by Jack Higgins
Hagen climbed up on top of the wheelhouse and looked around. He could see nothing, only the reeds stretching away into the distance. He jumped down on to the deck and started to peel off his shirt. 'There's nothing for it,' he said to Mason. 'We'll have to go for a swim.'
Mason grinned and began to undress. 'We're certainly having to do things the hard way on this trip,' he said.
Mason went over the side and struck off in one direction and Hagen smiled confidently to Rose and said: 'Don't worry, angel. We'll find your secret lagoon.' He vaulted over the side and started to swim in the opposite direction to Mason.
The water wasn't as bad as he had expected. It smelled a trifle earthy but not offensively so and the coolness was a pleasant relief after the heat. He swam into a narrow lane that cut into the reeds and followed its course for several yards. When it came to a dead end he swam into the reeds themselves. It was easier than he had expected, and within a few seconds he came out into a small lagoon. For a moment his spirits rose and then disappointment came. The water was quite shallow and clear to a sandy bottom and there was no sunken launch. He turned back into the reeds and swam in another direction.
Every so often he hailed the boat and heard Rose's clear voice replying, and in this way he managed to keep a sense of direction. Now and then he could hear Mason's voice in the distance but he seemed to be having no better luck. After half an hour he began to tire and followed the sound of the girl's voice until, finally, he came out into the lagoon again. Mason was already on board and gave him a hand up. They sat smoking cigarettes and Mason said, 'He couldn't have been that far out when he took his bearings, could he?'
Hagen tried to look cheerful. 'No, it must be around here somewhere,' he said, and inside he was thinking of a dying man on a sinking boat in the dusk. He tossed his cigarette into the water and followed it over the side. Mason struck off in an entirely new direction and Hagen started to swim to the far end of the lagoon which seemed to be halted by a thick barrier of reeds. He forced his way in through the reeds for about fifty feet and then decided to go back. Afterwards he was never sure why he decided to go a little farther. The important thing was that he did and found himself on the edge of a small lagoon, roughly circular in shape and perhaps a hundred feet in diameter. The water was clear as glass and the bottom was white sand, the mud scoured clean away. It shelved steeply towards the centre and as he started to swim forward he felt afraid. In the other parts of the marsh the air was full of the clamour of a thousand living things but here not even the crickets sang. For a moment he shivered as he remembered stories he had heard as a child of fairy pools back home in Ireland, and then he said softly, 'Don't be a bloody fool,' and kept on swimming.
It was as if he was the first person ever to enter that place but he was not. He had known in his heart from the beginning that this was the place. He floated motionless, not far from the centre of the lagoon, and looked down at the launch for a moment, and then he took a deep breath and did a steep surface dive that carried him down through the clear water.
He could feel the pressure in his ears and swallowed a couple of times until it eased off and then he was hanging on to the deck-rail of the launch. He stayed there for a moment and had a quick look at the condition of the wreck and then he released his grip on the rail and shot to the surface.
As he came out into the bright sunlight and trod water, taking deep breaths of fresh air, he realized to his surprise that in front of him floated a roughly made canoe and sitting in it was a Chinese fisherman who looked as if he had just received the fright of his life. Hagen reached the canoe in one easy stroke and smiled and said: 'Do not fear. I am a man as you are.'
An expression of relief came to the fisherman's face. He spoke Cantonese in a debased form but Hagen found that he could follow it with reasonable ease. 'Praise the gods you are a man for I thought you were one of the water-devils that live in this evil place.'
Hagen pulled himself over the prow of the frail canoe and sat in the bottom. 'I come from a large boat over there,' he said, pointing through the reeds. 'Will you take me to it?'
The fisherman nodded and pointed down to the launch. 'This is an evil place and a water-devil lives in the wreck. It is death to dive in this place.'
'But I have just done it and lived,' Hagen pointed out.
The man considered the point and nodded wisely. 'Then the devil must be sleeping.'
They paused at the edge of the reeds and Hagen said, 'If it is such an evil place why do you come?'
