Angel's Ransom (22 page)

The ‘he’ and
‘s
he’ were Freddy and Valentina, who had come out on the foredeck and now stood together at the
rail in the cruiser
’s
bow. Something in the way the sailor
spoke made Blake turn his head quickly enough to catch
the frank hunger in Jules
’s
eyes as he watched the blonde
girl.

That morning she wore dark slacks and a sweater, both flattering to her superb figure. With the breeze of the
cruiser
’s
progress whipping her hair about her face, she made
a lovely figurehead for the
Angel
. Blake had still not thought
of a way to use the weapon of her beauty against Jules, but
the opportunity to test the weapon was at hand.

He said, ‘Dropping her over the side with a weight on her feet wouldn’t be as easy as dropping Bruno.’

Jules cursed him.

‘Forget the macaroni. He was a boob. He asked for what he got. There
’s
no need for the rest of you to get it.’

‘You don’t know that. You don’t know what can happen between now and tomorrow. You said yourself that Holtz
enjoys killing. Why should he take any of us back?’

‘That
’s
the trade. You bought the round trip when Moneybags paid off.’

‘He’ll pay better for a better trade.’ Blake took the plunge. ‘You can name your own price to tip us off when
Holtz is asleep and look the other way. I’ll take care of the
rest.’

Surprisingly, Jules
’s
reaction was a mild one.

‘My own price? That
’s
real generous. How much cash is
t
here aboard this ship that I haven’t raked up already? Or am I supposed to take another
check
?’

‘We’ll work out some way to guarantee payment.’ The empty promise was ridiculous, but
Blake kept on. ‘And with
out the risk of your going back to Monaco. You can be in
Algiers by the time we make Mallorca in the launch. Leave
the yacht there
–
’

‘You’re wasting your time, Captain. The only time anyone will ever cross Holtz and live to talk about it, Holtz will be
dead. I won’t say that for enough francs, cash on the zinc, or
even for a clear inside track with the
poule
down there, I
might not think about arranging it. But you can’t give me
either of those, so I’ll take my third of what Roche brings
back from Geneva and call it quits.’

‘What if he doesn’t come back from Geneva?’

‘He will. Holtz saw to that.’

‘His plane could crash. His train could smash up. He could be run down by a taxi. Anything could happen to
him.’

Jules had continued to watch Valentina while they talked. He said
sombrely
, ‘Hope that nothing does happen to him.
She wouldn’t look good with weights on her feet,’ and left
the pilot-house.

Marian arrived within a few minutes of his departure. Again she brought coffee in the thermos jug.

‘It
’s
a kind of excuse for the - other excuse,’ she explained. ‘Holtz saw me come.’

‘Where is he?’

‘At the rail, near the door to the salon. He
’s
been in there most of the morning. He and Jules are talking now.’

‘I just tried to bribe Jules. He
’s
probably reporting it, but it can’t be helped. We’d better get busy before Holtz comes
around to check on us.’

He gave her the course and the wheel. The bright morning sea was still empty.

Freddy and Valentina had already taken up their lookout, in position to signal from eithe
r side of the foredeck. The cap
tives had been spending their waking hours in the forward
part of the yacht since Holtz
’s
seizure of the salon, and Blake
had no fear that the couple on the foredeck would attract particular attention. It was Marian
’s
continued presence in
the pilot-house that invited suspicion. He took the substitute
power cable from the core of the roll of charts in which
he had hidden it during the night and went on with his
work of taping the battery clips, laying the tape on with
care that it should not bind the free operation of the
spring clips. A shock would be painful to him, but the
failure of a clip to function as it should could be disastrous
to them all.

Marian said, ‘If Freddy signals, what do you want me to do?’

She sounded entirely too unemotional for a girl who was preparing to deceive a killer with a
pretense
of passion. For a
moment Blake
’s
confidence in the scheme wavered. But they
were launched on it, and time was far too important to
permit turning back. He said, ‘I’ll make the advances. Just
stay there at the wheel.’

Working swiftly but carefully, he watched the time. The radiophone, when repaired, could afford them not only a
possible means of sending a call for help but word of the
moment when the call for help might become urgently
necessary
. The powerful short-wave station at Grasse broadcast a
regular
program
of meteorological data, news of interest
to mariners and requests for the opening of radio-telephone
communication with ships at sea, transmitting on schedule
every other hour during the day at thirty-three minutes past
the hour. Radio Grasse handled all ship-to-shore traffic in
that part of the Mediterranean, and would inevitably be the
station that Holtz had heard calling the
Angel
. It would just
as inevitably be the station which would give warning of the
all-out search for the cruiser that must follow Roche
’s
arrest.
When Holtz heard that warning, his prisoners would survive
only by their own resourcefulness.

