Split Infinity

by Tony Rattigan

  Cobb rowed on as the Orientals climbed into the other boat and followed them. Cobb and Adele made it to the centre of the loch but their pursuers were gaining on them. ‘Why is there never a monster around when you need one?’ said Cobb.

  ‘That’s it!’ said Adele, ‘Cobb you’re brilliant.’ With that she rested her elbows on her knees and put her head in her hands as if she had a headache.

  ‘That’s all right, you have a nice nap, there’s a good girl, I’ll wake you up if anything important happens,’ said Cobb.

  ‘Quiet! I’m trying to concentrate.’

  ‘The situation’s not that complicated. They catch us, we’re in trouble.’

  Adele ignored him and Cobb just rowed on in silence for several minutes.

  Suddenly, to Cobb’s amazement, Duppie popped up several hundred yards away and began to circle the two boats. Cobb looked behind him; they were only a few hundred yards away from the edge of the loch. If only Duppie could distract the little guys long enough for them to reach shore.

  For some reason Duppie ignored Cobb’s boat and began to circle the one with the Orientals in. They began to jabber and gesticulate excitedly.

  Cobb looked behind him. A hundred yards to the shore.

  ‘What’s going on?’ he asked.

  ‘I “called” to the monster, Duppie,’ said Adele. ‘He thinks it’s feeding time and that boat is full of nice, fresh, juicy fish.’

  Cobb checked again, fifty yards.

  Their pursuers were getting frantic. They had abandoned the chase and had started rowing in the opposite direction. Duppie, still unsure of what he was chasing but hungry, kept bumping the boat trying to identify it as food.

  Twenty yards.

  Everyone in the boat redoubled their efforts except for one individual, cooler headed than the others, who stood up in the boat and aimed a crossbow at Adele’s back.

  Cobb looked up, saw what was about to happen and shouted a warning to Adele. She did the worst thing she could have done, she stood up and looked behind her, thereby making herself a bigger target. Cobb acted without thinking. He dropped the oars, stepped forward and grabbing Adele by the front of her coat, picked her off her feet and threw her behind him. The bolt from the crossbow, meant for Adele, took him in the left shoulder. He staggered back and tripped over an oar, there was a distinct ‘THUNK’ as his head hit the side of the boat and then he slid over the side, into the dark waters of the loch.

  Adele got to her feet and looked around. The boat full of Orientals was disappearing across the loch as fast as its occupants could row, being chased by a large, hungry monster. Adele’s boat had glided in towards the shore and was only about fifteen feet away from the water’s edge. She gathered her skirts around her and jumped over the side to save Cobb.

  Mercifully the water was only waist height at this distance from the shore. She floundered around in the water until she felt Cobb’s heavy overcoat. She grabbed him by the collar and dragged him towards the shore. After a few pulls she realised she wasn’t going to make it. Cobb was a dead weight in the water. For some reason he wouldn’t stand up, he must have passed out.

  She took a deep breath and plunged her head under the water, feeling her way to Cobb’s mouth she put her mouth to his and blew air into his lungs. Then she stood up, dragged him a few more feet and repeated the procedure. She did this again and again until his head finally broke the surface and he was out in the open air. With one final heave she dragged him onto the shore and checked him, to see how he was. He began coughing up water so she knew he was going to survive for the moment. Exhausted she slumped down beside him.

  After she had got her breath back, she went over to their boat, which by then had drifted into shore, and recovered her bag. Sitting down next to Cobb she looked over his crossbow bolt wound. Fortunately it hadn’t gone all the way through; hopefully it hadn’t broken the shoulder blade. She listened to his breathing; it sounded fine, no lung damage. She couldn’t leave the bolt sticking out of him but to remove it now would risk a major blood loss. She would have to pack it with bandaging around it until they found some place to hole up. Then she could deal with it.

  Adele managed to drag him across the small beach into the shrubs and, after taking out her gun, she used her bag to pillow his head. What she had to do now was get some transport to get them away so she could treat him. This man had saved her at the risk of his own life, she wasn’t going to let him down.

