by Jack Higgins
He opened the door of the captain’s cabin underneath the poop-deck and pushed him inside. Kane remembered his last visit, the night the attempt had been made on his life by one of Selim’s men. The cabin looked just the same. There were rugs and cushions scattered on the floor round a low brass coffee table, and underneath the great stern windows a sleeping couch was freshly prepared.
Skiros stood on the other side of the table and sighed. “If only you and I could have seen eye-to-eye with each other.”
“Hardly likely,” Kane said. “You’re finished. No great coup, the Suez Canal still open. What will the Führer say?”
“He has other things on his mind. The Panzers rolled yesterday, my friend. Poland is already facing the worst defeat in Europe since the First World War.”
“I thought that was the one Germany lost,” Kane said.
Skiros scowled. “Not this time.”
“I know. Tomorrow the world. What have you done with Marie?”
Skiros took out one of his oily black cheroots and lit it awkwardly with one hand. He chuckled, coughing heavily as the smoke caught the back of his throat. “I find all this rather amusing. I never thought you were the type for love and romance and all that sort of thing.”
He took a key from his pocket, moved across to a small door, unlocked it, and stood to one side. Marie Perret moved out into the room.
For a moment, she stood there, dazed and bewildered, and then she saw Kane and came straight to him.
“Has he harmed you?” Kane said.
She shook her head. “No, but I found his conversation as revolting as his person.”
Skiros laughed until the flesh danced across his great body. “I wonder how you’ll talk when your friend here is bait for the sharks out in the Gulf.” He thumbed back the hammer of the revolver and centred it on Kane’s stomach deliberately.
Kane looked beyond the German, out through the open window, his eyes on the thick rope of the stern anchor. As he watched, something moved, and two hands appeared over the edge of the window. A moment later, Jamal peered cautiously into the room.
Kane concentrated everything on keeping Skiros talking. He slipped a hand into his pocket and took out the knotted handkerchief which contained the necklace he had found in the passage leading to Sheba’s tomb.
He tossed it down on the brass coffee table. “Kill me,” he said calmly, “and you’ll be making the greatest mistake of your life.”
The German laughed harshly. “Don’t try that sort of stuff now. It won’t save your skin.”
Kane picked up the handkerchief and started to untie the knots. “See for yourself, and this is only a sample. Sheba’s treasure. We found it back there at the temple.”
He held up the necklace to the light and the emeralds glowed with green fire. The German’s jaw went slack and an expression of awe appeared on his face. “Holy Mother of God, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
He snatched the necklace from Kane’s hand and examined it closely. After a moment, he looked up and a genial smile appeared on his face. “In the right quarter, this will be worth a fortune. I’m obliged to you.”
They were the last words he spoke on top of earth. He started to laugh, his finger tightening on the trigger of the revolver, and Jamal stepped off the sleeping couch, arms extended.
One hand fastened over the German’s mouth, the other struck the revolver from his grasp. Skiros started to struggle, but Jamal slipped an arm round his throat and bent him backward over one knee.
Panic appeared in the German’s eyes and his legs thrashed wildly. There was a sound as if a dry branch had snapped, and he was still.
Marie gave a gasp of horror as Jamal lowered him to the floor and turned toward them. As Kane bent to pick up the fallen necklace, the stern anchor passed the window and the dhow moved forward as the wind caught the great lateen sails.
Kane gestured toward the windows and pushed Jamal forward. “Quickly, there’s no time to lose.”
The Somali slipped out feet first and disappeared. The dhow was already picking up speed as it moved toward the harbor entrance and Kane pushed Marie through the window.
He looked back once at the body of the German who lay with his face slightly turned toward him, eyes open, and then took a deep breath and jumped.
As he surfaced, the dhow was already moving away and he started to swim toward Marie, who was clearly visible in the moonlight.
She waited for him, treading water. When he reached her, she fumbled for his hand and for a little while they stayed there like that, looking at each other.
The dhow moved out into the open sea, lateen sails billowing into the wind, and Kane looked again at Marie, and for some unaccountable reason they started to laugh.
He held her hand very tightly and they turned and swam slowly together through the warm night toward the beach.
