The Snow Tiger / Night of Error

  ‘The schooner came through the pass early last year. She was a stranger, like yourselves – the only ships that put in to Tanakabu are the copra boats and it wasn’t the right time for them. She entered the lagoon and dropped anchor just opposite the hospital – out there.’ He nodded towards the sea.

  ‘Two men came ashore. One was about your size, very thin. The other was a big man – as big as me. They said there had been an accident and a man was dead. They wanted a death certificate. I took my bag from the corner there and said I’d come aboard, but the big man said no, it wasn’t necessary, the man was already dead, anyone could see that, and all they wanted was a bit of paper to say so.’

  Schouten smiled slightly. ‘I laughed at them and said what they wanted was impossible – that the body must be seen by a doctor. Then the big man hit me.’ He fingered the side of his cheek and said apologetically, ‘I couldn’t do anything – I’m not young any more.’

  ‘I understand,’ I said. ‘Tell me, were their names mentioned?’

  ‘The big man was called Jim, the other man called him that. His name I don’t remember. There was another name said, but I forget.’

  ‘All right. What happened then?’

  ‘I was astonished. I couldn’t understand why the man had hit me. I got up and he hit me again. Then he pulled me up and sat me in this chair and told me to write a death certificate.’

  My lips tightened. It was only too probable that the big man was Hadley and the other was Kane. I’d have a reckoning with Kane when I got back to the Esmerelda.

  ‘I wouldn’t do it,’ said Schouten. ‘I asked why I couldn’t see the body and the other man laughed and said it was in a mess and it would turn the stomach even of a doctor. Then I knew there was something very bad going on. I think they had killed someone, and it was someone who could not just disappear – there had to be a death certificate.’

  I nodded. ‘What happened then?’

  ‘The big man hit me again and kept on hitting me until the other made him stop. He said that was not the way to do it. Then he turned on me and wiped the blood from my face very gently, and while the big man sat drinking he talked to me.’

  ‘What did he talk about?’

  ‘The hospital. He said he thought it was a good hospital and that it was doing good work in the islands. He asked how many patients I had, and I told him – about fifty. He asked if I was curing them and I said yes, some of them, but others were incurable. I just looked after them. Then he asked what would happen if there were no hospital on Tanakabu, and I said it would be a very bad thing – many people would die.’

  Schouten caught my hand and said appealingly, ‘I told him all this – I told him freely. I didn’t know what he wanted.’

  ‘Go on,’ I said tightly.

  ‘The big man started to laugh and then he hit me once again. He said, “That’s so you’ll take notice of what I’m saying. You sign that certificate or we’ll burn the whole bloody hospital.”’

  He dropped his head into his hands. ‘What could I do?’ he said in a muffled voice.

  I was angry, more angry than I’ve ever been in my life before. If Kane and Hadley had been in that room then I’d have killed them without mercy.

  Schouten said brokenly, ‘He said that he didn’t care if he burned the patients either – it was all one to him.’ His eyes looked at me in slow horror. ‘He kept lighting matches as he talked to me.’

  ‘So you signed the death certificate.’

  ‘Ja. I made it out as they wanted, then I signed it. Then the big man hit me again and the other man said, “If you breathe a word about this we’ll know it and we’ll come back, and you know what will happen to this collection of grass shacks you call a hospital.” Then the big man set fire to the thatch over there and while I tried to beat it out they left. They were both laughing.’

  I looked over to where there was a patch of new thatching.

  ‘What nationality were these men?’

  ‘I lived in New Guinea once – that is an Australian mandate and I’ve met many Australians. These men were Australians.’

  ‘Did you see them again?’

  Schouten nodded sombrely. ‘The big man – yes. He keeps coming back. He says he is keeping an eye on me. He comes and drinks my brandy and lights matches. He has been back – three times.’

  ‘When was the last time?’

  ‘About a month ago.’

  That would be Hadley – not a nice character from the sound of him. There were plenty like him as concentration camp guards in Hitler’s Germany but the type is to be found among all nationalities. They weren’t a very good advertisement for Australia.

  Schouten said, ‘I didn’t dare tell the police. I was frightened for the hospital.’

