Power of the Sword - Smith Wilbur - Страница 52

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It might take five more days for the police to reach here.

There is all sorts of red tape before they can move. No, I want those diamonds away from here before dawn. You know the insurance doesn't cover riot and civil disturbance.

If something happens to them I will be ruined, Dr Twenty-man-Jones.

They are my lifeblood. I cannot risk them falling into the hands of these ignorant arrogant brutes. Tell me what you intend. I want you to take the Daimler round to its garage in the rear. Have it refuelled and checked. We will load the diamonds through the back door. She pointed across her office to the concealed door she used sometimes when she wished to avoid being seen entering or leaving. At midnight when the pickets are asleep you will cut the barbed-wire fence directly opposite the garage door. Good. He was following her intentions. 'That will let us out into the sanitary lane. The pickets are at the main gates on the opposite side of the compound. They haven't posted anyone on the rear side. Once we are clear of the lane it's a straight run out onto the main road to Windhoek, we'll be clear in a matter of seconds. Not we, Dr Twenty-man-Jones, she said, and he stared at her.

You don't intend going alone? he asked.

I have just made the journey alone, swiftly and with not the least sign of trouble. I anticipate no problem with the return. I need you here. You know I cannot leave the mine to Brantingham or one of the clerks. You have to be here to deal with these strikers. Without you they may wreck the plant or sabotage the workings. It would only take a stick or two of dynamite. He wiped his face with his open hand, from forehead to chin, in an agony of indecision, torn between two duties: the mine which he had built up from nothing and which was his pride, and the woman who he loved as dearly as a daughter or a wife he had never had. At last he sighed. She was right, it had to be that way.

Then take one of the men with you, he pleaded.

Brantingham, bless him? she asked, raising her eyebrows, and he threw up both hands as he saw how ridiculous that idea was.

I'll take the Daimler around to the back, he said. Then I'll get a telegraph through to Abe in Windhoek. He can send out an escort immediately to meet you on the road, that is if the strikers haven't cut the wires yet. Don't send that until I am clear, Centaine instructed.

The strikers may just have had enough sense to have put a tap on the line, in fact that is probably why they have not cut it yet. Twenty-man-Jones nodded. Very well. What time do you intend breaking out? Three o'clock tomorrow morning, she said, without hesitation. it was the hour when human vitality was at its lowest ebb. That was when the strike picket would be least prepared for swift reaction.

Very well, Mrs Courtney. I will have my cook prepare you a light dinner, and then I suggest you get some rest. I will have everything ready and wake you at two-thirty. She woke the instant he touched her shoulder and sat up.

Half past two o'clock, Twenty-man-Jones said. The Daimler is refuelled and the diamonds loaded. The barbed wire is cut. I have drawn you a bath and there is a selection of fresh clothes from the bungalow. I will be ready in fifteen minutes, she said.

They stood beside the Daimler in the darkened garage and spoke in whispers. The double doors were open, and there was a crescent moon lighting the yard.

I have marked the gap in the wire. Twenty-man-Jones pointed and she saw the small white flags drooping from the barbed wire strands fifty yards away.

The canisters of industrial diamonds are in the boot, but I have put the package of top stones on the passenger seat beside you. He leaned through the open window and patted the black despatch box. It was the size and shape of a small suitcase, but of japanned steel with a brass lock.

Good. Centaine buttoned her dust-jacket and pulled on her soft dog-skin driving gauntlets.

The shotgun is loaded with Number Ten bird-shot, so you can fire at anybody who tries to stop you without risk of committing murder. It'll just give them a good sting. But if you mean business, there is a box of buckshot in the glove compartment. Centaine slid in behind the wheel and pulled the door closed gently so as not to alert a listener out in the silent night. She placed the double-barrelled shotgun on top of the diamond chest and cocked both hammers.

There is a basket in the boot, sandwiches and a Thermos of coffee. She looked at him out of the side window and said seriously, 'You are my tower. Don't let anything happen to you, he said. A pox on the diamonds, we can dig more of them. You are unique, there's only one of you. Impulsively he unbuckled the service revolver from around his waist and leaned into the Daimler to Push it into the pocket at the back of the driver's seat.

It's the only insurance I can offer you. Remember there is a cartridge under the hammer, he said. Pray you never need it. He stepped back and gave her a laconic salute. God speed! She started the Daimler and the great seven-litre engine rumbled softly. She flipped of the hand-brake, switched on the headlights and gunned the Daimler out through the open doors and across the yard, going up through the gears in a deft series of racing changes.

She aimed the mascot on the bonnet between the white markers, roared through the gap in the fence at forty miles an hour, and felt a loose strand of barbed wire scrape down the side of the coachwork. Then she tramped down on the brake and spun the wheel, steering the front wheels onto the dusty lane, meeting the skid and then going flat on the accelerator pedal again. She shot down the lane with the Daimler roaring at full power.

Above the engine she heard faint shouts and saw the dark indistinct figures of a mob of strikers racing down the fence from the main gate to try and intercept her at the corner of the lane. She picked up the shotgun and thrust the double muzzles through the window beside her. In the headlights the faces of the running men were ugly with rage, their mouths dark pits as they shouted at her.

Two of them were swifter than their mates, and they reached the corner of the lane just as the Daimler came level.

one of the strikers flung his pick handle and it cartwheeled through the beam of the headlights and clanged off the bonnet.

Centaine depressed the shotgun, aiming for their legs, and fired both barrels, with long spurts of orange flame and blurts of sound. Bird-shot lashed their legs and the strikers howled with shock and pain and leapt off the road as Centaine roared past them and turned onto the main road down the slope and out into the desert.

For Pettifogger. Urgent and Imperative. Juno un-accompanied departed this end 3 am instant carrying goods. Stop.

immediately despatch armed escort to intercept her enroute. Ends. Vingt.

Lothar De La Rey stared at the message he had copied onto his pad by the guttering flame of the candle.

Unaccompanied, he whispered. Juno unaccompanied.

Carrying goods. By Christ Almighty, she's coming through alone, with the diamonds. He calculated swiftly. She left the mine at three am. She'll be here an hour or so after noon. He left the dugout and climbed the bank. He found a place to sit and lit one of his precious cheroots. He looked at the sky, watching the crescent moon sink into the desert. When the dawn turned the eastern horizon into a peacock's tail of colour, he went down to the camp and blew flame from last night's ashes.

Swart Hendrick came out of the dugout and went to urinate noisily in the sand. He came back to the fire buttoning his breeches, yawning widely and sniffing the coffee in the billy.

We are changing the plan, Lothar told him, and Hendrick blinked and became warily attentive.

Why?, The woman is bringing the diamonds through alone. She won't give in easily. I don't want her hurt in any way. I wouldn't,

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