lifted his head I saw an ugly blotch of blood on his left temple, and
rage rose bitter in my throat at the sight.
Ramirez gestured to Geordie with his pistol. “You too into the saloon:
And Mr Trevelyan, you too, please. We mustn’t forget you.” A rifle
muzzle poked me in the back and I walked helplessly towards the
companionway. I turned my head and saw Hadley dragging Clare to her
feet and pushing her forward. I wondered where Paula was.
Before we were thrust into the saloon we were brusquely searched.
The man wasn’t too gentle and I gasped with pain as the heel of his
hand slammed against the wound in my side.
He just grinned, but it was a mindless rather than a sadistic
expression, I thought in that moment that there seemed to be a mimmurn
of brain-power around – these men were mostly obedient puppets, no more
than that. It might be useful, I thought, and wondered at myself.
In the saloon I helped Taffy to lay Campbell on a settee and said in a
low voice, “You’re sure Danny was killed?” “I’m sure,” Taffy said
tightly. “He was stabbed in the chest.
God, the blood!” I looked at Campbell. His eyes were open but
unfocussed. I said, forcing my voice to a normal conversational pitch,
“The old boy’s had a nasty knock. You’ll find some water in the liquor
cabinet, Ian.” I looked around for Clare and found d her coming to my
side.
Hadley had let her go and she was very pale but fully composed.
Our hands found each others for an instance and then she was looking at
the blood on her fingertips. “Mike, you’re hurt!” “That can wait.
It’s nothing. You’d better see to your father first.” She went to him
and began to sponge his head with a cloth dipped in the jug of water
Ian held for her, her face clouded with fear and worry.
Paula was’thrust into the saloon. She stumbled and nearly fell as her
guard gave her a brutal shove before he took up a position near the
door, his rifle pointing at us. I took her arm to steady her.
“Paula
– are you all right?” “I guess so,” she gasped. “I’ve still got a
whole skin.” She looked round and then said to me in a lower voice,”I
saw them putting two of our men in the cable hold, Mike – and they’ve
hauled in the motor launch too.” “Christ!” said Geordie. He wiped
the back of his hand across his mouth and looked without surprise at
the blood. He did a quick calculation on his fingers and then said,
“The two on board must have been Shorty and Davie Blake – the rest of
us are here or Paula took him up. “Nick Dugan and young Martin were in
the launch. I saw them both. I don’t know about the other.” They
were the only two who had been in the launch, and it wasn’t surprising
that Ramirez had spotted them and fetched them back.
But there were still
Jim and Rex Larkin in the.
dinghy, and Bill Hunter. I had a faint ssurge of hope – had Ramirez
missed them? And if so, could they stay hiddetf in that misty,
turbulent sea? Geordie and I exchanged a glance.
and then looked quickly away.
I crossed over to Taffy, who was helping Clare, and made to assist
him.
“Looks as though this is an officer’s party, Taffy.
You’d better stay pretty quiet unless you want to join the rest of the
boys – they’re in the cable hold.” He nodded. “I’ll be all right,” he
said, and rubbed the back of his neck in a curious gesture as if he had
been hurt there.
One of the men with rifles said in Spanish,”No speaking! Be silent,
all of you!” I pretended not to understand and started to speak, but
this time the gesture that went with the repeat instruction was clear,
and I subsided. I had time to assess the situation now.
Neither Ramirez nor Hadley had actually entered the saloon with us
there were only the two armed guards. We were seven, and in the cable
hold there were possibly four men.
Danny lay dead on the deck – I could barely make myself think about
that – and three were, with any luck, still at large.
I decided to try a gamble.
It will be all right to let us speak,”I said in the best Spanish I
could muster. “Mr Ramirez will permit it.” They glanced at one
another, and one of them shrugged. I had guessed correctly they were
so accustomed to being given orders that they would accept this one
even from me, spoken as it’had been with an air of authority. I turned
to Geordie and told him what I had said in Spanish, with a wary eye to
the rifles, but to my relief the guards gave no further sign of
stopping us.
Geordie said, “What happens now?” “That’s not up to us. Ramirez has
the next move, and I don’t like to think what that will be. We can’t
do much while they’re around.” I jerked my head very slightly in the
direction of the guards.
“Seven here, four below,”Geordie murmured. He had done the same
arithmetic that I had. “And three – somewhere.” I looked at Campbell
who seemed to be recovering.
“They’re a murderous lot of bastards, aren’t they?” “I wish I’d given
Jim his head when he wanted to blow a hole in Sirena,”said Geordie
viciously.
“Wishful thinking won’t help us now. What bothers me most is that I
think that’s what they may be going to do to us.” He shook his head
irritably and we all lapsed into silence.
Clare came over to me, unbuttoned my shirt, and proceeded to patch up
what luckily proved to be no more than a skin graze, though it hurt me
more than the slight wound warranted. I thanked God that we kept small
first aid kits all over the ship. As she worked I felt her hands
shaking just a little, and I grasped them to try and reassure her, but
it was a wretched attempt.
r There was a lot of movement on deck and a great deal of shouting.
Ian looked up at the deckhead speculatively. “I’m thinking they’re
having trouble, skipper. There’s a hell of a tangle at the
masthead.”
That was all to the good. The longer they took to separate the two
ships the more time we would have to think of a way out of this mess.
I looked at the guards and felt very depressed. They looked as though
they’d murder their grandmothers for two pesetas, and they’d certainly
have no qualms about shooting us if we tried anything.
it was nearly an hour before anything happened. We used the time to
some little advantage; all of us achieved better control over ourselves
and Clare brought her father to a degree of coherence. He had a pretty
bad concussion – his speech was affected, although his thinking seemed
clear enough.
“Goddam sonsa-biches,” he said indistinctly. “Why d’you quit, Mike?”
“Hadley had Clare,” I said briefly.
“Haaaah,” he sighed, and sagged back on the settee. “I shoulda let her
behind,” he muttered. “Never lissen to a woman, Mike.” He closed his
eyes and turned his head away, and Clare and I exchanged worried looks
across his head.
“It’s my fault,” Geordie burst out. “I should have kept the lads up to
scratch. We should have kept watch. We shouldn’t have been surprised
like that.” “Shut up, Geordie,” I said. “That won’t get us
anywhere.
There’s no blame – not on us. We weren’t looking for trouble.”
“Aye,” said Ian softly. “Yon Ramirez has a lot to answer for.”
Presently there was a rattle at the door and one of the guards opened
it. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Taffy slide into a corner,
half-hidden behind the settee, and then Ramirez came in, as elegant as
ever. “I trust you are comfortable,” he said solicitously.
“Let’s not have any blarney,” I said bluntly. “What’s the move,
Ramirez?” He smiled, and seemed to be enjoying a huge joke.
“Why, I have to introduce you to someone,” he said.
He leaned out of the door and beckoned to someone in the passage.
He turned back to me and said, “I told you once that you shouldn’t make
libellous statements that you couldn’t substantiate.”
The man who came into the saloon was about my size, dark and heavily
bearded. He carried my laboratory notebook in one hand.
Ramirez said, “An old friend for you. I think you all know Mr Mark
Trevelyan.” As I looked into Mark’s eyes I think my heart seemed to
miss three full beats and I felt the hairs bristle on the nape of my
neck. It isn’t often that one is confronted by a dead man especially a