glass with deep attention.
“This is very fortunate - for let us consider what might happen to an unreasonable man in your position.” He paused, gargled a little with a sip of whisky. Sweat had formed like a rash of little white blisters on his nose and chin. He wiped it away. “First of all, an unreasonable man might watch while his crew were taken out one at a time and executed. We use pickaxe handles here. It is a gruelling business, and Inspector Daly assures me that you have a special relationship with these two men.” Beside me Chubby and Angelo shifted uneasily in their seats. “Then an unreasonable man would have his boat taken in to Zinballa Bay. Once that happened there would be no way in which it would ever be returned to him. It would be officially confiscated, out of my humble hands.” He paused, and showed me the humble hands, stretching them towards me. They would have fitted a bull gorilla. We both stared at them for a moment. “Then the unreasonable man might find himself in Zinballa jail - which, as you are probably aware, is a maximum security political prison.”
I had heard of Zinballa prison, as had everyone on the coast.
Those who came out of it were either dead or broken in body and spirit.
They called it the “Lion Cage.
“Suleiman Dada, I want you to know that I am one of nature’s original reasonable men,” I assured him, and he laughed again.
“Iwas certain of it,” he said. “I can tell one a mile off,” then again he was serious. “If we leave here immediately, before the turn of the tide we can be out of the inshore channel before midnight.”
“Yes,” I agreed, “that we could.”
“Then you could lead us to this place of interest, wait while we satisfy ourselves as to your good faith - which I for one do not doubt one moment - you and your crew will then be free to sail away in your magnificent boat and you could sleep tomorrow night in your own bed.”
“Suleiman Dada - you are a generous and cultivated man. I also have no reason to doubt your good faith,” - no more than that of Materson and Guthrie, I silently qualified the statement - “and I have a peculiarly intense desire to sleep tomorrow night in my own bed.”
Daly spoke for the first time, snarling quietly under his little moustache. “I think you should know that a turtle fisherman saw your boat anchored in the lagoon across the channel from the Old Men and Gunfire Reef on the night before the shooting incident - we will expect to be taken that way.”
“I have nothing against a man who takes a bribe, Daly God knows I have done so myself - but then where is the honour among thieves that the poet sings of? I was very. disappointed in Daly, but he ignored my recriminations.
“Don’t try any more of your tricks,“he warned me.
“You really are a champion turd, Daly. I could win prizes with you.”
“Please, gentlemen.” Dada held up his hands to halt my flow of rhetoric. “Let us all be friends. Another small glass of whisky - and then Harry will take us all on a tour of interest.” Dada topped up our glasses, and paused before drinking again. “I think I should warn you, Harry - I do not like rough water. It does not agree with me. If you take me into rough water I shall be very very angry. Do we understand each other?”
“Just for you I shall command the waters to stand still, Suleiman Dada,” I assured him, and he nodded solemnly, as though it was the very least he expected.
The dawn was like a lovely woman rising from the couch of the sea, soft flesh tones and pearly light, the cloud strands like her hair tresses flowing and tousled, gilded blonde by the early sunlight.
We ran northwards, hugging the quieter waters of the inshore channel. Our order of sailing placed Wave Dancer in the van, she ambled along like a blood filly mouthing the snaffle, while half a mile astern the crash boat waddled and wallowed, as the Allisons tried to push her up on to the plane. We were headed for the Old Men and Gunfire Reef.
On board Dancer I had the con, standing alone at the wheel upon the open bridge. Behind me stood Peter Daly, and an armed seaman from the crash boat.
In the saloon below us, Chubby and Angelo still sat on the bench seat and three more seamen, armed with assault rifles, kept them there.
Dancer had been looted of all her galley stores, so none of us had breakfasted, not even a cup of coffee.
The first paralysing despair of capture had passed - and I was now thinking frenetically, trying to plot my way out of the maze in which I was trapped.
I knew that if I showed Daly and Dada the break at Gunfire Reef they would either explore it and find nothing - which was the most likely for whatever had been there was now packaged and deposited at Big Gull Island - or they would find some other evidence at the break. In both cases I was in for unpleasantness - if they found nothing Daly would have the very great pleasure of connecting me up to the electrical system in an attempt to make me talk.
If they found something definite my presence would become superfluous - and a dozen eager seamen would vie for the job of executioner. I didn’t like the sound of pick-handles it promised to be a messy business.
Yet the chances of escape seemed remote. Although she was half a mile astern the threepounder of the foredeck of Dada’s crash boat kept us on an effective leash, and we had aboard Daly and four members of the goon squad.
I lit my first cheroot of the day and its effect was miraculous, almost immediately I seemed to see a pinprick of light at the end of the long dark tunnel. I thought about it a little longer, puffing quietly on the black tobacco, and it seemed worth a try - but first I had to talk to Chubby.
Daly,” I turned to speak over my shoulder. “You had better get Chubby up here to take the wheel, I have got to go below.” why? he demanded suspiciously. “What are you going to do?”
“Let’s just say that whatever it is happens every morning at this time, and nobody’else can do it for me. If you make me say more, I shall blush.”
“You should have been on the stage, Fletcher. You really slay me. V “Funny you should mention that. It had crossed my mind.”
He sent the guard to fetch Chubby from the saloon, and I handed the con to him.
“Stick around, I want to talk to you later,” I muttered out of the side of my mouth and clambered down into the cockpit. Angelo brightened a little when I entered the saloon, and flashed a good imitation of the old bright grin, but the three guards, clearly bored, turned their weapons on me enthusiastically and I raised my hands hurriedly.
“Easy, boys, easy,” I soothed them and sidled past them down the companionway. However, two of them followed me. When I reached the heads they would have entered with me and kept me company. “Gentlemen,” I protested, “if you continue to point those things at me during the next few critical moments you will probably pioneer the sovereign cure for constipation.” They scowled at me uncertainly and as I closed the door firmly upon them I added, “But you really don’t want a Nobel prize - do you?”
When I opened it again they were waiting in exactly the same attitudes, as though they had not moved. With a conspiratory gesture I beckoned them to follow. Immediately they showed interest, and I led them to the master cabin. Below the big double bunk I had spent many hours building in a concealed locker. It was about the size of a coffin, and was ventilated. It would accommodate a man lying prone. During the time when I was running human cargo it had been a hidey hole in case of a search - but now I used it as a store for valuables and illicit or dangerous cargo. It contained at the present time five hundred rounds of ammunition for the FN, a wooden crate of hand grenades, and two cases of Chivas Regal Scotch whisky.
With exclamations of delight the two guards slung their machineguns on their shoulder straps and dragged out the whisky cases. They had forgotten about me and I slipped away and returned to the bridge. I stood next to Chubby, delaying the moment of take-over.
“You took your time,” growled Daly.
“Never rush a good thing,” I explained, and he lost interest and strolled back to stare across our wake at the following gunboat.
“Chubby,” I whispered. “Gunfire Break. You told me once there was a passage through the reef from the landward side.”
“At high springs, for a whaleboat and a good man with a steady nerve,“he agreed. “I did it when I was a crazy kid.”
“It’s high spring in three hours. Could I run Dancer through?” I asked.
