White Heat (11 page)

Apparently he was capable of sleeping with his eyes, as well as his mouth, partially open when he was completely exhausted.

Karin realized that it was still very cold, and she lay down again quickly. Without quite realizing what she was doing she snuggled close to Kent, burrowing her head into his shoulder again. He wakened slightly and murmured her name.

‘Karin?’

‘Yes?’ she whispered, bending near to him.

To her surprise he started to laugh, low in his throat, which proved that he was much more widely awake than she would have supposed. Or, on waking, had come to his senses very quickly.

‘Comfortable?’ he asked, as if it was absolutely natural that he should address her thus with several hours still to go till early morning.

‘Very,’ she answered, lowering her head again quickly, ‘but I’m afraid you’re not.’

‘On the contrary,’ he assured her, a dry note in his voice, ‘I can’t remember when I was more comfortable.’ He put up a languid hand and touched her hair, that was tickling his chin. ‘This is fantastic, isn’t it?’ he said, in a sleepily amused tone. ‘If you and I had been told two days ago that this was what was going to happen to us we wouldn’t have believed it, would we? If we’d had our fortunes told, for instance?’

‘Do you believe in fortune-telling?’ she asked, because his hand was leisurely stroking her hair ... as if he liked the feel of it, and was giving himself up to a
form of pleasure.

He answered in an amused tone:

‘I think I will after this.’

‘Why?’

‘There was a woman I once met
—
it was at a cocktail party, or something of the sort
—
she warned me to take particular care when I was crossing water, and she also warned me against redheaded women!’ He twisted a little, in order that he could inhale the fragrance of her hair. ‘But yours isn’t red, is it?’ he said, very softly. ‘It’s just very, very lovely.’

She closed her eyes determinedly.

‘But not as lovely as
your Sarah’s,’ she thought, a little unreasonably since he had just paid her a compliment.

The boat rocked, and the wind appeared to have an extraordinary velocity behind it, which no one heeded.

‘On the whole,’ Kent told her, ‘I’m not altogether sorry I kissed you, Karin. It was an experience,
’
he said appreciatively.

But she did not answer. He received the impression that she was fast asleep, and as Rolands was still snoring noisily, there would be no chance of restful sleep when the sun was up, and the rocking of the boat was as soothing as a lullaby, the man closed his eyes again and drifted into a completely tranquil state of slumber, which was a little surprising when he had been on his way to visit his ‘Sarah’, and now the voyage was interrupted and he might not see her again for a very long time, if ever!

In the morning all three opened their eyes at about the same time. Karin rubbed hers, because they were smarting badly after the heat of the day before, and at first she thought the heat and the trying circumstances of the day before were responsible for the pleasing hallucination of a green, cool island with larkspur blue water lapping the golden sand that was undoubtedly a beach, since it ran down to the water’s edge, and there were two other arms of land that enclosed a kind of blue lagoon, that was as transparent as glass.

And then, as she went on staring at it, she realized it was not an hallucination, and she made the discovery at the same moment that Rolands threw off a piece of sailcloth that had provided him with a certain amount of protection during the night and let out a hoarse, incredulous shout.

‘It’s land!’ he cried.

Willoughby sat up beside Karin. He blinked at first in the brilliant sunshine, and then his green eyes narrowed and grew quite expressionless, although he smiled faintly.

‘What did I tell you?’ he said. ‘You surely both remember that I predicted we w
ould strike it sooner or later?’

Rolands was the first ashore, wading through the water with the eagerness of a Cockney schoolboy, and when he reached the shelving strip of sand that was as golden as a wedding ring he turned and waved to the others as an indication that there were no sharks in the water. There were lots of bright fish, swimming incessantly amongst gardens of coral and weed, but nothing more menacing to life or limb.

Willoughby plied the oars and brought the boat as near to the strip of sand as possible, and then Rolands waded back into the water and helped to drag it up on to the beach. But before that he held out his arms for Karin.

‘I’ll take Miss Hammond,’ he said. ‘No need for her to get her feet wet.’

But Kent waved him away.