  She came back some fifteen or twenty minutes later. She had had an amazing piece of luck. A deliveryman on a horse and cart was making a late delivery when out of the bushes jumped an attractive but apparently mad, young woman, soaking wet and waving a gun.

  ‘Get off the cart!’ she ordered.

  ‘This cart belongs to Mr. McTavish,’ he said indignantly. ‘He’d kill me if I lost it. Why should I give it to you?’ he asked.

  ‘Good question, let me see … erm … I have a gun and you don’t. Is that a good enough reason?’

  He reluctantly got off the cart.

  ‘Here take this, give it to Mr. McTavish with my apologies,’ she told him and shoved a fistful of money into his hands. ‘Now run away and don’t tell anyone about this until morning.’

  Back at the edge of the loch where she had left Cobb, Adele had to slap his face to bring him back to consciousness. When she had roused him, she helped him to stand upright and put his arm around her shoulders. Together they staggered up the short slope to the delivery cart, where she helped him into the back. He passed out again. It was a cold night and they were both soaking wet but that couldn’t be helped now. They had to get as far away as they could by daylight. ‘Keep moving,’ Cobb had said. She threw her bag into the back with Cobb then sticking the gun into her pocket, she climbed up into the driver’s seat, grabbed the reins and drove away into the night.

  Little House on the Moor

  Adele pulled up outside the crofter’s cottage. They had driven all night. At first she had followed the road along the loch but eventually had found a trail leading off into the hills. It was just approaching dawn and she was worn out, when she had spotted a crofter’s cottage.

  She released the horse from the harness and tethered him so he could feed on the grass. She went round to the back of the cart and uncovered Cobb. While they had been escaping, they had passed a farm during the night and she had sneaked into the barn and stolen some straw, which she used to cover up Cobb in an attempt to keep him warm.

  Adele dragged Cobb to his feet and pulled his arm across her shoulders, he was just this side of conscious. She staggered towards the cottage. The door was unlocked of course. This was the Caledonian Highlands! There was nobody around for miles, let alone burglars.

  They staggered into the room. It was just single room containing a table and chairs, a cupboard, a fireplace and a bed. She dumped Cobb unceremoniously on the bed. There were logs and kindling by the fireplace. She threw some logs into the fireplace and grabbed a handful of kindling. Gripping the small twigs tightly in her hands, she closed her eyes and concentrated. The twigs began to smoke, she blew on them and as she threw them into the fireplace they burst into flame.

  Adele heaped the logs on to the burning kindling then went to see to Cobb. She had to get his wet clothes off and warm him up. But that would mean cutting through the crossbow bolt first otherwise she couldn’t remove his clothing. Fortunately the shaft was wooden not metal. She went outside to fetch her bag from the cart and saw the box containing whatever the deliveryman had been delivering. Hallelujah! He’d been delivering groceries! Eggs, milk, bread, even a bottle of whisky. This would keep them going for few days.

  She took her bag and the groceries back inside and put them on the table. There was one cupboard in the room, which was full of blankets and some pots, pans and cutlery. Good, she could use the blankets to cover Cobb. Now to get rid of that bolt. She looked around the cottage for a knife or a saw but found nothing so she searched Cobb’s pockets.

  Lik
e most men he carried a penknife. It was a good one, a Schweitz Army Penknife. The knife had various implements like scissors, a screwdriver; it even had one of those things for getting Boy Scouts out of horse’s hooves. Fortunately one of the blades was a saw, she could use that. She gripped the bolt and sawed through it, as close to his clothing as she could.

  (Schweitzerland was a mountain country in Europe that had managed to remain neutral in every major conflict, for centuries. Their attitude was, “It you want to have a war, that’s fine, just don’t expect us to join in.”

  So while the rest of Europe was repeatedly torn apart by war, yet still managed to invent gunpowder, artillery, surgery, optics, steam engines, hydraulics, astronomy etc, Schweitzerland enjoyed five hundred years of uninterrupted peace and managed to come up with the Cuckoo Clock and a penknife! Go figure.)