  I ran over his terrible story in my mind. ‘You don’t remember the other name you heard?’

  He shook his head. ‘Not yet, but I think it was the third man on the boat – he was not a local crewman.’

  ‘What other man?’

  ‘He didn’t come ashore but I saw him on the deck of the schooner – a very tall, thin man with a hooked nose, very dark. I saw him only once, when the boat was coming in.’

  I thought about that but it didn’t ring any bells. I said, ‘I’m sorry it happened, Dr Schouten. But you realize you will have to tell the authorities now.’

  He nodded heavily. ‘I realize it now. But I was so afraid for my patients. This is an isolated atoll – there are no police here, no one to guard against violent men. I am still afraid.’ He looked me in the eye.‘What is to prevent these men, or others like them, from coming back?’

  I said harshly, ‘I know who these men are. They won’t trouble you again.’

  He hesitated and then said, ‘So. I will write a letter which you can take to Papeete. You understand, I cannot leave the hospital.’

  ‘I understand.’ This would make MacDonald sit up and take notice. I would be very pleased to deliver Schouten’s letter in person.

  ‘Will you send people to guard us right away? You have promised no harm will come to us here.’

  I thought that we could leave some of the lads with him while we went back, or even send a radio message for assistance before we left. Hadley would follow us back to Papeete, if he was indeed on our trail, and a couple of Geordie’s stalwarts would be more than a match for him if he landed after we’d left.

  Schouten said, ‘The letter will not take long, but you must make yourself comfortable while I write. You would not drink with me before – will you drink now?’

  I said, ‘I’d be honoured, doctor.’

  He went to the cupboard and got another glass, stirring the broken pieces on the floor as he did so. ‘You gave me a shock,’ he said ruefully. ‘I thought the dead had come to life.’

  He poured a stiff drink and handed it to me. ‘I am deeply sorry about your brother, Mr Trevelyan. You must believe that.’

  ‘I believe you, doctor. I’m sorry for the rough time I gave you.’

  He grimaced. ‘It wasn’t as rough as the time the big man gave me.’

  No, it wasn’t, I thought, but we’d both operated on the same raw nerve – Schouten’s fears for his patients and his hospital. I felt ashamed of myself. I finished the drink quickly and watched Schouten scratching with his pen. I could see it was going to take a while, so I said, ‘When will you finish?’

  ‘To tell it in detail will take a long time. Also I do not write English so well as I speak it,’ said Schouten. ‘If you wait, you will have dinner, of course.’

  ‘No. I’ll go back to my ship and make arrangements to leave someone here with you, when we go back to Papeete. I’ll come back later tonight or early in the morning.’

  Schouten inclined his head. ‘As you wish. I will be glad of a guard.’ He resumed his writing and I got up to go, and then just as I got to the door, he said, ‘One moment, Mr Trevelyan. Something has just come back to me.’

  I waited by the door and he rose from his desk. �
�You were asking about the name – the one they mentioned. The big man spoke it and the other made him be quiet.’

  ‘What was it?’

  Schouten escorted me on to the verandah. As Piro saw us he started the engine of his jeep. Schouten said, ‘It was a strange name – it sounded Spanish. It was Ramirez.’

  II

  We had gone a mile when the jeep broke down. The roar of the engine faded and we bumped to a halt. Piro hopped out, bent over the engine and struck a match. ‘She dead,’ he said in an unworried voice.

  I was impatient to get back to Esmerelda. I wanted to beat Kane into a pulp. I know that no man stays angry forever – you can’t live on that plane – and I was nursing my anger because I wanted to let it rip. I intended to hammer Kane to a jelly. Jim Taylor had sensed my tension and had wisely refrained from asking me any questions.

  Piro struck another match and poked experimentally into the entrails of the jeep. Then he looked up and said cheerfully, ‘She no go.’

  ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘No essence.’

  I said, ‘Damn it, why didn’t you fill it up? Why didn’t you look at the gauge – this thing here?’

  ‘She broke.’

  ‘All right, we’ll walk – we just have to follow the beach.’

  Piro said, ‘No walk. Canoe along here. We walk on water.’

