Harry Doing Good

by Canaway, W. H.

  And to think, once, I thought Harry was a saint.

  *

  Next day, Egan in his indecision decided that they should all go on as before in so far as was possible. The girls sat under Lumpy’s surveillance after he had shot about thirty sheep; not very surprisingly, the animals were becoming thin on the ground by this time, and Genius had considerably farther to go while collecting them. Egan took his place at the bottom of the ropeway near the truck, while Harry, Simon and Ray worked at transporting the sheep down to him. Ray quickly became exasperated; he had watched this work being done, but this was his first taste of it, and he found it disgusting, even though Egan had bled the carcasses before leaving the pile at the head of the ropeway.

  It was a fine morning, though there had been another shower, or an exceptionally heavy dew, during the night; everybody was soaked to the calves by the walk through the heather. The sun gleamed in watery streaks from a wall of threatening cloud as the morning went on, but by lunchtime the cloud had moved south and the early promise of fine weather seemed on its way to fulfilment: the far peaks, brown and purple, could be seen clearly across the expanse of the plateau, wrinkled ridges and black hollows picked out in the sparkling air.

  At lunchtime they all trudged back through the drying heather to the ruined building, and the girls made corned-beef sandwiches and tea. Egan had been talking quietly with his men, and his manner had been subdued and morose. Eventually he left them, and came over to where Harry sat with Ray and Simon, a little distance away from the girls in deference to their comparative cleanliness.

  Egan said, ‘Look, I’m going to pack this in now. Going to call it a day. I’ve been thinking what to do, and I’ve decided. We’re going to bury your mate where nobody’ll ever find him, not if they look for a hundred years. Then we’re going to take you to a place we know; a place where it’ll take you a couple of days to get out of. By that time we’ll be away, and then you can do just whatever you want. We’ll be in another country by then.’

  Ray asked, ‘This place you know. Where is it?’

  Egan said, ‘Have some sense. I’m not going to tell you that. You’ll find out when the time comes.’

  He left them, then went into the hut with Lumpy. They emerged carrying Peter’s body shrouded in his sleeping bag, and pushed it away on the ToteGote, while Genius remained behind on guard with the rifle, sitting on the flat rock and watching the group with an air of benign amusement.

  Ray said quietly, ‘There’s something wrong with this whole scene, man.’

  Harry said, ‘We all know that. Things couldn’t be much more wrong. But at least the rest of us will be out of danger soon.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Ray said.

  ‘What are you getting at?’ said Simon.

  Ray said, ‘I’ve been thinking. These guys have committed rape and homicide, and we’re all material witnesses. Now their story is that they’re going to stash us somewhere. I don’t think so. Not while we’re still alive.’

  Harry said, ‘What?’

  ‘I think like these cats are fixing to kill us.’

  Harry and Simon stared at him.

  ‘You’re joking,’ Harry said.

  ‘No, wait a minute,’ Simon told him. ‘Go on, Ray, but don’t let the girls hear. No sense in piling it on.’

  ‘It all figures,’ Ray said. ‘We’re in an escalating situation, dig? Rape first, then homicide in hot blood, right? And six witnesses, okay? They’re going to let us go; shit, they might as well hire your Albert Hall with top billing for Billy Graham, and make a public confession. They may be stupid, but they ain’t that stupid.’

  Simon said to Harry, ‘I think he’s right.’

  Harry said slowly, ‘I can’t believe it, but I wouldn’t have believed what’s happened so far if you’d told me at the beginning. Everything’s gone mad. Everything’s turned upside-down.’

  Ray said, ‘If I’m right, then they’ll do two things. First, they’ll put us all in the cabin. Second, they’ll take us out one at a time.’

  *

  Egan came back after an hour, riding the ToteGote slowly, while Lumpy trotted beside him, puffing heavily. They stopped by the flat rock, talking with Genius for a minute or so, then Egan came over to Harry.

  He said, ‘You lot can all go inside and pack your gear properly, ready to move. I’ll give you twenty minutes to get shipshape. Twenty minutes and no more.’

