I nodded at the glasses. "Those could be the key to the door."
She tried to rise, but could not. Then she leaned hard on my shoulder and got to her feet.
" Special glasses, aren't they, Bruce-for seeing in darkness?" She started away from us, but Sailhardy called her back.
" The compass, ma'am. You don't want to have to come back and fetch it. It'll be tough going once to the top." She stood looking down at the islander and me, braced against the ice to hold the machine.
" Thank you, Bruce, and thank you, Sailhardy," she said 83 slowly. " There are more things than ice in the Southern Ocean."
Slowly, painfully, with a physical and mental torment we could only guess, she clawed her way to the summit of the growler. When her voice came back to give us the first bearing, it was as colourless as plainsong. " Thorshammer bearing eight-oh degrees, eight miles."
At five-minute intervals she repeated a fresh bearing. In half an hour she came back to the machine. Her face was white, but for the first time since I had known her, the eyes were vital.
" I'll start the engine, and you can come aboard," she said. She laughed softly. " What a pilot! I'm glad you are the only witnesses."
She revved the engine, the rotors swung, and we climbed aboard while she held the machine gently against the little plateau. We gave Thorshammer another clear quarter of an hour before threading our way back through the growlers at zero feet towards the fleet. Once we were certain that we were beyond range of Thorshammer's radio, we picked up our altitude. Although Helen flew in silence, the tension was gone, and several times she leaned forward and stroked Suzie Wong clinging to the compass platform and said something which I could not distinguish above the roar of the rotors.
It was Sailhardy who spotted the catcher fleet first. As we pulled round in a wide approach circle to the factory ship, he tensed and pointed. " Bruce! Auroral Look-just aft the bridge!"
The twin muzzles pointed skywards.
" Walter was on the Russian convoys," he said.
I nodded grimly. " No wonder he survived. I'm going to have a closer look at what Mr. Bloody Walter has rigged up there. Can do?" I asked Helen.
She nodded. She brought the helicopter to hover twenty feet above the barrels of the anti-aircraft gun. It was the most sinister piece of improvised ack-ack armament I have ever seen. A heavy, slow-firing water-cooled Spandau was mounted side-by-side with an air cooled rapid-firing Hotchkiss. From the base plate to the height of a man's chest was a heavy swivel mounting: screwed into it on a hexagonal plate fore and aft were two Narwhal tusks, forming a bow of about three feet in height at head level. The two weapons swung on a cross-bar about an inch and a half thick. Drums and belts of ammunition were already in place. There was also
a double harness, like a car safety belt, for each gun. It was a killer-weapon for use by two men. The helmsman waved cheerfully, but there was no sign of Walter.
Sailhardy and I looked at each other. There was no need to say it. The Spandau-Hotchkiss confirmed everything about Upton. And the chart was the key.
As if reading my own thoughts, Sailhardy drew back out of Helen's line of vision. He put his hand into his windbreaker where he had concealed the chart and looked inquiringly at me. I nodded. Upton must not find it on either of us, if he got tough. Sailhardy looked round tentatively. Behind Helen's seat the interior quilting was loose from the skin of the machine. It was the best we could do. There were only a few minutes before we would be down. Sailhardy edged behind me and tucked the folded square of parchment behind the quilting.
We landed. Sailhardy and I went to my cabin. I was scarcely surprised when I opened the door to find Upton, Pirow and Walter. The place had been ransacked. Walter held a Luger in his hand.
6. The Log of the " Sprightly"
I felt sure the Luger was Pirow's, though it was Walter who pointed it at my chest. Pirow was on his knees at my chartcase. Upton's eyes were bright and hard, as if he had been on the guarana.
I talked quickly to distract Walter, so that Sailhardy could jump him. " So Norris sounded the Bollevika anchorage?" I sneered. " Breeding-ground of the Blue Whale-bah A Blue Whale's dorsal fin!"
I sensed Sailhardy start to move. I threw myself sideways at Walter. The crash of the shot deafened me. I struck him a wicked blow in the kidneys. He gasped, but he was strong and cunning. He dodged to prevent my crowding him, and fired again as Sailhardy grabbed at his hand. The bullet screamed off the steel wall. Walter ducked, picked up a heavy lead sinker I had used for my plankton net, and swung it with a sickening thump against the islander's heart. Sailhardy collapsed. While the big Norwegian turned to come at me with a running crouch, Luger in one hand and sinker in the other, I struck him with all my force under the right ear with my forearm. I heard the gun clatter, but at the same time my feet were whipped from under me. Pirow-the bastard, I thought. As I fell, Walter caught me a glancing blow across the left side of my face with the sinker. I lay on the floor, sick with the pain. Pirow grabbed the gun. I saw Walter's sea-boot come up to kick me unconscious, but I had no strength to roll clear. Upton stopped him.
" Steady, Peter," he ordered. " We need him."
" I do not care for this British captain who fights foul like a South Georgia whalerman," he said thickly, rubbing his neck. " Nor his bloody islander. Let me finish both of them we'll find the chart on one of them, for sure."
" He seems to know anyway," said Pirow. He kept the Luger on me.
" Get up, Wetherby," snapped Upton. It was the first time he had not used my Christian name. " Go over him, Peter. And if he hasn't got it, then the islander."
Walter's paws tore at my clothes, while Pirow covered me with the Luger. When he had finished searching me, Walter turned over the unconscious Sailhardy roughly and searched him.
" It's not on them," he said. " It's here somewhere-it must be."Upton grasped the lapels of my reefer jacket. There was a curious air of exhilaration and menace about him. Although the name had never been mentioned between us in relation to the chart, each knew tacitly what the other had in mind. " Where is Captain Norris' chart? Where is it, man?"
I jerked my head at the chart-case. " In there."
" It is not-I've been through everything," interrupted Pirow. " He's lying."
" Of course he's lying," snapping Upton. " I would too, if I had anything as priceless as Captain Norris' original log and chart of Thompson Island."
" Thompson Island!" I exclaimed. " There you have it!
Thompson Island!"
The formidable pink flush suffused the pewter. I was weak from Walter's blow, but even so I was surprised at Upton's outburst of near-mania strength. He shook me like a rat." Yes, blast all the Wetherbys and their secretive Captain Norris!" he snarled. " Eight words for everything in my life
– the log and track chart of the Sprightly 1 Norris, rot his 86 soul! He faked up-or your precious John Wetherby faked up-a duplicate for the Admiralty's benefit. It's useless, as everybody knows. What I want is Norris' original. You've got it and, by God, I mean to have it. At any price whatsoever, do you understand? Any price whatsoever!" My mind raced to the chart. I knew every minute detail of it. There was nothing of any value to a man like Upton. He must have some other knowledge about Thompson Island, apart from the chart, but to which the chart was nevertheless complementary. I had to find out what it was.