"Sherry Northt Manny stared at me for a moment, and then let out a brief cough of amus.e.m.e.nt. "You"re a bigger fool than I thought you were, Harry."
"The girl is of no further interest to us." Suleiman took a swallow from his gla.s.s, and I could smell his sweat in the rising warmth of the cabin. "You can have her."
"I want my boat, fuel and water to get me off the island "Reasonable, Harry, very reasonable," Manny smiled again as if at a secret joke.
"And I want the tiger"s head," and both Manny and Suleiman laughed out loud.
"Harry! Harry!" Suleiman chided me, still laughing. "Greedy Harry," Manny stopped laughing.
"You can have the diamond and about fifty Pounds weight of other gem stones, - I tried to sell the idea with all the persuasion I could muster. It was the understandable thing to do for a man in my position," - in comparison the head is nothing. The diamond is worth a million the head would just cover my expenses."
"You are a hard man, Harry," Suleiman chuckled. "Too hard." "What will I get out of it, then?" I demanded.
"Your life, and be grateful for it," Manny said softly, and I stared at him. I saw the coldness in his eyes, like those of a reptile and I knew beyond all doubt what his intentions were for me, once I had led them to the treasure.
"How can I trust you?" I went through the motions however, and Manny shrugged indifferently.
"Harry, how can you not trust us?" Suleiman intervened. "What could we possibly gain by killing you and your young lady? "And what could you possibly lose," I thought, but I nodded and said, "Okay. I don"t have much choice."
They relaxed again, smiling at each other and Suleiman lifted his gla.s.s in a silent salute.
"Drink, Harry? he asked.
"It"s a little early for me, Suleiman," I declined, "but I would like to have the girl with me now."
Suleiman motioned one of his men to fetch her.
"I want the whaleboat loaded with fuel and water and left on the beach," I went on doggedly, and Suleiman gave the orders.
"The girl goes with me when we go ash.o.r.e and after I have shown you the chest and the head, you"ll take it and go." I stared from one to the other. "You"ll leave us on the island unharmed, do we agree?"
"Of course, Harry." Suleiman spread his hands disarmingly. "We are all agreed." I was afraid that they would see the disbelief in my expression - so I turned with relief to Sherry as she was led into the cabin.
My relief faded swiftly as I stared at her.
"Harry," she whispered through her swollen purple lips. "You came - oh G.o.d, you came." She took a faltering step towards me.
Her cheek was bruised and swollen horribly, and from the extent of the oedema I thought perhaps the bone was cracked. The bruising under her eyes made her look sick and consumptive, and blood had dried in a black crust on the rims of her nostrils. I didn"t want to look at her injuries, so I took her in my arms and held her to my chest.
They were watching the pair of us with amus.e.m.e.nt and interest, I felt their eyes upon us, but I did not want to face them and let them see the murderous hatred that must show in my eyes.
"All right," I said, "let"s get it over with." When at last I turned to face them, I hoped that my expression was under control.
"Unfortunately, I shall not be going with you," Suleiman made no effort to rise from the couch. "Climbing in and out of small boats, walking great distances in the sun and through the sand are not my particular pleasures. I shall say farewell to you here, Harry, and my friendsagain he indicated Manny and Lorna, -will go with you as my representatives. Of course, you will also be accompanied by a dozen of my men - all of them armed and operating under my instructions." I thought that this warning was not entirely for my benefit alone.
"Goodbye, Suleiman. Perhaps we"ll meet again."
"I doubt it, Harry," he chuckled. "But G.o.d speed and my blessings go with you." He dismissed me with one great pink-palmed paw and with the other he raised his gla.s.s and drained the last half-inch of liquor.
Sherry sat close beside me in the motor-boat. She leaned against me, and her body seemed to have shrivelled with the pain of her ordeal. I put my arm about her shoulders, and she whispered wearily, "They are going to kill us, Harry, you know that, don"t you?"
I ignored the question and asked softly, "Your hand," it was still wrapped in the rough bandage, "what happened?" Sherry looked up at the blonde girl beside Manny Resnick, and I felt her shiver briefly against me.
