'Oh.' Peter Marlowe laughed again. 'I was afraid it might have been a dream.'
'What?' Ewart studied him,
'Nothing.'
'Don't know what's getting into you, Peter. You've been acting very strange lately.'
Tex was waiting for Peter Marlowe hi the lee of the hut. 'Pete,' he whispered. 'The King sent me. You're overdue.'
'Oh blast! Sorry, I dropped off.'
'Yeah, that's what he figured. 'Better get with it,' he told me to tell you.'
Tex frowned. 'You all right?'
'Yes. Still a bit weak. I'll be all right.'
Tex nodded, then hurried away. Peter Marlowe rubbed his face and then walked down the steps to the asphalt road and stood under the shower, his body drinking strength from the cold. Then he filled his bottle and walked heavily to the latrines. He chose a hole at the bottom of the slope as near as possible to the wire.
There was only a thread of a moon. He waited until the latrine area was momentarily empty, then he slipped across the naked ground and under the wire and into the jungle. He kept low as he skirted the wire, avoiding the sentry that he knew was meandering the path between jungle and fence. It took him an hour to find the spot where he had hidden the money.
He sat down and took the inches of notes and tied them around his thighs, and doubled his sarong around his waist. Now, instead of reaching the ground, the sarong was knee length, and the bulk of it helped to hide the untoward thickness of his legs.
He had to wait another hour just outside the latrine area before he could slip under the wire. He squatted down on the borehole in the darkness to catch his breath and wait until his heart was calmer. At length he picked up his bottle and left the latrine area.
'Hello, cobber,' Timsen said with a grin, coming out of the shadows.
'Gorgeous night, ain't it?'
'Yes,' Peter Marlowe said.
'Beaut of a night for a walk, right?'
'Oh?'
'Mind if I walks along with you?'
'No. Come along, Tim, I'm happy to have you. Then there won't be any bloody hijackers. Right?'
'Right, mate. You're a toff.'
'You're not bad yourself, you old bastard.' Peter Marlowe slapped him on the back. 'I never did thank you.'
'Think nothing of it, mate. My bloody oath,' Timsen chuckled, 'you nearly had me fooled. I thought you was only going to take a pong.'
The King was grim when he saw Timsen, but at the same time he was not too grim, for the money was once more in his possession. He counted it and put it in the black box.
'Now all we need's the ice.'
'Yus, mate.' Timseji cleared his throat. 'If we catch the bushwhacker, before he comes 'ere or after he come 'ere, then I gets the price we agreed, right? If you buy the ring from him and we don't catch him — then you're the winner, right? Fair enough?'
'Sure,' the King said. 'It's a deal.'
'Good — oh! God help him if we catch him.' Timsen nodded to Peter Marlowe and walked out.
'Peter, take the bed,' the King said, sitting on the black box. 'You look wrung out.'
'I thought I'd go on back.'
'Stick around. Might need someone I can trust.' The King was sweating, and the heat of the money from the black box seemed to be burning through the wood.
So Peter Marlowe lay on the bed, his heart still aching from the strain. He slept, but his mind was alert.
'Mate!'
The King jumped to the window. 'Now?'
''Urry.' The little man was vastly afraid and the white of his eyes caught the light as they darted back and forth. 'C'mon 'urry.'
The King slammed the key into the lock and threw back the lid and took out the pile of ten thousand he had already counted and rushed back to the window. 'Here. Ten grand. I've counted it. Where's the diamond?'
'When I gets the money.'
'When I've got the diamond,' the King said, still holding tight to the notes.
The little man stared up belligerently and then opened his fist. The King stared at the diamond ring, examining it, not making a move to take it. Got to make sure, he told himself urgently. Got to make sure. Yes, it's the one.
I think it's the one.
'Go on, mate,' grated the little man. 'Take it!'
The King let go of the notes only when he had a firm grip on the ring, and the little man darted away. The
