As if reading his thoughts, she said quietly, “It would be too great a risk!”
He stirred himself as he heard Felton moaning from his shelter. “I’ll go,” he called, as Chao rolled over in the dust, his thin arms pushing at the rock.
Felton regarded him fixedly, while Rolfe wiped the dust from his mouth. “That ship, Justin,” he croaked, and Rolfe groaned inwardly. Not again! I shall crack in a second!
“It’s ruined everything, hasn’t it?” Felton persisted. “You’re going to tell the gunboat to clear off, aren’t you?” It was like an accusation.
Rolfe ran his fingers through his matted hair, his brows throbbing. “Try not to excite yourself, Brian. There’s not much we can do at the moment!”
Felton struggled angrily in his stained covering. “You can! That reef barrier, Justin, the one which the General thought would save his precious skin!” Rolfe tried to soothe him, but the broken body was gifted with a burst of strength. “You could swim there, from here!”
Rolfe had thought of that while Judith had been outlining her ideas. Once on the reef they would be within reach of rescue, although the very thought of making such a swim in their condition made him sicken with frustration. “Forget it! We’ll make out somehow!”
“It’s me, isn’t it? You won’t chance it because of me?” The eye gleamed redly. “Go on, answer me, damn you!”
Rolfe readjusted the bandages, trying to ignore the distorted face. “I shall try and steal a boat from Santu tomorrow,” he was almost startled by his own calm voice, and the lie. “I’ll think of something!”
A hand fastened on his wrist. “Just admit that my idea is a good one! It is, isn’t it, Justin?” He was pleading now.
Rolfe stood up, his shadow across Felton’s dead legs. “Very good, Brian!”
An expression of triumph and peace crossed the man’s face, and he let his body go limp again. “Thank you, Justin.” Then, as Rolfe stared at him dully, “You love her, don’t you? You’ll take care of her?”
He’s delirious, he thought, and he smiled quickly, not wishing Felton to become excited again and lose the last of his failing strength. “I love her! And I’ve told her so.”
Felton smiled, and some of his old self seemed to flicker momentarily across his face. “You think I’ve been a fool! Well, perhaps I have about some things, Justin.” He gritted his teeth savagely to control another spasm of agony. “But I have been right about a lot of things, and about these people. I belong with them.” His eyes closed, and as Rolfe stepped quietly away, he called, “You’re a friend, Justin!”
Judith was still huddled beneath the shirt, and for a terrible moment he thought she was unconscious. Her head was sunk across her knees, and one hand lay upturned on the dust.
She stirred, her breath coming in short, hot gasps. “How much longer, Justin?” He stared at her anxiously and she lifted her tired eyes to his. “When will the night come?”
“Soon!” He gathered her body in his arms, feeling her skin moist and hot through the cloth. “How do you feel?”
She lolled her head from side to side, her lips tortured and dry. “Fine.”
Chao was over by Felton’s side, although Rolfe’s mind was now so unreliable that he had not seen him move. Their distant voices floated unevenly across the shimmering expanse of heat.
Chao crawled past, his face peering over the edge of the crater, as if to reassure himself.
“What did the Doctor want, Chao?” He cursed himself for wasting his breath in speech. Each word was like shedding some of his blood.
Chao slumped across the rock, staring vacantly down at the water. “He say he bored, Captain-sir.”
Rolfe squinted at Chao’s black silhouette. “Bored?”
“Yes. He say he want to clean his rifle. The one he take from dead soldier.”
Rolfe grunted and fell back. Judith started to lean against him, her damp body becoming more and more unsteady. She jerked away as Rolfe scrambled to his knees, his cracked lips mouthing incoherently. His mind fumbled with the warning which suddenly screamed through him. “The gun!” he gasped. “Quick, the gun!”
But even while he was swaying to his feet, the ground reeling beneath him, his head split open to the echoing crash which seemed to erupt from the very rock itself.
