Читать книгу The Riddle of the Sands - Erskine Childers - Страница 5

The letter arrived as I was dressing for dinner in my rooms in Pall Mall on the evening of 23rd September 1902. London was deserted at that time of the summer, and I had become very bored and depressed with my daily routine of work at the Foreign Office, and dinner at my club in the evening. All my friends were away enjoying themselves at country house parties, but here was I, a fashionable young man with a bright future, who knew all the best people and belonged to all the best clubs – and who was forced to remain in London because of my job.

I had encouraged my friends to believe that the Foreign Office could not manage without me during the summer, but the plain truth was that my work was neither interesting nor important. It consisted mostly of taking messages for absent officials, whose own holiday plans had upset mine.

Although my friends had sent me sympathetic letters, it was clear that I had not been greatly missed, and now, at the end of September, I realized another bitter truth. Two more days, and I would be free to start my holiday – but I had nowhere to go! The country house parties were all breaking up, and though I could always go home to Yorkshire, of course, which fashionable young man wants to spend his holiday with his own family?

I was, without doubt, extremely depressed.

So, when a letter, with a German stamp and marked ‘urgent’, arrived that evening, I felt a touch of interest, even excitement, as I opened it and read:

Yacht Dulcibella

Flensburg, 21st September

Dear Carruthers,

You will probably be surprised to hear from me, as it’s a long time since we met. But I write in the hope that you might like to come out here and join me in a little sailing and, perhaps, duck shooting. This part of the Baltic is very beautiful and there should be plenty of ducks soon, if it gets cold enough. The friend who was with me has had to leave, and I really need someone else, as I’d like to stay out here for a while.

If you can come – and I do hope you can – send a telegram to the post office at Flensburg. I know you speak German perfectly, and that will be a great help.

Yours ever,

Arthur Davies

Then followed directions as to how to reach him, and a long list of various things for the yacht that he would like me to buy and bring out.

The letter was a turning point in my life, though I did not know it at the time. During my lonely dinner that evening I was undecided. Yachting in the Baltic in October! I must be mad even to think of it. I was used to the kind of yachting party that took place in warm summer weather, on comfortable, luxurious yachts with servants to bring meals and drinks. But what kind of yacht was the Dulcibella