"That"s fourteen hours from now, Annabelle. At five o"clock this morning you were prepared to snap your fingers and have a helicopter here by noon. Seven hours. Exactly half the time. But that was for something important like getting me down to London to give me the bawling out of a lifetime before firing me."
"Call me at midnight, Caroline. I hope to G.o.d you know what you are doing."
I said: "Yes, sir," and hung up. I didn"t mean, Yes, sir, I knew what I was doing, I meant, Yes, sir, I hoped to G.o.d I knew what I was doing.
If the carpet in the Shangri-la Shangri-la saloon had cost a penny under five thousand pounds, then old Skouras must have picked it up second-hand somewhere. Twenty by thirty, bron2e and russet and gold, but mainly gold, it flowed across the deck like a field of ripe corn, an illusion heightened both by its depth and the impediment it offered to progress. You had to wade through the d.a.m.n" thing. I"d never seen an item of furnishing like it in my life except for the curtains that covered two-thirds of the bulkhead s.p.a.ce. The curtains made the carpet look rather shoddy. Persian or Afghanistan, with a heavy gleaming weave that gave a shimmering shot-silk effect with every little movement of the saloon had cost a penny under five thousand pounds, then old Skouras must have picked it up second-hand somewhere. Twenty by thirty, bron2e and russet and gold, but mainly gold, it flowed across the deck like a field of ripe corn, an illusion heightened both by its depth and the impediment it offered to progress. You had to wade through the d.a.m.n" thing. I"d never seen an item of furnishing like it in my life except for the curtains that covered two-thirds of the bulkhead s.p.a.ce. The curtains made the carpet look rather shoddy. Persian or Afghanistan, with a heavy gleaming weave that gave a shimmering shot-silk effect with every little movement of the Shangri-la, Shangri-la, they stretched all the way from deckhead to deck. What little of the bulkheads that could be seen were sheathed in a satiny tropical hardwood, the same wood as was used for the magnificent bar that tookup most of the after bulkhead of the saloon. The opulently upholstered settees and armchairs and bar-stools, dark green leather with gold piping, would have cost another fortune, even the trade-in value of the beaten copper tables scattered carelessly about the carpet would have fed a family of five for a year. At the Savoy Grill. they stretched all the way from deckhead to deck. What little of the bulkheads that could be seen were sheathed in a satiny tropical hardwood, the same wood as was used for the magnificent bar that tookup most of the after bulkhead of the saloon. The opulently upholstered settees and armchairs and bar-stools, dark green leather with gold piping, would have cost another fortune, even the trade-in value of the beaten copper tables scattered carelessly about the carpet would have fed a family of five for a year. At the Savoy Grill.
On the port bulkhead hung two Cezannes, on the starboard two Renoirs. The pictures were a mistake. In that room they didn"t have a chance. They"d have felt more at home in the galley.
So would I. So, I was pretty sure, would Hunslett. It wasn"t merely that our sports coats and Paisley scarves clashed violently with the decor in general and the black ties and dinner jackets of our host and his other guests in particular. It wasn"t even that the general run of conversation might have been specifically designed to reduce Hunslett and myself to our proper status of artisans and pretty inferior artisans at that. AH this talk about debentures and mergers and cross-options and takeovers and millions and millions of dollars has a pretty demoralising effect on the lower cla.s.ses, but you didn"t need to have the I.Q. of a genius to realise that this line of talk wasn"t being aimed specifically at us; to the "lads with the black ties, debentures and takeovers were the stuff and staff of life and so a princ.i.p.al staple of conversation. Besides, this wish to be somewhere else obviously didn"t apply only to us: at least two others, a bald-headed, goatee-bearded merchant banker by the name of Henri Biscarte and a big bluff Scots lawyer by the name of MacCallum were just as uncomfortable as I felt, but showed it a great deal more.
A silent movie picture of the scene would have given no due as to what was wrong. Everything was so very comfortable, so very civilised. The deep armchairs invited complete relaxation. A blazing if superfluous log-fire burned in the hearth. Skouras was the smiling and genial host to the life. The gla.s.ses were never empty - the press of an unheard bell brought a white-jacketed steward who silently refilled gla.s.ses and as silently departed again. All so urbane, so wealthy, so pleasantly peaceful. Until you cut in the movie sound-track, that was. That was when you wished you were in the galley.
