by Jack Higgins
*
I spent the afternoon helping Mannie do an engine check on the Bristol. Hannah arrived back just after six and was in excellent spirits. I lay in my hammock and watched him shave while Mannie prepared the evening meal.
Hannah was humming gaily to himself and looked years younger. When Mannie asked him if he wanted anything to eat he shook his head and pulled on a clean shirt.
I said, 'You're wasting your time, Mannie. His appetite runs to other things tonight.'
Hannah grinned. 'Why don't you give in, kid? I mean that's a real woman. She's been there and back and that kind need a man.'
He turned his back and went off whistling as I swung my legs to the floor. Mannie grabbed me by the arm. 'Let it go, Neil.'
I stood up, walked to the edge of the hangar and leaned against a post looking out over the river, taking time to calm down. Funny how easily I got worked up over Hannah these days.
Mannie appeared and pushed a cigarette at me. 'You know, Neil, women are funny creatures. Not at all as we imagine them. The biggest mistake we make is to see them as we think they should be. Sometimes the reality is quite different...'
'All right, Mannie, point taken.' Great heavy spots of rain darkened the dry earth and I took down an oilskin coat and pulled it on. 'I'll go and check on Sister Maria Teresa. I'll see you later.'
I'd taken up her bag of tricks, an oilskin coat and a pressure lamp, earlier in case the vigil proved to be a prolonged one. Just as I reached the outer edge of Landro, I met her on the way in with the mother walking beside her carrying her newly-born infant in a blanket, the father following behind.
'A little girl,' Sister Maria Teresa announced, 'but they don't seem to mind. I'm going to stay the night with them. Will you let Joanna know for me?'
I accompanied them through the gathering darkness to the shack the couple called home, then I went back along the street to the hotel.
The rain was really coming down now in great solid waves and I sat at the bar with Figueiredo for a while, playing draughts and drinking some of that gin I'd brought in for him, waiting for it to stop.
After an hour, I gave up, lit my lamp and plunged down the steps into the rain. The force was really tremendous. It was like being in a small enclosed world, completely alone and for some reason, I felt exhilarated.
Light streamed through the closed shutters when I went up the steps to the veranda of the house and a gramophone was playing. I stood there for a moment listening to the murmur of voices, the laughter, then knocked on the door.
Hannah opened it. He was in his shirtsleeves and held a glass of Scotch in one hand. I didn't give him a chance to say anything.
I said, 'Sister Maria Teresa's spending the night in Landro with a woman who's just had a baby. She wanted Joanna to know.'
He said, 'Okay, I'll tell her.'
As I turned away Joanna appeared behind him, obviously to see what was going on. It was enough. I said, 'Oh, by the way, I'll be flying up to Santa Helena with you in the morning. The mail run will have to wait.'
His face altered, became instantly wary. 'Who says so?'
'Colonel Alberto. Wants me to take a little walk with him tomorrow to meet some Huna. I'll be seeing you.'
I went down into the rain. I think she called my name, though I could not be sure, but when I glanced back over my shoulder, Hannah had moved out on to the veranda and was looking after me.
Some kind of small triumph, I suppose, but one that I suspected I would have to pay dearly for.
NINE
Drumbeat
I did not sleep particularly well and the fact that it was three a.m. before Hannah appeared didn't help. I slept only fitfully after that and finally got up at six and went outside.
It was warm and oppressive, unusually so considering the hour and the heavy grey clouds promised rain of the sort that would last for most of the day. Not my kind of morning at all and the prospect of what was to follow had little to commend it.
I wandered along the front of the open hangar and paused beside the Bristol which stood there with its usual air of expectancy as if waiting for something to happen. It came to me suddenly that other men must have stood beside her like this, coughing over the first cigarette of the day as they waited to go out on a dawn patrol, sizing up the weather, waiting to see what the day would bring. It gave me a curious feeling of kinship which didn't really make any sense.
