The Snow Tiger / Night of Error (52 page)

‘I believe you, doctor. I’m sorry for the rough time I gave you.’

He grimaced. ‘It wasn’t as rough as the time the big man gave me.’

No, it wasn’t, I thought, but we’d both operated on the same raw nerve – Schouten’s fears for his patients and his hospital. I felt ashamed of myself. I finished the drink quickly and watched Schouten scratching with his pen. I could see it was going to take a while, so I said, ‘When will you finish?’

‘To tell it in detail will take a long time. Also I do not write English so well as I speak it,’ said Schouten. ‘If you wait, you will have dinner, of course.’

‘No. I’ll go back to my ship and make arrangements to leave someone here with you, when we go back to Papeete. I’ll come back later tonight or early in the morning.’

Schouten inclined his head. ‘As you wish. I will be glad of a guard.’ He resumed his writing and I got up to go, and
then just as I got to the door, he said, ‘One moment, Mr Trevelyan. Something has just come back to me.’

I waited by the door and he rose from his desk. ‘You were asking about the name – the one they mentioned. The big man spoke it and the other made him be quiet.’

‘What was it?’

Schouten escorted me on to the verandah. As Piro saw us he started the engine of his jeep. Schouten said, ‘It was a strange name – it sounded Spanish. It was Ramirez.’

We had gone a mile when the jeep broke down. The roar of the engine faded and we bumped to a halt. Piro hopped out, bent over the engine and struck a match. ‘She dead,’ he said in an unworried voice.

I was impatient to get back to
Esmerelda.
I wanted to beat Kane into a pulp. I know that no man stays angry forever – you can’t live on that plane – and I was nursing my anger because I wanted to let it rip. I intended to hammer Kane to a jelly. Jim Taylor had sensed my tension and had wisely refrained from asking me any questions.

Piro struck another match and poked experimentally into the entrails of the jeep. Then he looked up and said cheerfully, ‘She no go.’

‘What’s the matter?’

‘No
essence.
’

I said, ‘Damn it, why didn’t you fill it up? Why didn’t you look at the gauge – this thing here?’

‘She broke.’

‘All right, we’ll walk – we just have to follow the beach.’

Piro said, ‘No walk. Canoe along here. We walk on water.’

We followed him a couple of hundred yards up the beach to where the road turned inland and he strode to the water’s edge. ‘Here is canoe, sir – I take you back.’

It was only a couple of miles but it seemed longer in the darkness. We very soon saw the riding lights of
Esmerelda
in the clear air but it took an age to get within hailing distance. Some of the other canoes were still alongside and there was an air of festival on deck, with crew and locals apparently sharing their evening meal. Campbell, Clare and Paula were waiting at the rail as I climbed on board and they saw at once that I was in no happy mood. I said to Campbell in a low voice, ‘Where’s Kane?’ I couldn’t see him in my first sweeping survey of the deck.

‘Geordie’s been watching him. He’s given him a job below. What happened, man?’

I said, ‘That bastard – and Hadley – killed Mark.’

Paula drew in her breath with a hiss. Campbell said, ‘Are you sure?’

‘It may not hold in a court of law but I’m sure.’ I was remembering the tears on Schouten’s cheeks. ‘I want to have a talk with Kane – now!’

‘He doesn’t look like a murderer.’

‘Which one does?’ I said bitterly. ‘I’ve heard a filthy story. Ramirez was involved too.’

Campbell started. ‘How do you reckon that?’

‘Can you describe him?’

‘Sure. He’s a tall, thin guy with a beak like an eagle. He’s got a hell of a scar on the left side of his face.’

‘That does it. He was there when Mark was killed. Schouten saw him and described him, all but the scar, and Hadley mentioned his name. He’s tied up in it all right, right up to his goddam neck – which I hope to break. But first I want Kane.’

Campbell turned to Clare and Paula. ‘Go to your cabins, girls.’

Paula turned obediently but Clare argued. ‘But Pop, I—’

There was a whipcrack in Campbell’s voice. ‘Go
to your cabin
!’

She went without another murmur and he turned to me.

