coincidence that the names were the same? Was it just because of that your father was interested?â
âNo,â I said. âNo, it wasnât that.â And I added hastily, âItâs just that my father never talked about it.â I, too, felt cheatedâcheated because he hadnât shared the past with me when it belonged to me and was my right.
âNever talked about it? Why ever not?â Ledder was leaning forward. âLetâs get this straight. Are they related or notâyour father and this Ferguson who went into Labrador?â
âYes, of course they are,â I answered. âThey must be.â There was no other explanation. It explained so much that Iâd never understood. It was a pity that my grandmother had died when I was still a child. I would like to have talked to her now.
âWhat relationship?â Ledder was staring up at me. âDo you know?â
âHis father, I think.â It must have been his father for I hadnât any great uncles.
âYour grandfather, in fact.â
I nodded. And it would have been grandmother Alexandra who would have given him the names of James Finlay. I was thinking it was strange that my father had been born in the year 1900.
âBut how do you know itâs your grandfather?â Ledder asked. âHow do you know when you didnât even know there was an expedition back at the beginning of the century?â
I told him about the sextant and the paddle and the other relics hanging on the wall, and about my grandmother and the house in Scotland, and how sheâd come to me in the night when I was barely old enough to remember. âI think she must have been going to tell me about that expedition.â Talking to him about it, everything seemed to fall into placeâmy fatherâs obsession, everything. And then I was asking him about the expedition. âCan you give me the details?â I said. âWhat happened to Ferguson?â
âI donât know,â he answered. âIn fact, I donât know very much about itâonly what the Company geologist told me. There were two of them went in, from Davis Inlet. Two white men, no Indians. One was a prospector, the other a trapper, and it ended in tragedy. The trapper only just escaped with his life. The prospectorâthat was Fergusonâhe died. Thatâs all I know.â He turned to the desk and picked up his log, searching quickly through it. âHere you are. Hereâs the geologistâs reply: Expedition 1900 well known because one of the two men, James Finlay Ferguson, was lost .â
âAnd he was a prospector?â
âSo Tim Baird said.â
âWas he prospecting for gold?â I was remembering that my mother had once said I wasnât to ask about my grandfather ⦠an old reprobate, she had called him, who had come to a bad end and wasted his life searching for gold.
âI donât know what he was prospecting for. Tim didnât say.â
But it didnât matter. I was quite certain it was gold, just as I was quite certain that this was the past that had bitten so deep into my father in his loneliness. It was just a pity that Iâd never bothered to get the story out of him.
âItâs odd he never talked to you about it,â Ledder said, and I realised that he was still uncertain about it all.
âI told you, he couldnât talk.â And I added, âItâs so long since he was wounded that now I canât even recall the sound of his voice.â
âBut he could write.â
âIt was an effort,â I said.
âAnd he left no record?â
âNot that I know of. At least, I didnât find one when I looked through his things. I suppose it was too complicated or something. Thatâs what he said, anyway. What else did the geologist tell you?â
âJust what Iâve read out to youânothing else.â He was sitting there,