  Harry flicked a glance at Ray, who was expressionless.

  ‘All right,’ Harry said. ‘Twenty minutes,’ and called to the girls. They all went inside the building, watched by Egan and the two others.

  Egan sighed and said, ‘I don’t like this. I don’t like it one little tiny bit.’

  ‘But there’s nothing else for it, is there?’ Genius said patiently. ‘You and Lumpy take care of ’em, and I’ll keep watch.’

  ‘Oh, no,’ Egan said with determination. ‘Not this time. This time you do your share. If we have to do this dreadful thing, then it’s two each. You think of everything. Didn’t you think of that?’

  Genius said, ‘Wait a minute. You can’t be serious. I’d be no good at that. Too scared, I’d be.’

  ‘I’m scared too,’ Lumpy said.

  Egan relieved Genius of the rifle and said, ‘You should have thought of that, mate. I am the captain of my soul, even if I’m steering it straight to hell. But make no mistake about it: you are an active member of the crew. I don’t like this, I’ve said so. But if it’s the only way, then there’s no more to be said. We’ll have them out one by one, take them up to the deep bog where their friend is, and give them a quick one in the back of the head. Their gear can go with them. After that, we pack up ours, find their transport and get rid of it miles from here; take the truck as well.’

  *

  The rucksacks were packed, sleeping bags rolled, and the equipment sorted out, in less than fifteen minutes. The girls were full of speculation, the men silent and preoccupied. Harry sat on his rucksack and took out the ball bearings, rolling them in his fingers. Somewhere outside, the grouse had begun to call again.

  Ray said to Harry, ‘You remind me of that guy in some movie. Citizen Kane? No, I got it. The Caine Mutiny.’

  ‘Never heard of it,’ Harry said. ‘That grouse is back again. I wonder what happened to the one you shot, Ray. I left it in the Kombi: will it be stinking the place out?’

  They were making small talk in an effort to ease the tension which had gripped them. Ray persisted with his own line of thought.

  He said, ‘I think it was the movie. Could have been the book, though,’ and then he paused. ‘Grouse? The grouse. My God.’

  Ray leaned forward and picked the ball bearings out of Harry’s palm, hefting them: large marbles of solid steel.

  ‘Hey, what’s up?’ Harry said.

  ‘The Holy Trinity,’ said Ray.

  Harry’s expression softened, and he said, ‘You mean you want to use them to pray before they…before we…?’

  There was no verbal answer to his question. Lumpy stood in the doorway, then came inside to Harry and stood before him. Ray moved back near the wall, behind Harry and a little to one side.

  Lumpy said to Harry, ‘You’re first. You’re going one by one. Pick up your stuff and let’s be on our way.’

  Ray slid out the slingshot or catapult, fitted a ball bearing in the soft leather pouch, then in one liquid movement he pulled the rubber to its full stretch, left arm fully extended, right hand holding the pouch, right elbow crooked. He let go. Harry heard a swift breath above his head and to the left. He was looking at Lumpy before carrying out the man’s orders, and saw Lumpy suddenly changed, giving as it were a red blink with the right eye. Then he perceived that the eye had gone, and most of the upper eyelid, impacted into a crimson hole. Lumpy walked forward into Harry, who blundered out of the way as the man walked into the wall, made a stumbling turn, gestured vaguely, then toppled forward to the ground. He twitched a few times, kicking the floor, and wa
s still.

  Ray said, ‘Everybody keep quiet.’ He turned to the girls. ‘Don’t make a sound. Keep your cool and we’ll be okay.’

  Cheryl whimpered, but Linda put a hand over the girl’s mouth until she calmed down. Ann was looking at Lumpy’s body with a fixed stare, her lips faintly smiling.

  ‘Ray…’ she said.

  ‘Quiet.’

  They waited. Go-back, the grouse said. Go-back.

  Simon said, ‘I can’t stand this.’

  ‘You’ll stand it,’ Ray said, fitting a second ball bearing into the pouch.

  They waited.

