‘Hello, boys,’ he said, draping himself over the hood of the ambulance. ‘Found that loony yet?’
‘No use asking us,’ Garland said, resuming his polishing. ‘We’re just hired helps, ain’t we, Joe?’
‘That’s right,’ Joe said, winked at Magarth.
‘I was reckoning you boys knew something,’ Magarth said, jingling his loose change suggestively. ‘Who the dame is, for instance. My expense account is fat with inactivity, if that interests you.’
Both Garland and Joe lost their indifferent expressions.
‘How fat would it be?’ Garland asked cautiously.
‘Well, maybe “fat’s” the wrong word. I should have said bloated. If you know anything don’t be scared to open your little mouths.’
‘We won’t,’ Garland said, looked cautiously over his shoulder. ‘A hundred bucks would buy it, wouldn’t it, Joe?’
‘Just about,’ Joe said, rubbing his hands. ‘A hundred each.’
Magarth winced.
‘I guess I’ll try that blonde nurse. By the circles under her eyes she’d give herself away as well as information for two hundred bucks.’
Garland’s face fell.
‘He’s right,’ he said to Joe.
‘But you’d never be the same guy again,’ Joe said seriously. ‘I’ve tried her. It’s like wrestling with a bear-trap.’
‘I like ’em that way,’ Magarth said simply. ‘Ever since I was knee-high to an ant I’ve been handling energetic women. You don’t have to worry about me.’ He tilted his hat over his nose, squinted at Garland. ‘Of course, if you’d like to make it a hundred bucks I’d play along with you. I’m the self-sacrificing type.’
Garland and Joe exchanged glances.
‘O.K.,’ Garland said. ‘It’s a deal.’
‘It’ll have to be good for the dough,’ Magarth reminded him.
‘It’s better than good — it’s sensational,’ Garland said. ‘Front page stuff in six-inch type.’
‘Bigger than Pearl Harbour,’ Joe said.
‘Bigger than the Atom Bomb,’ Garland added, not to be outdone.
Magarth produced a roll of notes, peeled off five twenty-dollar bills.
‘I came heeled guessing you two would sing,’ he said, dangling the bills. ‘Let’s hear.’
‘John Blandish’s heiress,’ Sam said, grabbed the notes. ‘How do you like that?’
Magarth took a step forward.
‘What do you mean?’ he said, a rasp in his voice. ‘What kind of fluff’s this?’
‘What I say,’ Sam said. ‘Ain’t you heard of John Blandish? Well, this guy had a daughter and she was kidnapped...’
Steve and Carol breakfasted alone together the next morning. Roy had gone out early after trout.
‘Did you sleep all right last night?’ Steve asked casually as he poured coffee.
‘I dreamed,’ she returned. ‘I always dream.’
‘But did you get up in the night?’ Steve smiled at her. ‘I thought I heard someone moving about in the cabin. Maybe I was dreaming, too.’
‘Oh, no,’ she said, touched her temples with slim fingers. ‘But something did happen. I can’t remember. I can’t remember anything. It frightens me.’ She reached across the table for his hand. ‘I don’t know what I should do without you. I feel so safe with you.’
Steve grinned uncomfortably, patted her hand.
‘You’d be all right,’ he said. ‘What do you dream about, Carol?’
‘I don’t really remember. I seem to dream the same dream ever and over again. It’s something to do with a nurse. I don’t know what she does, but it’s always the same nurse. She has a horrible look in her eyes and she stands over me. I am so frightened in my dreams, and I wake up frightened, my heart beating, and the dark frightens me.’
Steve worried about her all day, and he was still worrying when Roy returned after dark.
Roy was silent and surly until bedtime, his eyes continually on Carol.
He was already in bed when Steve came in after locking up, and he pretended to be asleep.
Steve glanced at him, shrugged, got into bed. He was tired of his brother’s surly behaviour, longed to be rid of him.
Later in the night Roy sat up, called softly, and when Steve made no reply he cautiously pushed off his blanket. He was trembling with excitement and desire. All day he had brooded about Carol, working himself up, determined that tonight when Steve was asleep he’d go to her. She had let him kiss her: showed no fight. It should be easy so long as he could get out of the room without waking Steve. Quietly he slid out of bed.
Steve stirred in his sleep and Roy waited, tense, ready to slip back to bed, but Steve slept on. Moving softly, Roy left the room, closed the door, stood listening.
Carol’s room was at the end of the passage. There was no sound but the wind rustling in the trees and the lake water swirling against the jetty.
Roy crept down the passage, listened at Carol’s door, heard nothing, turned the handle and went in.
He could see Carol lying in the bed, her arms uncovered, her hair like a, red halo on the pillow. She looked very beautiful with the moonlight falling directly on her face, and as he came in she opened her eyes. She didn’t seem alarmed. Her eyes were wide but serene.
‘Hello, kid,’ Roy said. His tongue felt a little too big for his mouth and his skin was feverish. ‘I’ve come to keep you company.’
She didn’t say anything but watched him cross the room, her eyes on his.
‘You’re not scared of me, are you?’ he asked. Her beauty made him shiver.
‘Oh, no,’ she said quietly. ‘I thought you would come tonight. I’ve been dreaming about you.’
Roy started.
‘You mean you wanted me to come?’ he asked, sitting on the bed by her side.
She looked gravely up at him.
‘I felt your eyes on me all this evening. Wherever I went you watched me. I felt you’d come tonight.’
Roy grinned.
‘And I’ve thought about you all day, too,’ he said, put his hand on hers. Her hand was warm and limp, unresisting. ‘I wanted to kiss you again.’
‘Steve doesn’t want you to do that.’
‘Steve won’t know. He’s asleep. You liked it, didn’t you?’
His face was close to hers now and his hand touched her breasts. She didn’t flinch, but stared at him abstractedly. ‘Undo that,’ he went on, touching the buttons on the silk jacket. ‘Come on, Carol, come on. I’m not going to hurt you.’
The girl mechanically, to his astonishment, undid the pyjama buttons, and he touched her bare skin.
‘You’re beautiful, kid,’ he said, not knowing quite what he was saying. ‘You’re lovely,’ and his hands covered her breasts.
There was a blank fixed look in her eyes and she seemed to listen only vaguely to what he said.
His hands moved round her back and he lifted her. And then suddenly she gave a soft metallic little laugh that startled him.
‘What’s so funny in this?’ he asked, angry, and hungrily crushed his mouth down on hers.
For a brief moment she lay motionless in his arms, then her arms, like steel bands, slid round his neck and gripped the back of his neck and shoulders and her teeth sank into his lips.
In the other room Steve woke suddenly. One moment he was asleep, the next wide awake and sitting up, staring round the room, a startled, puzzled expression on his face.
‘What woke me like that?’ he wondered, looked across at Roy’s bed, which was in the darkest part of the room. He thought he could make out Roy’s outline, looked at the window. Was Carol out there again? Was that why he had awakened so suddenly?
He got out of bed, went to the window. There was no one on the verandah. He could see Spot down by the outhouses. The dog was looking towards the cabin, but it made no sound.
Steve shook his head, yawned, turned back to bed.