time to tell us what happened on board. Cdn you? I didn’t know we had
guns.” “Several of the men have them, besides Pop’s little armoury.
You can be awfully innocent.” “Who was doing the shooting from
Esmerelda?”
“A couple of the crew – and me,”she said shortly.
I raised my eyebrows. “You?” “I’m a good shot. Pop taught me.”
She began to cover my hands. “I think I shot one – and I think it
was
Kane.”Suddenly her voice broke. “Oh, Mike, it was awful. I’ve never
shot at a man, only at targets. It was. . .
I was entangled in bandages but I somehow managed to get an arm around
her shoulders and she buried her head on mine. “He deserved what was
coming to him, Clare.
You’ve only got to look around you to see that. Did you kin him?”She
raised her head and her face was white and tearstreaked. “I don’t
think so – the light was bad and everything happen I ed so fast.
I think I may have hit him in the shoulder.
But – I was trying to kill him, Mike.” “So was I I said. “But my gun
didn’t go off. I’m not very good with guns, but I tried and I don’t
regret it.” She pulled herself together. “Thanks, Mike. I’ve been a
fool.” I shook my head. “No, you’re not, Clare. Killing doesn’t come
easy to people like us. We’re not mad dogs like Kane or Hadley, but
when we do come up against mad dogs I think it’s our duty to try and
stop them in any way we can – even if the only way is by killing
them.”
I looked down at the top of her head and wished that this whole
stinking business was over. It had suddenly come to me that a
burnt-out hospital littered with corpses wasn’t the best place in the
world to tell a girl that you were falling in love with her-I would
have to wait for a calm sea and romantic moonlight, with perhaps the
strains of a love song echoing from the saloon.
And for the moment I was sickened of the whole chase.
How Mark came to die, where his stupid treasure of cobalt lay, none of
it mattered. I wanted to be done with the whole affair – bar Clare.
And I couldn’t get out of any of it that easily. I recognized the
symptoms of exhaustion and sat up, bracing myself.
She saw the expression in my eyes and I quickly, but I think she read
it all there. She said to go through with this now, Mike. We can’t
let Navarro get away with it – if it is them. AB this nothing if we
did that.” “I know; but it won’t last forever, Clare. Then days
coming.
I’m all right now. Were any of our people wounded besides me?”
“Scorches, a few scrapes.
None worse than you,” me.
“Good. We have to start getting clear of this lot, the local people
must carry on until we can get word bal her and went to where Piro was
standing and was a she was watching me. I would have given anything to
be else where with her than on that beach.
I said to Piro, “What will you do now?” He turned a sad face to me.
“We build again. All Tanakabu people built more here – many huts.
But no doctor. . .
I said, “Piro, Mr Campbell there has money, more than he.
needs. He will send doctors and you will get a proper hospital, like
the one in Papeete. But first we must go back there and tell the
police what happened here. Can you write a message for me?” But it
turned out that Piro could not write, nor even sign his name, which was
a pity – I wanted a witnessed account of the event to take back, but
with Schouten dead there was nobody else to turn to for it.
We buried the dead in the hospital cemetery. I asked about a priest
but apparently Schouten had stood in himself for such occasions.
They produced a Bible and Campbell pronounced a few words, though few
of the locals could understand him.
He said, “We commit to the earth the bodies of those who are the
innocent victims of a dreadful crime. “Vengeance is mine”, saith the
Lord, but it may be He will use men like us as His instrument. I hope
so.” Then he turned and walked away down the beach, a sad and lonely
figure Schouten was given a grave in a place apart from the others.
I thought this might be because of differing religions, but it appeared
that they wished to make his resting-place special, and it was clear
that they mourned him deeply. I thought that he would have a better
memorial than he might ever have realized would be his lot, and was
glad of it.
The islanders were already clearing away rubble, and most of the
patients had vanished into other homes, when we left that afternoon.
There was nothing we could find to take with us as proof of the
disaster – the hospital records and all Schouten’s personal belongings
had been destroyed. We took photographs, though, and I included a
couple of the natives gathering round Campbell and Ian to shake their
hands, as proof of our friendship, and also of the crew at the mass
funeral.
As Ian conned Esmerelda out through the pass of Tanakabu he asked
sadly, “What kind of men are they to do a thing like that? You told us
they were dangerous – they seem demented, Mike.”
“They must be psychopaths,” I said. “From what I learned from the
Dutch doctor Hadley certainly is.” Shorty Powell came on deck,
white-faced, at the same time that Campbell emerged looking
thunderous.
“I’ve got something to show you,”he said, and took me down to Kane’s
cabin together with Ian. On the bunk lay a brown-painted gadget which
Shorty had clearly recognised and shown to Campbell.
“It’s a walkie-talkie, surplus American army stock, selling for about
fifteen dollars each. The range on land isn’t much over five miles but
on water you can keep contact for?” “Say about ten miles,” Shorty
supplied.
“So that’s how Hadley’s schooner turned up so opportunely. And that’s
what that damned transmission was that Shorty picked up. You said you
thought it was a low-powered job and very near, but who’d have thought
it was from right here on Esmerelda?” Campbell nodded. “We’ve
probably been shadowed all over the Pacific. Any boat could keep
hull-down on the horizon and Hadley could have cosy chats with Kane.”
I picked up the radio and looked at it curiously. “I don’t think Kane
was clever enough to think of this himself – This bears the hallmark of
organization.”
“Ramirez,”said Campbell decisively.
“Very likely,” I said. I was trying to read any further implications
into the find when Paula came looking for me, and Ian got back up on
deck. “Geordie’s asking for you,” she ‘ , said. She too looked tired,
having spent all morning helping Clare on that dreadful beach, and I
smiled and gave her a quick hug of friendship and support.
“How is he?” “He’ll be all right, but he is going to need medical care
in Papeete, maybe stitches. I’m not a trained nurse, you know.”
Considering the dangers we had drawn her into and the shocking things
she had seen, I thought she was holding up amazingly well, but then I
think toughness was bred into her “He may be scarred for life,” she
added.
“A pistol whipping is a lousy thing. Damn Hadley!” said Campbell.
We found Geordie sitting up in his bunk, his eyes peering brightly at
me through a mass of bandages. He’d been told about the fire and the
smashed radio, but was avid for more.
“How are you feeling?” I asked him.
“Not so bad, considering. But I haven’t heard the whole story yet.
What happened last night between you and the doctorThe demanded, and I
realizedwith astart that so much had happened since that I hadn’t had
time to pass on’ Schouten’s terrible story. Having made sure that he
was well, enough to listen, I gathered Paula, Clare and Campbell into
the cabin. They heard me out in stunned silence.
it’s a bad thing,” I said heavily at the end.
it is that,” said Geordie. “They must be off their heads .
I said, “I don’t think Kane’s the crazy one. It’s Hadley who’s the
lunatic, a psycho for sure. Kane’s cleverer than we thought him to be,
though.” I told Geordie about the walkie-” talkie.
Campbell said, “We’ve been played for suckers and I don’t like that one
little bit. But with this act I think they’ve; outreached themselves I
have a feeling that Hadley ran amok, and even Ramirez isn’t going to
like it when he finds out.” “I’ve been thinking, trying to put the