Show j CARIBBEAN HK CONS PI RAC I k BRENDA CONRAD 5 I TO THE STORY SO Anne beautiful of a wealthy New York to Puerto Rico on an assignment for her Also on the Island are Pete a reporter on her father's now a S. Army Intelligence a Puerto educated In the United States who Is a secret V. S. Richard an engl neer whose Identity as a German agent Is suspected but not yet and Russell a young American and his When Taussig learns that Anne suspects him he with the help of Miguel's Diego to dispose of They are driving to the Valera CHAPTER Xin They turned Into a long shady lane of mango trees running to the mill yards and got out of the Except for who stayed where she was with a light shrug of distaste for the dirt and heat and dust They crossed the littered yard into the run-down wooden It was long and with a high-pitched The deafening roar of machinery made it impossible for Anne to hear what they were saying to She followed the foreman and Diego across the sticky dirty floor to the middle of the under the great vats built almost to the Mr Taussig came behind her arm He pointed to the steep narrow steps leading up to a catwalk at the top of the progressive succession of refining Anne looked up at it you mean we have to go up she trying to make him hear her above the din and roar of crushing wheels and He The dark flower opened inside her It was like the can't she thought She turned to look at Taussig He was smiling at He knew she was She could see it in the cold blue unsmiling through the concentric circles of his thick She started toward the stairs Pete could not have said he a rat when all he could smell was the pleasant odor of fresh bread across the inner court from the Army bakery under the General's It was a combination of a lot of things too intangible to put his finger Then he'd thought the heck with it and gone back to his He got went to the water cooler and came back again half a dozen unable to settle down to He got up got the file on Miguel Valera and the file on Diego and went through them He took the Brooklyn saloonkeeper's letter out of his desk and read it for the fiftieth let somebody like thai man over there come down here and show him the he remembered Anne saying If she could say that after her pointed question about Taussig the day she it must mean she was on to If she and Gus was Taussig probably knew Finally it was too much He reached for the me Senor Alvaro he He and Senor Miguel Valera if his father isn't He waited Captain the operator said at Don Alvaro and Senor Miguel Valera have gone to Ponce for the Senor Diego has taken some Americans out to the He has just Pete put the phone It was all perfectly open and above on the face of Only one thing bothered It was cockeyed but it stuck in his mind Why hadn't Miguel taken her out to the Central He got up abruptly and went into Colonel Fletcher's He looked at his speedometer Four kilometers and he'd be He hadn't any clearer idea now what was compelling him to risk his car and his neck to get out there than he had before he All he knew was that some sixth sense he had that had seldom let him down as a reporter was in operation and that get out there he He groaned A small engine whistled and steamed across the road in front of Behind Jangling and came a long train of cars loaded with He jammed on the brake and came to a The train came to a stop Heaven only knew how long it would stand there before it moved a foot or two and stopped again while they unloaded up What was time in an industry that still used He let his brake out and backed Into the path at the edge of the got out and hurried along the side of the It was the shortest way to the mill If the train crew thought he was crazy it would probably merely confirm an idea they already had about North American He quickened his He could see a shiny black limousine in the a girl sitting in her head bent forward a little It wasn't The golden thing that passed for a head on her never drooped forward that It was the girl who'd been at the dock with Don The sound of the machinery inside the mill drowned out the noise of the jolting cane Pete noticed that the pleasant overtone of molasses a little distance from the mill was not so pleasant close to He passed the crane lifting bundles of cane into the Two peons standing there taking a sample stalk from each ticketing It to be tested for sugar glanced at him curiously and went on with their work Pete ran The shed was hot and and full of violent unseen motion and deafening Men tending the grinding machines turned their heads to look at looked silently at each other and went back to their He went across the cement floor toward the center of the long Anne was nowhere in sight A man was coming in from the laboratory with a test tube of dark liquid in his He glanced around at startled at seeing a uniformed Army officer on the and waited with a questioning worried expression on his Pete Diego y los he For a moment the man looked Then his face broke into a He looked up and raised his free he said in Pete looked Anne's slim white