  We followed him a couple of hundred yards up the beach to where the road turned inland and he strode to the water’s edge. ‘Here is canoe, sir – I take you back.’

  It was only a couple of miles but it seemed longer in the darkness. We very soon saw the riding lights of Esmerelda in the clear air but it took an age to get within hailing distance. Some of the other canoes were still alongside and there was an air of festival on deck, with crew and locals apparently sharing their evening meal. Campbell, Clare and Paula were waiting at the rail as I climbed on board and they saw at once that I was in no happy mood. I said to Campbell in a low voice, ‘Where’s Kane?’ I couldn’t see him in my first sweeping survey of the deck.

  ‘Geordie’s been watching him. He’s given him a job below. What happened, man?’

  I said, ‘That bastard – and Hadley – killed Mark.’

  Paula drew in her breath with a hiss. Campbell said, ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘It may not hold in a court of law but I’m sure.’ I was remembering the tears on Schouten’s cheeks. ‘I want to have a talk with Kane – now!’

  ‘He doesn’t look like a murderer.’

  ‘Which one does?’ I said bitterly. ‘I’ve heard a filthy story. Ramirez was involved too.’

  Campbell started. ‘How do you reckon that?’

  ‘Can you describe him?’

  ‘Sure. He’s a tall, thin guy with a beak like an eagle. He’s got a hell of a scar on the left side of his face.’

  ‘That does it. He was there when Mark was killed. Schouten saw him and described him, all but the scar, and Hadley mentioned his name. He’s tied up in it all right, right up to his goddam neck – which I hope to break. But first I want Kane.’

  Campbell turned to Clare and Paula. ‘Go to your cabins, girls.’

  Paula turned obediently but Clare argued. ‘But Pop, I—’

  There was a whipcrack in Campbell’s voice. ‘Go to your cabin!’

  She went without another murmur and he turned to me.

  ‘Clear this lot off,’ I said. ‘Tell Ian. Let’s find Kane.’

  I went down into the forecastle but Kane wasn’t there, nor was he on deck. We roped in the crew and they set out to search the ship but there was no sign of him. My jaw was aching from holding it clenched for so long.

  ‘He’s skipped,’ said Ian.

  ‘Geordie – where’s Geordie?’ I said.

  But Geordie had vanished too.

  I ran up on deck to find that several of the locals were still hanging around. I shouted for Piro and he emerged from the pack.

  ‘Can you help us find two men on the island? Can you search?’

  ‘What men?’

  ‘The captain and one of the crew. The captain is the big man you saw when we came. The other one is thin, tall. Stay away from him – he’s dangerous.’

  Piro rubbed the top of his head. ‘Dan-ger-ous?’

  ‘He’s bad. He might fight – might kill you.’

  Piro shrugged. ‘You pay – we find.’

  He dropped into his canoe with two or three of our men, and Ian was already directing the clearing of our inboard launch which was being swung over the side. Piro was shouting instructions in his own language to the suddenly galvanized locals. Campbell came up from below. ‘Got a gun?’ he asked me.

  ‘I won’t need a gun. I’ll tear that bastard apart.’

  ‘Come here,’ he said and took me under a light. He opened his hand and I saw a round of ammunition in his palm. ‘I found that on the floor by his bunk – a .38 slug. Kane must have dropped it in his hurry and that means he’s armed.’

  ‘Christ, we must stop these natives making a search,’ I said. ‘We don’t want any deaths.’

  I turned to race on deck but he held my arm, pushing something heavy into my hand. ‘Here’s a gun,’ he said. ‘Can you shoot?’

  I hung onto it tightly. ‘I’ll soon find out, won’t I?’ I stuffed it into the pocket of the light anorak I was wearing. ‘You’d better stay here.’

  ‘Son,’ said Campbell, ‘I’m not as old as that – not yet.’

  I looked into his frosty eyes and said, ‘We’d better make it snappy, then.’ We ran up on deck and I dropped into the launch and looked ashore. Little spots of light were moving in the darkness, coming and going, sometimes vanishing and reappearing as the torches were occulted by the palm trees. ‘Damn, they’ve started to search.’ I turned to Ian. ‘Kane’s armed.’