Skouras had his gla.s.s refilled for the fourth time in the forty-five minutes we had been there, smiled at his wife sitting in the armchair across the fire from him, lifted his gla.s.s in a toast.
"To you, my dear. To your patience with putting up with us all, so well. A most boring trip for you, most boring. I congratulate you."
I looked at Charlotte Skouras. Everybody looked at Charlotte Skouras. There was nothing unusual in that, millions of people-had looked at Charlotte Skouras when she had been the most sought-after actress in Europe. Even in those days she"d been neither particularly young nor beautiful, she didn"t have to be because she"d been a great actress and not a beautiful but boneheaded movie star. Now she was even older and less good-looking and her figure was beginning to go. But men still looked at her. She was somewhere in her late thirties, but they would still be looking at her when she was in her bath-chair. She had that kind of face. A worn face, a used face, a face that had been used for living and laughing and thinking and feeling and suffering, a face with brown tired wise-knowing eyes a thousand years old, a face that had more quality and character in every little line and wrinkle - and heaven only knew there was no shortage of these - than in a whole battalion of the fringe-haired darlings of contemporary society, the ones in the glossy magazines, the ones who week after week stared out at you with their smooth and beautiful faces, with their beautiful and empty eyes. Put them in the same room as Charlotte Skouras and no one would ever have seen them. Ma.s.s-produced carbon copies of chocolate boxes are no kind of compet.i.tion at all for a great painter"s original in oils.
"You are very kind, Anthony." Charlotte Skouras had a deep slow slightly-foreign accented voice, and, just then, a tired strained smile that accorded well with the darkness under the brown eyes. "But I am never bored. Truly. You know that."
"With this lot as guests?" Skouras"s smile was as broad as ever. "A Skouras board meeting in the Western Isles instead of your blue-blooded favourites on a cruise in the Levant? Take Dollmann here." He nodded to the man by his side, a tall thin bespectacled character with receding thin dark hair who looked as if he needed a shave but didn"t. John Dollmann, the managing director of the Skouras shipping lines. "Eh, John? How do you rate yourself as a subst.i.tute for young Viscount Horley? The one with sawdust in his head and fifteen million in the bank?"
"Poorly, I"m afraid, Sir Anthony." Dollmann was as urbane as Skouras himself, as apparently unconscious of anything untoward in the atmosphere. "Very poorly. I"ve a great deal more brains, a great deal less money and I"ve no pretensions to being a gay and witty conversationalist."
"Young Horley was was rather the life and soul of the party, wasn"t he? Especially when I wasn"t around," Skouras added thoughtfully. He looked at me. "You know him, Mr. Petersen?" rather the life and soul of the party, wasn"t he? Especially when I wasn"t around," Skouras added thoughtfully. He looked at me. "You know him, Mr. Petersen?"
"I"ve heard of him. I don"t move in those circles, Sir Anthony." Urbane as all h.e.l.l, that was me.
"Um." Skouras looked quizzically at the two men sitting close by myself. One, rejoicing in the good Anglo-Saxon name of Hermann Lavorski, a big jovial twinkling-eyed man with a great booming laugh and an inexhaustible supply of risque stories, was, I"d been told, his accountant and financial adviser. I"d never seen anyone less like an accountant and finance wizard, so that probably made him the best in the business. The other, a middle-aged, balding, Sphinx-faced character with a drooping handle-bar moustache of the type once sported by Wild Bin Hick.o.c.k and a head that cried out for a bowler hat, was Lord Charnley, who, in spite of his t.i.tle, found it necessary to work as a broker in the City to make ends meet. "And how would you rate our two good friends here, Charlotte?" This with another wide and friendly smile at his wife.
"I"m afraid I don"t understand." Charlotte Skouras looked at her husband steadily, not smiling.
"Come now, come now, of course you do understand. Pm still talking about the poor company I provide for so young and attractive a woman as you." He looked at Hunslett. "She is is a young and attractive woman, don"t you think, Mr. Hunslett?" a young and attractive woman, don"t you think, Mr. Hunslett?"
"Well, now." Hunslett leaned back in, his armchair, fingers judiciously steepled, an urbanely sophisticated man entering into the spirit of things. "What is youth, Sir Anthony? I don"t know." He smiled across at Charlotte Skouras. "Mrs. Skouras will never be old. As for attractive - well, it"s a bit superfluous to ask that. For ten million European men -and for myself - Mrs. Skouras was the most attractive actress of her time."
