Hammond Innes - Levkas man

He shook his head. "Thomasis don't see anyone else. He says he called out many times, but there was no answer, so I guess he's dead too. I'm sorry." He glanced at Kotiadis. "A strange man, but we in Meganisi liked him."

I stood there, hardly breathing, my hands trembling, while Zavelas explained how they'd widened the gap and got the Greek out, and then there had been another cave-in.

"And what about Cartwright?" I asked. "Where is he now?"

"Back at the camp by Tiglia, packing his gear."

I turned to Gilmore. But he was staring at the floor, the Greek cigarette he had been smoking sending up an unheeded spiral of smoke from the ash tray beside him. He wasn't going to help me. And Sonia staring at me wild-eyed.

The police chief said something in Greek, looking pointedly at his watch. Kotiadis nodded. "Well, what you decide? Constantanidi says he has many important things requiring his attention at Levkas and in the islands. Do you take the boat to Levkas or not?"

"Paul, you can't. ." The words seemed wrung out of her, checked by the touch of Gilmore's hand on hers.

She knew. That was all I could think of in that moment. She'd got it out of him, and now there they sat, the two of them, both knowing the old man was still alive, both staring at me, waiting. And the terrible thing was, I knew what I was going to do. I just hadn't the guts to put it into words.

Sonia rose to her feet, coming to me slowly as though walking in her sleep, her eyes moist. "Do something," she hissed. "For Christ's sake do something. You can't just leave him there."

"Why not?" I said harshly. "It's what he wanted-to be left there in that bloody charnel house of a cave."

"But you're his son."

"You think you know him better than I do? You weren't down there with him. You don't understand-" I laughed the way he'd laughed, that jeering sound. You don't understand. How many times had she said that to me? "There's no point,'-I muttered. And Zavelas behind me said, "Is too dangerous, that cave. And I guess we can expect mobilization any time now."

"Hans and Alec," she said, her eyes fixed on my face. "They'd try. You've only got to tell them-" Zavelas's big hand

reached out and patted her arm. "Like this guy says, there's no point-just to bring his body out of one hole in the ground to bury it in another."

"Who said anything about a body? Dr. Van der Voort is alive."

His hand dropped, his blue eyes staring. "How can you say that? You don't know."

"But he does," she said fiercely. And when Zavelas shook his head, bewildered, she cried out in a high-pitched hysterical voice, "Ask him. Ask him whether his father is alive." Gil-more had risen. His hand was on her arm. She shook it off. "He was in that cave this morning, diving with an aqualung. Ask him."

Zavelas turned to me. The room was silent. They were all watching. "Is that right? Is the Doctor alive?"

"No," I said. I heard the hiss of her breath, saw the appalled blaze in her eyes and knew that Gilmore hadn't told her the whole of it. My hands clenched and my voice was hard and angry as I told Kotiadis I'd like a word with my friends alone. "Then they can go and I'll take the boat up to Levkas for you."

He nodded, said something to Constantanidi, and then the two officers left. "He is putting men on your ship to clear the bow line and lift the anchor. You have perhaps two or three minutes, then you will please start the engine."

He left us then and Zavelas followed him. But at the foot of the companionway he paused, his big bulk filling the gap. "This country is not like America or England, you know. We are a small peoples with many difficulties, many enemies. I guess you know that. But remember, we are also very obstinate. If necessary we shall fight. Holerod is dead, and even if the Doctor were alive, you don't have a hope in hell of saving him now. I'm sorry." He stared at us a moment and then he heaved himself up the companionway.

We were alone then and I turned to Gilmore. "You should have told her."

He nodded, his head moving slowly without any of his usual alertness, his eyes sad. "But my dear fellow. ." He reached for his cigarette, puffed at it briefly and then stubbed it out. "Yes, I suppose so. But it's not so easy. Miss Winters- Sonia is very fond of him and. ." He shook his head unhappily.

"All right," I said angrily. "If you won't tell her, I'll have to."

She had been staring at me all the time, her breath coming in quick pants, her small breasts moving against the thin nylon of her shirt. Footsteps pounded on the deck, orders in Greek coming to us from above. Bluntly I told her the facts, how I'd found Holroyd, drowned in that cave, his head split open, probably by that Stone Age lamp, and the old man sitting there, alone, knowing it was the end, that for him there was no way out. But she didn't believe me. She didn't want to believe me. "It was an accident." She breathed. "He fell- from the rope …"

"Into a pool of water," I said. "Water doesn't give a man a gash in the head."

"He might have slipped. Bert slipped and broke an arm. Or perhaps a piece of rock from the roof …" She was beginning to cry. She knew there was no way round it, that what I'd told her was the truth. Suddenly she wasn't fighting it any more. "So you'll just leave him there."

"He was very weak," I said quietly.

"To die-alone-in the dark." She was sobbing wildly. "How can you be so cruel-your own father? And his discovery, that cave. ."

"It was what he wanted." More orders and the sound of feet moving aft. "I have to go and start the engine now. They're about to heave the anchor in."

She didn't say anything. There was nothing to say, anyway. "You'd better get your things."

She nodded dumbly. Gilmore followed her. "I'm so sorry," he murmured ineffectually. "So terribly sorry."

I went up to the wheelhouse and pressed the starter button. The deep throb of the diesel filled the ship with sound, the deck planking drumming at my feet. The patrol boat had been standing by to cast off. Kotiadis stepped back on board as the anchor came up. "Constantanidi is going first to Spiglia so I come with you."

Behind me a voice said, "Paul. What happens to you now?"

I turned. She was dry-eyed, looking more of a waif than ever, with one of Gilmore's suitcases in her hand and a pile of her own things over the other arm.

"If there's a war, then I'll be all right. It's in times of war they need people like me, isn't it?"

She didn't comment. Instead, she said, "I don't see why we have to go in the patrol boat."

Gilmore had appeared, carrying his other case. "I tried to talk them out of it, but I expect they have their reasons."

The anchor was on deck, the two boats drifting. Kotiadis looked at her. "Are you ready, Miss Winters?"

She nodded and then turned to me. "Is there nothing-?"

I shook my head. "He was very near the end, anyway. It's better like this."

I don't know whether she believed me or not. I'm not even certain she understood. She stared at me a moment, standing very still, biting her lip, her eyes luminous with tears. But whether for him, or for what might have been between us, I will never know, for she got control of herself and went past me, moving towards the rail in a daze. Kotiadis took the suitcase and helped her over onto the patrol boat. Gilmore followed. "We'll see you in Levkas, I expect."

I nodded. But I thought that very doubtful. The Greek sailors cast off and the patrol boat gathered way, heading north up the channel, a froth of white water at her stern. Sonia had not once looked back. I pushed the gear lever into forward, swung the wheel over and brought Coromandel round onto the line of the patrol boat's wake. I saw the flick of a lighter reflected in the glass of the windshield. Kotiadis was in the wheelhouse now, standing behind me, the smell of his cigarette rank in the hot air. Neither of us spoke, and abreast of the southern end of Tiglia I left the wheel and