Show CHAPTER cy stood the gun on the desk between Its muzzle toward the bolted door of the main Mary was in the recess between the desk and the rack of George at the end of the desk nearest the If Mat Forbes were he did not even If someone watched the cabin his feet did not shuffle on the If Peter was preparing to break in the cabin his preparations moved without a The very silence had terror In George had the bomb gun under his right He held the revolver in his left His eyes were on the companionway down which at any moment an attack might He looked now and then at the but the men on deck care not to show themselves and minutes and nothing and he said at appraising their won't want to fight us unless he has And maybe he told the truth about he If they don't find they'll have to come back aboard and They can't get away from here without the Peter could slip the anchor and get some sail on her and make out to sea and come back with a gunboat or So if they don't find Peter needn't will find afraid Peter killed There was ice In her she whispered CHAPTER Richard is then the ship is and everything in and he'll be Remember he was always about how much money the ship and her cargo was and the He added he may have known he was not Corr's own could he mother might have told when he was a If he knew he could guess that Corr had left everything to worked on me from the time we left the island to make me hate I suppose be saw 1 was naturally He kept reminding me how you used to feel about and when he thought he had brought me to the he gave me that At least he put it in the pocket of Richard's coat and made me wear the coat and hoped I would find it He wonder why Peter kept that letter so has always wanted He made love to me aboard Kissed Once Tommy Hanline saw Once I had to run and lock myself he even came to my cabin George said haven't been much protection for Mary touched his hand on the bomb and his eyes met He said given me so I should have given you Her eyes burned with going to take such care of make you so He smiled at his own we get out of this Her hand tightened on smiling with They had never been so close as in this After a moment he many men are there Do you Peter and and Gee and Willie And of if he's not of He any one of them could pick me up and throw me Even old But I've a gun I two guns and they She said think you're enjoying She like a strong man to run a Isn't that in the not running a He I would if I but there's nowhere to run wish we could know if they do find George faced the He was not not The emergency had stiffened he meant to meet it if he But deep in his George felt suddenly Mary's eyes upon His eyes met and after a not she came toward She came to him kissed while they both without they kissed She returned to her Time Mary kept her vigil at the George could see her leaning across the resting ber hands against the vessel's her face close to the small square accepting the fact to which he could not bt But she and even if Richard were would never to one another of their and they would take care that he should never He knew and he vowed that so long as he they must not know he knew the Let them do their and think him Time somehow dragged itself When Richard went ashore the day it was at Peter's you good to stretch your the younger going the way you've acted since we passed the What got into He watched Richard but Richard without answering looked down at the boats preparing to leave the ship's going to try for some Peter Better bring a The pigs might jump They're ugly A walk ashore offered some outlet for his bottled so Richard took that iron-bound club made out of a harpoon and went with While the men were hauling the floating casks he and Peter approached the little but the geese were somehow and they rose and flew up the slope and settled again far up the Peter called and the three men started that The tussock at first short and then taller and high above their received Richard plunged through it welcoming its tough forcing himself into wrestling his way with his shoulders and his head His broken secured to his made him awkward at the He dragged the heavy club behind bending his charging through the tough stuff with its interlacing luxuriance like a That which happened came with no breaking He realized suddenly that he was screaming like a blindly through the lunging and fighting through the mesh of it like a fish caught in a stepped into He turning over sickeningly in the He fell on his right shoulder and hip striking in shallow water and The breath was knocked out of and he was stunned and shaken and for a little could not Then he rolled painfully on his back and felt something hard under his head and laid his hand on the shaft of the club he had He got to his knees and stood gasping for and his feet sank deeper in water and soft He looked up and saw the sky through a round hole five or six edged with the long stuff broken by his fall hanging down into the The hole was a full thirty feet above his He called Peter's shouting it as loudly as he could with what breath his jolted lungs could he shouted again and till he saw something move at the edge of the hole above saw Peter's head projected against the heard Peter Are you down After a moment Peter deep is Maybe you climb Richard looked peering In the half-darkness of the he walked two or three steps to one He tried for managed to climb a but he saw as his eyes became a little adjusted to the darkness that above his head the sides toward the opening at the He slid to the bottom again in a cloud of sooty he shaped like the inside of a The sides slant in to You'll have to get a bring some men to haul me careful where you Richard warned make the men be careful when they Probably there are a lot of holes and pits around in the Peter He said in sudden question arc can see you You can't climb that's Go bring a You take tt I'll get the line we towed the casks ashore j not heavy Bring some whale line from the Peter I'd I'll be quite a but I'll make it quick as I Take it His head Richard stayed where he looking up at that small opening so far above wishing Peter were still He could hear the grass rustling in the but the sound was He was and he was The shallow pool of water into which he had fallen was directly under the open- in the deepest part of the He sat down at one side of plucking at the powdery gray-black ash with his rubbing it between his It broke into a light dust that rose into his face and made him but it stuck to his wet hands in a slimy He shivered with a sudden and wished Peter would place had an unpleasant vaguely Twenty minutes for Peter to reach the ten minutes to the ten minutes back to the shore say an hour in all before help would Richard did not like his There was something terrifying in this prison into which he had in the sick smell of He tried to estimate how long Peter had been Five He sought to count off sixty and caught himself hurrying the so he began to beat time with his tapping his knee It took a long time to count sixty There were sixty minutes in an To count sixty seconds sixty times would need an It must be at least half an hour since Peter Richard warned himself to be he called it twenty In an excess of he decided it was only If he began to expect Peter too waiting would be A rain squall drifted across the and a few drops pattered on the still surface of the pool with little tinkling almost He liked They were They banished the dreadful silence Peter must have reached the boats by this Probably the men were just sliding a boat into the shipping their Peter would drive make them Richard sat down forcing himself to to slop thinking about Peter would get here as soon as he Richard lay down on his his arm under his watching that hole above and the gray sky from which rain again A man watching that waiting and waiting for the head of a rescuer to could go Richard dragged his eyes away from He studied the inside of his forcing himself to wonder about its The fire which dug this hole In the peat must have burned for eating its way down and down till it came to hard He asked didn't rain put it He wondered how long a man would live in this wet cold that bit his The thought made him and he got up to warm himself Everywhere the soft ash under his feet was honeycombed by the little mice of fire that had eaten tunnels in and his feet sank into it halfway to his He hated the stopped beat his chest with his Richard thought he would be glad to leave Hoakes Bay Now and in the back of his like a beckoning Mary He shut his thoughts against He must put her out of his keep her out of his Peter would come Surely he would come Richard decided they might even now be hunting for up He began to He realized suddenly that he screaming like a and he stopped in shame at and controlled his and thereafter he hallooed almost at regular But now he watched the opening above him without never taking his eyes away from It must be an hour since Peter left him He refused to admit to himself that more than an hour had When the sky grew he argued desperately that this merely a thickening of the That was not merely a thickening of the clouds above It was Night was coming It had been early in the afternoon when he fell into the so now he must have been here five hours or In any dreadful aman must make for himself a Richard had no Illusions about but to believe that Peter had returned aboard the and sailed leaving him here in this pil to would mean quick madness and Richard was of that breed of man which docs not which docs not He found u He decided to believe that on his way back to the had fallen into a pit like this He decided to believe that Peter too was a The must be hunting for them Night was coming but good Mat Forbes would keep men hunting all HE CONTINUED |