'Uncle Arthur told me in the wheelhouse last night.' Surprise in her voice. 'Don't you remember?'
I hadn't remembered. I did now. I was half-dead from lack of sleep. A stupid remark. Perhaps even a give-away remark. I was glad Uncle Arthur hadn't heard that one.
'Calvert nears the sunset of his days,' I said. 'My mind's going. Sure they'll leave. But not for forty-eight hours yet. They will think they have plenty of time, it's less than eight hours since we instructed Sergeant MacDonald to tell them 'hat we were going to the mainland for help.'
'I see,' she said dully. 'And what did you do on Dubh Sgeir to-night, Philip?'
'Not much. But enough.' Another little white lie. 'Enough to confirm my every last suspicion. I swam ashore to the link harbour and picked the side door of the boathouse. It's quite a boathouse. Not only is it three times as big on the inside as it is from the outside, but it's stacked with diving equipment.'
'Diving equipment?'
'Heaven help us all, you're almost as stupid as I am. How on earth do you think they recover the stuff from the sunken vessels? They use a diving-boat and the Dubh Sgeir boathouse is its home.'
'Was - was that all you found out?'
'There was nothing more to find out. I had intended taking a look round the castle - there's a long flight of steps leading up to it from the boatyard inside the cuff itself - but there was some character sitting about three parts of the way up with a rifle in his hand. A guard of some sort. He was drinking out of some son of bottle, but he was doing his job for all that. I wouldn't have got within a hundred steps of him without being riddled. I left'
'Dear God,' she murmured. 'What a mess, what a terrible mess. And you've no radio, we're cut off from help. What are we going to do? What
'I'm going there in the
'You'll be killed, you'll be killed!' She crossed to and sat on the bed-side, her eyes wide and scared, 'Please, Philip! Please,
'I have to, Charlotte. Time has run out. There's no other way.'
'Please.' The brown eyes were full of unshed tears. This I couldn't believe. 'Please, Philip. For my sake.'
'No,' A tear-drop fell
She rose slowly to her feet and stood there, arms hanging limply by her side, tears trickling down her cheeks. She said dully: 'It's the maddest plan I've ever heard In my life,' turned and left the room, switching off the light as she went.
I lay there staring Jnto the darkness. There was sense in what the lady said. It was, I thought, the maddest plan TV ever heard in my life. I was damned glad I didn't have to use it.
TEN
'Come on, come on.' Another violent shake, a hand like a power shovel. 'Up!'
'Oh, God!' I opened the corner of one eye. 'What's the time?'
'Just after noon. I couldn't let you sleep any more.'
'Noon! I asked to be shaken at five. Do you know-----'
'Come here.' He moved to the window, and I swung my legs stiffly out of bed and followed him. I'd been operated on during my sleep, no anaesthetic required in the condition I was in, and someone had removed the bones from my legs. I felt awful. Hutchinson nodded towards the window. 'What do you think of that?'
I peered out into the grey opaque world. I said irritably: 'What do you expect me to sec in that damn' fog?'
'The fog.'
'I see,' I said stupidly. 'The fog.'
'The two a.m. shipping forecast,' Hutchinson said. He gave the impression of exercising a very great deal of patience. 'It said the fog would clear away in the early morning. Well, the goddamned fog hasn't cleared away in the early morning.'
The fog cleared away from my befuddled brain. I swore and jumped for my least sodden suit of clothing. It was damp and clammy and cold but I hardly noticed these things, except subconsciously, my conscious mind was frantically busy with something else. On Monday night they'd sunk the