I took the quickest — and most dangerous — route to the deck. I went down, boots and hands, via the backstay. It took only seconds.
My mind had formulated its plan when I had felt the wind up aloft in the rigging. Down here it was still no more than a catspaw, not enough to power her big lower sails but Strong enough aloft for her uppermost sails.
'Hands to the braces!' I shouted. 'Break out the main and fore royals! Slap it about, men! All hands!'
They went automatically to their stations like a stunned gun crew after a near miss by a shell. They reacted like automatons, too.
The yards came round. Four men — two would have done — shinned aloft and broke out the small topmost sails.
Collecting the drifting motor-launch on the way, Botany Bay clawed her way with nerve-shattering slowness through the ice, bumping and thumping, until we were at last in the safe open water of the iceport.
CHAPTER TWENTY
'Back the main royals!'
Tired as they were, the crew were twice the men they had been a short while before, and they went willingly to the braces. Botany Bay had put the danger astern and was easing through the open water of the iceport.
At my order, Wegger came to where I was standing at the wheel, his face dark.
'What are you playing at, Shotton?'
The yards came round. The backed sail acted as a brake. Botany Bay slowed to a standstill as the way fell off her.
I ignored his question and asked the bo'sun, whose name was Clem Bent, at the helm, 'How does she feel?'
He spun the spokes first to port and then to starboard.
'A bit stiff, sir, but okay.'
'Good. Hold her steady.'
I turned on Wegger. 'Get that grenade off Miss Prestrud and I'll tell you.'
His face clouded still further. Try anything on me…'
'Wegger! I've just snatched your bloody ship out of a death-trap. I did my part. Now do yours.'
He gestured to Ullmann, who cautiously passed him the machine-pistol so that he could loosen the grenade.
I started forward angrily as Ullmann took Linn roughly by the shoulder but Wegger exclaimed wamingly, 'Keep away from that grenade, Shotton!'
When the grenade was free, I went to Linn and held her for a moment. I couldn't have cared whether or not a hundred hijackers were near.
She was trembling and she whispered, 'Thank God for you, my darling.'
'You were wonderful, Linn,' I replied.
Then I walked slowly back to Wegger.
'Listen,' I told him. 'Now's your time to reconsider, if you still intend to go ahead with that idea of yours about taking this ship to Prince Edward. She sailed in here, but she won't sail out. It's impossible to negotiate that entrance under sail — it's dead into the teeth of the wind. Also, the ship's damaged. She's got a leak in her bow. I don't know what other underwater damage she may have suffered in the ice.'
'We'll tow her out with the motor-launch,' Wegger replied. 'Don't try and blow up the damage. Kearnay himself said the leak wasn't bad.'
'A leaking ship is a leaking ship in the Westerlies — anything could happen.'
'Forget it. We go to Prince Edward, leak or no leak.'
I felt as trapped as Botany Bay in the ice. I said non-committally, 'I'll get the sail off her then if we're going to tow.' «'Not so fast,' replied Wegger. 'We've got some business first with the Quest.' Both he and Ullmann laughed. 'We've also got to collect Bravold. You and the girl can use the opportunity to pick up your things.'
'Her things!' I echoed. 'What do you mean? Linn's not coming in this old sieve…!'
'John!' exclaimed Linn. 'I go where you go. Prince Edward Island or no Prince Edward Island, leak or no leak.'
Too damn right,' sneered Wegger. 'She's coming — for my reasons, not hers, which don't count with me.'
'A sailing-ship is no place for a woman,' I protested. 'Especially one like this, Linn…'
'Do you think I'd leave her behind, knowing what she knows?' asked Wegger. 'She comes with us. That's final.'
'Linn…' I started. But she stood there with her head held back, and I knew in my heart that I'd rather have her with me, Wegger or no Wegger.
'Right,' I conceded. 'But we're in for a rough ride. The sooner we get over to the Quest, the better. The weather's working up.'