  Adele finished sawing through the bolt and threw it on the fire. She stripped off Cobb’s clothes then hung them on a chair in front of the fire, to dry. She saw the pendant containing the egg-shaped stone, around his neck. Must be some sort of good luck charm she figured. Best leave it on him she thought, he was going to need as much luck as he could get to survive the next few days.

  She used the penknife to cut strips out of a blanket to use as bandages. She folded one of those strips into a pad and used another strip to fix it over the wound to stop any bleeding, which mercifully was light as the bolt was still blocking up the hole. Finally she covered him with blankets.

  That was it; she could do no more right now. She was exhausted and needed sleep. She took off her own dress and hung it on a chair in front of the fire then she wrapped a blanket around herself and looked round for somewhere to sleep. There was only one bed, occupied by Cobb. Oh what the hell! She climbed in next to him. He was still cold and shivering. She put her arms around him and cuddled up to him for warmth, then drew the blankets tight around them. She was asleep in seconds.

  ***

  It was late afternoon when she woke. Cobb was feverish and muttering some gibberish about clowns and sausages and someone called Trixie. That was what had woken her. She looked at Cobb’s wound, it was swollen and discoloured. It was getting infected and would have to be dealt with.

  Adele climbed out of bed and checked her dress; it was dry so she put it on. She went outside and checked the horse and then she found a bucket and went looking for supplies of herbs and lichen. She found a small stream, so she led the horse down and tethered him there, while she filled up the bucket with water and went back to the cottage, gathering herbs and plants as she went.

  She boiled herself some eggs and ate them with bread, while she prepared things for surgery on Cobb. She boiled the penknife and a couple of teaspoons, and then she made some herbal broth for Cobb to drink afterwards. Next she made a poultice from the lichen to spread on the wound after she had finished. Then she took one of the bullets out of her gun and prised the round out of the shell with his penknife. Lastly she opened the bottle of whisky.

  Adele was grateful that Cobb was delirious as the operation was going to be painful. However, he would still struggle so she took the precaution of tying him down with strips cut from a blanket. She removed the bandage from his shoulder and threw the rank, stinking mess on the fire. Finally she was ready to start. She took a swig of whisky out of the bottle and then poured some over the wound.

  Adele was no doctor but she knew she had to remove the bolt head if Cobb was to survive. She’d remembered reading in a book once, that the Ancient Athenian doctors had developed a tool for removing arrowheads. The trouble with extracting arrowheads was that they were usually barbed, so if you just pulled them out, you risked doing more damage than when they went in. The Athenians had invented a tool like two spoons that cupped around the arrowhead and drew it out without damaging the flesh. That was what she was going to attempt to do.

  Using the penknife she cut along either side of the bolt to open up the wound. She slid the two teaspoons in, one at a time, either side of the bolt head. Then she gripped them tightly so they encompassed the head. With all her strength she pulled the spoons out. Cobb moaned and struggled but she persisted until, with a sucking sound, they came free. She opened her hands and the spoons and the bolt head dropped onto the blanket. She muttered a small prayer of thanks and then began to clean up.

  She fetched a small burning twig from the fire. Picking up the open shell she poured the gunpowder into the open wound then ignited it with the twig. There was a flash and a puff of smoke as the gunpowder ignited, cauterising the wound. Cobb screamed and passed out completely. She splashed some whisky into the wound to cool and sterilise it. Finally she packed the wound with the poultice and covered it.

  She washed the blood off her hands and the implements she had used. Then after putting them away, she flopped down in a chair in front of the fire and had another swallow of whisky. All she could do now was wait and see.

  ***

  Adele raised her head from the table where she was sleeping. She had checked on Cobb several times in the night and then fallen asleep sitting in a chair at the table. Cobb was calling to her.

  ‘Why I am I tied to this bed?’ he said weakly.

  ‘Relax Mr. Cobb. It’s not your wildest sexual fantasies come true. I tied you down to stop you moving around and opening up your wound again.’