"She did it, Harry." Lorna Page was chatting animatedly to Manny Resnick. Her carefully lacquered hairstyle resisted the efforts of the breeze to ruffle it, and her face was meticulously made up with expensive cosmetics. Her lipstick was moist and glossy and her eyelids were silvery green, with long mascaraed lashes around the cat"s eyes.
"They held me - and she pulled out my fingernails." She shuddered again, and Lorna Page laughed lightly. Manny cupped his hands around a gold Dunhill lighter for her while she lit a cigarette. "They kept asking me where the treasure was - and each time I couldn"t answer she pulled a nail with the pliers. They made a tearing sound as they came out." Sherry "broke off and held her injured hand protectively against her stomach. I knew how near she was to breaking completely and I held her close, trying to transmit strength to her by physical contact.
"Gently, baby, gently now," I whispered, and she pressed a little closer to me. I stroked her hair, and tried once again to control my anger, bearing down hard upon it before it clouded my wits.
The motor-boat ran in and grounded on the beach. We climbed out and stood on the white sands while the guards ringed us with levelled weapons.
"Okay, Harry," Manny pointed- "There"s your boat all ready for you." The whaleboat was drawn up on the beach. "The tanks are full and when you"ve shown us the goods you can take off."
He spoke easily, but the girl beside him looked at us with hot predatory eyes - the way a mongoose looks at a chicken. I wondered what way she had chosen for us. I guessed that Manny had promised us to her for her pleasure without reservations - just as soon as he was through with us.
"I hope we aren"t going to play games, Harry. I hope you"re going to be sensible - and not waste our time."
I had noticed that Manny had surrounded himself with his own men.
Four of them, all armed with pistols, one of them my old acquaintance who had driven the Rover on our first meeting. To balance them there were ten black seamen under a petty officer, and already I sensed that the opposition was divided into two increasingly hostile parties. Manny farther reduced the number of seamen in the party by detailing two of them to stay with the motor-boat. Then he turned to me, "If you are ready, Harry, you may lead the way.
I had to help Sherry, holding her elbow and guiding her up through the grove. She was so weak that she stumbled repeatedly and her breathing was distressed and ragged before we reached the caves.
With the mob of armed men following us closely, we went on along the edge of the slope. Surrept.i.tiously I glanced at my watch. It was nine o"clock. One hour to go before the case of gelignite under the crash boat blew. The timing was still within the limits I had set.
I made a small show out of locating the precise spot where the chest was buried, and it was with difficulty that I refrained from glancing up the slope to where the fold of ground was screened by vegetation.
"Tell them to dig here," I said to Manny, and stepped back. Four seamen handed their weapons to a comrade and a.s.sembled the small folding army-type shovels they had brought with them.
The soil was soft and freshly turned so they went down at an alarming speed. They would expose the chest within minutes.
"The girl"s hurt," I said to Manny, "she must sit down." He glanced at me, and I saw his mind work swiftly. He knew Sherry could not run far and I think he welcomed the opportunity to distract some of the seamen for he spoke briefly to the petty officer and I led Sherry to the palm tree and sat her down against the stem.
She sighed with weary relief, and two of the seamen came to stand over us with c.o.c.ked weapons.
I glanced up the slope, but there was no sign of anything suspicious there, although I knew Chubby must be watching us intently. Apart from the two guards, everyone else was gathered expectantly around the four men who were already knee-deep in the freshly dug hole.
Even out two guards were consumed with curiosity, their attention kept wandering and they glanced repeatedly at the group forty yards away.
I heard quite clearly the clang as a spade struck the metal of the chest - and there was a shout of excitement. They all crowded around the excavation with a babble of rising voices, beginning to pull and elbow each other for the opportunity to look down on to it. Our two guards turned their backs on us, and took a step or two in the same direction. It was more than I could have hoped for.
Manny Resnick- shoved two seamen aside roughly, and jumped down into the hole beside the diggers. I heard him shouting, "All right then, bring those ropes and let"s lift it out. Carefully, don"t damage anything."
Lorna Page was leaning out over the hole also. It was perfect.
I lifted my right hand and wiped my forehead slowly in the signal I had arranged with Chubby, and as I dropped my hand again, I seized Sherry and rolled swiftly backwards into the shallow rain-washed runnel.
It caught Sherry by surprise, and I had handled her roughly in my anxiety to get under cover. She cried out as I hurt her already painful injuries.