"Was, Mr. Hunslett? Mr. Hunslett? Was Was?" Old Skouras was leaning forward in his chair now, the smile a shadow of its former self. "But now, Mr. Hunslett?"
"Mrs. Skouras"s producers must have employed the worstcameramen in Europe." Hunslett"s dark, saturnine face gave nothing away. He smiled at Charlotte Skouras. "If I may be pardoned so personal a remark."
" If I"d had a sword in my hand and the authority to use it, I"d have knighted Hunslett on the spot. After, of course) having first had a swipe at Skouras.
"The days of chivalry are not yet over," Skouras smiled. I saw MacCallum and Biscarte, the bearded banker, stir uncomfortably in their seats. It was d.a.m.nably awkward. Skouras went on: "I only meant, my dear, that Charnley and Lavorski here are poor subst.i.tutes for sparkling young company like Welshblood, the young American oil man, or Domenico, that Spanish count with the pa.s.sion for amateur astronomy. The one who used to take you on the afterdeck to point out the stars in the Aigean." He looked again at Charnley and Lavorski. "I"m sorry, gentlemen, you just wouldn"t do at all." "
"I don"t know if I"m all that insulted," Lavorski said comfortably. "Charnley and I have our points. Um - I haven"t seen young Domenico around for quite some time." He"d have made an excellent stage feed man, would Lavorski, trained to say his lines at exactly the right time.
"You won"t see him around for a very much longer time," Skouras said grimly. "At least not in my yacht or in any of my houses." A pause. "Or near anything I own. I promised him I"d see the colour of his n.o.ble Castilian blood if I ever clapped eyes on him again." He laughed suddenly. "I must apologise for even bringing that nonent.i.ty"s name into the conversation. Mr. Hunslett, Mr. Petersen. Your gla.s.ses are empty."
"You"ve been very kind, Sir Anthony. We"ve enjoyed ourselves immensely." Bluff old, stupid old Calvert, too obtuse to notice what was going on. "But we"d like to get back. It"s blowing up badly to-night and Hunslett and I would like to move the Firecrest Firecrest into the shelter of Garve Island." I rose to a window, pulling one of his Afghanistan or whatever curtains to one side. It felt as heavy as a stage fire curtain, no wonder he needed stabilisers with all that topweight on. "That"s why we left our riding and cabin lights on. To see if we"d moved. She dragged a fair bit earlier this evening." into the shelter of Garve Island." I rose to a window, pulling one of his Afghanistan or whatever curtains to one side. It felt as heavy as a stage fire curtain, no wonder he needed stabilisers with all that topweight on. "That"s why we left our riding and cabin lights on. To see if we"d moved. She dragged a fair bit earlier this evening."
"So soon? So soon?" He sounded genuinely disappointed.
"But of course, if you"re worried------"He pressed a b.u.t.ton, not the one for the steward, and the saloon door opened. Theman who entered was a small weatherbeaten character with two gold stripes on his skeves. Captain Black, the Shangri-la Shangri-la captain. He"d accompanied Skouras when we"d been briefly shown around the captain. He"d accompanied Skouras when we"d been briefly shown around the Shangri-la Shangri-la after arriving aboard, a tour that had included an inspection of the smashed radio transmitter. No question about it, their radio was well and truly out of action. after arriving aboard, a tour that had included an inspection of the smashed radio transmitter. No question about it, their radio was well and truly out of action.
"Ah, Captain Black. Have the tender brought alongside at once, will you. Mr. Petersen and Mr. Hunslett are anxious to get back to the Firecrest Firecrest as soon as possible," as soon as possible,"
"Yes, sir. I"m afraid there"ll be a certain delay, Sir Anthony."
"Delay?" Old Skouras could put a frown in his voice without putting one on his face.
"The old trouble, I"m afraid," Captain Black said apologetically.
"Those b.l.o.o.d.y carburettors," Skouras swore. "You were right, Captain Black, you were right. Last tender I"ll ever have with petrol engines fitted. Let me know as soon as she"s all right. And detail one of the hands to keep an eye on the Firecrest Firecrest to see that she doesn"t lose position. Mr. Peterson"s afraid she"ll drag." to see that she doesn"t lose position. Mr. Peterson"s afraid she"ll drag."
