The door slammed.
I wiped my face, tried to recover my breath.
"Take it easy," I said to Maxison. "This is only the half of it."
I grabbed a screw-driver and screwed down the lid of the coffin. I had just finished when the door opened again and Clancy, the guard, came in. His face was red with suppressed excitement.
"Whatja know, fellas?" he said. "That guy Cain's gate-crashed the jail. He's snatched his floozie."
"You don't say," I returned, wiping my face and hands on a towel. "Got him yet?"
Clancy shook his head. "He can't get away. Flaggerty's out of his mind. He's going through the jail with a tooth comb." He gaped at me. "What the hell's happened to your face?"
"One of the guards thought I was Cain," I said. "He pushed me around before Flaggerty stopped him."
"They're sure crazy," Clancy said. "I've never seen so many nuts under one roof. Well, they'll catch Cain. He can't get out."
"Sure of that?" I said.
"I guess so. How can he?
"How did he get in?"
"Yeah," Clancy said, shaking his head. "I hand it to that guy. He's smart, and he's got guts."
"How soon can we move?" I asked. "I don't want much more of this shooting."
"You stick around. No one's allowed to leave until they've found him," Clancy told me.
I shrugged, lit a cigarette. I wondered how long Miss Wonderly would remain out, and if she'd start to scream when she came round. I sweated to think about it.
We sat around for ten minutes or so, then shooting began again.
Clancy went to the door, peered out. "Sounds like they've cornered him," he said. "Trouble on B floor."
The alarm bell began to ring.
"Now what's up?" Clancy demanded, frowning. "What do they want to ring the bell for?"
Mitchell appeared suddenly. "Come on, mug!" he bawled to Clancy. "We gotta jail break on our hands. The prisoners are loose."
Clancy snatched up his rifle.
"Who let 'em loose?" he asked, rushing to the door.
"Cain, I guess," Mitchell said, pushing Clancy ahead of him. He looked back at me, winked. "Come on, everyone's to go to B floor. Orders."
They went running down the passage.
I grinned at Maxison.
"Mitchell let 'em loose. I hope he'll be all right," I said. "Come on, we're going."
Between as we hoisted the coffin on our shoulders and made for the exit. The coffin weighed a ton, and we were staggering by the time we'd reached the gate of the prison block.
The lone guard stared at us, lifted his rifle.
We stopped.
"It's okay," I gasped. "I've got a permit to leave. Lemme get this coffin on board and I'll give it to you."
He hesitated, and I went on past him into the courtyard, where the hearse was waiting. He followed us.
Maxison and I shoved the coffin into the hearse, slammed the door.
The guard still threatened us with his gun. His round, red face was puzzled.
"Flaggerty said no one was to leave," he grumbled. "You can't go, so don't you think you can."
"I tell you Flaggerty's given us a permit," I said angrily. "Give it to him," I went on to Maxison. "You got it in your pocket."
With a dazed expression on his face, Maxison put his hand in his inside pocket. The guard swung the gun away from me, covering Maxison, suspicion in his eyes.
I jumped, hit the guard on the jaw, snatched his rifle from him as he fell. I belted him over the head with the butt.
"Come on," I said to Maxison, and bundled him into the hearse. I drove across the courtyard, through the first gate which was open, and stopped outside the outer gate which was closed.
Franklin came out of the lodge. He eyed us over.
"Getting out while the going's good?" he asked, grinning.
"Sure," I said. "We gave the permit to the guard at the main block. They've got a prison break on their hands now."
He shrugged. "I'm keeping out of it. I'm a man of peace." He walked to the gate and opened it. "So long, fellas."
I nodded and drove on
There was only one more obstacle, the barricade. I kept my gun by my side, drove steadily down the sandy track. I could see no guards. The barricade blocked my exit, but no one was there to guard it.
The sounds of shooting and yells came to us from the jail. I guess everyone was too busy to bother about guarding a tree.
Maxison and I got down, rolled the barricade aside; then we got back into the hearse.
We'd done it.
Chapter Five
POINT COUNTER POINT
1
THE Martello Hotel, Key West, overlooked the Atlantic Ocean. From our private balcony, shaded by a green and white awning, we could look down at the Roosevelt Boulevard, which was almost deserted; houses were shuttered and dogs slept on the sidewalks. It was noon, and the heat was fierce. Away to our right we could see low emerald islands in a shimmering, painted sea beneath high-piled lavender clouds. Steamers and other craft worked their way through the old Nor'west Channel, a chartered course taken for centuries.
Wearing trunks, sun-glasses and sandals, I lolled in a wicker arm-chair. A highball, clinking with ice, stood on the chair arm. I relaxed in the heat, stared with narrowed, impatient eyes out to sea.
Miss Wonderly sat by my side. She had on a white swim-suit that clung to her curves like a nervous mountaineer rounding Devil's Corner. A straw hat, the size of a cartwheel, shaded her face. A magazine lay on her lap.
Minutes went past. I moved slightly to reach my cigarettes. She patted my hand as I picked up my lighter. I smiled at her.
"Pretty nice, isn't it?" I said.
She nodded, sighed, took off her hat. Her soft, honey-coloured hair fell about her shoulders. She looked pretty nice herself.
We had been at the hotel for five days. The jail break was a distant nightmare. We didn't talk about it. For the first two or three days, Miss Wonderly had been in a bad shape. She had bad nights, bad dreams. She was scared to leave the hotel, scared ii someone came into the room. Hetty and I hadn't left her for a moment. Hetty had been wonderful. She was with us now.
We had taken Miss Wonderly from the jail straight to Tim's boat. Hetty, Tim and I had gone with her, and we had somehow managed to slip through the cordon Killeano had flung round the coast and reached Key West. Tim had gone back to Paradise Palms the following morning with the boat.
friendliness, was a good spot for convalescing. Miss Wonderly had picked up faster than I had hoped. Now she was almost normal.
"All right, kid?" I asked, smiling at her.
"Yes," she said, stretching. "And you?"
"Sure, this is much more like the vacation I was hoping to find in Paradise Palms."