‘Clear this lot off,’ I said. ‘Tell Ian. Let’s find Kane.’

I went down into the forecastle but Kane wasn’t there, nor was he on deck. We roped in the crew and they set out to search the ship but there was no sign of him. My jaw was aching from holding it clenched for so long.

‘He’s skipped,’ said Ian.

‘Geordie – where’s Geordie?’ I said.

But Geordie had vanished too.

I ran up on deck to find that several of the locals were still hanging around. I shouted for Piro and he emerged from the pack.

‘Can you help us find two men on the island? Can you search?’

‘What men?’

‘The captain and one of the crew. The captain is the big man you saw when we came. The other one is thin, tall. Stay away from him – he’s dangerous.’

Piro rubbed the top of his head. ‘Dan-ger-ous?’

‘He’s bad. He might fight – might kill you.’

Piro shrugged. ‘You pay – we find.’

He dropped into his canoe with two or three of our men, and Ian was already directing the clearing of our inboard launch which was being swung over the side. Piro was shouting instructions in his own language to the suddenly galvanized locals. Campbell came up from below. ‘Got a gun?’ he asked me.

‘I won’t need a gun. I’ll tear that bastard apart.’

‘Come here,’ he said and took me under a light. He opened his hand and I saw a round of ammunition in his palm. ‘I found that on the floor by his bunk – a .38 slug. Kane must have dropped it in his hurry and that means he’s armed.’

‘Christ, we must stop these natives making a search,’ I said. ‘We don’t want any deaths.’

I turned to race on deck but he held my arm, pushing something heavy into my hand. ‘Here’s a gun,’ he said. ‘Can you shoot?’

I hung onto it tightly. ‘I’ll soon find out, won’t I?’ I stuffed it into the pocket of the light anorak I was wearing. ‘You’d better stay here.’

‘Son,’ said Campbell, ‘I’m not as old as that – not yet.’

I looked into his frosty eyes and said, ‘We’d better make it snappy, then.’ We ran up on deck and I dropped into the launch and looked ashore. Little spots of light were moving in the darkness, coming and going, sometimes vanishing and reappearing as the torches were occulted by the palm trees. ‘Damn, they’ve started to search.’ I turned to Ian. ‘Kane’s armed.’

‘Let’s go – I’ve got six – the rest are ashore already. They know the score.’ The engine started first time off, which was a tribute to someone, and as we sped shorewards I said to the men around me, ‘Listen, chaps, we’re looking for Geordie. If you come up against Kane steer clear of him. Don’t push him too hard – he’s got a gun. And as you find the natives send them back to their village.’

Taffy Morgan said, ‘What’s Kane done now?’

‘He’s killed a man,’ said Campbell coldly.

There was no more talk until the boat grounded on the beach. Piro was waiting, his face alive with excitement in the light of a torch. ‘Found ’im,’ he said laconically.

‘Which one?’ I asked quickly.

He gestured. ‘The big one – up in hut now.’

I sighed with some thankfulness. This must be Geordie. ‘Piro, can you call your men off – stop them? They must not find the other man. He has a gun.’

Piro made a quick sign to one of his friends, who lifted a large conch shell to his lips. The mournful sound boomed
out, sending its note across the plantations. I saw the lights begin to drift back to the village.

‘Let’s see him.’

We found Geordie in one of the huts. His face was a dreadful mess, with deep cuts and gashes across his forehead and cheeks. Piro said, ‘We found ’im in trees – asleep on groun’.’

I think he had concussion because he rambled a little, but he was able to speak to us. He had seen Kane slipping ashore in one of the many canoes and had followed in another. He hadn’t had time to call anyone because he was afraid of losing Kane. He had followed as Kane skirted the village and entered the trees and then he had been ambushed.

‘For God’s sake, who ambushed you?’

‘It – must have been Hadley. A man as big as an elephant,’ said Geordie painfully. ‘He stepped from behind a tree and pushed a gun into my ribs. I didn’t expect that – I thought Kane was on his own – and he took me by surprise. Then he – made me turn round to face him and he started to hit me.’ He was trailing off but recovered. ‘With the gun. A big revolver. It was the sight that did – this. And the bastard was laughing. Then he hit me a couple of times on the head and I – passed out.’