"Don"t worry, sir." I didn"t know whether Black was speaking to Skouras or myself. "She"ll be all right."
He left. Skouras spent some time in extolling diesel engines and cursing petrol ones, pressed some more whisky on Hunslett and myself and ignored my protests, which were based less on any dislike of whisky in general or Skouras in particular than on the fact that I didn"t consider it very good preparation for the night that lay ahead of me. Just before nine o"clock he pressed a b.u.t.ton by his arm rest and the doors of a cabinet automatically opened to reveal a 23-inch TV set. TV set.
Uncle Arthur hadn"t let me down. The newscaster gave quite a dramatic account of the last message received from the T.S.D.Y. Moray Rose, Moray Rose, reported not under command and making water fast somewhere to the south of the Island of Skye. A full-scale air and sea search, starting at dawn the next day, was promised. reported not under command and making water fast somewhere to the south of the Island of Skye. A full-scale air and sea search, starting at dawn the next day, was promised.
Skouras switched the set off. "The sea"s crowded with d.a.m.n" fools who should never be allowed outside a ca.n.a.l basin. What"s the latest on the weather? Anyone know?"
"There was a Hebrides Force 8 warning on the 1758 shipping forecast," Charlotte Skouras said quietly. "South-west, they said."
"Since when did you start listening to forecasts?" Skouras demanded. "Or to the radio at all? But of course, my dear, I"d forgotten. Not so much to occupy your time these days, have you? Force 8 and south-west, eh? And the yacht would be coming down from the Kyle of Lochalsh, straight into it. They must be mad. And they have a radio - they sent a message. That makes them stark staring lunatics. Whether they didn"t listen to the forecast or whether they listened and still set out, they must have been lunatics. Get them everywhere."
"Some of those lunatics may be dying, drowning now. Or already drowned," Charlotte Skouras said. The shadows under the brown eyes seemed bigger and darker than ever, but there was still life in those brown eyes.
For perhaps five seconds Skouras, face set, stared at her and 1 felt that if I snapped my fingers there would be a loud tinkling or crashing sound, the atmosphere was as brittle as that. Then he turned away with a laugh and said to me: "The little woman, eh, Petersen? The little mother - only she has no children. Tell me, Petersen, are you married?"
I smiled at him while debating the wisdom of throwing my whisky gla.s.s in his face or clobbering him with something heavy, then decided against it. Apart from the fact that it would only make matters worse, I didn"t fancy the swim back to the Firecrest. Firecrest. So I smiled and smiled, feeling the knife under the cloak, and said: "Afraid not, Sir Arthur." So I smiled and smiled, feeling the knife under the cloak, and said: "Afraid not, Sir Arthur."
"Afraid not? Afraid not?" He laughed his hearty good-fellowship laugh, the kind I can"t stand, and went on cryptically "You"re not so young to be sufficiently naive to talk that way, come now, are you, Mr. Petersen?"
"Thirty-eight and never had a chance," I said cheerfully. "The old story, Sir Anthony. The ones I"d have wouldn"t have me. And vice-versa." Which wasn"t quite true. The driver of a Bentley with, the doctors had estimated, certainly not less than a bottle of whisky inside him, had ended my marriage before it was two months old - and also accounted for the savagely scarred left side of my face. It was then that Uncle Arthur had prised me from my marine salvage business and since then no girl with any sense would ever have contemplated marrying me if she"d known what my job was. What made it even more difficult was the fact that I couldn"t tell her in the first place. And the scars didn"t help.
"You don"t look a fool to me," Skouras smiled, "If I maysay so so without offence." That was rich, old Skouras worrying about giving offence. The zip-fastener of a mouth softened into what, in view of his next words, I correctly interpreted in advance as being a nostalgic smile. "I"m Joking, of course. It"s not all that bad. A man must have his fun. Charlotte?" without offence." That was rich, old Skouras worrying about giving offence. The zip-fastener of a mouth softened into what, in view of his next words, I correctly interpreted in advance as being a nostalgic smile. "I"m Joking, of course. It"s not all that bad. A man must have his fun. Charlotte?"
"Yes?" The brown eyes wary, watchful.
"There"s something I want from our stateroom. Would you------?"
