The White Witch of the South Seas gs-11

by Dennis Wheatley

  A reply was not received until eleven o'clock on the following morning. Elboeuf brought a copy of it up to the bure and, to Gregory's fury, it was anything but satisfactory. Apparently, the old man had not fully explained the situation and its urgency, but had simply asked for troops to be sent owing to his gendarmes being insufficient in numbers to arrest a gang of desperadoes. It was, therefore, hardly surprising that Noumea requested further information before acting.

  In view of the way in which Gregory had, not long before, got the better of his one time colleague General Ribaud, he could still not be certain that a personal appeal from him would have the desired effect, so he wrote out a lengthy cable putting matters in a way that Ribaud, as the responsible authority, could not ignore, then made Elboeuf sign it, and sent it off himself.,

  Meanwhile, James had gone down to visit the wounded and condole with the relatives of the dead, promising the latter's dependants that he would arrange for their support. This occupied him for the greater part of the day, so Gregory and Manon lunched with Olinda on the yacht and spent an anxious afternoon with her. Soon after five o'clock James came, put to them with a copy of a reply Ribaud had sent to Elboeuf second signal. It read:

  Now appreciate situation stop troop carriers on exercise so temporarily unavailable stop am despatching gunboat should be with you Monday.

  Again their hopes were dashed. It was already Saturday evening and, from what Hamie had said, Lacost might have all the treasure on board and be ready to sail that night, or at latest the following day: The fact that the gunboat would give chase was small consolation. Even twenty four hours' start would be sufficient for the Pigalle to elude capture for some days. During that time Lacost could anchor off one of the innumerable uninhabited islands between Fiji and New Caledonia, get the treasure and all his stores ashore, and scuttle the Pigalle, so that she would sink without trace. He could then lie low there for a year or more, until he and his companions felt it safe to signal some passing vessel and, under false names, have themselves taken off as the survivors of the shipwreck of a copra collecting schooner; or at least until the more impatient Colons either mutinied or decided to murder him, and that was unlikely to happen for several months.

  But with him James brought another document a lengthy epistle in Nakapoan script. It was a letter from Roboumo, and its contents were roughly as follows

  Having witnessed his Ratu's fire walk on the previous day, he was much concerned that the ability to perform such a feat would undermine the authority that he had enjoyed for so long; and this might lead to desertion by his followers. Therefore, he proposed a pact. The attack on the Pigalle had, he declared, been doomed to failure because it had been made in daylight. But a surprise attack by night, given overwhelming numbers, could not fail to prove successful. The Ratu's body guard, he assumed, would on their own prove reluctant to face the Colons again, but he could offer reinforcements of twenty seven men, all armed with modern weapons. He was, he admitted, most reluctant to allow the treasure in the Maria Amalia to be salvaged, but this was for him a secondary consideration to losing his status as the great Magic Man of Tujoa.

  If the Ratu would give a solemn undertaking to perform no more feats of draunikau, he would send his men to aid in the capture of the Pigalle. But the matter was urgent, because the White Witch had told him that the salvaging of the treasure was near completion, so, if the Pigalle was to be attacked again, it must be that night. If the Ratu was agreeable to treat, arrangements should be made that evening. Since the fire walk, he was not prepared to risk his own followers deserting to the body guard should the Ratu come to his island accompanied by armed men. But if he would come alone, as a guarantee of good faith in the future, they might agree an alliance which would confirm his status and enable the Ratu to secure the treasure.

  From this, one thing stood out clearly. Roboumo's proposal did offer a real chance to stymie Lacost at the eighteenth hole. James then declared that, after his triumph, he felt such complete confidence in himself that he no longer had any far of Robouma or his White Witch. He was quite prepared to go alone to a meeting. Smiling at him with pride, Olinda said that evidently it was now Roboumo who was afraid of him, so she was in favour of his accepting.

  Having considered for a few moments, Gregory said to James, `To get the better of that swine Lacost I'd be prepared to take very big risks. But I don't like the idea of your going to Roboumo's island on your own. The old devil is obviously more concerned about keeping his hooks on the people than he is about who gets the treasure. He might take a chance on having his boys murder you, so that he would be quite certain of continuing to rule the roost here. And, anyhow, would you be willing to enter a pact that would leave him free to do so?'

  `I have no fear that he would harm me,' James replied at once. `He would not dare. Although many of my people have been kept under his thumb, by far the greater part of them are devoted to me. They would rise up in their wrath, invade his island by the hundred and put an end to him and all his

  followers. As for the situation should we make a pact, I look at it this way. I would stand by my bargain and let him continue his blackmail as long as he could. But my possession of the gold here would enable me to break his power gradually. If I could start industries here, that would not only ensure a decent standard of living for the majority of my people, but would also open their minds to Western ways of thought, so that they would no longer go in fear of being bewitched.'

  `You are right,' Olinda agreed. `All the same, darling, I spoke before without thinking, and I now agree with Gregory, To go, alone to Roboumo's island would be an awful risk to take. Write to him or send a messenger, but I beg you not to go yourself.'