  ‘What wound? Why does my shoulder ache?’

  Adele poured out some of her herbal broth and went over to the bed. She untied him then sat on the bed and helped him raise his head. ‘Drink this, you’ll feel better.’ She helped him drink it down and watched him until he fell asleep again. This time though it was a healthy, recuperative sleep, instead of just unconsciousness.

  He had fallen asleep in the crook of her arm and she was unwilling to move her arm to disturb him, he needed his rest. So she sat there holding him. She didn’t know what to make of Cobb. Here was a man, who had turned up out of nowhere and she had tried to shoot him. And yet he had given her money and offered to try and help. Then later when he thought she was in danger, he had rushed to her rescue and saved her life, at the risk of his own.

  She didn’t know men like this even existed outside the storybooks; she had certainly never met any. The only ones she met were the ones she had known in her University days, or the ones she had met at the school where she taught. They may be bright, intelligent, and witty perhaps but she couldn’t imagine any of them standing up for themselves in a fight, let alone risking their lives to save someone else’s. This man was different. This was a real man.

  On an impulse she kissed him on the forehead and then held him close. After a while she fell asleep too and they slept like that through the day.

  ***

  Cobb slept through that day and all that night, apart from when Adele woke him and gave him some of her herbal broth or applied a fresh poultice. He woke with a start next morning, he’d been having a bad dream about being chased by Soames the butcher, who kept insisting that the Loch Dupp Monster had killed the clowns because they were eating all the sausages! Cobb shuddered and looked around him.

  Adele was sat on the chair, watching him. ‘Good morning,’ she said. ‘How are you feeling?’

  ‘I’ve felt better. How did I get here? The last thing I remember is having a small tree stuck in my chest and trying to learn to breathe underwater.’

  ‘I dragged you out of the water and did what you suggested … got as far away as fast as I could. Don’t ask me where we are, I got us lost. Hopefully that means that they can’t find us.’

  ‘How long have we been here?’

  ‘Two days.’

  Cobb tried to get up but fell back on the bed. Adele poured some more of her herbal broth and gave it to him to drink. ‘Do you think you could manage some solid food?’

  ‘I’ll certainly give it a try, I’m starving.’

  Adele busied herself fixing Cobb’s food. When it was ready she brought it over to him. He was unable to cut the eggs or eat properly with onl
y one hand so Adele ended up spoon-feeding him.

  After he had eaten, Adele came back, sat on the bed and began applying a fresh poultice and changing his bandage. She had taken the opportunity to go down to the stream and bathe while Cobb had slept. He couldn’t help noticing how fresh she smelt. She was wearing that perfume again. He told her who he was, his past history with Quist and how he had come to accept the job of finding her. ‘So why does your father really want me to find you?’

  ‘Don’t call him my father! He’s not … he killed my father!’

  ‘What do you mean?’ asked Cobb, shocked.

  ‘I was only a little girl at the time but my mother told me all about it later. My father used to work for Quist, he was one of his lower level lieutenants. Quist decided he wanted my mother, so he arranged for my father to be killed during one of their robberies. Then he made his move and asked my mother to marry him. I don’t think it was just physical attraction, Quist knew my mother was a witch and she could use her powers to help him carry out his crimes. She married him but it was just to protect me. Life’s not a lot of fun for a widow and child when you have no income. Anyway, when she died, he expected me to start helping him but I told him I’d rather die first. That’s why I ran away. If I didn’t then I thought he might hold me prisoner until I agreed, so I waited for the right moment and then I was away!’

  ‘Well you may not have seen the last of him. His Cantonese sidekick, Won Lungh was in Drumnadrochit the night we escaped.’

  ‘Oh, Won Lungh’s a pussycat, he wouldn’t hurt me. He’s looked after me since I was a little girl. I think it’s because he has no close family of his own but since I was small, whenever Quist came to the house, Won Lungh would come with him as his butler. He would play with me, bring me sweets, that sort of thing. He treated me as if I were his own daughter. He worships me and he would never do anything to harm me.’