"The stewardess. Couldn"t she------?"
"This is personal, my dear. And, as Air, Hunslett has pointed out, at least by inference, you"re a a good deal younger than I am." He smiled at Hunslett to show that no offence was intended. "The picture on my dressing-table," good deal younger than I am." He smiled at Hunslett to show that no offence was intended. "The picture on my dressing-table,"
"What!" She suddenly sat forward in her armchair, hands reaching for the fronts of the arm rests as if about to pull herself to her feet. Something touched a switch inside Skouras and the smiling eyes went bleak and hard and cold, changing their direction of gaze fractionally. It lasted only a moment because his wife had caught it even before I did, because she sat forward abruptly, smoothing down the short sleeves of her dress over sun-tanned arms. Quick and smooth, but not quite quick enough. For a period of not more than two seconds the sleeves had ridden nearly all the way up to her shoulders - and nearly four inches below those shoulders each arm had been encircled by a ring of bluish-red bruises, A continuous ring. Not the kind of bruises that are made by blows or finger pressure. The kind that are made by a rope.
Skouras was smiling again, pressing the bell to summon the steward. Charlotte Skouras rose without a further word and hurried quickly from the room. I could have wondered if I"d only imagined this momentary tableau I"d seen, but I knew d.a.m.ned well I hadn"t. I was paid not to have an imagination of that kind.
She was back inside a moment, a picture frame maybe six by eight in her hand. She handed it to Skouras and sat down quickly in her own chair. This time she was very careful with the sleeves, without seeming to be, "My wife, gentlemen," Skouras said. He rose from his armchair and handed round a photograph of a dark-eyed, dark-haired woman with a smiling face that emphasised the high Slavonic cheek-bones. "My first wife, Anna. We were married for thirty years. Marriage isn"t all that bad. That"s Anna, gentlemen."
If I"d a gramme of human decency left in me I should have knocked him down and trampled all over him. For a man to state openly in company that he kept the picture of his former wife by his bedside and then impose upon his present wife the final and utter humiliation and degradation of fetching it was beyond belief. That and the rope-burns on his present wife"s arms made him almost too good for shooting. But I couldn"t do it, I couldn"t do anything about it. The old coot"s heart was in his voice and his eyes. If this was acting, it was the most superb acting I had ever seen, the tear that trickled down from his right eye would have rated an Oscar any year since cinema had begun. And if it wasn"t acting then it was just the picture of a sad and lonely man, no longer young, momentarily oblivious of this world, gazing desolately at the only thing in this world that he loved, that he ever had loved or ever would love, something gone beyond recall. And that was what it was.
If it hadn"t been for the other picture, the picture of the still, proud, humiliated Charlotte Skouras staring sightlessly into the fire, I might have felt a lump in my own throat. As it happened, I"d no difficulty in restraining my emotion. One man couldn"t, however, but it wasn"t sympathy for Skouras that got the better of him. MacCallum, the Scots lawyer, pale-faced with outrage, rose to his feet, said something in a thick voice about not feeling well, wished us good night and left. The bearded banker left on his heels. Skouras didn"t see them go, he"d fumbled his way back to his seat and was staring before him, his eyes as sightless as those of his wife. Like his wife, he was seeing something in the depths of the flames. The picture lay face down on his knee. He didn"t even look up when Captain Black came in and told us the tender was ready to take us back to the Firecrest. Firecrest.
When the tender had left us aboard our own boat we waited till it was half-way back to the Shangri-la, Shangri-la, closed the saloon door, unb.u.t.toned the studded carpet and pulled it back. Carefully I lifted a sheet of newspaper and there, on the thin film of flour spread out on the paper below it, were four perfect sets of footprints. We tried our two for"ard cabins, the engine-room and the after cabin, and the silk threads we"d so laboriously fitted before our departure to the closed the saloon door, unb.u.t.toned the studded carpet and pulled it back. Carefully I lifted a sheet of newspaper and there, on the thin film of flour spread out on the paper below it, were four perfect sets of footprints. We tried our two for"ard cabins, the engine-room and the after cabin, and the silk threads we"d so laboriously fitted before our departure to the Shangri-la Shangri-la were all snapped. were all snapped.