He grinned weakly. ‘Maybe he thought he’d killed me but I have a pretty hard head. I’m sorry I fell down on the job, Mike.’

‘It’s all right, Geordie. None of us expected anything like this. I’m only sorry you had to get it in the neck.’

His bloody face cracked in a grim smile. ‘Add it to the account with my finger,’ he said weakly. ‘Give him one from me.’

‘You’ll have to wait your turn. There’s a queue lining up for licks at Hadley – and Kane.’ I stood up. ‘I think we’d better get you back to the ship.’

Two of his shocked team moved in, gentling him up and setting off for the launch. The others began to gather as Piro called them to the hut. I spoke urgently to him. ‘Is there another boat here – the
Pearl
?’ I asked. If Hadley had returned several times Piro was sure to know his boat. Piro’s answer shocked us all, even though we were already primed for it.

‘Yes, it came ’ere. It gone by
hôpital
– one, two hour,’ he said.

‘Well I’m damned,’ said Campbell. ‘He came through the pass behind us – in the dark and without lights. He’s a bloody good seaman.’

‘That doesn’t make me love him any more,’ I said.

A man ran into the hut and spoke to Piro rapidly in his own language, clearly distressed. Piro looked startled and gestured to me to come outside, where he pointed into the darkness. There was a fitful redness in the sky on the horizon. ‘
Hôpital
, he burn,’ he said.

‘Christ!’

The others crowded out to exclaim at the sight.

‘How can we get there – fast – all of us?’ I damned the jeep, stalled on the beach without fuel.

‘Big canoe,’ said Piro. ‘Go fast. Faster than walk.’ He ran off.

I said, ‘Hadley’s fired the hospital!’

Campbell looked at the glow in the sky. ‘Is he plain crazy – why did he do that?’ he demanded.

‘He threatened to do it. No time to tell you now. We’re going in canoes. Piro’s gone to organize it. Now where’s Ian?’

His soft Highland voice sounded at my shoulder. ‘I’m here.’

‘Take one canoe and go back to the
Esmerelda.
I want her down at the hospital as fast as you can make it. There’s light enough – the lagoon must be safe; you just follow the beach. Just get her there.’

He said nothing but ran off towards the beach. Piro touched me on the arm. ‘Come to canoes.’

Most of us could crowd into the launch and the big canoe took the rest as well as a lot of their own men – it held twenty of us. It was also leaky but by God it was fast! The rowers put their backs into it and it skimmed across the water at a great speed leaving a wake glinting with phosphorescence, and easily keeping up with the launch.

The three miles or so to the hospital took only twenty minutes, but by that time we could see that the whole place was on fire. We could see black figures running about, outlined against the flames, and I wondered how many survivors there were. I was so intent on the scene on shore that I didn’t see the ship. Campbell shook me by the shoulder and pointed.

A schooner was anchored in the lagoon just off the hospital. We wouldn’t have seen her in the darkness of that terrible night but for the raging fire which gleamed redly on her white hull. I shouted to Campbell, ‘What should we do – go to the schooner or the hospital?’

‘The hospital – we must save the patients.’

The canoe drove onto the beach, a little way below the hospital and we all splashed ashore and ran towards the fire. I saw that Campbell had produced an automatic pistol, a strange weapon with an extraordinary long, thin barrel. I took out the revolver he had given me and pounded onward, barely able to keep up with the racing Commandoes. The whole hospital was burning fiercely, the dry thatch going up like tinder and the flames streaming to the sky in the windless night.

I ran for the open space between two burning huts and came in sight of the hospital’s own landing place. A boat was just moving out and I heard the sudden sharp revving of an outboard motor over the crackle of flames.

‘They’re getting away,’ I yelled, and took a shot at them. Nothing happened – I had forgotten to release the safety
catch. Campbell squatted in a half-crouch and took aim with his curious pistol, then straightened up and shook his head. ‘Too far. I wish I had a rifle.’