The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More(8)

        The crowd watched in silence.

        He entered the water.

        He kept going.

        Soon he was swimming. He was in his element now. He swam gracefully and very fast, with the head held high. The sea was calm, and he made little waves that fanned out behind him on both sides, like the waves of a boat. It was several minutes before we lost sight of him, and by then he was half-way to the horizon.

        The guests began wandering back towards the hotel. They were curiously subdued. There was no joking or bantering now, no laughing. Something had happened. Something strange had come fluttering across the beach.

        I walked back to my small balcony and sat down with a cigarette. I had an uneasy feeling that this was not the end of the affair.

        The next morning at eight o’clock, the Jamaican girl, the one who had told me about Mr Wasserman and the coconut, brought a glass of orange juice to my room.

        ‘Big big fuss in the hotel this morning,’ she said as she placed the glass on the table and drew back the curtains. ‘Everyone flying about all over the place like they was crazy.’

        ‘Why? What’s happened?’

        ‘That little boy in number twelve, he’s vanished. He disappeared in the night.’

        ‘You mean the turtle boy?’

        ‘That’s him,’ she said. ‘His parents is raising the roof and the manager’s going mad.’

        ‘How long’s he been missing?’

        ‘About two hours ago his father found his bed empty. But he could’ve gone any time in the night I reckon.’

        ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘He could.’

        ‘Everybody in the hotel searching high and low,’ she said. ‘And a police car just arrived.’

        ‘Maybe he just got up early and went for a climb on the rocks,’ I said.

        Her large dark haunted-looking eyes rested a moment on my face, then travelled away. ‘I do not think so,’ she said, and out she went.

        I slipped on some clothes and hurried down to the beach. On the beach itself, two native policemen in khaki uniforms were standing with Mr Edwards, the manager. Mr Edwards was doing the talking. The policemen were listening patiently. In the distance, at both ends of the beach, I could see small groups of people, hotel servants as well as hotel guests, spreading out and heading for the rocks. The morning was beautiful. The sky was smoke blue, faintly glazed with yellow. The sun was up and making diamonds all over the smooth sea. And Mr Edwards was talking loudly to the two native policemen, and waving his arms.

        I wanted to help. What should I do? Which way should I go? It would be pointless simply to follow the others. So I just kept walking towards Mr Edwards.

        About then, I saw the fishing-boat. The long wooden canoe with a single mast and a flapping brown sail was still some way out to sea, but it was heading for the beach. The two natives aboard, one at either end, were paddling hard. They were paddling very hard. The paddles rose and fell at such a terrific speed they might have been in a race. I stopped and watched them. Why the great rush to reach the shore? Quite obviously they had something to tell. I kept my eyes on the boat. Over to my left, I could hear Mr Edwards saying to the two policemen, ‘It is perfectly ridiculous. I can’t have people disappearing just like that from the hotel. You’d better find him fast, you understand me? He’s either wandered off somewhere and got lost or he’s been kidnapped. Either way, it’s the responsibility of the police …’

        The fishing-boat skimmed over the sea and came gliding up on to the sand at the water’s edge. Both men dropped their paddles and jumped out. They started running up the beach. I recognized the one in front as Willy. When he caught sight of the manager and the two policemen, he made straight for them.

        ‘Hey, Mr Edwards!’ Willy called out. ‘We just seen a crazy thing!’

        The manager stiffened and jerked back his neck. The two policemen remained impassive. They were used to excitable people. They met them every day.