“I might have known it, I might have known it!” the laugh was
pretty close to a guffaw. “That’s my daughter. Never even got round to
telling you yet. Wait till my wife hears this!”
“When did she tell you?” I asked politely. When i’d last seen her
about two-fifteen that morning I would have thought it the last thing in
her mind. “Yesterday afternoon.” that was even before she had made the
job proposal to me. “But she’ll get round to it, my boy, she’ll get
round to it.”
“I won’t get round to it!” I didn’t know how long she had been
standing there, but she was there now, a stormy voice to match stormy
eyes. “I’ll never get round to it. I must have been mad. I’m ashamed
of myself for even thinking. I heard him, daddy. I was there last
night with the others in the sick bay when he was telling carreras that
the best way of stopping the ticonderoga was a long piercing blast on a
whistle brought the tale of carter’s cowardice to a merciful end.
Immediately green shirted armed men began to appear from other parts of
the ticonderoga, from the bridge and engine room where they’d been on
guard during the transshipment, which was now finished except for one
last crate. Two of the men with guns, I noticed, were dressed in blue
merchant navy uniforms: those would be the radio officers carreras had
introduced aboard the ticonderoga. I looked at my watch. Six twenty
five. Carreras was cutting it fine enough.
and now carreras himself had jumped across to the afterdeck of the
ticonderoga. He said something to captain brace. I couldn’t hear what
it was, but I could see brace, his face hard and grim, nodding
reluctantly. Carreras arranging for the transfer of the coffins. On
his way back to the rail he stopped beside me.
“You see that miguel carteras keeps his words. Everybody safely
transferred.” he glanced at his watch. “I still need a lieutenant.”
“Good-bye, carreras.”
he nodded, turned on his heel and left as his men brought the
coffins on to the afterdeck of the ticonderoga. They handled them very
reverently indeed, with a tender delicacy that showed they were only too
aware of their contents. The coffins were not immediately recognisable
as such: in the final gesture of the consummate actor paying the
minutest attention to the last detail in his role, he had draped them
with three stars and stripes. Knowing carreras, I was pretty sure that
he’d brought them all the way from the caribbean.
captain brace stooped, lifted a corner of the flag on the coffin
nearest to him, and looked down at the brass plaque with the name of
senator hoskins on it. I heard a quick indrawing of breath, saw that
susan beresford, hand to her parted lips, was staring down wide-eyed at
it, too, remembered that she must be still under the impression that the
twister was inside, reached out, and grabbed her ankle. I grabbed it
hard.
“Be quiet!” I muttered fiercely. “For heaven’s sake shut up!”
she heard me. She kept quiet. Her old man heard me, but he kept
quiet also, which must have taken quite a bit of doing on his part when
he saw me with my hand round his daughter’s ankle. But the ability to
keep expressions and emotions buttoned up must be among the most
elementary training for an aspiring multimillionaire.
the last of carreras’ men were gone, carreras with them. He didn’t
waste any time wishing us “bon voyage” or anything of the kind; he just
ordered ropes cast off and disappeared at speed for the bridge. A
minute later the campari was under way and, her afterdeck haphazardly
packed with crates, was slewing round and heading away towards the east.
“Well,” bullen said into the heavy silence, “there he goes, the
murderer. With my ship, damn his soul!”
“He won’t have it for long,” I said. “Not even half an hour.
Captain brace, I advise you
“We’ll dispense with your advice, mister.” captain bullen’s voice
was a series of rattraps snapping shut, the blue eyes very frosty
indeed.
“This is urgent, sir. It’s imperative that captain brace-”
“I gave you a direct order, mr. carter. You will obey “will you
please be quiet, captain bullen?” respectful exasperation, but more
exasperation than respect.
“I still think you’d better be listening to him, sir,” the bo’sun
put in, gravely unhappy. “Mr. carter was not idle last right, unless
i’m much mistaken.”
“Thanks, bo’sun.” I turned to captain brace again. “Phone the
officer of the watch. Due west 180 degrees from the campari and full
speed. No, emergency power. Now, captain brace.”
the urgency in my voice got through. For a person who had just
lost one hundred and fifty million dollars in gold brace reacted
surprisingly quickly and well to the man who had just caused him to lose
it. He gave a few quick words of instruction to a junior officer, then
turned a coldly speculative gaze on me.
“Your reasons, sir?”
“In number four hold of the campari carreras is carrying an armed
atomic bomb with the time fuse running out, the twister, the new missile
stolen from the americans a week or so ago.” a glance round the
strained, incredulous faces of the listeners showed that they knew what
I was talking about all right; it showed clearly that they couldn’t
believe it. “The twister “atomic bomb?” brace’s voice was harsh and
too loud. “What damned rubbish
“Will you listen? miss beresford, am I telling the truth?”
“You’re telling the truth.” her voice was unsteady, her green eyes
jumpy and still on that coffin. “I saw it, captain. But
“So,” I said. “The bomb. Armed. Due to go off in”-i glanced at
my watch-“less than twenty-five minutes. Carreras knows it’s due to go
off then. That’s why he’s in such a tearing hurry to get away: he
imagines the twister is aboard here. And that’s why i’m in such a
tearing hurry to go in the opposite direction: I know it’s not.”
“But it is here,” said susan violently. “It is, you know it
is! that coffin! there!”
“You’re wrong, miss beresford.” the ticonderoga was picking up
speed now, the rumbling thrust of her propellor shaft vibrating through
the deck plates. I wouldn’t have put it past carreras to have had his
glasses trained on our afterdeck as long as he possibly could, so I lay
quietly where I was for the next ten or fifteen seconds while about
forty pairs of frankly terrified eyes stared at the flag-shrouded
coffins. Then the poop of the ticonderoga had swung round to the east,
the campari was blocked from sight, and I was out of my blankets,
ripping off the outside blankets and splints and fishing out the
concealed screw driver before getting stiffly to my feet. The effect
upon passengers and crew, who had believed implicitly that chief officer
carter had a compound fracture of the thigh, was startling, to say the
least. But I had no time to consider effects. I hobbled to the nearest
coffin and pulled the flag clear.
“Mr. carter”-captain brace was by my side-“what on earth are you
doing? criminal though carreras may be, he told me senator hoskins
“Ha.” I said. With the handle of the screw driver I rapped out
three sharp double knocks on the lid of the coffin: three knocks came in
reply. I glanced round the ever-closing ring of watchers; a cameraman
should have been there, recording those expressions for posterity.
“Remarkable recuperative powers, those american senators,” I said
to captain brace. “You just can’t keep them down. You’ll see.”
i’d the lid off that coffin in two minutes flat: in coffin-lid
removing, as in everything else, practice makes perfect.
dr. Slingsby caroline was as pale as any corpse i’d ever seen. He
looked as if he had been frightened to death. I didn’t blame him: there
must be lots of harrowing experiences calculated to drive a man round
the bend, but I think being screwed down in a coffin for about five
hours must beat the lot. Dr. Caroline wasn’t yet round the bend, but
he’d been approaching it pretty fast, with the throttle wide open, by
the time I got to him. He was shaking like a broken bedspring, his eyes
wide with fear, and he could hardly speak; that knock of mine must have
been the sweetest music he’d ever heard.
I left the ministrations to other hands and headed for the next
coffin. The lid on this one was either pretty stiff or I was pretty
weak, and I wasn’t making much progress when a burly seaman from the
ticonderoga’s crew took the driver from my hand. I wasn’t sorry to let
it go. I looked at my watch. Seventeen minutes to seven.
“And this time, mr. carter?” it was captain brace once more at my