Wyatt did not find the answer to his questions that evening. Julie
seemed very pleased to see
him, but did not seem
to want to be alone with him. When he went into the bar of the Grand
Hotel, she was talking to
an older man with
short grey hair and a square face. Julie introduced him as John
Causton, an Englishman who
was a newspaper
reporter with a big London paper. Then a few minutes later Harry
Hansen came in and joined
them, and the four of
them stayed together all evening. Wyatt was very cross about that,
but there was nothing that
he could do about it.
Causton was very interested in Wyatt. 'Why is an Englishman working
for the United States
Navy?' he asked.
'I'm not English. I'm a West Indian,' explained Wyatt. 'My family has
been in the West Indies
for nearly four hundred
years. And I don't work for the Navy, I work with them. They've
borrowed me from the
Weather Office, and I'm doing a
special study on hurricanes.'
'What's the latest news on Mabel?' asked Hansen.
Wyatt looked unhappy. 'I'm worried about her,' he said. 'I've got a
strange feeling that she's
going to do something
unusual, but I don't know what or when.'
'She's a bad girl, all right,' said Hansen.
'And who', said Julie coldly, 'is Mabel?'
Hansen laughed. 'One of Dave's girls. He's got a lot of them.
Remember Laura a few months
ago, Dave? You had
some fun with her!'
'And so did you!' said Wyatt, smiling.
Causton suddenly laughed. 'You're talking about hurricanes. aren't
you?'
Julie smiled, but said crossly, 'Why must they give girls' names to
hurricanes? Why not men's
names?'
'Girls' names are easy to remember,' said Wyatt, with a serious face,
'and so hard to forget.' He
smiled at her
suddenly, and Julie's face went a little pink. Wyatt began to feel
more hopeful. While Causton
and Hansen went to
buy more drinks, he asked Julie to spend the next afternoon with him.
She agreed readily, and
Wyatt began to feel
that the evening was a success after all.
During dinner in the restaurant. Julie asked Wyatt to explain why
hurricanes happened.
Hansen laughed. 'Don't start him talking about hurricanes. He'll go
on for hours!'
Causton took out his notebook. 'I'm a newspaperman,' he said,
smiling. 'I'm always interested
in information.'
'Well,' began Wyatt. 'First, you need a warm sea and still air. The
warm air just above the sea
rises, wet and heavy,
and cooler air comes in from the sides underneath to take its place.
Then, because the world is
turning, this moving
air also begins to turn.' He borrowed Causton's notebook and began to
draw pictures to show
them. 'Higher up, the
warm wet air meets cold air, and the water in the warm air starts to
fall as rain. This also
makes a lot of heat, and so
everything begins to get hotter and bigger, and move faster. The
winds are now moving in a
circle and pulling
outwards, so the air pressure in the centre of the circle becomes
very low. This is the 'eye' of
the hurricane, where
the air is very still. But the air pressure on the outside of the
circle is very high, so the winds
move faster and faster
to try to get into the centre. And so a hurricane is born. Then it
begins to move forward, and
meets more warm sea
and still air, and everything is repeated. A hurricane is a huge heat
engine, bigger and stronger
than a thousand
bombs.'
Wyatt stopped, and Julie looked at him. 'Well, I hope Mabel doesn't
come near San
Fernandez,' she said.
'When did you last have a hurricane here?' asked Causton.
'In 1910. It hit St Pierre and killed 6,000 people.'
'1910? Perhaps we shouldn't worry about Mabel, then,' said Causton.
'And I've heard that there
are other dangers
here. President Serrurier, for example. I've heard that he's killed
20,000 people on this island
since he's been
President.'
Hansen shook his head. 'Serrurier is bad news,' he said, 'but nobody
can stop him.'
They finished their meal and moved back into the hotel bar.
Causton bought them all drinks, and then asked,
'Have any of you heard of a man called Favel?'
'Julio Favel?' said Wyatt. 'Yes. He's dead.'
'Serrurier's men caught him in the hills last year and killed him.
That was the story in the
newspapers here,' said
Hansen. He turned to Julie and explained, 'Favel was a rebel, but he
was very popular with the
people here. They
wanted him to fight Serrurier and win, and so become the new
President.'
Causton picked up his glass. 'I've heard,' he said lazily, 'that
Favel is still alive.'
Wyatt looked at him and smiled. He decided that he liked John
Causton. 'Ah!' he said. 'So
that's why you've come to
San Fernandez. Where there's a newsman, there's always trouble.'
'I think it's the other way round,' said Causton gently. 'Where
there's trouble, there's always a
newsman.'
The conversation turned to other things, and not long afterwards
Wyatt and Hansen left to
return to the Base. As
they drove through St Pierre, they noticed a lot of police standing
at street corners. There were
also large groups of
soldiers marching through the streets.
'Serrurier must be worried about something,' said Wyatt. 'Perhaps
Causton's right about Favel.'
'If it is true that Favel's alive,' said Hansen unhappily, 'there's
going to be a lot of trouble.'
Outside the town, the road to Cap Sarrat was quiet. All the way home
Wyatt thought about
Julie, and about her
smile, and what she had said, and what she hadn't said.
He also thought a little about Mabel.