As the sound of the shot died away, and only the gulls screaming disturbed the air, Rolfe stood looking down at all that remained of Brian Felton. The one good eye still gleamed defiantly, as if watching the growing pool of bright blood soaking across his chest. The smoking rifle, its butt jammed against the rock shelter, was pointing at his heart.
“Hold her, Chao!” Rolfe barked, as Judith ran whimpering across the crater. He bent and covered the body with Chao’s old jacket, and then stood quietly, his head bowed.
Then, shaking his head to clear away the sick dizziness, he stepped between Chao and the writhing girl. She collapsed sobbing in his grip, and he stroked her hair, unable to find the right words.
Chao’s face was torn with anguish. “I not know, Captain-sir! I deserve to die!”
Rolfe shook his head across the girl’s body. “No, Chao,” he was speaking as much to her as to the horrified boy, “he knew he was going to do it! If it hadn’t been the rifle, he would have thought of something else!”
He paused, feeling Judith’s nails biting into his chest. “He did it to give us a chance!” Gently he lifted her chin, holding it until her streaming eyes opened and her sobs quietened. “Will we take that chance?”
She stood back from him and he reached out to replace the shirt as it began to slide off her shoulder.
“Poor Brian,” she murmured, and then very slowly she walked across to the still form on the ground. Rolfe and the boy watched her helplessly.
She knelt down and very gently pulled the jacket from her brother’s face.
Chao groaned softly as she said, “Good-bye, Brian. I understood, and so did Justin!” She lowered her lips to the still face and the ends of her hair strayed across the glistening blood.
Then she stood up, her slim body straight, but somehow pathetic. “We will bury him now,” she said, her voice firm. “He will be happy here!”
Rolfe made her sit by the lifejackets while he and Chao covered the body with the pieces of stone from the crude shelter. It took a long time, and cost them all a great deal, but when they had finished, they stood looking down at the rough mound.
Judith looked across at him, her eyes pleading. “Will you say something for him, Justin? He didn’t believe in anything like that,” she faltered and bit her lip cruelly, “but it would be nice.”
Rolfe spoke the same words that he had read across the body of the dead telegraphist, and as if ashamed of its presence, the sun began to move towards the horizon and threw their three shadows starkly across the grave.
Their eyes met and Rolfe knew that he must do something to break this terrible silence. “Are you ready, Judith?” he asked quietly. “We must get ready to leave.”
She began to knot the shirt between her legs, her small face determined. “What must we do?”
He crossed to her side, worried by her tight composure. “Why don’t you just lie down for a bit? Chao and I can get the gear ready.”
She stepped quickly away from him, shaking her head wearily. “Just let me be quiet for a bit, Justin. I don’t think I can take any more kindness!” She stared up at him, her eyes trying to explain. “I must try not to think about what has been happening! Perhaps later,” she finished softly.
Rolfe jerked his head to Chao. “O.K., Chao, get the lifejackets over here. I want to be sure they’re in good condition!”
He bent his head at his task, dimly aware that the sun had changed its coat to a deep orange ball, and its rays were no longer flaying his skin. He examined the small, red battery-lamps which were fitted to each lifejacket, to make sure that they were still working. He thought of how he had intended to use one of them to signal a warning to the gunboat. To tell h
er to keep away, and leave them to die. Brian Felton had changed all that, and had given them their only chance. The ground swayed beneath him, and he cursed anxiously. A two-mile swim, even with lifejackets, would be a pretty hazardous effort, especially when the moment came to climb out of the water on to the knife-edged reef.
“We’ll tie ourselves together with the heaving-line,” he murmured, and saw Chao’s sad eyes glimmer with understanding. “That way we’ll stand a better chance. There’s a big undertow around this coast, and we might easily get swept apart!”
“When we start, Captain-sir?”
Rolfe eyed the softening sky, with its long golden shadows reaching across the hazy horizon.