I turned and found Hannah watching me. That first time we'd met after I'd crash-landed in the Vega, I'd been struck by the ageless quality in his face, but not now. Perhaps it was the morning or more probably, the drink from the previous night, but he looked about a hundred years old. As if he had experienced everything there ever was and no longer had much faith in what was to come.
The tension between us was almost tangible. He said harshly, 'Do you intend to go through with this crazy business?'
'I said so, didn't I?'
He exploded angrily. 'God damn it, there's no knowing how the Huna might react. If they turn sour, you won't have a prayer.'
'I can't say I ever had much faith in it anyway.' I started to move past him.
He grabbed my arm and spun me round. 'What in the hell are you trying to prove, Mallory?'
I see now, on reflection, that he saw the whole thing as some sort of personal challenge. If I went, then he would have to go or appear less than me and not only to Joanna Martin, for as I have said, he was a man to whom appearances were everything.
He was angry because I had put him in an impossible position which should have pleased me. Instead I felt as sombre as that grey morning itself.
'Let's just say I'm tired of life and leave it at that.' And for a moment, he believed me enough to slacken his grip so that I was able to pull free. As I walked back along the edge of the hangar, the first heavy drops of rain pattered against the roof.
*
The run to Santa Helena was uneventful enough in spite of the bad weather. We didn't get away until much later than had been anticipated because of poor visibility, but from nine o'clock on, there was a perceptible lightening in the sky although the rain still fell heavily and Hannah decided to chance it.
He asked me to take the controls which suited me in the circumstances for it not only kept me out of Joanna Martin's way, but also meant that I didn't have to struggle to find the right things to say to Sister Maria Teresa. I left all that to Hannah who seemed to do well enough although for most of the time the conversation behind was unintelligible to me, bound up as I was in my thoughts.
The situation at Santa Helena was no better. The same heavy rain drifting up from the forest again in grey mist because of the heat, but landing was safe enough and I put the Hayley down with hardly a bump.
I had radioed ahead on take-off and had given them an estimated time of arrival. In spite of this I was surprised to find Alberto himself waiting to greet us with the guard detail at the side of the strip.
He came forward to meet us as the Hayley rolled to a halt and personally handed the two women down from the cabin, greeting them courteously. His face beneath the peaked officer's cap was serious and he presented a melancholy figure, adrift in an alien landscape. The caped cavalry greatcoat he wore was obviously an echo of better days.
He led the way back to the small jetty where the motor launch waited. It presented a formidable appearance. There was a Lewis gun on the roof of the main saloon, another in the prow, each protected by sandbags, and a canvas screen along each side of the boat deck made it possible to move unobserved and also provided some sort of cover against arrows.
An awning had been rigged in the stern against the rain, there was a cane table and canvas chairs and as we approached, an orderly came out of the saloon carrying a tray. He wore white gloves and as the ladies seated themselves, served coffee from a silver pot in delicate china cups. The rain hammered down, a couple of alligators drifted by. A strange, mad dream standing there by the rail with only the stench of rotting vegetation rising
from the river to give it reality.
Alberto approached and offered me a cigarette. 'In regard to our conversation yesterday, Senhor Mallory. Have you come to any decision?'
'A hell of a morning for a walk in the forest,' I said, peering out under the awning. 'On the other hand, it could be interesting.'
He smiled slightly, hesitated, as if about to say something, obviously thought better of it and turned away leaving me at the rail on my own. To say that I instantly regretted my words was certainly not so and yet I had voluntarily committed myself to a situation of grave danger which made no kind of sense at all. Now why was that?
A couple of soldiers were already casting-off and the launch eased away from the jetty. Alberto accepted a cup of coffee from the orderly and said, 'There won't be time to drop you at Santa Helena at the moment. The Huna have changed our meeting-place to the site of an older rubber plantation, a ruined fazenda about five miles up-river from here and a mile inland. The appointed hour is still the same however, noon, so we shall barely make the rendezvous on time as it is. Under the circumstances, I'm afraid you'll all have to come along for the ride.'