Just how much it had deteriorated since we had first made our way into the iceport was apparent once the motor-launch carrying Wegger, Ullmann, Linn and myself cleared the entrance and left the protected water behind. The launch started to pitch and toss and the Quest, nearer the ice than she should have been for safety, rose, corkscrewed and plunged. I was now concerned about how Botany Bay would fare once she stuck her nose outside. I was also deeply anxious about Linn. She sat silent, looking ahead. I admired her pluck in wanting to come but not her wisdom.
I checked my time as we cleared the arch.
Ten o'clock.
The buoy's launching-time.
I wondered how Smit, T-shirt Jannie and Pete would take missing it. Or the rest of the watching weather world.
Then suddenly the scheme to beat Wegger dropped tailor-made into my mind.
It was so simple, so neat, that I almost laughed.
To carry it out, though, I would need another person's help. Linn's help. They'd be guarding me all the time when we reached the Quest; I'd never escape their vigilance. But Linn could. It would need only a few minutes…
I shifted from the stern thwart and moved alongside Linn, who was amidships. Wegger frowned and Ullmann kept ready. I put my arm round her, as if to resolve our constraint over her attitude about Botany Bay.
I whispered, 'Into the bows. Quick! I want to tell you something!'
She gave me a startled, puzzled look, but did as I said.
In the bow I steadied myself by a grab-handle and said softly, 'Linn, I've got it! When we reach Quest I want you to go straight to the scientists' place and find Smit. Tell him to set the balloon's instrument package in operation…'
'But we've missed the launching-point, John! Quest is over a hundred kilometres from it!'
'I know, I know,' I responded urgently. 'Listen. The package is a tiny thing — it weighs about half a kilogram. Get him to set it working — right? Then take it yourself. Put it inside your parka…'
'Me? Take it?'
I threw an anxious glance astern. Both Ullmann and Wegger were watching us keenly but they couldn't hear what we said.
'It won't take a moment to unhitch it from the balloon's envelope,' I rushed on. 'Don't you see — explain all this to Smit — all the weather stations will be on the look-out for the balloon to track it across the sky. We'll start it operating. The GARP stations will pick up the transmissions via the satellite. But it won't be doing 30 or 40 knots on the wind as it should be, it'll be travelling a mere six or seven because we'll have it with us in Botany Bay. The experts will realize at once that something is wrong and an alert will go out. From the satellite's readings they'll be able to pinpoint the transmitter's position exactly — and with it, Botany Bay's position. Got it?'
She pressed my hand. 'Wonderful, John, wonderful!'
'Careful,' I warned her. 'Don't let those thugs suspect us. It's up to you, Linn.'
'I'll do it, John.'
There's more,' I went on urgently. 'Tell Smit to set the buoy's transmitter in operation…'
'John! Quick! Explain! I don't follow!'
I dropped my voice as low as I could. 'The tracking stations know that the buoy's maximum rate of drift is less than one knot an hour,' I hurried on. 'If the satellite is registering the buoy's speed as fifteen knots — the same as Quest's — a similar alert will go out as for our balloon package, which we will have in Botany Bay, Quest won't be able to explain until the radio blackout's over, but the experts will be able to pinpoint her position exactly, just like Botany Bay's. They'll realize that the two transmitters are being transported artificially.'
'What chance of using Botany B
ay's radio when the black-out's over?'
'Nil, I'm afraid. The batteries are finished. Wegger will smell a rat if I suggest anything there.'
'John! Watch out! He's coming!'
'Here!' Wegger rapped out. 'That's enough chattering, you two.'
The Quest was now almost on top of us. Wegger steered for the scrambling nets I had had rigged. McKinley was making a poor job of holding position. He had her half beam-on, and the seas were letting the ship know it. She looked like a ghost ship. Her decks were deserted. The only figures visible were on the bridge.
I seized a boat-hook and held the motor-launch fast once we had gained the lee of the hull.
'Up,' Wegger ordered Linn. 'Get to your cabin — and stay there. Be ready in fifteen minutes — we'll fetch you.'
I steadied her hand. She gripped me reassuringly in return and started up the wet, swaying side of the hull.
Wegger pocketed the Luger. He picked up the case containing the explosives and swung himself effortlessly into the scrambling net.
Linn had almost reached the top when a head looked over. It was Smit.
