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seem to obey
(hat law! I think the instructor was annoyed about the whole thing, because
Uncle Stewart was fool enough to go ahead and try it. But it works."
"It works," Gideon agreed. "But your uncle has backed a lot of things that
haven't worked.'*
"What is he backing now?"
Gideon shook his head. "You know, Jim," he said softly, "I'd tell you if I
could."
He shrugged. "You know how your uncle carries on his business. He keeps his
books in his head. He never wants a signed agreement when he finances a man a
hand-
shake is enough for Stewart Eden; he says that if a man's honest, a handshake
is enough. And if he isn't honest
why, all the sea-lawyers in the deeps won't be enough to make a thief turn
honest! There are plenty of things your uncle doesn't tell me, Jim. Not
because he's ashamed of them. But because that's the way he has always lived.
"And the things that he does tell me why, Jim, you
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know he wouldn't want me repeating them. Not even to you."
I apologized. There was no way out of it, for Gideon was right. My uncle had
given Gideon his trust, and it wasn't up to me to try to make him break it.
But all the time I was thinking, and not happily.
I was thinking about the promise I had made to Lt
Tsuya -the promise that had resulted in his giving me this pass.
What it meant, in a word, was that I had promised to be a spy!
It hadn't occured to me that it would be my Uncle
Stewart that I was spying on, as well as my closest friend, Bob Eskow but
there were the facts.
"Jim, boy!" boomed a voice from behind me.
I turned.
The door was opening and in came my uncle, Stewart
Eden!
65
10
The Sea-Pulp Parcel
For a second I couldn't say anything.
The change in my uncle stunned me. His broad shoul-
ders were bent. He had lost weight. His skin had an unhealthy yellow color.
His walk was an uncertain shuffle. His blue eyes were dull, and they blinked
at me as though he hardly recognized me.
"Uncle Stewart!" I cried.
He gripped my hand with a kind of desperate strength.
Then he turned unsteadily to the chair behind his forsak-
en derelict of a desk and weakly sat down.
He blew his nose and wiped his eyes. "Is something wrong, Jim?" he demanded
anxiously. "I thought you were up in Bermuda."
"I was, Uncle Stewart. We came down here to take a special training course." I
left it at that; security did not allow me to say more. But I had the uneasy
feeling that my uncle knew without being told. I said quickly: "How are you
Uncle Stewart?"
He sat up abruptly. "I'm better than I look, boy!" he boomed. "I've been
through rough water. You can see that. But that's all behind me now!"
I took a deep breath.
"So I've heard, Uncle Stewart," I said. "In fact, I hear you made a million
dollars out of the seaquake last night."
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66
Stewart Eden looked at me for a moment. His eyes were blank; I could not read
what he was thinking.
Then he sighed.
"Yes, perhaps I did," he said, almost indifferently.
"There was a profit, and a big one. But I'm not solvent yet, Jim."
He leaned forward suddenly in his creaking old chair.
"But what's the use of talking about money, boy?" he boomed. "Let me look at
you! Why, you're a man now, Jim. Almost an officer!" He chuckled fondly,
inspecting the fit of my sea-red dress uniform. "Ah, Jim. Your father would be
a proud man if he had lived to see you now!"
He sat back, nodding, his eyes alive again, looking almost well, almost the
man he had been back in those exciting days in Marinia. "Never fear, Jim," he
boomed, "you and I will both get what we want out of this world!
You'll be an officer of the Sub-Sea Fleet, and I'll recover what I've lost.
Both in money and in health, Jim! I've been afloat before, and I'll be afloat
again."
He turned and stared thoughtfully at the big new safe lettered
Eden Enterprises, Unlimited.
I could only guess at what was in his mind.
But the safe looked very heavy to float!
Gideon coughed gently. "Stewart," he said in his sweet, warm voice, "you
haven't forgotten your appointment, have you?"
"Appointment?" My uncle sat up straight and glanced at his wrist-dial. "I had
no idea it was so late. Why, Jim, I "
He stopped, and stared at me thoughtfully. All of a sudden he looked worried
and worn again. When he spoke his voice had lost some of its warmth and
timber.
He said hurriedly, "Jim, I want to spend some time with you, but just now,
there's a matter I must attend to.
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