Somebody, two at least to judge from the footprints, hadbeen through the entire length of the Firecrest, Firecrest, They could have had at least a clear hour for the job, so Hunslett and I spent a clear hour trying to find out why they had been there. We found nothing, no reason at all They could have had at least a clear hour for the job, so Hunslett and I spent a clear hour trying to find out why they had been there. We found nothing, no reason at all "Well," I said, "at least we know now why they were so anxious to have us aboard the Shangri-la," Shangri-la,"
"To give them a dear field here? That"s why the tender wasn"t ready - it was here."
"What else?"
"There"s something else. I can"t put my finger on it. But there"s something else."
"Let me know in the morning. When you call Uncle at midnight, ask him to dig up what information he can on those characters on the Shangri-la Shangri-la and about the physician who attended the late Lady Skouras. There"s a lot I want to know about the late Lady Skouras." I told him what I wanted to know. "Meantime, let"s shift this boat over to Garve Island. I"ve got to be up at three-thirty - you"ve all the time for sleep in the world." and about the physician who attended the late Lady Skouras. There"s a lot I want to know about the late Lady Skouras." I told him what I wanted to know. "Meantime, let"s shift this boat over to Garve Island. I"ve got to be up at three-thirty - you"ve all the time for sleep in the world."
I "should have listened to Hunslett. Again I should have listened to Hunslett. And again for Hunslett"s sake. But I didn"t know then that Hunslett was to have time for all the sleep in the world.
FOUR.
Wednesday: 5 5 a.m. dusk a.m. dusk.
As the saying went in those parts, ft was as black as the earl of h.e.l.l"s waistcoat. The sky was black, the woods were black, and the icy heavy driving rain reduced what little visibility there was to just nothing at all. The only way to locate a tree was to walk straight into it, the only way to locate a dip in the ground was to fall into it. When Hunslett had woken me at three-thirty with a cup of tea he told me that when he"d been speaking to Uncle Arthur at midnight - I"d been asleep - he was left in no doubt that although the helicopter had been laid on Uncle had been most unenthusiastic and considered the whole thing a waste of time. It was a rare occasion indeed when I ever felt myself in total agreement with Uncle Arthur but this was one of those rare occasions.
It was beginning to look as if I"d never even find that d.a.m.ned helicopter anyway. I wouldn"t have believed that it could have been so difficult to find one"s way across five miles of wooded island at night-time. It wasn"t even as if I had to contend with rivers or rushing torrents or cliffs or precipitous clefts in the ground or any kind of dense or tangled vegetation. Torbay was just a moderately wooded gently sloping island and crossing from one side to the other of it would have been only an easy Sunday afternoon stroll for a fairly active octogenarian. I was no octogenarian, though I felt like one, but then this wasn"t a Sunday afternoon.
The trouble had started from the moment I"d landed on the Torbay sh.o.r.e opposite Garve Island. From the moment I"d tried to land. Wearing rubber-soled shoes and trying to haul a rubber dinghy over slippery seaweed-covered rocks, some as much as six feet in diameter, to a sh.o.r.e-line twenty interminable yards away is, even in broad daylight, a bone-breaking job: in pitch darkness ifs almost as good a way as any for a potential suicide to finish off the job with efficiency and dispatch. The third time I fell I smashed my torch. Several bone-jarring bruises later my wrist-compa.s.s went the same way. The attached depth-gauge, almost inevitably, remained intact. A depth-gauge is a great help in finding your way through a trackless wood at night.
After deflating and caching the dinghy and pump I"d set off along the sh.o.r.e-line remote from the village of Torbay. It was logical that if I followed this long enough I"d be bound to come to the sandy cove at the far end of the island where I was to rendezvous with the helicopter. It was also logical that, if the tree line came right down to the sh.o.r.e, if that sh.o.r.e was heavily indented with little coves and if I couldn"t see where I was going, I"d fall into the sea with a fair degree of regularity. After I"d hauled myself out for the third time I gave up and struck inland. It wasn"t because I was afraid of getting wet - as I hadn"t seen much point in wearing a scuba suit for walking through a wood and sitting in a helicopter I"d left it aboard and was already soaked to the skin. Nor was it because of -the possibility that the hand distress flares I"d brought along for signalling the helicopter pilot, wrapped though they were in oilskin, might not stand up to this treatment indefinitely. The reason why I was now blunderingmy blind and painful way through the wood was that if I"d stuck to the sh.o.r.eline my rate of progress there wouldn"t have brought me to the rendezvous before midday.