I saw my plan vanish like a puff of smoke. If Smit stayed and argued with Wegger…
'Captain Shotton!' he called in an agonized voice. 'Where have you been? We've missed Bokkie's launch-ing-time!'
I watched Linn race for the top, her shoes slipping on the wet net. She realized the dangers as well as I did.
Wegger stopped; glanced up, gestured to Ullmann.
'Get back to your cabin!' he shouted at Smit. 'Get back! Inside!'
Linn had reached the rail now and was throwing a leg over. Ullmann lifted the Scorpion. He couldn't fire without hitting her.
'For Pete's sake, Smit, do as he says!' I yelled.
Ullmann's warning shot into the air rang out simultaneously. Smit's head vanished. Linn disappeared, too. Wegger hung on for a moment or two and then looked enquiringly down at Ullmann.
'He took the hint, the stupid sod,' Ullmann called. 'He's gone, skipper. It's okay.'
Wegger nodded and finished his ascent.
'Shotton!' he called. 'Up! Make the launch fast. Then up!'
I secured the boat by running a line through the meshes of the net. I went up. The deck was empty — there was no sign of Linn or Smit. I breathed an inward sigh of relief.
Then Ullmann joined us.
'March,' ordered Wegger. 'The bridge!'
Before entering, Wegger called, 'Bravold! Everything okay?'
'No problems,' came the answer.
Both McKinley and Petersen were on watch. McKinley hadn't shaved and there were heavy shadows round his eyes. His face was blotchy as if he had been roughed up. Petersen looked as guilty and inadequate as if he'd been responsible for the entire hijacking.
'McKinley,' said Wegger, 'I'm leaving the ship to you. I'm taking your captain with me.'
'The ship to me!'
'That's what I said. And look after her well, you miserable runt!'
McKinley stood gaping at Wegger and me. He seemed to have lost his voice. Wegger strode to the engine-room telegraph. He rammed the pointer over. It's metallic clatter was almost a protest in itself.
Wegger rang, 'Finished with engines.'
McKinley stuttered, 'Finished with engines — sir?'
Wegger ignored him. He said to Ullmann, 'You know what to do.'
Ullmann took two 10-kilogram ice-charges from the box, hitched his machine-pistol over his arm, and went.
'Finished with engines!' Wegger repeated.
The realization of what he was up to hit me then. 'Wegger — you can't blow up her engines!'
I started forward. Bravold was very quick in covering me with his Scorpion.
'Do you think I'd leave this little rat to turn tail and race back to the Cape to tell them what's happened?' said Wegger.
'You can't leave everybody aboard to die in a helpless ship in the middle of the Southern Ocean!'
He grabbed me by my front, taking me by surprise.
They left me to die, Shotton! The three of them — Prestrud, Jacobsen and Torgersen! But I didn't die! I lived!'
'It's calculated mass murder!'
'Shut up!' he snarled. 'It isn't. They've got a shipful of food and water. They're in the track of the West Wind Drift. Plenty of ships have broken down and drifted safely to Australia before now. If they could, the Quest can!'
'Wegger A short rat-tat-tat rang through the ship from the direction of the engine-room.
There was a short pause, then two more shots.
Wegger and Bravold eyed each other.
We waited. Minutes passed.
Then Wegger picked up the engine-room intercom. At that moment the Quest kicked as if the inside of her hull had been struck by a giant's hammer.
Wegger relaxed and put down the instrument.
We waited. Then Ullmann came in from the companionway. He was fiddling with the machine-pistol's magazine, reloading as he walked.
'Trouble?' asked Wegger.
'Some. A stupid clot tried to stop me. Old bastard. Said he loved his engines.' The big man spat on the deck. 'Said they were his life.' He shrugged. 'It was his life.'
'MacFie!' I breathed. 'You killed MacFie!'
Ullmann seemed cynically amused. 'There was another,' he told Wegger. 'Did you hear the second lot of shots?'
I died a thousand deaths for Linn before Ullmann continued.
'A young 'un. Red hair. He came at me like crazy. Yelled something about a ghost in a tunnel. Maybe he was trying to protect the old guy.' He shrugged again. 'It doesn't matter. He got in the way.'
'Fine,' said Wegger. 'Now fix the radio. A grenade will do.'
