“Besides, i’m sure your good parents are becoming very anxious about
you. I shall see you later, mr. carter. Come, miss beresford.”
she looked at him in doubtful hesitation. I said, “you might as
well go, susan. You never know what luck you’ll have. One good shove
when he’s near the rail and off-balance. Just pick your time.”
“Your anglo-saxon humour becomes rather wearisome,” carreras said
thinly. “One hopes that you will be able to preserve it intact in the
days to come.”
he left on this snitably sinister note, and marston looked
at me, speculation taking the place of puzzlement in his eyes.
“Did carreras mean what I thought he meant?”
“He did. That’s the hammering you’ve been hearing, the pneumatic
drills. There are prepared bolt holes in the reinforced sections on the
poop and foredeck to accept the base plates of several different sizes
of british guns. Carreras’ guns probably come from the other side of
the iron curtain and he has to drill new holes.”
“He he’s actually going to fit naval guns.”
“He had them in a couple of those crates. Almost certainly
stripped down into sections, ready for quick assembly. Don’t have to be
anything very big an’t be; it’s a dockyard job to fit anything of any
size. But it will be big enough to stop this ship.”
“I don’t believe it!” marston protested. “Holdup on the high
seas? piracy in this day and age? it’s ridiculous! it’s impossible!”
“You tell that to carreras. He hasn’t a moment’s doubt but that
it’s very, very possible. Neither have i. Can you tell me what’s going
to stop him?”
“But we’ve got to stop him, john. We must stop him!”
“Why?”
“Good god! why? let a man like that get away with heaven only
knows how many million pounds..
“Is that what you’re worried about?”
“Of course,” marston snapped. “So would anyone be.”
“You’re right, of course, doctor,” I agreed. “I’m not at my best
to-day.” what I could have said was that if he thought about it a bit
more, he would become ten times as worried as he was, and not about the
money. About half as worried as I was. And I was worried to death and
frightened, badly frightened. Carreras was clever, all right, but
perhaps a shade less so than he imagined. He made the mistake of
letting himself get too involved in conversation, and when a man gets
too involved and has anything to hide, he makes the further mistake of
either talking too much of not talking enough. Carreras had made the
mistake on both counts. But why should he worry about whether he talked
too much or not? he couldn’t lose. Not now.
breakfast came. I didn’t feel much like eating, but I ate all the
same. I had lost far too much blood, and whatever little strength I
could recover I was going to need that night. I felt even less like
sleep, but for all that I asked marston for a sedative and he gave it to
me. I was going to need all the sleep I could get, too; I wouldn’t get
much that coming night.
the last sensation I recalled as I dozed off was in my mouth, a
queer unnatural dryness that usually comes with overmastering fear. But
it wasn’t fear, I told myself. It wasn’t really fear. Just the effect
of the sleeping draught. That’s what I told myself.
chapter 8
[thursday 4 p.m.-10 p.m.]
it was late afternoon when I awoke, round four o’clock: still a
good four hours short of sunset, but already the surgery lights were on
and the sky outside dark, almost, as night. Driving, slanting rain was
sheeting down torrentially from the black lowering clouds, and even
through closed doors and windows I could hear the high, thin sound, part
whine, part whistle, of a gale-force wind howling through the struts and
standing rigging.
the campari was taking a hammering. She was still going fast, far,
far too fast for the weather conditions, and was smashing her way
through high, heavy rolling seas bearing down on her starboard bow.
That they weren’t mountainous waves, or waves of even an unusual size
for a tropical storm, I was quite sure; it was the fact that the campari
was battering her way at high speed through quartering seas that seemed
to be almost tearing her apart. She was corkscrewing viciously, a
movement that applies the maximum possible strain to a ship’s hull.
With metronomic regularity the compari was crashing, starboard bow
first, into a rising sea, lifting bows and rolling over to port as she
climbed up the wave, hesitating, then pitching violently forward and
rolling over to starboard as she slid down the far shoulder of the
vanishing wave to thud with a teeth-rattling, jolting violence into the
shoulder of the next sea, a shaking, shuddering collision that made the
campari vibrate for seconds on end in every plate and rivet throughout
her entire length. No doubt but that the clyde yard that had built her
had built her well, but they wouldn’t have constructed her on the
assumption that she was going to fall into the hands of maniacs. Even
steel can come apart.
“Dr. Marston,” I said, “try to get carreras on that phone.”
“Hello, awake?” he shook his head. “I’ve been on to him myself,
an hour ago. He’s on the bridge and he says he’s going to stay there
all night, if need be. And he won’t reduce speed any further: he’s
taken her down to fifteen knots already, he says.”
“The man’s mad. Thank god for the stabilisers. If it weren’t for
them, we’d be turning somersaults.”
“Can they stand up to this sort of thing indefinitely?”
“I should think it highly unlikely. The captain and bo’sun how are
they?”
“The captain’s still asleep, still delirious, but breathing easier.
Our friend mr. macdonald you can ask for yourself.”
I twisted in my bed. The bo’sun was indeed awake, grinning
at me. Marston said, “seeing you’re both awake, do you mind if I
have a kip down in the dispensary for an hour? I could do with it.” he
looked as if he could, too, pale and exhausted. “We’ll call you if
anything goes wrong.” I watched him go, then said to macdonald, “you
like your sleep, don’t you?”
“Just naturally idle, mr. carter.” he smiled. “I was wanting
to get up, but the doctor wasn’t keen.”
“Surprised? you know your kneecap is smashed and it’ll be weeks
before you can walk properly again.” he’d never walk properly again.
“Aye, it’s inconvenient. Dr. Marston has been talking to me about
this fellow carreras and his plans. The man’s daft.”
“He’s all that. But daft or not, what’s to stop him?”
“The weather, perhaps. It’s pretty nasty outside.”
“The weather won’t stop him. He’s got one of those fanatic
one-track minds. But I might have a small try at it myself.”
“You?” macdonald had raised his voice, now lowered it
to a murmur. “You! with a smashed thighbone. How in the
“It’s not broken.” I told him of the deception. “I think I can
get around on it if I don’t have too much climbing to do.”
“I see. And the plan, sir?”
I told him. He thought me as daft as carreras. He did his best to
dissuade me, finally accepted the inevitable, and had his own
suggestions to make. We were still discussing it in low voices when the
sick-bay door opened and a guard showed susan beresford in, closed the
door, and left.
“Where have you been all day?” I said accusingly. “I saw the
guns.” she was pale and tired and seemed to have forgotten that she had
been angry with me for cooperating with carreras. “He’s got a big one
mounted on the poop and a smaller one on the focsle. Covered with
tarpaulins now. The rest of the day I spent with mummy and daddy and
the others.”
“And how are our passengers?” I enquired. “Hopping mad
at being shanghaied, or do they regard it as yet another of the
attractions of the campari-a splendid adventure thrown in at no extra
charge that they can talk about to the end of their days? i’m sure most
of them must be pretty relieved that carreras is not holding them all to
ransom.”
“Most of them are not caring one way or another,” she said.
“They’re so seasick they couldn’t care if they lived or died. I feel a
bit the same way myself, I can tell you.”
“You’ll get used to it,” I said callously. “You’ll all get used to
it. I want you to do something for me.”
“Yes, john.” the dutiful murmur in the voice which was really
tiredness, the use of the first name had me glancing sharply across at
the bo’sun, but he was busy examining a part of the deckhead that was
completely devoid of anything to examine. “Get permission to go to your