I said, “If things get good and rough, we’ll have a better chance for a break. The timing will have to be right. Are you willing to help?”
He hesitated, and avoided answering directly. “Anything you do had better be done before we reach Mendenhall tonight,” he said uneasily. “There’ll be two men bringing Dr. Michaelis aboard-you heard about that; I heard my wife telling you. These men are trained professionals, like you. After they get on board, you won’t stand a chance against all of them.”
Teddy started to speak angrily. I put my hand on her knee. “I think we’d better wait for her daddy to get aboard, if we can,” I said, and tried not to notice the quick look of gratitude she gave me.
Rosten said, “But that’s ridiculous! We’ve got to act while we-” He checked himself, confused.
I said, “So now it’s we. Thanks.”
He ignored that. “-while we have the advantage of numbers, at least. Let me get on deck. I’ll leave the door unlocked. I’ll station myself where I can reach the shotgun. When you slip on deck, forward, and create a dis… turbance, I’ll grab the gun and we’ll have them.”
It sounded beautifully simple and easy. I had to act a~ if I was tempted by the idea. To tell the truth, I was.
“Well-”
Teddy asked quickly, “What about Papa?”
“After we get control of the schooner,” Rosten said, “we can radio the authorities and have him rescued. He’s being held in the wine cellar of the old Orcutt mansion on the island. My wife discovered it as a child, playing among the ruins. It was her secret, and she covered the entrance with brush and rubble so no one else would find it. No one has, not even the Marines. They don’t really use the island for anything; they just keep people off because it’s right in line with a small-arms range they have on shore. The men holding Dr. Michaelis have plenty of supplies in there, and a rubber boat, and a portable radio receiver-”
“Ouch,” I said. “What makes you think they won’t be listening when we start broadcasting for official help?”
Rosten said impatiently, “That’s a risk we’ll have to run. Anyway, even if they’re warned, how far can they get in a little rubber boat on a stormy night? Our first concern is to take over the Freya while we have a chance.”
Teddy said hotly, “Maybe it’s your first concern, but-”
“All right,” he said irritably. “We won’t use the radio. We’ll land somewhere and find a telephone.”
“Ha-ha,” she said. “How many places along the Bay can you land an eighty-foot schooner drawing ten feet of water, and who’s going to take her in with a gale blowing? You?”
He said stiffly, “I can handle the Freya, Miss Michaelis.”
“Yes, I’ve seen you! You put us aground in the James River in broad daylight, the time Papa and I came cruising with you all. It took high tide and a couple of power- boats to get us off, remember? If you do that here, Papa dies or vanishes again.” She turned to me, breathlessly. “Matt, you’re a government man. You know Papa is an important man, you said so. You think we’d better wait, don’t you?”
I didn’t trust Louis Rosten very far, and I didn’t want him thinking I considered Dr. Michaelis particularly important, in case he should talk out of turn.
I said, “Well, rescuing Dr. Michaelis isn’t strictly speaking in my department-”
“There’s an alternative,” Rosten said quickly. “We take over the ship and sail to the rendezvous ourselves. The two men with Dr. Michaelis won’t be expecting trouble when they come on board. We should be able to overpower them easily.”
The kid asked quickly, “And what makes you think you can bring us into Mendenhall Bay in the dark, no better than you navigate? I know I couldn’t. Do you even know the right place? What if there’s a special signal? There must be some kind of a signal to bring them out. Do you know what it is?”
I was watching Louis while she threw her objections at him. Maybe they were valid and maybe they weren’t, and I could see it didn’t matter in the least, because Louis had no intention of effecting a rescue at the slightest risk to himself. I could see his mind working as clearly as if his skull had been transparent. He wasn’t brave, but he wasn’t stupid, either. He had the essential point clearly in mind: the fact that when we finished taking over the ship according to his plan, he would be the man holding the shotgun.
Once we’d helped him dispose of his wife and Nick, he was thinking, he wouldn’t really need us any more, not even to work the schooner. At the worst, he could get the big sails down somehow, turn on the engine, and go where he pleased. Less drastically, he could force us to do the safe and prudent thing, and to hell with Dr. Michaelis-or so he thought.
Actually, in his hands, a shotgun probably wasn’t quite the magic wand he believed it to be; but the sly, unreliable look in his eyes was the important thing, from my point of view. Going after Michaelis involved too many imponderables, anyway. I couldn’t afford to let myself be dazzled by any glittering, gold-plated shortcuts. There was only one reasonably certain way for me to carry out my mission here, and that was to let Michaelis be brought to me.
“We’ll wait,” I said. “We’ll let them come on board.”
Rosten said angrily, “You’re in no position to dictate-”
I got up. He stopped talking and stepped back warily. I said, “There are three of us. You’ve been outvoted.”
“If I decide not to help you-”
I said, “You’ve pretty well got to do something, with us or without us, before your wife catches onto you. If you want to try it on your own, go ahead. You’ll have two shots, if you get your hands on the gun. Let me give you a little professional advice, Rosten: once you make your move, don’t hesitate for a fraction of a second. Don’t make any speeches; don’t strike any poses; just grab the gun and shoot. Take Mrs. Rosten with the first barrel if she’s closer; but be sure you get Nick with the second, because he won’t give you time to reload. It will be kind of gory. A shotgun makes a hell of a mess at close range. But you don’t care about that. What’s the matter?”
He was looking kind of green. “I-what do you want me to do? To help, I mean?”
It wouldn’t have been diplomatic to gloat over his surrender. I said, “You’d better bolt the door when you leave now, but I’ll expect it to get unbolted quietly right after the passengers come aboard, before we’re clear of the land and everybody starts relaxing and looking around.”
“All right. I’ll try.” He didn’t sound happy.
“Then I’d like an adjustable crescent wrench, five or six inches long, as soon as you can manage to smuggle it in here. You can pick one up in the engine room or somewhere, can’t you, and slip it inside your shirt? A pair of pliers might work, or a small Stillson. Can do?”
A suspicious look came to his face. He glanced at the porthole. “If you think you’re going to slip out through that when we get close to shore, and leave me holding the bag-”
“Hell, man, I can’t swim fifty yards in calm water, and who’s going to open that thing with a little six-inch crescent, the way they have it bolted down? Just get me the wrench, huh? And now you’d better get out of here before you’re missed and she sends Nick looking for you.”
He left, looking like a man keeping a date for his own hanging. After the door had closed behind him, Teddy turned to look at me. Her eyes were bright. She hesitated; then she grabbed my arm and pulled me down beside her so she could kiss me on the ear.
“You were wonderful! I-I’m sorry about all the mean things I said to you, Matt!”
“Sure,” I said.
“It’s going to be all right, isn’t it? With his help-”
“Sure,” I said. “It’s going to be fine.”