I tossed him the keys to the Jensen and said: “Histermann presumably knows where it’s parked. Just head straight for the dunes where the big pine tree is, it’s a Pinus caribaea if you’re fussy about detail. Keep going straight, keep the tree to your left, stay all the time under the lea of the cliff. And you’ll come out of the road about a mile west of the roadblock.”
Surprisingly, he asked: “What’s the tire pressure?”
I reflected that traveling all over the African bush as he was accustomed to, that’s one of the first things you think of.
I said: “Twenty-five pounds fore and aft, low enough for four-wheel drive, you won’t get stuck. Not unless you over-rev the engine. Keep her in third all the way over the soft sand and don’t stop...”
He said impatiently: “I know about that, I’ve driven in soft sand before.”
And now was the moment he had to make up his mind about a very important matter. If he took that damned toxin with him...I hoped he’d been impressed by my very true explanation of the dangers. But would he leave it here in the cavern, with the problem I posed to him not entirely solved to his satisfaction? I dared not warn him to leave it there; I could only hope that I’d done enough already.
He scratched at his chin for a while, thinking hard. And then he made up his mind. He went to the cupboard where the toxin was, took out the box, looked at it reflectively for a moment, and then went below into a tiny cabin. He wasn’t gone long, just long enough to hide it away down there somewhere, and when he came back he looked up at Van Reck and said distinctly:
“If he tries to go below, if he even makes a move for the door...You understand?”
Watching, I saw Van Reck nod slowly. The expression on his face had not changed a bit, still the same stolid look of absolute impassion. And then he made a queer, strangled sort of sound, as though he were trying to catch our attention, to make sure we’d both be looking at him for one split second longer. He held my look, and then, with incredible speed, drew back a strong right arm, not bothering to aim, and loosed the shaft that was in the string. Even before it hit, not more than an inch from my head, there was another arrow ready, notched and pulled back. The shaft had embedded itself in the sternpost, a target no more than two inches across and so close to my scalp that if I’d moved the merest trifle it would have gone through my head. I looked up at it and saw that it had split the hardwood dowelling, the steel point coming out just a fraction on the other side; dead center, an impressive shot.
I said sourly: “All right, all right, I know you can shoot straight.”
Now, the expression was changing; Van Reck was grinning to himself, enjoying the joke.
Loveless said to him: “All right, just keep your eyes open, he’s not as big a fool as he looks.” He switched on the S-phone and said: “Jerry? I’m going down to Guinco myself. Stay out of sight, stay at the entrance. Van is standing guard down here. If anybody shows his nose near the cave, or comes out of it while I’m away, you know what to do. And if I’m not back in an hour, you know what to do then too. I’ve put the stuff...” He looked at me and said into the receiver: “You remember where we hid the money that time? There.”
He switched off and, not taking his eyes off me, trying hard to find out what I was thinking and not succeeding, he said slowly: “This just might be the biggest mistake I ever made in my life. But risks—you have to take them sometimes, don’t you?”
I said politely: “Indeed you do.”
“And to tell you the truth, I just don’t give a damn. Maybe if you think about that enough, it’ll slow you down. We can all go to hell and I just don’t give a damn, Now start the motor.”
“I thought you didn’t want the sound of it.”
“Start it.”
I shrugged, leaned over and pushed the button. It roared into life immediately, a muffled roar that sounded, in the confines of the cavern, more than it really was. I knew that we were too deep in the bowels of the earth to be heard out there where the bright sun was.
He said at once, shouting: “Cut it!”
I switched off, and he looked at me and half laughed, and walked away to leave me there alone with a madman perched up on a ledge twenty feet above my head, with a poisoned arrow ready to loose off if I even wanted to scratch my head.
At the entrance to the cave, Loveless turned back. He looked the cave and the boat over thoroughly, looked up at Van Reck and said: “Don’t let him get behind the boat. If he does, just wait for him to show his head again. He can’t get out, you’ve got a clear line of fire to the entrance.”
I saw Van Reck nodding slowly. The grin had gone, and he was his own phlegmatic self again. Loveless turned on his heel and was gone. I thought I’d give him ten minutes.
I looked up at Van Reck and met his eye. I said: “Don’t get excited, no one’s going to get hurt.”
Very slowly, I put my palms out and bent my knees, and leaned on the deck with my hands and slowly straightened my legs. I started doing push-ups, quite slowly, not to get the archer up there too worried. Not that I thought he would be. There was a clear field of fire to every point in the cave except behind the boat. And there, as Loveless had said, there could be no safety either—all he had to do was wait for me to show myself again as I’d have to if I were trying to get out of there. At thirty push-ups to the minute, I thought three hundred would be about right, and it was good to feel the blood coursing through my shoulders.
