Free A Bridge Of Magpies by Geoffrey Jenkins

war.'
    'You could call it that'
    Ìt's more than that, though.'
    'It's more than that.'
    I made a sweeping gesture which took in the collection and tape recorder. 'In old cathedrals people listen to tape '
    explaining the architecture and art they're looking at-but I wouldn't have thought the Sperrgebiet qualified for the same treatment.'
    She stayed silent for a few moments. Maybe, I thought, she was weighing my remark as a good let-out However, I discounted my suspicions about that the moment she replied. Her voice was warm, and revealed how grateful she was I'd accepted her story as 24-carat
    'I hadn't thought of it in those terms but mine's the same sort of idea–if you put the site of a naval battle in place of a cathedral. The lecture was going fine–until you showed up.''I was–am–trying to head you away from trouble.' '
    Thanks. There wasn't anyone around. I thought I'd get away with it?
    'You have?
    'What do you mean?
    'If I accompany you it's okay. This shoreline's part of my pad. Possession's my ship: I'm a sort of re-tread captain. Let's go and look at the wreck together.'
    60
    'I can't begin to thank you ..
    'Call me Struan: that'll be thanks enough.'
    'Struan.'
    'Is this a pilgrimage or a picnic, Jutta?'
    'Something of both, I guess.'
    She didn't go into that. Nor did she explain further her sight-and-sound set-up when we collected the documents and books and put heavy stones on top of them to keep them from blowing while we were away at the wreck. They made a formidable, and interesting, pile of documentation,
    'You've done a lot of homework, Jutta.'
    'Yes. It took years?
    Again, no more. She smiled, though, and I was pleased to see the pinched look go from her face. I left the explanations for later.
    We traversed the dome of rock which comprises Doodenstadt, winding and back-tracking through the 'streets' to get to our objective. The strange geological formation projected into the sea on one hand and into the desert on the other. At shoe-leather distance the lost city impressed me still less. We couldn't board the liner from the landward side. You could have driven a train through the torpedo holes in her. It was a miracle she'd stayed afloat long enough to be beached. Also-it must have been a spring tide that put her high up where she was.
    We stood and looked at her rusty plating. Jutta's interest took the chill off the sense of static disaster which the years hadn't softened.
    She said unexpectedly, 'Sorry I was like that back there, •
    Struan.'
    'Forget it. We're here now.'
    'It's just that it meant - means - so much.'
    I was on the point of asking for the explanation which I felt was becoming overdue; but I decided to play it gently for the moment.
    'You a historian, Jutta?'
    'Sort of;
    She didn't seem inclined to elaborate. It was faith, not fact, which had made me trust her in the first place. But patience isn't one of my strong suits. She intrigued me.
    I said, 'The South African sun didn't give you that complexion.'
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    She flushed, which made it better still. `No. London. I flew here, only a couple of days ago.'
    'That's a very long way to come for a view of a rotting old hulk. Especially one that's out of bounds.'
    'I told you, you could almost call it my cradle.'
    'A small reason for a big journey.'
    'Maybe. Don't come the cop again, Struan. You're nicer without.'
    'Let's try the other side of the wreck.'
    We caught the force of the wind there because the hulk had acted as a windbreak before. Now the spray came in jets when the breakers burst against the rocks. I found the wreck's air of desolation total and depressing. The weather side was red with rust. Crabs scuffled up and down the rotting plates and there was a population of tide-things a man's height up from the keel. Some smashed remains of lifeboats hung from perished falls.
    `Jut means davit in Danish,' Jutta
    'You're aJl sea.'
    'Maybe too much so, Struan.'
    I waited for the follow-up to this cryptic remark but it didn't come.