn’t wash the nappies out in salt water, using salt water soap?’
    Joan wrinkled up her nose. ‘Not much. What about this, though? Suppose we sailed the boat up a river-right away from the sea? Where she’d be floating in fresh water?’ She paused. ‘We’d have all the water that we wanted, then.’
    He sat for a minute, deep in thought. ‘It’s an idea,’ he said. ‘I don’t know where you’d find a river like that on the south coast, though. A river deep enough to float our boat, where the water wasn’t salt.’
    He got up from the table. ‘Let’s sleep on it,’ he said. ‘We’ll make a decision in the morning.’
    She lingered for a moment in the dark, shadowy entrance hall as they made their way upstairs. ‘It’s horrible even to think of leaving,’ she said slowly. ‘I mean-this is our home.’
    He took her hand. ‘Never mind. It won’t be for long.’
    She went up to the nursery to sleep with the children. He turned into his own room and took off his shoes and coat, then he threw himself on the bed in his clothes and pulled the blankets over him. Very soon he was asleep.
    He slept late. Joan, taking the children downstairs to cook their breakfast, looked in on him; she did not wake him. It was not till ten o’clock that he awoke, thrust his feet into his shoes, and went downstairs.
    ‘You should have waked me,’ he said to Joan. ‘I’d have given you a hand.’
    She smiled at him. ‘Come and eat your breakfast.’
    He rubbed a hand over his unshaven chin. ‘Have you heard anything of Littlejohn?’
    ‘Not this morning.’
    ‘I’ll just go in and see if they’re all right. Then I’ll come along. You can leave the washing-up-I’ll do that.’ He had no thought of going to his office.
    He went out to his front door. In the street he met Mr. Littlejohn returning to his house, grey and troubled. He said: ‘You’ve heard the news?’
    “No,’ said Corbett.
    ‘Cholera,’ said Mr. Littlejohn.
    Corbett stared at him, wide-eyed.
    ‘There’s been an outbreak of Cholera, down Northam way. Over seventy cases, so they say. They’ve got patrols on