Grief darkened the fisherman's face as he explained. He and his brother had discovered the launch, and his brother had insisted on diving. The launch must have been in a certain state of balance. Apparently it had heeled over while the brother was in the cabin and he had been trapped and drowned. Hagen had noticed a mass of damaged superstructure blocking the cabin door. This explained the unhappy man's fate. The simple explanation was not accepted by the fisherman who saw in the incident the action of a water-devil. 'The reason for his visits lay in his great sorrow, for his brother's soul was forever imprisoned in his body unless it was recovered. Only a resting place in the earth of the tribal burial island assured a soul of an after life.
As they came out through the reeds into the large lagoon Hagen said, 'I intend to dive again to the wreck and I shall recover your brother's body.'
The man placed a hand to his mouth in a gesture of awe. 'I do not think you are an ordinary man if you can do this thing, lord.' He bowed slightly. 'Your humble servant Chang whose people will do anything in their power to help you.'
They paddled up to the boat and Rose and O'Hara leaned over the side in surprise. 'I've found it,' Hagen said. 'Just as you described it, angel.' Mason was hailed and came swimming out of the reeds to join them.
Hagen sat on the deck with Chang and questioned him closely. Yes, he had seen white men before. They sometimes came and met other boats. Many large boxes changed hands. Mason couldn't understand Cantonese and interrupted with ill-concealed impatience. 'He's seen gun-runners in here before but not for a long time,' Hagen explained. He asked Chang if there had been strangers in the marshes within the last few days. The fisherman shook his head. There had been no one. They would have known. They could always tell when strangers came.
Hagen stood up and stretched. He felt satisfied. Very satisfied. It looked as though they were ahead of Kossoff all along the line. A sudden decision came to him and he turned into the wheelhouse. A moment later the engine roared into life and the boat gathered speed and crashed into the reeds at the end of the lagoon. For a moment the reeds seemed an impossible barrier and then they slowly parted. Hurrier passed through into the small lagoon and Hagen cut the engines. He ran to the prow quickly and threw out the anchor. Mason and the others watched him in amazement. 'What the hell's got into you?' Mason said.
Hagen laughed excitedly and said to Chang: 'You must stay until sunset. I shall have your brother's body for you then.' He went into the cabin and reappeared dragging the box that contained his diving gear.
Rose made a sudden exclamation. 'You aren't diving tonight, Mark?' He nodded and began to lay out his equipment in orderly rows. She turned to Mason and said wildly: 'Stop him, Steve! Make him listen to reason.'
Mason said: 'You've had a hell of a day, Hagen. What's the rush? We've got all day tomorrow. We know the stuff is down there.'
Hagen pulled on rubber flippers and explained. 'Don't you see? Kossoff hasn't arrived yet. That means we've been one jump ahead of him all the time. I want to keep it that way. There's a body in the cabin down there and the entrance is blocked. I want them both cleared tonight and then we can start to raise the gold first thing in the morning.'
He hoisted the aqua-lung on to his back and O'Hara fastened it into place for him. Mason looked up at the sky and said: 'I think you're wasting your time. It'll be sunset in an hour and a half.'
Hagen ignored him and said to O'Hara: 'Get that block and tackle rigged up as quickly as possible. I m
ay need it.' He adjusted his diving-mask and gripped the mouthpiece of his breathing-tube firmly between his teeth. As he moved to the rail he heard Rose give a protesting cry and then he vaulted over the side, down into the clear water.
For a moment he paused to adjust the flow of oxygen and then he swam down in a long sweeping curve. The sensation of floating in space, alone in a silent world, fascinated him as always and it was with a feeling of elation that he approached the wreck. At once he realized the position was more difficult than he had appreciated. The launch was almost bottom up. She had heeled right over on the sloping bottom and a portion of the cabin roof, apparently severely damaged in the fight with the gunboat, had been pressed in a tangled mass down over the entrance to the cabin. He hovered for a few minutes over the wreckage and made a few tentative attempts at dislodging some of the twisted metal, but he could see at once that he was wasting his time. He kicked upwards towards the surface and emerged into the evening sunlight astern of Hurrier.