My only guides were the wind-lashed rain and the lie of the land. The cove I was heading for lay to the east, the near-gale force wind was almost due west, so as long as I kept that cold stinging rain on the back of my neck I"d be heading in approximately die right direction: as a check on that, the Island of Torbay has a spinal hog"s back, covered in pines to the tops running its east-west length and when I felt the land falling away to one side or the other it meant I was wandering. But the rain-laden wind swirled unpredictably as the wood alternately thinned and became dense again, the hog"s back had offshoots and irregularities and as a result of the combination of die two I lost a great deal of time. Half an hour before dawn - by my watch, that was, it was still as black as the midnight hour - I was beginning to wonder if I could possibly make it in time, And I was beginning to wonder if the helicopter could make it either. There was no doubt in my mind that it could land - that eastern cove was perfectly sheltered - but whether it could get there at all was another question. I had a vague idea that helicopters were unmanageable above certain wind speeds but had no idea what those wind speeds were. And if the helicopter didn"t turn up, then I was faced with the long cold wet trudge back to where I had hidden the dinghy and then an even longer, colder and hungry wait until darkness fell at night and I could get out to the Firecrest Firecrest unseen. Even now, I had only twenty-four hours left. By nightfall I would have only twelve, I began to run. unseen. Even now, I had only twenty-four hours left. By nightfall I would have only twelve, I began to run.
Fifteen minutes and G.o.d knows how many iron-hard tree trunks later I heard it, faint and intermittent at first, then gradually swelling in strength - the clattering roar of a helicopter engine. He was early, d.a.m.n him, he was far too early, he"d land there, find the place deserted and take off for base again. It says much for my sudden desperate state of mind that it never occurred to me how he could even begin to locate, far less land in, that sandy cove in a condition of darkness that was still only a degree less than total. For a moment I even contemplated lighting a flare to let the pilot know that I was at least there or thereabouts and had the flare half-way out of my pocket before I shoved it back again. The arrangement had been that the flare would be lit only to show the landing strip in the sand: if I lit one there and then he might head for it, strike the tops of the pine trees and that would be the end of that.
I ran even faster. It had been years since I"d run more than a couple of hundred yards and my lungs were already wheezing and gasping like a fractured bellows in a blacksmith"s shop. But I ran as hard as I could. I cannoned into trees, I tripped over roots, fell into gullies, had my face whipped time and again by low-spreading branches, but above all I cannoned into those d.a.m.ned trees, I stretched my arms before me but it did no good, I ran into them all the same. I picked up a broken branch I"d tripped over and [held it in front of me but no matter how I pointed h the trees always seemed to come at me from another direction. I hit every tree in die Island of Torbay. I felt the way a bowling ball must feel after a hard season in a bowling alley, the only difference, and a notable one, being that whereas the ball knocked the skittles down, the trees knocked me down. Once, twice, three times I heard the sound of the helicopter engine disappearing away to the east, and the third time I was sure be was gone for good. But each time it came back. The sky was lightening to the east now, but still I couldn"t see the helicopter: for the pilot, everything below would still be as black as night.
The ground gave way beneath my feet and I fell. I braced myself, arms outstretched, for the impact as I struck the other side of the gully. But my reaching hands found nothing. No impact. I kept on falling, rolling and twisting down a heathery slope, and for the first time that night I would have welcomed the appearance of a pine tree, "any kind of tree, to stop my progress. I don"t know how many trees there were on that slope, I missed the lot. If it was a gully, it was the biggest gully on the Island of Torbay. But it wasn"t a gully at all, it was the end of Torbay, I rolled and b.u.mped over a sudden horizontal gra.s.sy bank and landed on my back in soft wet sand. Even white I was whooping and gasping and trying to get my knocked-out breath back into my lungs I still had time to appreciate the fortunate fact that kindly providence arid a few million years had changed the jagged rocks that must once have fringed that sh.o.r.e into a nice soft yielding sandy beach.
