Part 13 (1/2)
Angelo saw ht in the seat and stopped singing
I ju the pedal down hard and swinging in a roaring theeled turn
”What is it, Harry?” Angelo derimly ”You sent her down to the boat, when?”
”When I left to fetch you”
”Did she go right away?”
”No, she'd have to bath and dress first” He was telling it straight, not hiding the fact they had slept together He sensed the urgency of the situation ”Then she'd have to walk down the valley fros with a peasant fa, it was a threemile walk
”God, let us be in ti down the avenue, and I hit the gears in a racing change as ent out through the gates in a screaain on the accelerator, pulling her out of the skid by th
”What the hell is it, Harry?” he de aboard Dancer,” I told hirimly as we roared down the circular drive above the town Past the fort a vista of Grand Harbour opened beneath us He did not waste ti for that and if I said so then he accepted it as so
Dancer was still at her st the other island craft, and halfway out to her frohy Even at this distance I could nize the short business-like oar-strokes She was an island girl, and rowed like a elo ”She'll get there before we reach Admiralty”
At the top of Frobisher Street I put the heel ofa continuous blast I tried to clear the road But it was a SaturdayThe country folk had come to town in their bullocks, carts and ancient jalopies Cursing with a terrible frustration, I hooted and forced h them
It took us three minutes to cover the half mile from the top of the street down to Ad forward in the seat as I shot through the hy was tied up alongside Wave Dancer, and Judith was clireen shi+rt and short deni braid down her back
I skidded the truck to a halt beside the pineapple sheds, and both Angelo and I hit the wharf at a run
”Judith!” I yelled, but my voice did not carry out across the harbour
Without looking back, Judith disappeared into the saloon Angelo and I raced down to the end of the jetty Both of us were screa wildly, but the as in our faces and Dancer was five hundred yards out across the water
”There's a dinghy!” Angelo caught my arm It was an ancient clinker-builtin the stone wharf
We ju in a heap together over the thwart I scraalvanized steel links, and a heavy brass padlock secured it to the ring
I took tists of chain around ainst the wharf and heaved The padlock exploded, and I fell backwards into the bottoelo already had the oars in the rowtocks ”Row,” I shouted at'him ”Row like atoin a dedicated frenzy, swinging the oar blades flat and low on the back reach and then throwing his weight upon therunt at each stroke
Halfway out to Dancer another rain squall enveloped us, shrouding the whole of Grand Harbour in eddying sheets of grey water It stung my face, so I had to screw up rey rain, but ere co to hope that Judith would sweep and tidy the cabins before she struck ato hope that I rong - that Sherry North had not left a farewell present forto Sherry North the previous day ”You have to open the et to close them when you finish, or youtil turn the boat into a bo on tendrils of rain, ghostly white and insubstantial in the swirling mist
”Judith,” I shouted, she must hear me noere that close
There were two fifty-pound cylinders of Butane gas on board, enough to destroy a large brick-built house The gas was heavier than air, once it escaped it would slu Dancer's hull with a as and air It needed just one spark fro and yelled again Then suddenly Dancer blew
It was dash explosion, a fearsoh her It split her hull with a hty ha it like a lid
Dancer reared to the mortal blow, and the blast hit us like a storm wind Immediately I smelled the electric stench of the blast, acrid as an air-sizzling strike of lightning against iron-stone
Dancer died as I watched, a terrible violent death, and then her torn and lifeless hull fell back and the cold grey waters rushed into her The heavy engines pulled her swiftly down, and she was gone into the grey waters of Grand Harbour
Angelo and I were frozen with horror, crouching in the violently rocking dinghy, staring at the agitated water that was streith loose wreckage - all that reirl I felt a vast desolation descend upon uish, but I was paralysed
Angelo ht with a sound in his throat like a wounded beast He tried to throw hiht and held hio to her”
”No” I fought with hielo”
Even if he could get down through the forty feet of water in which Dancer's torn hull now lay, what he would find ht drive him mad Judith had stood at the centre of that blast, and she would have been subjected to all the terrible traue
”Leave ot one ar and rolled razed the skin froet hi Though he was forty pounds lighter thanher na inflection I released htly away froht chop,not more than four inches I hit him cleanly on the point below his left ear, and he dropped instantly, gone cold I lowered him to the floorboards and laid hi back I felt coelo down the wharf and I hardly felt his weight in my arms I drove him up to the hospital and Macnab was on duty
”Give hi to keep him muzzy and in bed for the next twenty-four hours,” I told Macnab, and he began to argue
”Listen, you broken-down old whisky vat,” I told him quietly, ”I'd love an excuse to beat your head in”
He paled until the broken veins in his nose and cheeks stood out boldly
”Now listen - Harry old an I took a step towards hi cupboard
I found Chubby at breakfast and it took only a minute to explain what had happened We went up to the fort in the pick-up, and Wally Andrews responded quickly He waived the filing of statements and other police procedure and instead we piled the police diving equipment into the truck and by the time we reached the harbour, half of St Mary's had for the wharf Some had seen it and all of them had heard the explosion
An occasional voice called condolences toequipment to the mackerel boat ”Soet down here with a bag and basket,” and there was a buzz of comment
”Hey, Mister Harry, was there soet Fred coker,” I told thes
While Wally kept the dinghy on station above us, Chubby and I went down through the murky harbour water Dancer lay on her back in forty-five feet, she must have rolled as she sank - but there was no need to worry about access to her interior, for her hull had been torn open along the keel She was far past any hope of refloating
Chubby waited at the hole in the hull while I went in What re excited shoals of fish They were in a feeding frenzy and I choked and gagged into theupon
The only way I kneas Judith was the tatters of green cloth clinging to the fragot her out in threethat Fred coker provided
I dived again ih the shattered hull to the coas cylinders were still bolted to their beds Both taps ide open, and soas to escape freely