Limbo Lodge Read Free Page B

of the water.”
    What had been a pale speck at the waterline now resolved itself into houses like tiny white dice climbing above each other up a steep hill with some feathery vegetation among them; as the Siwara drew closer little black figures could be seen, darting to and fro on the dockside.
    “The houses ain’t really white, though, they’re blue ,” said Dido, puzzled, as the ship slid near and nearer to the quay. “Blue and shiny. How’s that, Doc?”
    “Oh, now I remember. I remember so well! That was because of the Angrian settlers who came and lived on the island for several hundred years. They like their houses covered with blue-and-white tiles.”
    “Why?”
    “Because they look handsome, I suppose. And tiles keep out the rain.”
    “The town ain’t very big, is it? Lucky there’s a hospital. Did your friend Manoel tell you about that?”
    “Yes, he did, when he heard that I was training to be a doctor. He tried to persuade me to come back to Aratu and be a doctor there, because most of the medicine is done by witches called kanikke. The Dilendi women are witches, and the men are guides, he said.”
    “Guides?”
    “Halmahi people. They sing the history of the island every day. And look after the sacred stones. There was a drunken old Angrian doctor called O Medico, Manoel said, but he wasn’t much use.”
    “What a lot you know about the place,” said Dido, impressed. “What about those witches, though?”
    “Old shawl ladies. They have a lot of power. They make the rules. I expect the hospital is run by old shawl ladies.”
    “Blimey,” said Dido, “I jist hope they take good care of Mr Mully. I wouldn’t fancy being looked after by a pack of witches. I can see why your pal thought it would be a good thing for the island if you came back and set up as a doctor here. So the witches wouldn’t be able to boss everybody.”
    “I suppose that might have been his plan,” said Doctor Talisman thoughtfully. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
    “And what was the thing that the sailor Pepe dropped on poor Mully’s head?”
    “His wedhoe. It’s a luck charm. All the Angrian men on the island have them.”
    “Why, do they need luck more than women do?”
    “Oh, the women have their own luck charms, but they wear them round their necks on a grass string.”
    “Like yours, on your silver chain?”
    “Oh, no, mine is quite different.” The doctor stroked a fine medallion, like a fivepenny piece, on a thin chain. “It has my family name on it, so – if my parents are still alive – it should be possible to find them.”
    “What is the name?”
    “Kirlingshaw.”
    “Why,” said Dido, astonished, “I had an Aunt Tinty Kirlingshaw. Tough old gal she was. Came from the Fen country.”
    “Hi, hi, ho!” shouted a sailor in the bow, and sent a coil of rope whistling across the narrowing gap of water on to the dock, where a man was waiting to receive it.
    They had reached Regina, the port of Aratu.

Chapter Two
    T HE THROB OF DRUMS, WHICH HAD GROWN louder and louder as the Siwara edged her way up the long, narrow harbour, ceased abruptly the moment the first hawser was thrown ashore and made fast. Dido leaned over the rail and watched as small dark men in black cotton trousers darted about, attaching more cables to bollards on the quay, and hanging thick rope fenders between the ship and the dock wall. A taller man, white-haired and wearing elegant black silk clothes, stood with his hands in his pockets, apparently overseeing the operation.
    “Why, there he is! My friend – my father’s friend!” said Doctor Talisman, leaning eagerly over the rail. And, catching a pause between the shouts of the dock-workers, the doctor called out: “Manoel, Manoel! Ohé, Manoel!”
    Looking up at the ship and her passengers, the white-haired man made a formal bow, and raised his hand in a ceremonial gesture of recognition and greeting.
    “He doesn’t seem at all surprised to see me,” Doctor Talisman