The substitute cable was ready in good time to let him
practice
the action before attempting the tricky business of
clipping it into place on the live wires exposed at the bulk-head insulator. One sharp jerk would snap the clips free,
another movement would dispose of the cable in a drawer of
the chart table. Blake was ready to go when the chronometer
said seven-thirty.

‘How does it look?’ he asked, and tried to make the
question
casual. His nerves were tight. Much depended on what he was about to attempt.

‘All clear. They’re both in sight. Freddy is pacing.’

‘I’m hooking up. Keep your eyes open.’

The fat spark that sputtered under his fingers when he made the final
connection
was an encouragement. He turned
the volume control of the receiver to bare audibility as the
tubes warmed up, and stood with his ear close to the speaker.
Tense, waiting, he found his hands reaching automatically
for dividers and parallel rule to check the position Jules had
marked on the chart that still lay on the table where he had
spread it. The
Angel
was considerably less than twenty-four
hours’ cruising time from Monaco - if Monaco was to be her
destination.

A strong Spanish ship transmitter was the first to come in, almost on the Grasse wave-length. For an uncomfortable
moment he thought it would blanket the other station
entirely, but the ship operator was probably also interested
in the French broadcast. He cut off in time for Blake to hear
the familiar clear,
‘
Sécurité
,
S
écurité
,
S
écurité
’
with which the
Grasse operator came on the air, then the regular morning
announcement: ‘
Ici
Radio Grasse, void un
avis
urgent aux
navigateurs
…
’ followed by a report of a gale building up off the
French coast. The small voice in the speaker talked on as
Blake, frowning, stared at a cross Jules had
penciled
on the
chart several hours ahead of their calculated position. Part
of his mind groped for the significance of the marking, the
rest tightened in concentrated attention to the small voice
and its calm words of invitation to craft at sea: ‘
I
ci
Radio
Grasse.
Tra
fi
c
en
instanc
e pour les
navires
suivants
…
’

The list of vessels invited to call in on another wave-length for two-way communication was longer than usual, or so it
seemed to Blake. The
Angel
’s
call letters were not on the list.
And neither the
Angel
’s
name nor Freddy Farr
’s
had been
mentioned when the Grasse operator signed off.

Blake felt both puzzlement and relief as he explored the
airbands
for another station. There was still time to plan.
News of Roche
’s
arrest might or might not come over Radio
Monte Carlo and any of the other powerful Continental
transmitters, but a report of the sea-search it would trigger
off would certainly be announced by Radio Grasse if by no
other stations. Why had it not been announced? Roche
must
have reached Geneva long since. And where were the
Angel
’s
call letters on the list of ships with whom radio contact had
been requested?

‘What did you hear?’ Marian asked anxiously.

‘Nothing about us. Not a word.’

Blake stared unseeingly at the cryptic cross on the chart. His mind was wholly occupied by the larger question.

Holtz had said that Grasse was trying to get in touch with the
Angel
. He could not have been simply enjoying one of
his taunting jokes. The irregularities of the cruiser
’s
departure
from port, her abandonment of her crew if nothing
else, would have given rise to inquiries. That the inquiries
had stopped so soon might be no more than an indication
that the Monaco authorities did not think of the irregularities
as significant ones. Freddy Farr
’s
willfulness
was well known.
But a
check
for o
ne hundred thousand dollars
mis
-
signed
in a special way was not just another eccentricity. Could it be
that Freddy
’s
trick had failed? Would the ransom be waiting
in Monaco after all, and the prisoners’ safety assured as
long as they did not challenge Holtz? Or was Grasse
’s
silence an assurance that Roche had been taken by police
intelligent enough to recognize the danger a warning of his
arrest might mean to the captives, and the lack of news only
a promise that the search was on?

Puzzled, facing the dilemma, reluctant to abandon hope that the radiophone might still give an answer, Blake was
exploring its- limited range of wave-bands for another station
when Marian said, ‘Hurry! Freddy
’s
signaling
!’

The power cable snapped out of place at a single pull. He pushed it into the drawer already standing open,
slammed it shut, then sprang for Marian and the wheel.
She had obeyed his instructions to stay in her place, but she
turned to come into his arms, her back to the wheel and her
face lifted to his. In that position she was within the loop of his arms as he took the wheel, pressed between it and him
with her arms tight around his neck, and although he could
not properly hold her and the wheel at the same time, the
embrace was convincing. So, also, was the
pretense
of passion he had been led to doubt. As on the occasion when she
had tricked him into carrying her aboard the
Angel
, she
made him sharply conscious of her body; swell of breast,
slim roundness of waist, the firm encompassment of the
arms around his neck. Her lips, faintly
flavored
, were on
his for only seconds before the door to the pilot-house
slammed open. They sprang guiltily apart, once again with
the Walther menacing them from the doorway.