“Sunset is about four hours before midnight,” he answered thoughtfully, “so I think we’ll start in about one hour. Without knowing the exact time, it’s better not to take any chances.” He tried to clear his throat, but the hard, prickling dryness clogged his aching mouth like hot sand.
He looked across for the girl, and saw her standing at the foot of the grave. She was quite still, and her head was bowed.
He wanted to run to her. To pull her against his chest, and let her cry out the misery which was stored in her heart. She was holding it back, he knew that, and he could imagine what it was costing her.
He stretched his shoulders and winced as the tight, sun-blistered skin made him stiffen with pain. He tried not to think about his thirst, and the great pounding in his ears, but each time that his guard dropped and his ear picked out the slap of water against the foot of the rock, he imagined that he was hearing the sounds of cool, fresh water running from a barrel.
He concentrated on the distant reef, feeling a note of alarm at the sight of the deep feathers of spray which rose and fell unevenly about the grinning rocks. Once out of control, and their bodies would be torn to shreds.
He kept his sagging body occupied, and his screaming mind busy, doing every little thing he could think of, not daring to lie down, in case he collapsed completely.
He noticed that the lip of the crater had cast a deep shadow across the silent figure by the grave, and a momentary panic gripped him and made him wonder whether he had misjudged the time.
Judith shivered slightly as his hands gently cupped her shoulders from behind.
“I think it’s time now!” he whispered against her soft hair.
She turned slowly, as if reluctant to leave, and he was at once made more anxious by her frail appearance. But she smiled wanly, “I’m ready!”
They struggled into the lifejackets, Rolfe gritting his teeth as the rough covering ground across his back.
Judith went first, lowered carefully by Rolfe, until her feet were resting on the smooth rock shelf by the warm water.
Rolfe took a last look round, and with a savage heave, sent the rifle whirling out to sea. He dropped the tin box, and all their spare pieces of tattered clothing over the side of the cliff, and stared grimly at the darkening shape of the grave. So long, my friend, he breathed, you have had your wish. You are with the people you tried to help. Then he swung himself over the edge and down the rope.
Chao, slower but still sure-footed, followed him, without using the line, which he had first thrown down to Rolfe.
Now that they had left the shelter of the crater, their weakness and pain made them feel unprotected and naked, and it was almost with relief that they lowered themselves into the tugging water and pushed away from the rock.
The orange and blue lifejackets bobbed brightly on the heaving water, and Rolfe swam cautiously ahead, the line around his waist jerking slightly as Judith twisted into a more comfortable position. Like a brown shadow, Chao swung out on the end of the line, panting with the exertion of movement, after the blazing inactivity on the rock.
Rolfe was finding it even more difficult than he had imagined, for now that he had lost the advantage of height, he could rarely see the reef, except when a freak wave lifted him momentarily above the others, and he caught a brief glimpse of the white foam of breakers.
Each time he saw them he felt like crying with frustration. They still looked the same distance away, and the rock still loomed over his shoulder.
He twisted round, treading water. “How are you managing?” he gasped.
Judith’s hair floated around her like chestnut sea-weed, glossy and sleek, but when she tried to answer him, a small wave slapped her across the mouth, and she retched painfully as the salt tortured her raw throat.
They swam grimly on, Rolfe feeling the weight growing on his rope. But for the lifejackets, he realized numbly that it would all have been over now, and the sea would have finished what the sun had started.
He was getting so weary that repeatedly he misjudged his own movements, and his head ducked beneath the jostling water. He rose, choking and spluttering, and trying to find the reef.
He looked back again. Chao was still swimming with savage determination, his eyes almost closed with strain. But the girl had practically given up, and her arms were moving only disjointedly, while her legs hung limply down beneath her.
For God’s sake, he gasped, how much farther? It was much darker now, and everything was becoming more distorted and unreal. Perhaps I’m going under, he thought coldly, maybe I’m already unconscious.
