He watched Christine all through the meal.
He seemed to be afraid that he wouldnever see him again, and he was veryhappy when she smiled at him.
Then Simon stood up to say something.
‘Mr Duncan,’ he said.
‘I’ll always rememberthis night.
I know how much you love yourdaughter, and believe me, sir, I love hertoo.
You’ve been worried about mebecause you want her to have the besthusband possible, and I – well, I can’tpromise anything, but I’m going to try tobe that man.
You’re a rich man, MrDuncan, and of course, Christine and Iwon’t have a lot of money at first, but Ihope we’ll manage.’
He smiled at Christine.
‘And yesterday, Mr Duncan, I spoke to myemployer, and he’s going to pay me a littlemore than before!’
John looked surprised.
‘Oh really?
Why isthat?’
‘Well, because he’s given me a new job.
He’s asked me to write about theenvironment.
And this is the first one.
Look here!’
He pulled a page of newspaper out of hispocket, and held it up in front of them.
There were pictures of water, sandbanks,and some seals.
The headline read:
SEALS AT RIVER MOUTH
HAVE STRANGE DISEASE
Four baby seals found dead
8
The wedding day
The disease among the seals got worse.
Three more baby seals died, and one wasborn without a tail.
Scientists came fromLondon to look at them, and there werelong articles in the newspapers, but noone was sure what the reasons were.
Some people said that it was a diseasethat was always in the water;
some peoplesaid the seals were eating diseased fish;
and some people said that it was the paintfactory near the river.
There was a sewage works near the river.
The sewage from another small towncame to it.
One day, in the factory, JohnDuncan found two young chemists testingsamples of water from the river.
The watercame from two kilometres upstream, nearthe sewage works.
‘Why are you doing that?’
he asked,surprised.
‘It’s a special experiment,’ one of themanswered.
‘David Wilson asked us to do ithimself.