figure was outlined above the immense oozing tanks fifty feet above She was clinging to the hand rail It looked a hundred just and the walk she was on the breadth of a A single iron hand rail was all that protected her from the long drop to the cement floor on his and God only knew what on the Diego was in front of Richard Taussig a yard behind She was clinging to the hand leaning forward a looking down into some grinding hell on the other Taussig glanced behind him along the and moved a little closer to There was something in his dual movement that split into Pete's consciousness like an electric He made a leap The stairway was sleep as a ladder and sticky with the silt and syrup flung up from the and he cleared it faster than he had ever done anything in his Then he could feel the narrow iron walk vibrate under his Taussig turned Something happened to his For a second there was something unspeakably terrible in It was gone The white smiling mask that took its place was inscrutably He stepped back a Anne hadn't She was staring down into the watching the cane come up and go caught between the great There was a look on her face that Pete had never seen there and that he wouldn't have known if he hadn't known every mood and movement of It far better than he knew his She was petrified with Her hand clinging to the guard rail was the knuckles small shiny beads of Pete Wilcox wriggled past Taussig on the two-foot walk and gripped her arm He felt her body give and sway a little and saw her eyes poor little he with a sharp acrid tightening at the back of his Diego absorbed in something the foreman was trying to shout at turned He gave an abrupt start you don't mind if I come Pete Diego shouted There was something more than delight in his Pete saw him take out his handkerchief and mop the perspiration off his The expression of relief on it was glad you've he Anne got into Pete's car and sat perfectly her eyes closed for a before she reached down and shook the dust out of first one shoe and then the They had walked down from the mill leaving the others back there talking to the mean you told them a story about having to get me back right away to see the she asked when Pete got in beside was all I could think just I thought some explanation was needed for leaving this down here on the wrong side of the and barging in and dragging you I don't think it was frankly He was thinking of the single glance that passed between Taussig and Diego as they came out of the and he was still trying to fit the whole thing It didn't make It couldn't possibly be what he'd thought as he dashed up those He looked at Anne sitting in a little heap beside She was absolutely all She took off her hat and tried to smile don't know why I was so she said suppose it was the roar and the and being up so high on that catwalk not being a cat She took a deep breath and got her lipstick out of her really don't know what I'd have done if you hadn't I think I'd have I kept knowing I was going It was Pete reached down and squeezed her hand tightly for a not saying I don't know what I'd ever do without you she She smiled time I get myself in a mess Her voice trailed off don't you marry he said when she didn't go have I said that too many Just for a bodyguard I'd live out in the dog and you could just send me a bone once in a Anne shook her head I don't know Sometimes I wish I but I don't know what's the matter with I'm such a When I'm with you I don't want to be with anybody When I'm in a jam it's always you She stopped don't you tell me all about old What's He wanted to ask her about but not just were good friends before I fell in love with he went like to stay that Why don't you just get it all off your Is it You know I'd rather you'd be perfectly honest about Even if it hurls a not in love with if that's what you Anne said He glanced at her She apparently believed don't know what happened to It's just so that's Pete don't mean that Or maybe I do and don't know I'll get over I when I get back let me won't Just so you don't do anything like marrying the That's all I'm really afraid old ego in the first He grinned wouldn't work in the He slowed down and looked at he wouldn't marry think I would if he asked Which he hasn't and isn't likely I don't see why Pete said hell of a lot of reasons why It works all right the other way The gals get a break when they get an American But not vice The whole setup is Their customs Anne said I've heard that From both Miguel and his And I think it's a lot of you're stupider than you Pete suppose you're going to tell me Love Conquers You've been to too many maybe it Maybe you're just too cynical and sophisticated being a starry-eyed Pete said know love conquers a hell of a or you'd be out of this car with your neck I'm serious about You're not going to ruin whole life just because you've got an overdose of sympathetic told you the point has come Anne warmly hasn't even remotely suggested that the ever occurred to But if having shall we say an I don't see why i shouldn't work out very BE |