‘I’ll make certain Miss Hammond doesn’t get her feet wet,’ he replied a little curtly, and the manservant gave way with a shrug.

‘As you say, boss,’ he replied, and somewhat to Karin’s surprise he winked at her. As Willoughby lifted Karin and waded with her to shore, being particularly careful to ensure that her short linen skirt was not so much as splashed by the water, he added a trifle inconsequently: ‘But she’ll have to get her feet wet sooner or later, and with no H & G this here lagoon’s as good as anything I can think of as a substitute for a bathroom. The water’s as soft as silk and as warm as a baked potato. I think I’ll have my morning dip straight away,’ and without waiting to make certain that his employer approved he retired behind a screen of bushes that overhung the water and stripped off his clothes and dived into the lagoon well away from the spot where he was likely to be overlooked.

Willoughby frowned.

‘I should have thought the first thing he would have considered it necessary to do would be to make certain this island is uninhabited
,’
he remarked acidly, glancing at the rising mass of foliage inland. ‘For all we know it isn’t.’

Karin drew nearer to him, even going so far as to clutch at his arm.

‘You don’t mean
...’
she said.

He smiled.

‘Not in this day and age. They’re all civilized nowadays, or so we’re given to understand. But there are other things besides humans that are not always pleasant to encounter.’ With her hand still nestling in the crook of his arm he continued to study the strange, conical shape that rose behind them, and with the whole island steaming in the warmth of the sun after the intense cold of the night there was something slightly unreal about it, as if it was wrapped about by a mantle of gauze. And through the gauze could be seen bright splashes of colour, and feathery palm fronds stirred like tassels in the early morning breeze.

‘There should be plenty of food up there, anyway
,’
Kent observed, with some satisfaction. ‘I hope you like coconuts?’ turning with a smile to the girl.

‘Coconuts?’

‘And bananas. Your diet is likely to be a little restricted until we’re taken off here, but at least you’ll have a diet. At this time yesterday I wasn’t so certain, and last night I was very far from certain.’

His tone was so sober that she glanced at him quickly.

‘Yes, it was rather ghastly, wasn’t it?’ she agreed, in the same sober tone. She touched the blistered places on her arm and winced. ‘I was beginning to be afraid I was going to be cooked alive.’

‘And I was beginning to be afraid that that might not be the worst thing that would happen to you!’ Their eyes met, and held, and she shivered suddenly despite the increasing warmth of the sun.

‘People go mad in open boats, don’t they?’ she said, rather falteringly. ‘I mean, they die of thirst, and
—
and things like that?’

‘We had enough water for another twenty-four hours.’

‘Only twenty-four hours?’

He nodded.

‘I believe there’s quite a generous supply of chocolate and dried foods in that locker,’ nodding at their beached boat, “but chocolate and dried foods are not much help when your tongue has swollen to twice the size and is too big for your mouth.’ She had never heard him speak so grimly
—
as if, in point of fact, he had actually experienced such a nightmare, which she was later to discover he had
—
and her eyes grew enormous with horror. ‘That was a fate I wasn’t looking forward to for you!’ he added simply.

The thought of the possible anguish that had come so close to them deprived her temporarily of speech, and then she suddenly realized that she was still clinging to his arm, and she hastily released it.

‘Wh-what about water on this island?’ she asked, also glancing round her. ‘How do you know that there is any?’

‘At worst there will be the milk of coconuts,’ he reassured her. ‘But I’m fairly certain there’s a running stream somewhere. That’s why I wish Rolands had been in a little less of a hurry to resume his ablutions. Having existed without a bath for forty-eight hours he could have waited a little longer, and the sooner we start looking for that stream the better.’ He lifted up his voice. ‘Rolands!’

‘Coming, sir!’ came the reply. They could hear Rolands splashing happily not very far away from them, and Kent called out to him in a different kind of alarm:

‘But not without your clothes! Are you absolutely certain where you left them?’

‘Aye, aye, sir!’ Rolands bobbed up like a cork, treading several feet of water in one of the most translucent parts of the lagoon. ‘I remembered we had a lady present and kept my pants on,’ grinning and shaking the water out of his eyes. ‘They’ll dry in a few minutes once I’m ashore.’