'Wegger,' I said deliberately. 'You bastard — you unspeakable bastard!'
The test will put some guts into McKinley — if he has any,' he retorted. 'They'll be found — in time. After we've been to Prince Edward.'
Ullmann went off, and shortly afterwards the crash of the explosion set every piece of steel on the bridge vibrating.
When he returned, Wegger told him, 'Go and get the girl while Shotton collects his things. Everyone to meet here in five minutes.'
Wegger himself guarded me while I found my sextant and other navigating instruments as well as a couple of charts. As I finished, he said, 'You could have had it very easy, you and the girl…'
My anxiety over Linn and our scheme was destroying me. I didn't respond to his gambit. I gathered up the penguin-skin rug — for her sake — but I couldn't stop myself from looking at my watch.
'What's up?' Wegger demanded. He was living on hair-trigger tenseness. Luger trigger.
'Weather,' I replied. It was half the truth, anyway. 'The sooner we get back to the windjammer with the present build-up, the easier I'll be in my mind.'
This answer didn't quite satisfy him and he said, 'Get out of here. Back to the bridge.'
Linn was already there when we arrived. She was standing apart from the others, a small crush-bag at her feet. Her green-grey eyes held steady on mine. I knew she had succeeded. The minute transmitter was hidden away in the folds of her parka.
'Search her!' snapped Wegger. 'Her and her dunnage.'
My mind froze as Ullmann went forward. No frisking hand could fail to detect that light-metal box.
Linn pushed her bag at him with a foot. He stooped, unzipped it.
My tongue felt as if it had been immobilized by the sort of ice which had frozen Botany Bay solid. But ice is wet. There was no moisture at all in my mouth.
Ullmann's hands began to explore Linn's bag.
'Wegger,' I remarked, trying to sound casual, 'maybe you've been too busy killing innocent people to notice that this ship is slewing. The wind has got hold of her bows. She's coming round. Any minute now that lee for our launch won't be a lee any longer. The boat isn't moored — it's only secured to the scrambling net. It'll stove in against Quest's hull any moment.'
Wegger looked startled and said, 'Belay that, Ullmann. There's no other gun i
n the ship anyway — I know. Get overside quick and fend off the launch. Bravold, guard these two. Come!'
They shot off. Linn knelt and re-zipped her bag slowly, her relief apparent in the careful way she bent so that the transmitter inside her parka would not be visible.
I took the bag. I faced McKinley briefly. Petersen was gagging as if he were about to be sick.
'Good luck,' I said.
He regarded me bleakly without speaking.
'Get moving!' ordered Bravold.
Wegger and Ullmann were already in the boat when we reached the, rail. Linn went down before me, cautiously straddling the rail and carefully nursing the concealed transmitter. I followed with her bag. Bravold brought up the rear.
We cast off the launch and pulled clear of the ship. The Quest wallowed like a harpooned whale. The wind had started to gust more strongly from the south-west. We felt its bite afresh the moment we cleared the shelter of the ship's side. The iceberg boxing in Botany Bay was only a couple of kilometres away now. It was anyone's bet how soon the Quest and the berg would collide. The light also had changed: it was dark in the storm quadrant although the sun had a whiteness high towards its zenith.
Dollops of spray started to break aboard. I called to I Wegger, 'Can't you go faster? We're running into trouble already.'
He speeded up and the launch shipped more icy water. Finally we got inside the shelter of the arch, and hurried across the protected water to Botany Bay, which was still stationary with her main royal aback.
The first thing I noticed on the quarterdeck was that the bodies of Kearnay and Biggs were missing.
'What happened to them?' I asked Clem Bent, the bo'sun, out of Wegger's hearing.
'We buried 'em decently while those bastards were away,' he replied. 'We didn't want him simply throwing them overboard.'
Wegger and Ullmann set to work in the bows making the tow fast to the motor-launch.
'All hands!' I shouted. 'Men! We're towing the ship out of here. Get those royals clewed up! Secure the anchor inboard. Hands stand by tops'l and topgallant braces.'
I said to Bent at the wheel, 'Maybe you'll want help at the helm when we get outside.'
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