Sword in Sheath Read Online Free Page A

bullet-pocked walls. Kane inquired at the desk for van Bleeker and had pointed out to him a slender man in the spotless white of a ship's officer who sat alone at a table in the restaurant corner of the lobby.
    “Capt van Bleeker?”
    The man who might have been in his middle forties raised his eyes politely to Kane's. The weathered skin of a seaman was a mask beneath a thick tangle of what once might have been blond hair. Now sun-bleached to silver white, that mop was as startling as the two very fair eyebrows against his dark skin.
    “I am Capt van Bleeker, yes. You will sit please, gentlemen.” He waved an invitation, and the Americans slid into the vacant chairs at the table while the master of the Sumba sipped his drink and waited for them to state their business.
    “I am Lawrence Kane, and this is Sam Marusaki. We're interested in taking passage down to the Moluccas, and we heard that you are sailing for there — ”
    “Perhaps,” returned van Bleeker tranquilly. “The Sumba is an island trader; she sails where she can find a cargo. And she is no passenger ship, gentlemen.”
    “We understand that, Captain. But Capt Boone of the United States Army suggested that we speak to you.We're trying to find a man who disappeared over the Banda or Arafura Seas, the pilot of a bomber reported missing somewhere between Timor Laotet and the Soelas.”
    Van Bleeker smiled politely. “That is something of a wide territory to cover. If you do not have any definite clues — “ He shrugged and raised his glass.
    “But you are bound for that section, aren't you?” persisted Sara
    “I sail for Jolo in the Sulus and then to Manado in Celebes — from there” — he shook his head — “it may be anywhere. You understand, I am a pioneer in re-establishing trade. I must go where I can find profit. During the occupation our business with the islands was wiped out. We must begin again. And southward there are hundreds of islands — your task is a formidable one, gentlemen I do not envy you.”
    “We can avoid the larger islands and those which have been visited recently by our forces. Our man would have been found if he were on one of those. But there are small islands — ”
    “True. And some of them are not even on any map — totally unknown except to native turtle fishermen. For a man to be lost thereabouts is not impossible. There is, for example, the classic case of the men of Kissar — ”
    “Kissar?”
    “Yes. A famous case, as unusual as that of the Bounty men who settle Pitcairn's Island. When the armies of the French Revolution overran the Netherlands, our island empire was cut off from the motherland for years. The British took over Sumatra and Java and those of the larger islands whose trade made it worth their while to control. But they did not bother to visit the smaller outposts on some of the little islands. Among those so disregarded was Kissar, which has no anchorage and was not a regular port of call. Left to its own devices uponKissar was a colony of Netherlanders, soldiers and merchants — some with European wives. For fifty years or more Kissar was off the maps of the world.
    “Then one day a coasting ship, much like my Sumba, sent a party ashore there — perhaps she needed water— perhaps her master was of a curious turn of mind. There the crew discovered a colony still in being, a colony whose members lived, dressed and spoke as Coast-Malays, but who were as Dutch in blood as Amsterdam itself. And to this day the men of Kissar continue to live as aliens to their blood — to all purposes they are island natives. What has happened before may well happen again. I would not say that your man cannot be found.
    “But the Sumba goes only for trade, where she may find cargo. If you sail with me you must abide by my decision as to route. If you discover a clue and wish to trace it to its source — the source being an island where the Sumba does not touch — well, that will then be your problem, not