"Was that the bottom end of the blow hole?"
He nodded. "Looked like the rope we lent them-nylon, you see, and the same size, the end of it trailing in the water."
"Did you call to them?"
"Yes, but I didn't get any answer. And there was nobody in the cave that I could see, which didn't surprise me-you could come down the rope easily enough, but getting back up again would have been bloody near impossible."
"Too high?"
"No, it wasn't that. About ten or twelve feet, that's all. But the blow hole was sloping, so that the rope lay flush against a smooth lip of rock. You'd never get your fingers round it, not with the whole weight of your body dragging on the rope."
"They could have knotted it at intervals; or simply tied it round their body and been hauled up."
"Well, they hadn't done either." He said it irritably, his voice a little weaker. "But there was somebody down there."
"Who was it? Did you see him?"
"No, I didn't see anybody."
"Then how do you know somebody was there?"
"I just felt it. The way you sense when there's a shark around. A sort of presence."
The morphine was taking effect much quicker than I had expected, his eyes drooping, his voice trailing off. "And then the spotlight, you see. I'd swum to the western end. At that end the floor of the cave rose out of the water in a dark curve like the back of a whale. Very slimy. But I managed to climb out and up to the ledge leading to the gallery. It was low. Sloping up in a curve. I put the spot down and got the cylinder off my back. I was unfastening my belt. I didn't want weights or flippers hampering me as I clambered around in
that gallery. And then the spotlight shifted. I grabbed at it and the beam swung wildly as my flippers slid from under me. That's when I fell. I fell about six feet-into darkness." He was drowsy now, his voice fading. "No spotlight. It had gone. I swear it had been switched off." His words were slurring, his head beginning to loll.
"Somebody took it-is that what you mean?"
He nodded vaguely. "You don't believe me. ."
"You hit your head. Everything went black." It was the only possible explanation.
"Of course. Knocked out. And then the surge." His head dropped. "Scared me. That's what scared me. And the body."
"What body?"
"In the water. . something … it touched me."
"My father? Was it my father?"
"Don't know. Dark, you see, and the surge and this bloody arm." His voice trailed off. "No light. I was a long time-getting the cylinder back on-then feeling my way-remembering. ." His eyes closed.
Florrie's hand touched his brow, smoothing out the grooved lines. "He's out of pain now?" I nodded and went back up to the wheelhouse and started the engine. We got the anchor up and then I backed her out of the shallows and turned her bows to the north.
"Where are you making for?" Sonia asked. "Levkas? There's sure to be a doctor at Levkas."
"No, Vathy," I said. "I want a word with Kotiadis." Bert could have imagined it. He'd been scared and half dazed with pain. But somebody had to be informed. "He'll tell us where to find a doctor."
Vassilios joined us in the wheelhouse. The same dirty T-vest, the same frayed khaki shorts. I was at the wheel, thinking of the old man. A body, Bert had said. But he could have imagined it. And the spotlight? Had he imagined that, too? It could have slipped. But some instinct told me that it hadn't slipped, that the presence he had sensed was real. I set the engine controls to maximum revs. It was a lurid evening, shafts of sunlight slanting on the water, the underbellies of the clouds black and louring, and my mind darkened by the fear of tragedy.
At Vathy, Kotiadis promised to see Holroyd himself as soon as conditions made it possible for him to get down the channel. Meantime, he advised us to call in at Skropio on our way to Levkas in the hope of finding a doctor there. This was fortunate, for among the guests on that millionaire's island we found an eminent Athens surgeon. He not only set Bert's broken arm, but insisted that he and Florrie stay at the villa till he had recovered from the shock and the mild concussion.
"You'd better take Coromandel," Florrie said. "I'm sure Bert would agree." I would have taken it anyway. I think she knew that. This was after she had come back for the clothes they needed, the varnished launch alongside and a car waiting for her on the jetty. There followed a long list of instructions about the food on board and the need to turn off the gas to the galley stove, and then she was in the launch and with a quick wave she was whisked away towards the pine-dark loom of the island.
The time was 21.34 by the wheelhouse clock, and ten minutes later we had the anchor up and were motoring out of the little natural harbour, the resin scent of the pines following us until we were into the open water of Port Drepano.
It was the first time we had had the ship to ourselves. Such an opportunity for two people in love, and all we did was hold each other's hand and peer into the night, watching for Elia light on the north-east corner of Meganisi, which would enable us to clear the shoals between Skropio and Port Vathy. And at Vathy … if the news were good, then we could relax here on board, the ship to ourselves, nobody else. And suddenly I was thinking of Florrie.
But Sonia w'asn't like Florrie. She wasn't like any girl I'd had before. And even whilst I was imagining how it would be, I knew that when it did happen, it would somehow be entirely different.
"If there's no news. ." her fingers tightened on mine. "You'll try to get in underwater-the dive Bert did?"
Our minds had been on entirely different tracks. "There's the rope," I said. "They should have got him out by now."
But some intuitive sense seemed to warn her it wouldn't be as simple as that. She wanted to know how much practice I had had, how expert I was. I didn't tell her I'd only had two dives under Bert's instructions. The deepest I'd gone was twenty feet and that in the crystal clear water of the Aegean. "Bert had bad luck, that's all," I said. No point in two of us being scared.
It was almost midnight when we finally reached Port Vathy, the village in darkness, not a light to be seen anywhere. As soon as the anchor was down, we went ashore in the dinghy. Zavelas had seen us coming in and he met us on the quay. His face was grave. Part of the roof of the main cave had collapsed. Vassilios had just brought the news. "He says it could take two days, maybe more, to clear the fall, and they will need timber to support the roof." It collapsed at the point where we had broken through the earlier fall.
"Anybody hurt?" I asked.
"Vassilios didn't say, so I guess not." He glanced at Sonia. "Your brother's okay. He was out in the open with the anghlos constructing a ladder of rope."
"Which anghlos?" I asked. "Cartwright?"
"Ne-Cartwright."
"What about Holroyd?"
"Professor Holerod is missing. Also a Greek man from Spiglia-Thomasis."
"You mean they're trapped the other side of the fall?"
"I guess so. But no worry. Kotiadis is there and in the morning we will take timber over to support the roof. Also a caique leaves here for Levkas an hour ago with instructions for the patrol boat to come here with more timber." A hairy hand gripped my arm. "Don't you worry. Two days and we have them out. Okay? That's not too much. Just time to decide if there is a god or not, eh?" And he patted my shoul-