Free The Broken Sun by Darrell Pitt Page B

detective looked embarrassed. ‘I was actually talking to the ship.’ He
disengaged the tie ropes and brought the engine to full power. ‘Next stop,’ he said,
‘Norway.’

CHAPTER TEN
    It took a full day and a night to cross the North Sea. The lightening sky was wild
with scudding clouds, and the wind howled as the thrumming engines pushed the Lion’s
Mane onwards.
    Mr Doyle was an excellent pilot, but strong headwinds kept buffeting the vessel about
like a cork in a stream, until they finally crossed into Norwegian airspace.
    â€˜Did you know that Norway has one of the most rugged coastlines in the world?’
    Jack and Scarlet clung to a rail as the Lion’s Mane tilted wildly, but Mr Doyle seemed
completely at ease.
    â€˜No, I didn’t,’ Jack said. ‘We’re not about to crash into it, are we?’
    â€˜Not at all,’ the detective laughed heartily. ‘What can you tell me about Norway?’
    The ship seesawed in the other direction.
    â€˜Uh…a lot of Norwegians live there.’
    â€˜I must have a word to Miss Bloxley about your geography,’ Mr Doyle grumbled.
    Scarlet spoke up. ‘Norway is known as the Land of the Midnight Sun,’ she said. ‘For
some months of the year, the sun never completely descends below the horizon.’
    â€˜Imagine that,’ Jack said.
    The ship rocked.
    Mr Doyle pushed a button on the console. ‘Oh dear,’ he said. ‘That’s very unfortunate.’
    â€˜What is?’ Jack’s voice had gone up a key. ‘Is something broken?’
    â€˜I’m afraid so. I certainly didn’t prepare for this.’
    Jack tried to remember the evacuation procedures for the ship. He was supposed to
put on an inflatable lifejacket. Did he blow it up now? Or when he was in the water?
And was it every man for himself? But he couldn’t leave Scarlet behind! Or Mr Doyle,
for that matter…
    â€˜The refrigerator has lost power,’ the detective said. ‘My cheese will be off.’
    â€˜ Your cheese…? ’ Scarlet gaped.
    â€˜I know,’ Mr Doyle said. ‘I’m disappointed too.’
    Jack and Scarlet held on to the console as the airship tilted in the other direction.
    â€˜I think Miss Bloxley might have mentioned Norway.’ Jack had learnt more about geography,
history, literature and languages in the last few months than in his whole life.
‘But it must have slipped my mind.’
    â€˜The country of Norway has slipped your mind? The Norwegians would be less than pleased
to hear that!’ Mr Doyle said as the Lion’s Mane seesawed again. ‘Exhilarating, isn’t
it?’
    â€˜Quite!’ Scarlet replied, crashing into Jack.
    â€˜Goodness,’ Jack grunted.
    â€˜Here’s an interesting fact for you,’ Mr Doyle said. ‘Norway is growing larger.’
    Jack peeped through the window at the ground, hoping its growth was not simply because
they were about to crash into it.
    â€˜The entire country was covered in an enormous sheet of ice during the last ice age,’
Mr Doyle explained. ‘It is now, if you like, “bouncing back” from the weight of that
sheet because of a process known as isostatic rebound.’
    The ship was hit by a gust that almost knocked Jack and Scarlet off their feet.
    Bazookas . Jack knew his mentor was never without a book, even wandering about the
rooms at Bee Street with a volume in hand—and they were often on the most scholarly
subjects. Last week Mr Doyle had been on the back landing reading something entitled The Glorious History of Corsets and Their Tight Reign on British Society .
    The wild winds eased and the detective steered the Lion’s Mane inland. Jack and Scarlet
watched the landscape with interest. Mountains and ice and forests and inland bodies
of water stretched in all directions. Mr Doyle explained that the country had many
towns and cities, but the population