The following morning Johnny Liddell stood at the rail on the promenade deck, watched the passengers streaming down the gangplank from the main deck forward down onto the pier where the automobiles were lined up, waiting to take them on a day’s tour of the capital with its Oval Hall, the National Pantheon with the tomb of Simon Bolívar, the University City and the fabulous Officers’ Club.
Liddell had other plans. At ten o’clock a car would pick him up at the pier, transport him to the airport outside of town where he would charter a plane to put him into Willemstad, Curaçao, a day before his fellow passengers.
Down on the dock, the representatives of Thomas Cook & Sons were handling the details of the all-day trip, accepting Jack Allen’s suggestions for the most amicable seating arrangem