Mason reached down and hauled him aboard and Hagen pulled off his diving-mask and asked for a cigarette. 'How does it look?' Mason asked.
Hagen fingered the cigarette thoughtfully. 'Not so good,' he said and proceeded to explain: 'From what I can see there must be two currents of water emptying into this lagoon. That's how it's got the circular shape. They've scoured away the mud and sand between them. The bottom shelve's at quite an angle to the centre and the launch was resting at an acute angle when Chang's brother entered the cabin. I think he must have dislodged something inside and the launch has heeled over until most of the cabin roof is rammed down against the bottom of the lagoon. It's a damaged portion of the roof that seems to be blocking the door.'
Rose nodded. 'The roof was damaged. Cannon shell, I think.'
Mason grunted and said, 'Well, what now?'
Hagen grinned. 'I'll blast it open. It's a damned good job Charlie produced that plastic waterproof explosive.'
Mason shrugged and said: 'Okay, Hagen. You're the boss.' He brought the blasting equipment up from the cabin while Hagen hauled up the anchor and O'Hara started the engines and moved Hurrier to the edge of the lagoon.
As they prepared the charges Mason said: 'Do you think we've moved far enough? No good blasting ourselves as well.'
Hagen, nodded. 'It's a small charge,' he said. 'I only want to open the launch up - not blow the thing apart.'
He adjusted his diving equipment and went over the side again carrying the prepared charges and detonators and wire. He could not see as clearly as he would have liked and he realized that dusk was falling fast. He laid two charges at strategic points amongst the tangled mass that blocked the cabin door and wired them up. He worked fast and returned to the surface within a few minutes, the wire clutched firmly in one hand. He sat on deck feeling suddenly very tired, and Mason said, 'How was it?'
Hagen grinned tiredly. 'Not so bad. Visibility is beginning to get poor, though.' He nodded to O'Hara who depressed the plunger of the detonating box. The water heaved and there was a dull roar and Hurrier rocked violently as the surface of the lagoon was disturbed. After a few moments wreckage began to float to the surface of the water and kept coming up for about fifteen minutes. They watched in silence and gradually the shadows deepened as the sky turned to gold and crimson far out over the sea.
The water was cloudy with mud and sand and Rose said: 'You can't go down again, Mark. You won't be able to see a thing.'
For a moment Hagen almost gave in and then the stubbornness that was the essential core of his nature took control. 'Bring me the lamp,' he told O'Hara. He turned to Rose and said, with a weary smile: 'I've dived at night many a time. You have to when it's someone else's pearling ground.'
O'Hara appeared from the wheelhouse with the lamp, a large, powerful spot on a long cable, which plugged into the boat's lighting system and was specially designed for underwater use. Hagen carried the lamp in one hand and a crowbar in the other when he dived again.
The beam thrown out by the lamp was very powerful and he saw the wreck almost all the way down, and for some reason it looked sinister and ghostly. Perhaps it was just that he was tired, he thought, and just the slightest bit light-headed, but as he poised over the wreck he felt afraid. The launch was still tilted over at the same crazy angle, but in place of the tangled mass of wreckage was now a gaping black hole. He floated down and shone his lamp into the cabin but could see nothing. For a moment he hesitated and then, holding the lamp in front of him, he ventured into the interior.
He shone the lamp into each corner of the cabin but saw nothing unusual. It was a strange sensation to be floating with the ceiling beneath his feet and the floor above his head. There was a door to another cabin in front of him and he swam towards it and immediately his spotlight touched upon a jumble of bricks and broken boxes that lay in a heap in the angle of the wall and the ceiling. The gold! There it was, the reality after all the dreaming, and then he was aware of a movement out of the corner of his eye. He swung the beam upwards, illuminating all the cabin, and saw with horror a man walking towards him, arms extended. Hagen screamed soundlessly and struck out with the crowbar and the figure bounced away to the other side of the cabin and hovered there.
