Part 10 (2/2)
and as though she heard ed with her sharp prow into the curl of the wave an instant before it could fall upon us and crush the hull
It careen horror, solid sheets of it swept Dancer froh to a h the back of the wave, and beloas a gaping valley, a yawning abyss into which Dancer hurled herself, falling free, a gut-swooping drop down into the trough
We hit with a sickening crash that seemed to stun her, and which threw Chubby and ain, Dancer shook herself free of the tons of water that had come aboard, and she ran on to meet the next wave
It was smaller, and Dancer beat the curl and porpoised over her
”That'sthe third wave like a steeplechaser Somewhere close another three-pound shell cracked the sky, but then ere out and running for the long horizon of the ocean and I never heard another shot
The guard who had passed out in the cockpit from an excess of Scotch whisky iant wave, for we never saw hiain The other three we left on a small island thirty miles north of St Mary's where I knew there ater in a brackish well, and which would certainly be visited by fishermen from the mainland
They had sobered by that tiovers They ures on the beach as we ran southwards into the dusk It was dark e crept into Grand Harbour I picked upup to the wharf at Ad injuries to become a subject of speculation around the island
Chubby and Angelo went ashore in the dinghy - but I was too exhausted to make the effort, and dinnerless I collapsed across the double bunk in theuntil Judith woke elo had sent her doith a dinner pail of fish cakes and bacon
”Chubby and Angelo gone up to Missus Eddy's to buy some stores they need to repair the boat,” she told me 'They'll be down soon now”
I wolfed the breakfast and went to shave and shower When I returned she was still there, sitting on the edge of the bunk She clearly had so to discuss
She brushed awaymy wound, and had me sit while she worked on it
”Mister Harry, you aren't going to get o on like this, I'reat, Judith” I laughed at her concern ”Why don't you send him across to Rawano for three years, while you sit here”
”That's not kind, Mister Harry” ”Life is not very kind, Judith,” I told herthe best we can just to keep elo He told h to buy you a nice little house up near the church He got thewith , and when she would have turned to go I took her hand and drew her back She would not look at me, until I took her chin and lifted her face She was a lovely child, with great smoky eyes and a selo is like a kid brother to me
I'll look after hi moment ”You really mean that, don't you?” she asked
”I really do” ”I believe you,” she said at last, and she solden a that to me ”I trust you” So much for feminine intuition
”You name one of your kids for me, hear?”
The first one, Mister Harry” Her smile blazed and her dark eyes flashed That's a promise”
They do say that when you fall froain - so as not to lose your nerve, Mister Harry” Fred coker sat at his desk in the, travel agency, behind his', it said We had just discussed at great length our mutual concern at Inspector Peter Daly's perfidious conduct, though I suspected that Fred coker's concern was considerably less than -mine He had collected his commission in advance and nobody had put his head in a noose, nor had they al the subject of whether or not our business arrangement should continue
”They also say, Mr coker, that aout of the holes in his trousers should not be too fussy,” I said, and coker's spectacles glittered with satisfaction He nodded his head
”And that, Mister Harry, is probably the wiser of the two sayings,” he agreed
”I'll take anything, Mr coker Body, box or sticks just one thing, the cost of dying has gone up to ten thousand dollars a run - all in advance”
”Even at that price, we'll find work for you,” he pro cheaply before
”Soon,” I insisted
”Very soon,” he agreed ”You are fortunate I do not think that Inspector Daly will be returning to St Mary's now You will save the commission usually payable there”
”He owes ht runs in the next six weeks Two body carries, and a box job - all below the river into Portuguese waters The bodies were both singles, silent black ues, and I took them far south, deep penetrations They waded ashore on remote beaches and I wondered briefly upon what unholy missions they travelled - how s
The box job involved eighteen long wooden crates with Chinese s We picked up from a submarine out in the channel, and dropped off in a river-ether for stability We spoke to no one and nobody challenged us
They were h to carry h the offseason in the style to which ere accustomed More important, the intervals of quiet and rest were sufficient to heal th At first I lay for hours in the ha Then as it came back to me, I swam and fished and sun-baked, went for oysters and crayfish - until I was hard and lean and sunbrowned again
The wound healed into a thickened and irregular cicatrice, tribute to Macnab's surgical skills, it curled around on In one thing he had been correct, the e to my upper left arm left it stiff and weakened I could not lift my elbow above shoulder-level, and I lostto Chubby in the bar of the Lord Nelson However, I hoped that swithen it
As th returned so didabout the canvas-wrapped package off Big Gull Island In one dreae - it contained a tiny feoldenbosoraceful sickle shape of a marlin's The little mermaid smiled shyly and held out her hand to
”sex, ood old uncomplicated Harry, real Freud food” I knew then that pretty soon I would be going for Big Gull Island
It was very late in the season before I could prevail on Fred coker to arrange a straight fishi+ng charter for me, and it turned sour as cheap wine The party consisted of two overweight, flabby German industrialists with fat bejewelled wives I worked hard for theood blackthe reel while the fish was still green and crazy to run It lifted the Gere backside out of the seat, and before I could release the stardrag for hiunwale The fibre-glass rod snapped like atwo decent fish, panted and sweated three hours over a baby blue aff, I could hardly bringit on Adled it ashore wrapped in a tarpaulin Like Fred coker I also have a reputation to preserve The Gerhted by his prowess that he slipped an extra five hundred dollars into nificent fish which was a thousand-dollar lie I always give good value Then the wind backed into the south , the terees and the fish were gone For ten days -we hunted far north but it was over, another season was past
we stripped and cleaned all the billfish equiprease I pulled Dancer up on to the slip at the fuelling basin and ent, over her hull, cleaning it down, re-working the temporary patches I had put on the injuries she had received at Gunfire Reef
Then we painted her until she glistened, sleek and lovely, before we refloated her and took her out to s There orked lackadaisically on her upper works, stripping varnish, sandpapering, re-varnishi+ng, checking out the electrical syste there
I was in no hurry It would be three weeks before ists from a Canadian university
In the low of good health and bodily well-being again I dined at Government House, sometimes as often as once a week, and each time I had to tell the full story of the shoots out with Guthrie and Materson President Biddle knew the story by heart and corrected le detail It always ended with the President crying excitedly, ”Show them your scar, Mister Harry,” and I had to open the starched front of ood lazy days The island life drifted placidly by
Peter Daly never returned to St Mary's - and at the end of six weeks, Wally Aroreas pro officer of the police force One of his first acts was to return to me my FN carbine
This quiet tile of anticipation which I felt I knew that one day soon I was going back to Big Gull Island and the piece of unfinished business that lay there in the shallow lie
Then one Friday evening I was rounding out the ith my crew in the bar of the Lord Nelson Judith ith us, having replaced the flock that had previously gathered around Angelo on Friday nights She was good for hie
Chubby and I had just begun the first duet of the evening and were keeping within a few beats of each other when Marion slipped into the seat beside-me
I put one arm around her shoulders and held my tankard to her lips while she drank thirstily, but the distraction caused
Marion worked on the switchboard at the Hilton Hotel She was a pretty little dan with a sexy pugface and long straight black hair It was she whoo
When Chubby and I straggled to the end of the chorus, Marion toldfor you, Mister Harry”