  Egan called from outside, ‘Lumpy? Come on now.’ They heard him tread closer, and then he spoke again, his voice louder:

  ‘If you’re up to any of your little tricks…’

  Egan came inside in a hurry, peering round, hesitating while his vision accustomed itself to the gloom. He held the gun loosely.

  ‘Wha…?’ he began. The ball took him in the open mouth. The only sound was a sharp clack as a couple of teeth snapped; then the ball must have torn through the soft palate to the base of the skull.

  Egan went down on his knees, dropping the gun and gobbling blood; he rocked back and forth with his hands under his jawbone and round the back of his head, blood streaming down his chin. He stared up at Harry, the black eyes liquid in some sort of piteous appeal, beseeching, imploring. Harry felt an inexorable body reaction. He bent and picked up the rifle, then kicked Egan in the side of the head; Egan fell sideways, choking in blood.

  Genius appeared in the doorway. He seemed to take in the situation in a glance, and had begun to dodge out again when Ray let the third ball go: it struck the man a glancing blow on the temple. He staggered, recovered. Harry went after him with the rifle; he was shambling past the flat rock when Harry aimed and pressed the trigger. The kick of the gun alarmed him, and so did the roar of the explosion, but he hit Genius at the top of the left thigh, and the man spun half round before falling. Harry was laughing and shouting. Running to Genius, he grabbed a hand and dragged Genius back along the ground to the hut, where the others were spilling outside. Genius yelped with pain.

  Ray said, ‘We’ve done it!’

  He helped Harry to take Genius into the building; they shoved him against a wall, and he slid down it on to his right buttock, his left leg useless, babbling with pain and fear. Egan lay in a pool of blood. Harry kicked him again, and his head jerked, but his eyes were frosted over and fixed in death.

  Simon said, ‘He’s dead, and serve him right.’

  The girls came back inside, staring in a mixture of horror and fascination at the two bodies and at Genius.

  ‘Justice,’ Harry said. ‘We’re doing justice. Two gone, and one to go.’

  Genius said, ‘Take me down with you. Please. I’ll cough, I’ll tell ’em all about these two. I never did nothing to you.’

  Harry said, ‘You started it all off. Without you, nothing might have happened. These girls… Pete. If it hadn’t been for you things would have been a lot different.’

  He walked over to Genius, bent and slapped the man’s face, then went through his pockets, bringing out a knife. Genius cowered against the wall, shaking. The knife was a switchblade. Harry tested its sharpness, then stood back.

  ‘Take his clothes off,’ he said.

  Genius shouted, ‘No! Take me with you and you’ll be all right, I swear to God you’ll be all right.’

  Harry said again, ‘Take his clothes off.’

  Genius groaned; then there was a moment’s silence. Harry looked round at the others, one by one. Slowly, Ann and Simon moved forward, then began to undress the man, pulling off his windcheater and sweater; he wore nothing underneath. Cheryl put a hand to her mouth. Through her whole being a fine wire, drawn unutterably taut, seemed to hum and sing. She dropped her hand, staring into Genius’s stricken eyes, then moved between Simon and Ann.

  ‘Justice,’ Harry said. ‘We’ll make him pay.’

  Cheryl said in a whisper, ‘Yes.’

  She helped the pair take off his pants, and tore them viciously off the wounded leg; Genius moaned, his face grey. The exit wound on the front of his thigh was four inches across, a red mass from which blood trickled, though the bullet had missed artery and bone.

  Harry stared down at the man as he whimpered abjectly and pitiably. Harry felt no pity, but a rising exultation. He turned to the others.

  ‘Who’s to blame for all this?’ he asked.

  Simon said, ‘He is.’

  Harry waved the knife like a priest of some ancient and blood-thirsty religion, feeling himself that he was a priest and the others his acolytes.

  ‘Who’s going to make him pay?’ he asked, his voice rising.

  ‘We are,’ said Ann.

  Harry moved closer to Genius and cut a cross on his chest with the knife. Genius began to scream, and the four gathered round him watched intently, Harry in the grip of an overmastering excitement. As Ray watched, sick and trembling, he saw that the others were becoming infected too: a horrific change was taking place in the little room, a change into ruthless, orgiastic violence, all reason departing; they began to be locked in a common compulsion, eyes glittering, lips wet.