  James shook his head. `My love, that would be no use. I know my people and, bad man as he may be, I understand the way Roboumo's mind works. How could he trust me to keep my word in the future unless I show trust in him by placing myself unprotected in his hands?'

  `I wouldn't trust him not to try to pull a fast one over me even if we were face to face and I was armed and he was not,' Manon remarked, using such little weight as she had on the side of preventing, if possible, an agreement which would lead to another attack on the Pigalle.

  `Nor I,' Gregory agreed. `The issue hinges entirely on how much store James sets on getting hold of the gold. As I have said on several previous occasions, I don't want any of it myself; so, although I'd hate to see Lacost get away with it, I'd rather that than have James run into serious danger.'

  'It is not the gold,' James said earnestly. `Not now. It is my people who were killed and maimed last night. Four of my body guard killed and thirteen of them wounded, not to mention the three gendarmes. I would never again consider myself fit to be a Ratu if I neglected any possibility of being revenged upon those murdering Frenchmen.'

  There fell a short silence. Obviously James had made up his mind and there seemed no more to be said; but, after a minute or so, Gregory did say, `Very well, then. You will go in alone. But I mean to follow you. I'll keep well out of the way, but shall remain within listening distance of Roboumo's

  kraal mar whatever they call it in these parts. And we'll have Aleamotu'a, and some of the other boys, just across the channel, on the mainland. Then, if any treacherous attempt is made on you, just start yelling at the top of your lungs and we'll do our damnedest to get you out.'

  James laid his big, brown hand over Gregory's and smiled. `You are a true friend: my father and protector. That's how it shall be, then. And if the attack is to be for tonight the sooner we put Roboumo's honesty to the test, the better.'

  Again both girls were stricken with anxiety for their men. It was agreed that they would dine together on the yacht, then Manon should go ashore to the bure and there wait events. As soon as James and Gregory returned safely, she was to switch the light over the front entrance to the bure on and off three times, while Olinda sat on deck watching for this signal that all was well with them.

  The two men then ha
d themselves taken off to the wharf, walked up the hill and, without delay, put their preparations in train. While Aleamotu'a was getting the body guard together, James and Gregory ate an early cold supper. By the time they had finished, darkness had fallen. When they came out of the bure, James addressed his men, explaining to them what it was hoped they would be able to accomplish during the coming night. All of them were eager to avenge their fallen comrades and, beating their chests, proclaimed their willingness again to follow their Ratu into danger.

  As it was probable that Roboumo had spies in the town who would have set off post haste to warn him if they saw an expedition being mounted from the harbour, it was decided to march inland by circuitous tracks, down to a fishing village only about a mile from the witch doctor's island, and use the boats of the natives there.

  The trek took the best part of an hour. It was by then a little before nine o'clock, and the moon, halfway through its first quarter, stood at about thirty degrees above the horizon. By the light it gave, any sentinel on the island could not have failed to see a flotilla of boats creeping along the coast. But the island at its nearest point to the mainland was only a quarter of a mile off shore; so it was decided that Aleamotu'a should march the body guard along the beach to that point, then, if they were needed, they could within ten minutes wade across the shallow channel.

  In consequence, when they reached the village, they took only two boats: a dinghy with an outboard engine, in which James set off steered by his coxswain, and a low lying, one man canoe for Gregory. For the first half mile the dinghy towed the canoe, then dropped it off; so that, should there be a reception party expecting James to arrive, Gregory, paddling himself and arriving several minutes later, would stand the best chance of landing. unobserved, while James was being escorted up to Roboumo's bure.

  This plan worked admirably. The light was insufficient for Gregory actually to see James land at that distance, but the sound of voices coming clearly across the water in the quiet of the night told him that some of Roboumo's men had been waiting there to greet him. As the voices faded, Gregory altered course a little, then beached his canoe about two hundred yards from the place where the coxswain had landed James and was lying off until he returned.

  The white coral beach extended inland for only some fifty feet. Darting across the open space at a crouching run, Gregory swiftly gained the shelter of a group of palms that cast dark shadows. Had his canoe been seen before he landed, it would have been taken for that of a native fisherman on his way further out to sea to spear fish attracted by the light of a torch, so his only real hazard had been that he might be spotted while crossing the beach. But no challenge had rung out. Considerably relieved, he now moved cautiously through the screen of palms and light undergrowth, working his way round until he came upon the path that led up to a group of bures.

  The previous night the gendarme in Gregory's boat had been killed; so he had quietly `naturalised' the man's Sten gun and two tear gas grenades. Now, he switched the safety catch off the weapon, so that he could use it instantly, and proceeded with even greater caution up the path, keeping well into the shadowed side of it.

  Two hundred yards brought him within sight of the nearest bure, which lay on the far side of a vegetable garden. Moving off the path, and stooping now, he crept stealthily from bush to bush until he could get a view of a good part of the village. It consisted, he guessed, of about thirty bures, with the tall roof of one, obviously Roboumo's, rising high above the others.