'May I ask what your plans are, Colonel?' Sister Maria Teresa inquired.
'Simplicity itself, Sister.' He smiled wearily. 'I go to talk peace with the Huna as my superiors, who are at present sitting on their backsides a good thousand miles from here behind their desks, insist.'
'You don't approve?'
'Let us say I am less than sanguine as to the result. A delegation, one chief and five elders, has agreed to meet me on their terms which means I go alone, except for my interpreter and very definitely unarmed. The one change in the arrangement so far is that Senhor Mallory, who knows more about Indians than any man I know, has agreed to accompany me.'
Joanna Martin went very still, her coffee cup raised halfway to her mouth. She turned and looked at me fixedly, a slight frown on her face.
Sister Maria Teresa said, 'A long walk, Mr Mallory.'
Hannah was good and angry, glared at me, eyes wild, then at Joanna Martin. He didn't like what he was going to say but he got it out, I'll say that for him. 'You can count me in too, Colonel.'
'Don't be stupid,' I cut in. 'Who in the hell would be left to fly the women out in the Hayley if anything went wrong?'
There was no arguing with that and he knew it. He turned away angrily and Sister Maria Teresa said, 'It has been my experience in the past, Colonel, that Indians do not look upon any group containing a woman as a threat to them. Wouldn't you agree, Mr Mallory?'
Alberta glanced quickly at me, aware instantly, as I was myself, of what was in her mind. I said, 'Yes, that's true up to a point. They certainly don't take women to war themselves, but I wouldn't count on it.'
'A risk I am prepared to take,' she said simply.
There was a short silence. Alberto shook his head. 'An impossibility, Sister. You must see that.'
There are times when the naivete of the truly good can be wholly infuriating. She said, with that disarming smile of hers, 'I am as much for peace as you, Colonel, but I also have a special interest here, remember. The fate of Sister Anne Josepha and her friend.'
'I would have thought the church had martyrs in plenty, Sister,' he replied.
Joanna Martin stood up. 'That sounds to me like another way of saying you don't really expect to come back. Am I right?'
'Se Deusquiser, senhorita.'
If God wills. Joanna Martin turned to me, white faced. 'You must be mad. What are you trying to prove?'
'You want to know if your sister's alive, don't you?' I asked.
She went into the saloon, banging the door behind her. Sister Maria Teresa said patiently, 'Am I to take it that you refuse to allow me to accompany you, Colonel?'
'Under no circumstances, Sister.' He saluted her gravely. 'A thousand regrets, but I am in command here and must do as I see fit.'
'In spite of my authorisation?'
'Sister, the Pope himself could not make me take you with us today.'
I think it was only then that she really and truly appreciated the danger of the entire undertaking. She sighed heavily. 'I did not understand before. I think I do now. You are brave men, both of you.'
'I do my duty only, Sister,' he said, 'but I thank you.'
She turned to me. 'Duty in your case also, Mr Mallory?'
'You know what they say, Sister.' I shrugged. 'I go because it's there.'
But there were darker reasons than that - I knew it and so did she for it showed in her eyes. I thought she might say something - a personal word, perhaps. Instead she turned and followed Joanna into the saloon.
Hannah threw his cigarette over the rail in a violent gesture. 'You're dead men walking. A dozen arrows apiece waiting for each of you up there.'
'Perhaps.' Alberto turned to me. 'The stipulation is that we go unarmed. What do you think?'
'As good a way of committing suicide as any?'
'You don't trust them?'
'Can you trust the wind?' I shook my head. 'As I've said before, whatever they do will be entirely as the mood takes them. If they decide to kill us instead of talking, it won't be out of any conscious malice, but simply because it suddenly strikes them as a better idea than the last one they had.'
'I see. Tell me, what was Karl Buber's attitude regarding guns?'
'He was never without one prominently displayed, if that's what you mean. Forest Indians fear guns more than anything else I can think of. It doesn't mean they won't attack you if you're armed, but they'll think twice. They still think it's some sort of big magic.'