  The man stopped screaming, and began to sob for mercy, but Ray knew that his companions had passed the point where mercy had any meaning for them, that it was useless now to try to intercede.

  Breathing fast, Harry said, ‘Fine. The LYF’s going to teach him a thing or two.’

  They were circling Genius now. Ray was appalled by this transformation, though realising that he had been transformed too, had crossed the dividing line between the non-violent and the violent. But not in this way; this belonged with the were-beasts of dark legend. Ray wiped the cold sweat from his brow. What had become of the innocent holidaymakers, fatuous but harmless? Circling, chanting, caught up in savagery, totally in thrall, they had forgotten his existence, saw nothing save the bleeding body on the floor. Ray felt that he was going to pass out, and knew that any attempt at action on his part might bring him into danger too.

  Saying nothing, Linda took the knife from Harry and leaned down, the knife at the man’s genitals. He shrieked and slumped in a faint. Simon took the knife, waiting with it. Ray ran out of the building, all the way to the stream, unable to remain any longer as a witness of the scene. He drank deeply and splashed his face. His hands trembled uncontrollably. In ten minutes or so, however, he became calmer. He reasoned that no matter what horrors were taking place in the building, the traces of activity on the plateau would have to be erased at all costs, and so he walked in circles, but innocuously, covering the area where Lumpy had been shooting, and filling his pockets with cartridge cases. He found a swampy pool fringed by bog-cotton, threw the cases in, and went back for more. He did not dare go back to the ruined building until late in the afternoon. As he approached it he saw that the others were outside now, sitting on the flat rock. They were reasonably spruce and tidy, and the gas stove roared under a large saucepan; four empty cans of Irish stew lay nearby.

  Ray came up and said, ‘Hi.’

  ‘Hello, Ray,’ Cheryl said, her hand in Harry’s. ‘Where have you been, then?’

  ‘I figured I should clear things up a little,’ Ray said uneasily. ‘Ah — is he…?’

  Harry nodded. The group looked tranquil enough outwardly: it was almost a domestic scene.

  ‘All over and done with,’ he said. ‘A service to mankind.’

  Ray sat down with them, and soon they were eating the stew with hunks of bread, silently and ruminatively. Ray, who had thought he couldn’t face the idea of food, found he had a huge appetite.

  ‘I’ll make the tea,’ Linda said.

  And Harry said, ‘We owe it all to Ray. Whatever you do, remember that. And remember we’d be dead, not them. Touch and go.’

  Simon said, ‘Horrible people,’ and Ann nodded in agreement. The grouse called, far away and only just audible now.

  They sipped
tea, Ray trying not to think of the three dead men inside the building. The sun was well into the south-west, a crimson eye glaring out of an indigo curtain of haze above the jagged silhouettes of the black peaks.

  Harry said to Ray, ‘I got one back, you know.’

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘Look.’

  Harry opened his palm, his other hand still holding Cheryl’s. A ball bearing gleamed dully in the subdued light.

  ‘It was the last one,’ Harry said. ‘I picked it up.’

  ‘Great,’ said Ray.

  And Harry said, musing, ‘That thing of yours, that slingshot. I never thought it would have that kind of power. I mean, it was almost like a gun.’

  Ray said, ‘It’s the rubber, Harry. I cut it from a motorcycle inner tube. My poppa showed me how when I was just a kid. It has real striking power. Hell, if you can kill a grouse with birdshot, you can kill a man with a ball bearing. I just didn’t think of it until you mentioned the grouse.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Harry. Then his face suddenly contorted into a grimace, like a small child about to be overtaken by tears. ‘Oh, what have we done? What have we done?’

  Simon and the girls immediately surrounded him, comforting and reassuring him; he luxuriated in the sense of being the centre of things again, in the reestablishment of their unity. Once more it was up to him to take the lead, their earlier dissensions quite forgotten. As the sun’s eyes touched the rim of mountain Harry stood up with an air of decision.