The two guards whirled at the cry, lifting their machineguns and I knew that they were going to fire - and that the shallow trench provided no cover.
"Now, Chubby, now!" I prayed and threw myself on top of Sherry to shield her from the blast of machine-gun fire and I clapped both hands over her ears to protect them.
At that instant Chubby switched the k.n.o.b on the electric battery blaster, and the impulse ran down the insulated wire that we had concealed so carefully the night before. There was half a case of gelignite crammed into the iron pay chest - as much explosive as I dared use without destroying Sherry and myself in the blast.
I imagined Chubby"s fiendish glee as the case blew. It blew upwards, deflected by the sides of the excavation - but I had packed the sticks of gelignite with sand and handfuls of semi-precious stones to serve as primitive shrapnel and to contain the blast and make it even more vicious.
The group of men around the hole were lifted high in the air, spinning and somersaulting like a troupe of insane acrobats, and a column of sand and dust shot a hundred feet into the air.
The earth jarred under us, slamming into our p.r.o.ne bodies - then the shock wave tore across us. It knocked sprawling the two guards who had been about to fire down on us, ripping their clothing from their bodies.
I thought my eardrums had both burst, I was completely deafened but I knew that I had saved Sherry"s ears from damage. Deafened and half blinded by dust, I rolled off Sherry and scratched frantically in the sandy bottom of the trench. My fingers. .h.i.t the machine-gun buried there and I dragged it out, pulling off the protective rags and coming swiftly to my knees.
Both the guards nearest me were alive, one crawling to his knees and the other sitting up dazedly with blood from a burst eardrum trickling down his cheek.
I killed them with two short bursts that knocked them down in the sand. Then I looked towards the broken heap of humanity around the excavation.
There was small, convulsive movement there and soft moans and whimpering sounds. I stood up shakily from the trench - and I saw Chubby standing up on the slope. He was shouting, but I heard nothing for the ringing buzzing din in my ears.
I stood there, swaying slightly, peering stupidly around me and Sherry rose to her feet beside me. She touched my shoulder, saying something, and with relief I heard her voice as the ringing in my ears subsided slightly.
I looked again towards the area of the explosion and saw a snw*e and frightening sight. A half-human figure, stripped of clothing and most of its skin, a raw bleeding thing with one arm half torn loose at the shoulder socket and dangling at its side by a shred of flesh rose slowly from beside the excavation like some horrible phantom from the grave.
It stood like that for the long moment which it took me to recognize Manny Resnick. It seemed impossible that he should have survived that holocaust, but more than that he began walking towards me.
He tottered step after step, closer and closer, and I stood frozen, unable to move myself. I saw then that he was blinded, the flying sand had scorched his eyeb.a.l.l.s and flayed the skin from his face.
"Oh G.o.d! Oh G.o.d!" Sherry whispered beside me, and it broke the spell. I lifted the machine-gun and the stream of bullets that tore into Manny Resnick"s chest were a mercy.
I was still dazed, staring about me at the shambles we had created when Chubby reached me. He took my arm and I could hear his voice as he shouted, "Are you okay, Harry?" I nodded and he went on, The whaleboat! We have got to make sure of the whaleboat."
"I turned to Sherry. "Go to the cave. Wait for me there," and she turned away obediently.
"Make sure of these first," I mumbled to Chubby, and we went to the heap of bodies about the shattered iron chest. All of them were dead or would soon be so.
Lorna Page lay upon her back. The blast had torn off her outer clothing and the slim pale body was clad only in lacy underwear, with shreds of the green slack suit hanging from her wrists and draped about her torn and still bleeding legs.
Defying even the explosion, her hairstyle retained its lacquered elegance except for the powdering of fine white sand. Death had played a macabre joke upon her - for a lump of blue lapis lazuli from the jewel chest had been driven by the force of the explosion deep into her forehead. It had embedded itself in the bone of her skull like the eye of the tiger from the golden throne.
Her own eyes were closed while the third precious eye of the stone glared up at me accusingly.
They are all dead,"grunted Chubby.
"Yes, they"re dead," I agreed, and tore my eyes away from the mutilated girl. I was surprised that I felt no triumph or satisfaction at her death, nor at the manner of it. Vengeance, far from being sweet, is entirely tasteless, I thought, as I followed Chubby down to the beach.
