Dennis Wheatley - They Found Atlantis

'Brava! Braval' Prince Vladimir sat back and clapped his hands. 'The first speaking of sanity which has been made today. We attack eh!—For our so beautiful Duchess we will wipe off these bandits every one.'

Nicky regarded him dubiously. 'You've never been in the States, Prince—have you?'

'No, there I do not dwell.'

'Well, there's nothing wrong with the States as far as ordinary citizens are concerned. They live their lives and don't have to worry overmuch, but I was thinking of the lower East Side, and the bad belt in Chicago—particularly, You don't happen to know anything about them?'

'No—but bandits I understand. My uncle. Count Zir-minie, was what you call Lord Captain de Police Provincial in my zone authoritative last year. In the hillocks lurk bandits who make the workers on our lands pay too dear. We make a meeting with other friends and we take luncheons together. We toast the bandits, we toast ourselves, we toast everybody. Then we go out a moppings up to do. There are no more bandits when we remit ourselves to dine. Next day there is a funeral service, those of us who have come back from our celebration place flowers upon the graves. So it is done. I know all about bandits.'

Nicky sat back and raised his blue eyes to heaven. Tell him the truth someone for the Lord's sake—I can't.'

'It's like this Prince,' the McKay sat forward. 'The people we are up against now are very different. There is every reason to believe them to be excellent shots and they are armed with the latest weapons—even machine guns as I saw for myself this morning. To endeavour to attack them therefore would be sheer suicide. They would shoot you without a second thought, so you had better put the idea right out of your head.'

'They are not then bandits,' said the Prince, 'but what you call gangster such as I have seen in film plays but thought only to be a story for cocks and bulls.'

'That's it—that's right,' a soothing murmur ran round and the Prince temporarily relapsed into silence.

'To get back,' said Count Axel, 'the only chance which I can see of defeating these people's plans is by getting a message through to the authorities.'

'I agree,' the McKay smiled grimly, 'but how?'

'Wireless,' suggested Sally.

'Not a hope m'dear. You heard what Captain Ardow said last night after his Chief had left us. The bridge, the boat deck abaft the bridge, and the deck within twenty yards of the wireless house has been placed out of bounds for all passengers. Any of us overstepping those limits is not to be challenged—but shot on sight. While I was sunbathing this morning I took a dekko over the situation myself. Two of the gunmen were on the bridge and another two posted on the wireless house, the other four relieve them watch and watch about. They've even roped off the ladders and approaches to the limits set. Believe me "Oxford Kate" is taking no chances of our getting near that wireless.'

'We have a week to work in,' announced Count Axel.

'True, but unfortunately we're miles from the track of transatlantic shipping. We may raise a stray cargo ship in the next few days. If so some of us must keep the gunmen occupied while others signal. If we can get a message through to New York they'll send out a destroyer to relieve us and the whole of Mr. Kate's pretty little scheme will be blown sky high—but that's about our only hope.'

'Couldn't we bribe one of the stewards to get a message through to the wireless man,' suggested Sally.

'There's no harm in trying, but the odds are he wouldn't send it. Captain Ardow is sure to have picked his men for this job and the wireless operator is a key man in the whole performance. It is he who had to send the fake message about the accident to the bathysphere and all our deaths remember, so he is certain to be standing in for a big fat cheque when it's all over. If we could reach him we might counter-bribe him with a higher sum but these people we are up against have foreseen that possibility and posted a couple of gunmen on him to keep him clear of all temptations.'

'Well, couldn't we bribe the gunmen first then?' Sally persisted.

'Yes m'dear if you can get near them—and they'll listen to you—which I doubt. Don't you see that this whole thing's been worked out like a chess problem. We are up against a succession of cul-de-sacs whichever way we turn. It is because ideas like yours have been anticipated that the gunmen have been ordered to shoot us on sight if we approach nearer to them than twenty yards. How the thunderin 1blazes can you try and bribe a man if you can't get within talking distance of him without forcing him to disobey his orders under the eyes of his bosses on the bridge or getting yourself shot. That wireless house has been ringed like a bull's-eye with concentric circles governed by the three great factors of discipline, fear, and self interest. We haven't got an earthly chance of getting anywhere near it so you had better count that possibility out.'

Sally made a face. 'We're in a worse jam than I thought then!'

'Why, were you counting on getting a message through?'

'Yes—within a week.'

'Why within a week? We'll have much more chance when Slinger's left us and we're running down to the Falklands. The gunmen may have got slack and bored with their job by then. They'll enjoy sitting up on deck in the sunshine for a bit, but later on they'll probably get fed up with doing nothing and we may be able to make friends with them or catch them off their guard.'

'The Falklands,' groaned Nicky. 'Aw hell! Just think of all those pictures I'm contracted to make. It'll about break me I reckon.'

'And it's winter in the southern hemisphere,' added Camilla miserably. 'Just picture us shivering on that barren rock the McKay says they mean to take us to, without any proper clothes.'

Count Axel gave a heavy sigh. 'I have always enjoyed cooking as an art but I am, I expect, the only one among you who understands it even moderately so I suppose 1 shall have to become cook. As a daily task I do not find it the least attractive.'

'You'll be lucky if there's anything to cook after we've consumed the stores they intend to leave us,' said the McKay bitterly. He did not mean to add to their depression but the remark slipped out and it was only a very moderate expression of the situation which he was visualising. He saw the seven of them and the two servants encamped upon a stony ledge a few yards clear of the spray from the thundering surf. A single lean-to tent had been erected against the cliff face and the edges of its canvas sides weighted down with huge stones in the hope of preventing the whole flimsy structure being lifted bodily into the sea by the bitter ice-cold unceasing gale that screamed and blustered. No fire was possible, for that appalling wind scattered the twigs, gathered with so much difficulty from the infrequent crevices, even before they could become glowing embers. The inmates were crouching, blue with cold, in an indistinguishable huddle of arms and legs against the rock wall in the most sheltered corner of the tent. Only so could they keep the ill-nourished flame of life still flickering in their emaciated bodies. In his mind's eye the McKay regarded that dirty unkempt heap of human flesh again and decided that the bodies only numbered eight. One of them must have died from exposure the day before and, facing such severe privations unsheltered from the elements it was reasonable to suppose that when the grey dawn came to light those semi-arctic seas another would be found dead tomorrow. He jerked his thoughts back and stared at Sally.

'We've simply got to get a message through in a week,' she said firmly.

'Why? 1 don't see that,' he argued. 'We've got a month before they land us on the Falklands. That's the danger spot —the thing I really dread. If we can't do something before then we are going to be up against the sort of trouble that you have no conception of; but if we wait till Slinger has cleared out we shall still have three clear weeks and the gangsters will be getting slack about their job. That's the time to have a cut at outwitting these birds—in about ten days from now.'