  ‘Let’s go – I’ve got six – the rest are ashore already. They know the score.’ The engine started first time off, which was a tribute to someone, and as we sped shorewards I said to the men around me, ‘Listen, chaps, we’re looking for Geordie. If you come up against Kane steer clear of him. Don’t push him too hard – he’s got a gun. And as you find the natives send them back to their village.’

  Taffy Morgan said, ‘What’s Kane done now?’

  ‘He’s killed a man,’ said Campbell coldly.

  There was no more talk until the boat grounded on the beach. Piro was waiting, his face alive with excitement in the light of a torch. ‘Found ’im,’ he said laconically.

  ‘Which one?’ I asked quickly.

  He gestured. ‘The big one – up in hut now.’

  I sighed with some thankfulness. This must be Geordie. ‘Piro, can you call your men off – stop them? They must not find the other man. He has a gun.’

  Piro made a quick sign to one of his friends, who lifted a large conch shell to his lips. The mournful sound boomed out, sending its note across the plantations. I saw the lights begin to drift back to the village.

  ‘Let’s see him.’

  We found Geordie in one of the huts. His face was a dreadful mess, with deep cuts and gashes across his forehead and cheeks. Piro said, ‘We found ’im in trees – asleep on groun’.’

  I think he had concussion because he rambled a little, but he was able to speak to us. He had seen Kane slipping ashore in one of the many canoes and had followed in another. He hadn’t had time to call anyone because he was afraid of losing Kane. He had followed as Kane skirted the village and entered the trees and then he had been ambushed.

  ‘For God’s sake, who ambushed you?’

  ‘It – must have been Hadley. A man as big as an elephant,’ said Geordie painfully. ‘He stepped from behind a tree and pushed a gun into my ribs. I didn’t expect that – I thought Kane was on his own – and he took me by surprise. Then he – made me turn round to face him and he started to hit me.’ He was trailing off but recovered. ‘With the gun. A big revolver. It was the sight that did – this. And the bastard was laughing. Then he hit me a couple of t
imes on the head and I – passed out.’

  He grinned weakly. ‘Maybe he thought he’d killed me but I have a pretty hard head. I’m sorry I fell down on the job, Mike.’

  ‘It’s all right, Geordie. None of us expected anything like this. I’m only sorry you had to get it in the neck.’

  His bloody face cracked in a grim smile. ‘Add it to the account with my finger,’ he said weakly. ‘Give him one from me.’

  ‘You’ll have to wait your turn. There’s a queue lining up for licks at Hadley – and Kane.’ I stood up. ‘I think we’d better get you back to the ship.’

  Two of his shocked team moved in, gentling him up and setting off for the launch. The others began to gather as Piro called them to the hut. I spoke urgently to him. ‘Is there another boat here – the Pearl?’ I asked. If Hadley had returned several times Piro was sure to know his boat. Piro’s answer shocked us all, even though we were already primed for it.

  ‘Yes, it came ’ere. It gone by hôpital – one, two hour,’ he said.

  ‘Well I’m damned,’ said Campbell. ‘He came through the pass behind us – in the dark and without lights. He’s a bloody good seaman.’

  ‘That doesn’t make me love him any more,’ I said.

  A man ran into the hut and spoke to Piro rapidly in his own language, clearly distressed. Piro looked startled and gestured to me to come outside, where he pointed into the darkness. There was a fitful redness in the sky on the horizon. ‘Hôpital, he burn,’ he said.

  ‘Christ!’

  The others crowded out to exclaim at the sight.

  ‘How can we get there – fast – all of us?’ I damned the jeep, stalled on the beach without fuel.

  ‘Big canoe,’ said Piro. ‘Go fast. Faster than walk.’ He ran off.

  I said, ‘Hadley’s fired the hospital!’

  Campbell looked at the glow in the sky. ‘Is he plain crazy – why did he do that?’ he demanded.

  ‘He threatened to do it. No time to tell you now. We’re going in canoes. Piro’s gone to organize it. Now where’s Ian?’

  His soft Highland voice sounded at my shoulder. ‘I’m here.’