I was still unsteady from the effects of the explosion, and although my ears had recovered almost entirely, I was hardpressed to keep up with Chubby. He was light on his feet for such a big man.
I was ten paces behind him as we came out of the trees and stopped at the head of the beach.
The whaleboat lay where we had left her, but the two seamen detailed to guard the motor-boat must have heard the explosion and decided to take no chances.
They were halfway back to the crash boat already, and when they saw Chubby and me, one of them fired his machine-gun in our direction. The range was far beyond the accurate limits of the weapon, and we did not bother to take cover. However, the firing attracted the attention of the crew remaining aboard the crash boat - and I saw three of them run forward to man the quick-firer in the bows.
"Here comes trouble," I murmured.
The first round was high and wide, cracking into the palms behind us and pitting their stems with the burst of shrapnel.
Chubby and I moved quickly back into the grove and lay flat behind the sandy crest of the beach.
What now?" Chubby asked.
"Stalemate," I told him, and the next two rounds from the quick--firer burst in futile fury in the trees above and behind us - but then there was a delay of a few seconds and I saw them training the gun around.
The next shot lifted a tall graceful spout of water from the shallows alongside the whaleboat. Chubby let out a roar of anger, like a lioness whose cub is threatened.
"They are trying to take out the whaleboat!"he bellowed, as the next round tore into the beach in a brief spurt of soft sand.
"Give it to me," I snapped, and took the FN from him, thrusting the short-barrelled AK47 at him and lifting the strap of the haversack off Chubby"s shoulder. His marksmanship was not equal to the finer work that was now necessary. "Stay here," I told him, and I jumped up and doubled away around the curve of the bay. I had almost entirely recovered from the effects of the blast now - and as I reached the horn of the bay nearest the anch.o.r.ed crash boat I fell flat on my belly in the sand and pushed forward the long barrel of the FN.
The gun crew were still blazing away at the whaleboat, and spouts of sand and water rose in rapid succession about it. The plate of frontal armour of the gun was aimed diagonally away from me, and the backs and flanks of the gun crew were exposed.
I pushed the rate of fire selector of the FN on to single shot, and drew a few long deep breaths to steady my aim after the long run through the soft sand.
The gun-layer was pedalling the traversing and elevating handles of the gun and had his forehead pressed hard against the pad above the eye-piece of the gunsight.
I picked him up in the peepsight and squeezed off a single shot.
It knocked him off his seat and flung him sideways across the breech of the gun. The untended aiming handles spiralled idly and the barrel of the gun lifted lazily towards the sky.
The two gun-loaders looked around in amazement and I squeezed off two more snap shots at them.
Their amazement was altered instantly to panic, and they deserted their posts and sprinted back along the deck, diving into an open hatchway.
I swung my aim across and up to the open bridge of the crash boat.
Three shots into the a.s.sembled officers and seamen produced a gratifying chorus of yells and the bridge cleared miraculously.
The motor-boat from the beach came alongside, and I hastened the two seamen up the side and into the deckhouse with three more rounds. They neglected to make the boat fast and it drifted away from the side of the crash boat.
I changed the magazine of the FN and then carefully and deliberately I put a single bullet through each porthole on the near side of the boat. I could hear clearly the shattering crack of gla.s.s at each side.
This proved too much provocation for Commander Suleiman Dada. I heard the donkey winch clatter to life and the anchor chain streamed in over the bows, glistening with sea-water, and the moment the fluked anchor broke out through the surface, the crash boat"s propellers churned a white wash of water under her stern and she swung round towards the opening of the lagoon.
I kept her under fire as she moved slowly past my hiding, place lest she change her mind about leaving. The bridge was screened by a wind shield of dirty white canvas, and I knew the helmsman was lying behind this with his head well down. I fired shot after shot through the canvas, trying to guess his position.
There was no apparent effect so I turned my attention to the portholes again, hoping for a lucky ricochet within the hull.
The crash boat picked up speed rapidly until she was waddling along like an old lady hurrying to catch a bus. She rounded the horn of the bay, and I stood up and brushed off the sand. Then I reloaded the rifle and broke into a trot through the palm grove.