A ghost rose in the water ahead, and fell with the hiss of spray. As he beat the water frenziedly with his aching hands, he saw it again and heard the dull boom of the breakers trying to force their way in over the reef.
He back paddled, and for a moment the three of them floated together in a confused tangle. He had to shake Chao’s arm to stop the fierce, jerky strokes, and even then the boy didn’t seem to realize that they had reached their objective.
“Slip your rope!” He had to shout, suddenly aware that the noise of the surf had grown much louder. His legs felt as if leaden weights were pulling them down. The cross-current, he thought desperately, and kicked out with the last of his strength. “I’m going to tackle it first! You follow on! Have you got that?”
Chao nodded, gulping noisily at the air.
Rolfe fumbled with the girl’s lifejacket, aware that she was watching him, and conscious, too, that they were both moving rapidly through the turbulent water. He put his lips against her face, feeling the smooth skin rubbing against the stubble of his chin.
“Going to swim for the rocks! Can you hold on to my back?”
He turned over and felt her hands slipping and snatching at his neck. Then she was holding him, and her knees straddled across his back. They plunged forward and Rolfe kicked and thrust madly, as each creaming roller threatened to tear the girl from his body, and carry them helplessly on to the waiting jagged teeth.
Suddenly he saw the reef, and all at once it was below him, and he was flying through the swirling water over the first line of submerged rocks. Ahead lay the main barrier, and for one terrible second he thought they were going to be dashed against it and broken like the surf. The water dropped into a trough, and he started to fall towards the glistening crag which rose to meet him. He cried out as the thick pad of kapok on his chest ripped into the rocks and all the breath was driven from him.
Then, while he wallowed and struggled like a landed fish, his legs were dragged mercilessly over and down, and he stared in disbelief as the water was tinged with red.
He was staggering to his feet when the next wave rolled, thundering over the reef, and he hurled himself against the rock, dragging Judith against his body.
The sharp edges tore at his knees and hands as he pulled her to safety, and together they stood shaking on the top of the rock barrier, while the foam plumed and roared beneath them. They could neither hear nor think, but he squeezed her limp figure tight against him, careless of the blood which poured from his lacerated legs, and which was washed away by the high-flung spray.
He watched Chao swimming strongly along the line of gleaming teeth, and when his body was picked up by the waves, Rolfe plunged to the edge to catch him. It was a
turmoil of noise and lung-bursting frenzy, but as they stood clustered together on the slippery crag, they knew that whatever else lay ahead, they had done the impossible.
Rolfe braced his body and mind against the playful fury of the sea, until time and suffering became meaningless. It was dark, but the night was torn apart by a continuous and terrifying ballet of leaping white waves, and when the pin-point of red light jabbed across the heaving black water beyond the reef, it was some time before he could bring his reeling brain to function, as with slippery, numbed hands he groped for the life-light, and flashed it dazedly towards the distant signal.
Perhaps it was all his imagination, and the red light had just been one more part of the nightmare.
He hugged the two limp bodies against him, squinting into the spray.
An age passed and just when he felt his reason and hope beginning to fade, he heard the steady creak of oars, and as he swayed awkwardly on his precarious foothold, the pale shape of the boat skimmed towards them.
“Here! We’re over here!” The sea flung the words back into his mouth.
The boat faltered, and then its shape shortened as it turned towards the reef.
Blindly Rolfe clutched Judith’s shoulders. “Jump!” he yelled, and together they were engulfed by the waves once more.
He clung to her body with grim desperation, and only when he felt the eager hands pulling at his body, and the smooth wooden sides of the boat, did he allow himself to falter.
They lay panting in the bottom of the boat as the oarsmen pulled strongly away from the beckoning reef, and as the keel cut into the calmer water, Rolfe saw Herridge kneeling at his side.
“Thanks, Chief,” he gasped. “Couldn’t have held on much longer!”
Herridge eased the girl’s limp body against his knees, brushing the tendrils of hair from her face.
Send a Gunboat (1960) Page 24