Once he was ashore, and the three of them were standing together, Karin looked at him enviously.

‘Was it beautifully cool in the water?’ she asked.

‘Beautifully cool, miss.’ He grinned at her. ‘Like to try it?
’

She nodded vigorously.

‘I’d love to.’ She glanced appealingly at Kent. ‘More than anything I’d love to try it!’

‘Oh, very well,’ he said. He made an inspection of the bushes behind which Rolands had rid himself, partially, of his clothes, and declaring it safe from anything in the nature of wild life
—
or any other form of life apart from the over-luxuriant vegetation
—
decided to plunge in himself, and for a quarter of an hour, at opposite ends of the lagoon, he and Karin enjoyed themselves thoroughly for the first time since fire broke out aboard the ship, and by the time they rejoined Rolands the latter had the Primus working overtime and a smell of freshly made coffee floating on the wind. He invited them, with impressive bows, to sit down and partake of breakfast, and despite the fact that her hair was still wet and her body was not yet entirely dry after immersion in the lagoon, Karin sat down, with her legs tucked under her, and was surprised to discover that she had an appetite.

Rolands had unearthed a tin of baked beans and another of meat, and although it was not their usual form
of
breakfast — Kent usually smoked a cigarette and drank black coffee
—
they all three ate ravenously, and there was nothing left for the birds by the time they had finished.

Karin had risked removing all her clothes for her bathe, but the fact that she had had no towel with which to dry herself before putting them on again rendered them as moist as herself, and by the time they reached the cigarette stage she was actually steaming like the conical summit of the island. Kent, also, had removed his clothes
—
taking care beforehand, however, that he and Karin were not in any actual danger of colliding
—
and he, too, steamed for a while. But the fierce heat of the sun, climbing up the width of the cobalt blue sky, soon put a stop to that, and very soon they had to find a patch of shade to withdraw to, especially as by this time they were all three feeling drowsy again.

‘I suppose we ought to explore the island, but it can wait for half an hour,’ Kent said, as he rolled over on his back and stretched himself out luxuriously. ‘I don’t seem to remember being very wakeful during the night—’ looking upwards at Karin between his thick eyelashes
—
‘but at the moment I feel as if I haven’t had a good sleep for a week.’ He yawned widely to prove it. ‘Punch me in the ribs, Rolands, if I exceed my half-hour. One of us must keep awake, and I’m afraid you’ll have to take the first watch. I’ll relieve you after that.
’

‘Aye, aye, sir.’ Rolands groped in a pocket and came upon a wad of slightly moist tobacco, and an ancient pipe. He waved it in Karin’s direction. ‘Mind if I smoke this, miss?’

‘Of course not.
^’

But with the waves of sleep rising over her like the waves of the sea she was worried by the thought that, since there were only three of them, it was up to her to take her part in any watching that had to be done. She would undoubtedly be too petrified to move or even shriek if she saw something or someone ominous emerging from the jungle, but the offer had to be made.

‘You’ll have to let me—’ she began, but Rolands waved his pipe at her again.

‘You go to sleep, miss, and forget everything. If there are cannibals on this island I’m the one to deal with them.’

‘And what will you use for weapons?’ Willoughby inquired a little whimsically, his eyes already
shut ...
although the situation was not without its menacing side, as he was perfectly well aware.

Rolands looked a trifle apprehensive, and gazed quickly over his shoulder.

‘Now, there’s food for thought,’ he replied. ‘You’ve given me something to think about, boss, while you’re asleep.’

Karin was incapable of remaining awake to grapple with this new thought, but she did, just before her senses left her, steal a little nearer to Kent. He sensed rather than felt the movement, and without his servant seeing extended a hand to her.

‘Like something to hang on to?’ he asked, still lying flat on his back and not even glancing towards her, and phrasing the question in a very low tone indeed. And, more grateful than she could possibly let him know for his thoughtfulness, she clutched at his hand in very much the same manner as a drowning man clutching at a straw.