Doesn’t anybody wash on this boat?” Tully was enraged but kept his mouth shut. Ryan said, “So where’s the engine room?”
“End of the passage.”
“Right, lead the way the both of you.”
Tully opened a door at the end and the throbbing of the engines became very pronounced. They went down a companionway and found themselves in the engine room itself, Grant and Fox oiling the pistons and other moving parts.
They paused in their work and Tull:/said, “Is everything olca:/?”
“As much as it ever will be with this old bag of bones,” Grant told him.
Keogh said, “Hands high, boys.”
R:/an raised his rifle and, sullenl:/, the:/did as the:/ were told. Keogh retired, satisfied. “Clean as a whistle.”
“Fine,” Ryan said. “‘We’ll go back, then.”
CHAPTER SIX
THE SEA WAS BUILDING UP AS THEY WENT OUT on deck, and the Irish Rose was already beginning to roll from side to side. Rain swept in clearingthe mist a little. They went back up to the wheelhouse climbing the ladder one by one.
Tully sat down at the chart table. “So what n.o?”
“I’ve done a boat crossing from the Lake District
coast to Ulster twice over the years,” Ryan told him.
“Is that a fact?”
“Yes, so I know where the Isle of Man is–half-way between the two and we pass south, skirting
what they call the Calf of Man?”
“If you say so.”
“Oh, but I do, and there it is on your top chart.
I’d say we should be seeing the lighthouse there at midnight.”
“So what?” “That should give us a landfall at Kilalla around fill’Ce.”
“It depends on the weather.”
“And so it does, but keep on course. I have a marine compass in any ease, and I’d be ver hurt if I discovered we weren’t proceeding in a esterly di- “All right,” Tully said sullenly. “Now what happens?
“Well, as there is nowhere else I’d particularly like to spend the night on this disgusting pig boat, we’ll use the cab of the truck. It even has a bunk behind the driver’s seat.” He turned to Keogh. “Give him your radio, Martin.”
Keogh took it fom his pocket and put it on the chart table. “There you go.”
“What’s this?” Tully demanded.
“Two-way radio. I have one,too, so we can keep in touch, us down there and you Up here. Another thing. You have one of your men standing on the deck down there where I can shoot hith if anything
untoward happens.”
“You bastard.”‘
“I always was, but I keep my word, and I’m going to give you a chance to be sensible.” He took an envelope from his pocket and threw it down. “That’s the fifty thousand pounds Mr. Keogh took from you.’ ‘
Tully was truly shocked. “My God!”
“Count it when we’re gone. It’s all there.” Ryan smiled looking like the Devil himself. “No blood- o4
shed, no aggravation, and you get another fifty thousand at Kilalla in a few hours. Think about it.” He nodded to Keogh. “Let’s go. You first, Martin. I’l’l mind your back and you cover me.”
They went down the ladder one after the other, and Tully opened the envelope and examined the money.
“Damn him!” he said.
“What’s he playing at?” Dolan asked.
“He’s giving me a way out, isn’t he? Play the
game and settle for a hundred thousand.”
“And will you?”
“There’s fifty million pounds in gold sitting out there, Dolan, fifty million.”
“All right,” Dolan said, “but these are hard bastards.’
“Well so am I.”
Tully sat there frowning and examining the chart.
Dolan said, “Have you any ideas?”
“Not at the moment. If we don’t pass the Calf of Man he’d know it. On top of that he’s got marine compass.” He shook his head. “No, we’lfhave to stay on course and wait for our chance. There’s bound to he one. Maybe in the early hours of the morning when we’re closer to Ireland.”
Dolan nodded. “They’ll he tired then.”
“And seasick with any luck. I didn’t tell the bastard, but I checked the weather forecast and it’s deteriorating.
Winds gusting to seven around midnight, and you know what this old tub is like in rough weather.’ ‘