  Normally, at this hour the inhabitants would have been asleep, but, although he could not see anyone, the low murmur of voices and an occasional laugh told him that there were people about. Selecting a position that gave him the best available field of fire into the village entrance, he settled down to await either James' emergence or sounds of trouble.

  He had reasoned that, if Roboumo did intend treachery, it was most unlikely that James would be set upon when entering the village, as his coxswain might have heard sounds of a struggle and made off to give the alarm. It seemed certain that there would be a yaggona drinking ceremony and there was just the possibility that the witch doctor might use that as a means of either poisoning or drugging James, taking it for granted that he would follow traditional custom and gulp down the whole contents of the cup. But James had a lifetime's familiarity with the drink, so he would almost certainly detect a different flavour the moment the first drop touched his tongue, and when he and Gregory had discussed this possibility he had promised to be on his guard. Endeavouring to think as Roboumo might, Gregory had decided that the most likely way he would attempt to rid himself of James was by some apparent accident after James had left his bure perhaps by one of his men pretending to trip and at the same time shooting James in the back so that afterwards any suggestion that he had been murdered could be disclaimed.

  On the other hand, Gregory acknowledged to himself that his fears for James quite probably had no foundation. Clearly Roboumo's paramount interest was to retain the hold that he had over the many Tujoans who feared his evil powers; and, should James meet his death on the island, even apparently through an accident, that might lead to his people's summoning up the courage to put an end to Roboumo and his following of bad men.

  Making due allowance for the time the yaggona ceremony would take, and the usual prolonged palaver about irrelevant matters that normally preceded getting down to business when South Sea notabilities met, after half an hour Gregory became considerably more hopeful that James and Roboumo were really reaching agreement on a pact that, later that night, would bring about the death or capture of Lacost and his Colons.

  Another ten minutes drifted by; then, suddenly, the silence of the night was broken by a loud shout.

  Repressing the instinct to spring to his feet, Gregory remained crouching under cover, his Sten gun at the ready.

  The shout was followed by a scream of rage and, immediately afterwards, by swift, violent banging on a drum. At these sounds, several men came running out from the small bures, some with arms and others without; so evidently the alarm had taken them by surprise.

  A moment later, James appeared round the corner of a small bure that partially hid Roboumo's lofty one. In great bounds he dashed towards the path that led down to the shore. Two men ran forward to intercept him, a third, some feet to his left, raised a rifle to shoot him down.

  Gregory's finger lightly squeezed the trigger of the Sten gun. Its bullets ploughed waist high into the man who held the rifle. With a single screech, he fell, riddled. His rifle flashed as it fell from his hands, but as he was hit he had jerked it up and the bullet passed high over James' head.

  At the rat tat tat of Gregory's volley, it was as though the paralysing glance of an angry god had suddenly turned the villagers to stone. Their heads all turned in the direction of the shots, they remained for thirty seconds rigid and gaping.

  James struck the nearer of the two men who had been about to intercept him a blow under the chin that sent him reeling, swerved past the other and ran on. Swiftly putting down his gun, Gregory pulled the pins out of his two tear gas grenades, one after the other, then lobbed them into the centre of the little group of natives.

  At that moment Roboumo appeared, brandishing a great war club and screaming with rage. By then James was well past Gregory and round the bend of the path. Even as the witch doctor shouted to his men to give chase, the fumes from the bombs were catching them in the eyes and throat. Snatching up his gun, Gregory followed James, running all out for the shore.

  Two minutes later they were wading out to the dinghy. The coxswain already had the outboard motor going. As they scrambled aboard and the boat turned towards the mainland, the moon gave light enough for them to see that Aleamotu'a and the body guard, having heard the shots, were already half way across the narrow channel. But their help was not now needed. James shouted to them that he was unharmed and that they should return to the beach.

  As the two friends landed, the Tujoans crowde
d round their Ratu with excited cries, congratulating him on his escape and begging to be told what had occurred. When he had calmed them down he told them that he would make an important announcement about Roboumo the following morning. Then he ordered Aleamotu'a to march them back to the Royal bure, where they were to be given a good meal and as much kava as they liked to drink. He and Gregory then reboarded the borrowed dinghy, as they could get home more quickly by water.

  On their way round to the harbour, James gave Gregory an account of his meeting with Roboumo. It had opened with a solemn yaggona drinking, at which five of the witch doctor's principal retainers had been present. After the ceremony and when many compliments had been exchanged, the discussions had begun well. The five chief warriors had said that they and their men would have no fears about boarding the Pigalle, provided that the attack was made during the hours of darkness during which they would enjoy the full protection of the White Witch. With muffled paddles they would approach the Pigalle from her seaward side, while the Ratu and his body guard would come round the island, also in canoes as the noise of motor engines might alert the crew of the ship and attack from the landward side. In order that the two attacks should occur simultaneously, it was agreed that they would both go in half an hour after the moon had set. This would be at an early hour in the morning, and in order to ensure synchronisation to within a few minutes, one man in each party would, every few moments, imitate the cry of a seagull. When they came within sound of one another both parties would paddle in with the utmost speed and board the Pigalle.