Dennis Wheatley - They Found Atlantis

'What!' barked the McKay. 'You mean to send her below with a time bomb in that damned thing. God man! You're English! You couldn't do it!'

'I kill,' shouted Vladimir lurching to his feet again. 'I stamp out this so low swine.'

The McKay, Axel and Doctor Tisch flung themselves upon him and forced him back before the gunmen could intervene. A storm of horrified protest rose from the others.

'I won't go,' screamed Camilla, 'I won't! I won't!'

'Silence!' 'Kate' brought his fist down with a crash on the desk. 'If you were not excitable and would listen instead of interrupting you would have heard, by this time, my true intention.'

A sudden hush fell among them. The terrifying picture which had been conjured up in all their minds, and made more real by the stony unsmiling determination with which their captor spoke of it in his level cultured voice, had chilled their hearts and frayed all their nerves almost to panic but now, although they could not guess his meaning, something in the tone of his last words seemed to hold a glimmer of hope for Camilla.

'You are far better looking than I had anticipated, he said gazing at her thoughtfully. 'However, that is beside the point. I kill without scruple when it is necessary—but never wantonly—so if you had been old and toothless I would still have had no objection to your living out your natural span—provided of course that you do exactly as I tell you. It is essential for my purpose that, as far as your friends in New York and London are concerned, you should die within a week.'

Count Axel released his breath with a sharp sigh and spoke again. 'You mean that the Duchess is only to die officially?'

'Yes.'

A murmur of intense relief ran round among them as the man behind the desk went on.

'She will die in fact only if she refuses to do as she is told and, in such case you can scream your heads off but, believe me, I'll send her down in the bathysphere and see to it that she never comes up again. What's more I'll send the lot of you with her but, if she signs certain papers in accordance with my directions no one will have anything to fear.'

'You mean her will? asked Axel.

'Yes, that and a letter to her New York lawyer which she must write herself.'

'Then you're planning to rob her of her entire fortune,' exclaimed Sally heatedly.

'Why take two bites at a cherry,' he replied evenly. 'Do I appear to you the ordinary gangster who risks a long term in Sing Sing for the sake of a few thousand dollars. However many fools may sneer at it there is some benefit to be derived from a decent education.' He fingered his 'old school tie' with grim unsmiling humour.

'But what's to become of her if you take all her money?' Sally asked bitterly. 'She—she'll starve.'

He shrugged his broad shoulders. 'Quite a lot of people are starving already through no fault of their own. She has been remarkably fortunate to have had the enjoyment of so much money for so long, and I see no reason at all why she should actually die of hunger. She is doubly lucky in having been blessed with good looks as well as money. I can't take those from her—at least I could—but I have no intention of doing that, so let her utilise them to provide for her future as other women have to.'

'See here,' Nicky remarked, 'that means you'll have to land us all some place sometime, and it's not going to be so funny for you when the police have heard this story.'

'You underrate my intelligence, I fear,' 'Kate' sat back and brought the tips of his square blunt practical fingers together. 'Let me outline for you my intentions regarding this interesting cruise. In a few minutes the Duchess will sign her last will and testament and the letter which I require. I shall take these documents ashore and register them through the ordinary post to New York tomorrow, or rather this morning. That is the last you see of me. The cruise will then proceed as previously arranged under Doctor Tisch's guidance. My men however, will remain on board to assist Captain Ardow in his management of the crew and to make quite certain that none of you communicate by wireless or other means with the authorities on shore or passing vessels. The search for Atlantis will develop entirely as planned. Numerous descents will be made in the bathysphere and my friend Slinger will transmit carefully edited reports of each descent over the radio for the use of the press in both hemispheres. On the seventh day from now, by which time the documents will be in the possession of the Duchess's lawyers, an unfortunate "accident" will occur—at least Slinger will wireless a report of it so that the world will learn from the headlines of its newspapers that the beautiful Duchess and her friends, with the exception of Miss Hart, have lost their lives a mile deep in the ocean—and of course her executors will meet to deal with the instructions in her will. This ship will then return to Horta. Slinger will land and hurry to New York in order to give a personal account of the tragedy and convince the lawyers beyond question that the report is genuine. Further he will state that Miss Hart is so upset by the occurrence that rather than face countless interviews with the press she has decided to be landed at an unknown destination and travel incognito until the public interest in the tragedy has died down.

'Captain Ardow then has his instructions. Having landed Slinger the ship will proceed on a delightful three weeks' cruise to the Falkland Islands. You will all be landed there with a supply of stores sufficient to keep you from starvation. Turning north again the ship will land my men at a small South American port whence they will travel by various means to rejoin me in New York. Captain Ardow will then dispose of this ship at a secret destination. I have never visited the Falklands and I fear that you will find the small uninhabited island upon which we intend to land you a somewhat inhospitable place, but in due course you will doubtless manage to make your way back to civilisation. By that time, however, an ample period will have elapsed for the Duchess's executors to deal with the instructions in her will and, having suitably rewarded my companions, I shall have had an opportunity of distributing her wealth beyond all trace through various intricate channels. Your adventures will probably make a great story for the newspapers in a year or two's time and by then, of course, I shall have disappeared for good and all so that even the underworld of New York will not have the faintest idea as to my whereabouts—any complaints, eh?'

The McKay's face looked grimmer, greyer, and more lined than ever. He knew those barren rock islands that lie to the northward of the Falkland group. It would be no joke to be marooned on one of those with a couple of women. Ships only passed at rare intervals, a year might well elapse before they could attract attention to themselves or build a boat sufficiently seaworthy to carry them across those rough cold seas to one of the larger, inhabited, islands.

Count Axel was seeking for faults in the plan which their round-skulled sprucely dressed captor had outlined but he could find no reason why it should not be carried to completion. The utilisation of the public's interest in Camilla's doings to facilitate his coup was a devilishly ingenious piece of business. Countless newspaper readers in both hemispheres had been following the glamorous career of the beautiful millionairess ever since she came of age. They had glowed to the accounts of her romance with Solento-Ragina, devoured the columns of print upon her wedding, almost indecently lapped up the details of her trousseau and her honeymoon, then of her divorce. There had been rumours since of her marrying again, alternating with articles on her choice of underclothes and hats. Now, Oxford Kate had made her front page news again with the story of this expedition and at the same time made the world Atlantis and bathysphere conscious. Her adventurous nature would be stressed and the dangers of the bathysphere diving grossly exaggerated. During the next week, 20,000,000 people would read Slinger's accounts of their hazardous descents into the deep and then the blow would fall. The news of the accident would be flashed to every city in the world within ten minutes of its first being sent out, and why should it occur to anyone for a second to doubt the truth of it when the ground had been so well prepared. Slinger's personal testimony when he arrived in New York a few days later would set the final seal upon it. Count Axel took off his mental hat to Mr. Kate while hoping profoundly that he might yet devise a way to outwit him.