And then, when I’d counted a hundred and forty-seven, there was a very slight sound, and Loveless was there again, standing in the entrance and staring at me in surprise.
He said: “What the...what the hell goes on?”
I turned my head and smiled at him, not stopping.
I said gently: “Just getting my exercise, Major. I’m a nut about keeping fit. Too easy to get fat and flabby, isn’t it?” Moving up and down, I said: “And I didn’t expect you back quite so soon either.”
I saw him shrug. “Just checking.”
I’d half expected it. Ten more minutes then, another three hundred. He turned on his heels and was gone again. I went on pushing.
And then, at the count of two hundred and nine, my timing was forced up a bit, fortuitously. A shot sounded out there; or was it two, impossibly close together? I knew that Van Reck must have been as startled as I was—perhaps startled enough to loose off a shaft in my direction; or perhaps, with luck, startled enough to look off at the entrance where the sound of the shot came from.
I didn’t check to see what he was doing; I knew there wouldn’t be time. I did at once what I was preparing to do two or three moments later. I shoved hard with my foot against the deck rail and threw myself backward at the same time. As I went over the side and hit the water, I heard the arrow thud into the deck where I’d been; the sharp steel had pierced the sleeve of my jacket and I tore myself free and was under the water even before the second shaft hit close beside the first.
And I knew that he still wouldn’t leave the safety of his defensive perch; he didn’t have to. I dived deep and went under the hull, going as deep as I could while I was about it, killing two birds with one stone by checking the depth of the water at the same time. It was a good twenty feet or more, to judge by the feeling of my ears. Deep enough, at any rate. I came up at last on the other side, where at least for the moment it was safe, knowing that Van Reck would be on his feet now, waiting for me to reappear, as I must, or merely hold me there till his boss got back. I pulled myself silently up, hidden from him by the superstructure of the cabin’s top, slid over the scuppers on my belly, and rolled down the four steps into the cabin.
I decided that I had plenty of time now, and I searched long and carefully. There was no danger unless I showed myself again. A trap, Van Reck would be thinking, and the idiot’s put his head into it, let’s see what happens when he pokes it out again, as sooner or later he’s got to do.
It took me less than a minute to find the small steel box, hidden away in the bottom of a large can of coffee. It was empty, of course, and it took me another three minutes to find the vials, wrapped in oily rags and stashed away in the pipe berth, wedged in the bottom section near the inner cover of the bilges. Thinking of the terrible, indiscriminate death they represented, I couldn’t help shuddering; a little play in the pipes as the boat swayed, and one of the glass vials, armored or not, might easily have cracked. I thought grimly: by God, he really does need someone with a little more respect for the most deadly toxin in the world’s whole alarming arsenal. I replaced them carefully in the box and wrapped a length of stout wire round it to make sure it stayed good and shut.
But it took me longer to undo the seacocks with my bare hands. With a good heavy wrench I’d have opened them up quickly, but they were fastened down tight and not oiled. I used my belt as a sort of wrench, tightening it round the four-inch lugs and twisting till they came free.
There was a pleasant gurgling sound, and the water rushed up into the cabin, flooding it in less than a minute. I slipped the steel box into my pocket, not without certain qualms which I knew to be foolish, and soon there was only a foot of headroom above the level of the inrushing water.
Where would he be now, Van Reck? Would he have come down at last, knowing what I was doing and peering down into the water, not here, but at the entrance? That damned reflected sunlight on the water wasn’t going to be much help; or was it? Would he see me ten feet down swimming strongly past him? And if he did, would he accurately gauge the effect of the water’s refraction, and get at least one good shot in? One was all he needed.
The boat was keeling over now, the water on one side reaching the roof. I took in the last few gulps of air before she went down, then eased my way out of the cabin. I’d dearly have liked to come up just once for one more breath of air, but the risk was too great. Instead, I struck out hard along the channel, swimming down as well as along, getting deeper and deeper till my ears were bursting. I felt bottom and kicked my way hard along, then turned over on my back when I calculated that I’d reached the overhang where there’d be light. Could he see me here, I wondered?
My lungs were bursting now too, but there was still a long way to go and no hope of more air till I was clear out in open water, I swam hard and fast and deep. I heard a rush of sound as a shaft went spinning through the water four feet or more ahead of me.