Chang's brother! Hagen suddenly felt weak and faint. In his state of exhausion and under the eerie conditions it had seemed as if the water-devil Chang had spoken of had existed in reality. Some freak of nature had caused the gases in his body to suspend him upright like a living man. He was a ghastly sight, bloated and horrible, and Hagen had to summon up his last reserves of will-power and guts to swim over and grip him by the hair. He kept his face turned away and swam out of the cabin, towing the body behind him.
It was quite a struggle. The body got stuck in the jagged opening, and he had to turn back and wrestle with it to get it through. It was funny how he kept thinking of it as a person and not as an inanimate thing. He gripped it round the waist and pulled it clear of the wreck. The spongy feel of the flesh sickened him and he released his grip. The gas-filled body shot up to the surface, glowing with a sort of phosphorescence, and he followed it up slowly.
He bumped against the side of Hurrier and eager hands reached over and pulled him aboard. He lay on the deck and allowed them to divest him of his equipment and wrap him in a blanket. It was almost dark but he was able to see that Rose was extremely pale as she leaned over him. 'Did it come up?' he asked.
She nodded, lips compressed, and Mason said: 'Did it come up? It almost shot out of the water. It scared the living daylights out of me.'
O'Hara said, 'Well, there he goes,' and Hagen struggled to his feet and saw Chang paddling towards the reeds, his brother's body floating behind the canoe, secured by a cord.
The fisherman turned and waved from the gloom. 'I shall return tomorrow, lord,' he said and then disappeared into the reeds.
Hagen started to limp towards the cabin door and then he remembered something. He turned and said, with a grimace: 'I almost forgot. It's there - the gold I mean. Just waiting to be lifted. Shouldn't take more than a couple of hours.'
As he turned and stumbled down into the cabin an excited babble of sound broke out behind him. He flopped on to the bed, completely and utterly exhausted, so that he had not even the strength to cover himself with the blankets. He lay with a cigarette, thinking, and as things began to blur, the cigarette was taken from between his fingers and blankets were carefully tucked in around his body. For a moment cool lips touched his and he inhaled her fragrance and then there was nothing.
9
Hagen came awake quickly from a deep and dreamless sleep. It was as though he had come into existence at the moment his eyes opened, and he lay in the semi-darkness of the cabin and wondered who he was. It was no new sensation, this. He had experienced it often during the war and always it had followed a period of great stress and mental strain. For the two or three minutes that the feeling lasted he felt very bad and then he relaxed completely as he remembered.
He
slipped from the bunk and stood shivering, his feet cold on the cabin floor. Mason and O'Hara slept soundly, the old man gently snoring, and he quietly opened the door and went out on deck.
He stood at the rail and gazed at the lagoon, now shrouded in early morning mist. He made a swift decision and gently lowered himself over the rail. The water was cold on first contact and he swallowed a howl in his throat and swam quietly across to the reeds. After a few minutes he returned to the boat and hauled himself back over the rail. There was a towel lying on the deck and as he looked at it in puzzlement Rose came out of the cabin with a coffee-pot and two mugs. 'Morning,' she said softly. 'How did you sleep?'
'Not so bad,' he said. He towelled down briskly as she poured the coffee. His body was still bruised and marked from his fight with Mason and he had not shaved since Macao. 'You look quite rugged and dangerous,' she told him, handing him his coffee.
He slipped the towel over his shoulders and sat down on the engine-room hatch. 'Like a man out of Hemingway?' he said.
She chuckled and a smile wrinkled her nose. She sat beside him and gazed at the morning with a happy expression on her face. 'Oh, it's good to be alive.'
For the first time he was really and truly moved by her. It was not a physical desire, it was something inimical. Something of such depth that it frightened him. He suddenly felt that the time had come for complete honesty between them. He fumbled with the mug and began awkwardly: 'Rose, there's something I want you to know. Something we've got to get straight.'
She turned her head towards him and her lips were slightly parted as she waited for him to speak and then a voice said: 'Well! Well! Early birds!' Mason walked out of the cabin.
He sat down beside them on the hatch and Rose said, 'I'll get another cup.'