I got to my feet. This was the place, all right. There was only one such sandy bay, I"d been told, in the east of the Isle of Torbay and there was now enough light for me to see that this was indeed just that, though a lot smaller than itappeared on the chart. The helicopter was coming in again from the east, not, as far as I could judge, more than three or four hundred feet up. I ran half-way down to the water"s edge, pulled a hand flare from my pocket, slid away the waterproof covering and tore off the ignition strip. It flared into life at once, a dazzling blue-white magnesium light so blinding that I had to clap my free hand over my eyes. It lasted for only thirty seconds, but that was enough. Even as it fizzled and sputtered its acrid and nostril-wrinkling way to extinction the helicopter was almost directly overhead. Two vertically-downward pointing searchlights, mounted fore and aft on the helicopter, switched on simultaneously, interlocking pools of brilliance on the pale white sand. Twenty seconds later the skids sank into the soft sand, the rackety clangour of the motor died away and the blades idled slowly to a stop. I"d never been in a helicopter in my life but I"d seen plenty: in the half-darkness this looked like the biggest one I"d ever seen. helicopter was coming in again from the east, not, as far as I could judge, more than three or four hundred feet up. I ran half-way down to the water"s edge, pulled a hand flare from my pocket, slid away the waterproof covering and tore off the ignition strip. It flared into life at once, a dazzling blue-white magnesium light so blinding that I had to clap my free hand over my eyes. It lasted for only thirty seconds, but that was enough. Even as it fizzled and sputtered its acrid and nostril-wrinkling way to extinction the helicopter was almost directly overhead. Two vertically-downward pointing searchlights, mounted fore and aft on the helicopter, switched on simultaneously, interlocking pools of brilliance on the pale white sand. Twenty seconds later the skids sank into the soft sand, the rackety clangour of the motor died away and the blades idled slowly to a stop. I"d never been in a helicopter in my life but I"d seen plenty: in the half-darkness this looked like the biggest one I"d ever seen.
The right-hand door opened and a torch shone in my face as I approached. A voice, Welsh as the Rhondda Valley, said: "Morning. You Calvert?"
"Me. Can I come aboard?"
"How do I know you"re Calvert?"
"I"m telling you. Don"t come the hard man, laddie. You"ve no authority to make an identification check."
"Have you no proof? No papers?"
"Have you no sense? Haven"t you enough sense -to know that there are some people who never never carry any means of identification? Do you think I just happened to be standing here, five miles from nowhere, and that I just happened to be carrying flares in my pocket? You want to join the ranks of the unemployed before sunset?" A very auspicious beginning to our a.s.sociation. carry any means of identification? Do you think I just happened to be standing here, five miles from nowhere, and that I just happened to be carrying flares in my pocket? You want to join the ranks of the unemployed before sunset?" A very auspicious beginning to our a.s.sociation.
"I was told to be careful." He was as worried and upset as a cat snoozing on a sun-warmed wall. Still a marked lack of cordiality. "Lieutenant Scott Williams, Fleet Air Arm. Takes an admiral to sack me. Step up."
I stepped up, closed the door and sat. He didn"t offer to shake hands. He flicked on an overhead light and said: "What the h.e.l.l"s happened to your face?"
"What"s the matter with my face?"
"Blood. Hundreds of little scratches."
"Pine needles." I told him what had happened. "Why a machine this size? You could ferry a battalion in this one."
"Fourteen men, to be precise. I do lots of crazy things, Calvert, but I don"t fly itsy-bitsy two-bit choppers in this kind of weather. Be blown out of the sky. With only two of us, the long-range tanks are full."
"You can fly all day?"
"More or less. Depends how fast we go. What do you want from me?"
"Civility, for a start. Or don"t you like early morning rising?"
"Tm an Air-Sea Rescue pilot, Calvert. This is .the only machine on the base big enough to go out looking in this kind -of weather. And I should be out looking, not out on some cloak-and-dagger joy-ride. I don"t care how important it is, there"s people maybe clinging to a life-raft fifty miles out in the Atlantic. That"s my job. But I"ve got my orders. What do you want?"
"The Moray Reset" Moray Reset"
"You heard? Yes, that"s her."
"She doesn"t exist. She never has existed."
"What are you talking about? The news broadcasts-----"
"I"ll tell you as much as you need to know, Lieutenant. It"s essential that I be able to search this area without arousing suspicion. The only way that can be done is by inventing an ironclad reason. The foundering Moray Rose Moray Rose is that reason. So we tell the tale," is that reason. So we tell the tale,"
"Phoney?"
"Phoney."