"3 

 all this there was only one coherent thought in my mind, to 

 which I clung like a drowning man to a life-buoy: I must go my- 

 self and see. 



Half distracted by this latest complication, we had meanwhile 

 been coping with visitors and the press. The news by now having 

 got to world prominence, you could almost feel the rival reporters 

 growling at one another. Our friends were standing by, and we 

 got away to spend a short time for tea, this latest development 

 naturally almost the sole topic of conversation. Our friends made 

 various wild suggestions for a drastic solution of this problem. 

 They were attractive and even amusing, but while they relieved 

 the tension for a few seconds they were patently impractical. I 

 was nearing a stage of desperation, and it was at that time that I 

 came to veer to my wife's view. It would clearly have to be Malan. 

 In some ways that cable settled it, and troublesome as it was, it 

 was in some ways in my favour in any appeal for help ; for it was 

 not only a race against possible putrefaction, but there was clearly 

 a case for my having to go in person. It did help to feel that the 

 French would hardly be prepared to take a step as drastic as 

 confiscating the specimen unless they were almost certainly 

 convinced of its value; but there was clearly no scientist in the 

 Comores, and I could not be certain if the French did seize it 

 that it would be safely preserved for science. Nothing is ever 

 a hundred per cent., and in some ways this cable, worrying as it 

 was, forced the issue. 



We got back to the ship again, and the same young officer 

 handed me some telegrams without comment. Among them was 

 the cable that Beek had handled, that the Radio Station had so 

 kindly short-circuited some hours earlier. It was a renewed shock 

 to read the words again. Knowing Grahamstown in holiday time 

 we wondered how it had come back to us so quickly. (See foot- 

 note, p. 109.) Nothing of further import had happened, but more 

 visitors and press representatives were waiting. I got away to the 

 cabin for a while and sat, desperately miserable, for time was 

 slipping by and I had still accomplished nothing, just nothing, 

 and here was what seemed an awful blow. I was an experienced 

 and mature man, and yet in this I was failing, not having yet 

 accompHshed anything worth-while in this all-important matter. 

 I had beaten my head in vain against this Christmas holiday wall, 