'And yet they demand that we go unarmed.' He sighed. 'An unhealthy sign, I'm afraid.'
'I agree. On the other hand, what the eye doesn't see...'
'The same thought had occurred to me, I must confess. That oilskin coat of yours, for example, is certainly large enough to conceal a multitude of sins.'
He was suddenly considerably more cheerful at the prospect, I suppose, of finding himself with a fighting chance again.
'I'll see to the necessary preparations,' he said. 'We'll go over things in detail closer to the time.'
He went along the deck to the wheelhouse leaving me alone with Hannah. His face was white, eyes glaring. For a moment I thought he might take a punch at me. He didn't get the chance because Joanna chose that precise moment to appear from the saloon.
I could have sworn from her eyes that she had been crying, although that didn't seem possible, but there was fresh powder on her face and the wide mouth had been smeared with vivid orange lipstick.
She spoke to Hannah without looking at him. 'Would you kindly get to hell out of here, Sam? I'd like a private word with Galahad here.'
Hannah glanced first at her, then at me and went without argument, some indication of the measure of control she had over him by then, I suppose.
She moved in close enough to make her presence felt. 'Are you doing this for me?'
'Not really,' I said. 'I just like having a good time.'
She slapped me across the face hard enough to turn my head sideways. 'Damn you, Mallory,' she cried. 'I don't owe you a thing.'
She did the last thing I would have expected. Flung her arm about my neck and fastened that wide mouth of hers on mine. Her body moved convulsively and for a moment it was difficult to consider other things. And then she pulled free of me, turned and ran into the saloon.
None of it made a great deal of sense, but then human actions seldom do. I moved along the starboard rail to the prow and paused to light a cigarette beside the Lewis gun which was for the moment unmanned in its sandbagged emplacement.
There was a stack of 47-round drum magazines ready for action at the side of the trim, deadly-looking gun and I sat down on the sandbags to examine it.
'The first gun ever fired from an aeroplane.' Hannah appeared from the other side of the wheelhouse. 'That was June 7, 1912. Shows how long they've been around.'
'Still a lot around back home,' I said. 'We us
ed them in Wapitis.'
He nodded. 'The Belgian Rattlesnake the Germans called it during the war. The best light aerial gun we had.'
There was silence. Rain hissed into the river, ran from the brim of my wide straw sombrero. I couldn't think of a thing to say, didn't even know what he wanted. And even then, he surprised me by saying exactly the opposite of what I had expected.
'Look, kid, let's get it straight. She's my kind of woman. You saw her first, but I was there last and that's what counts, so hands off, understand?'
Which at least meant he expected me to survive the day's events and unaccountably cheered, I smiled in his face. Poor Sam. For a moment I thought again he might hit me. Instead he turned wildly and rushed away.
*
The place was marked on the large-scale map for the area as Matamoros and we found it with no trouble at all. There was an old wooden jetty rotting into the river and a landing stage almost overgrown, but the track to the house, originally built wide enough to take a cart, was still plain.
We moved into the landing stage, a couple of men ready at each Lewis gun, another ten behind the canvas screen on the starboard side, rifles ready, my old comrade-in-arms Sergeant Lima in charge.
We bumped against the landing stage not twenty yards away from that green wall and a couple of men went over the rail and held her in on hand-lines, the engine gently ticking over, ready to take us out of trouble with a burst of power if necessary.
But nothing happened. A couple of alligators slid off a mud-bank, a group of howler monkeys shouted angrily from the trees. The rest was silence.
Alberto said, 'Good, now we make ready.'
We went into the saloon where Joanna, Sister Maria Teresa and Hannah sat at the table talking in low voices. They stopped as we entered, Alberto, Pedro the half-breed interpreter and myself, and stood up.
I took off my yellow oilsin coat and Alberto opened the arms cupboard and produced a Thompson sub-machine-gun with a drum magazine which we'd prepared earlier with a specially lengthened sling. I slipped it over my right shoulder, muzzle down and Hannah helped me on with my coat again.
