The Killer Mine

CHAPTER NINE Blasting Operations

The sight of the old man's face peering out from between the bars of that little window gave me a horrible sense of satisfaction I had wanted justice. This was vengeance. I thought of how my mother had looked out from behind those bars and how it drove her to suicide. And now, the man who had made her believe she had killed Kitty's mother, the man who had shut her in there away from the world, was himself locked in that room — and mad, really mad. I started to laugh. The sound of my voice jarred and frightened me. It was a harsh laugh, but I couldn't stop it.

Dave looked round. 'Ssh!' he said. 'Somebody might hear you.' But I went on laughing. 'Man alive, what's got into you?'

I shook my head. Gradually my laughter died away and I felt weak and exhausted. 'You wouldn't understand, Dave,' I said.

We had reached the shaft now. Dave stood aside and motioned me to go first. It was then that I remembered Kitty. It was two forty-five. I'd only quarter of an hour to wait. 'You go on down,' I said. 'I'll stay up top a bit.'

He looked at me quickly, his eyes suddenly suspicious. His hand came out of his jacket pocket. The blue steel of his gun glinted. 'Go on,' he said. 'Get down the shaft.' His voice had the high pitch of tension. He was scared of me.

'For God's sake, Dave,' I said. 'We came up for a breath of air, didn't we? It won't hurt to stay up top a little longer. You don't want to go down to that stuffy little hole again, do you?'

'No,' he said. 'But I'm taking no chances, see. You heard what the Captain said. He said if you weren't here in the morning, I'd get no passage on the Arisaig.' 'But, good God,' I said, 'I'm not going to run away.'

'Bloody right, you're not,' he answered sharply. 'Now get going.'

'Listen,' I said. 'I just want to stay up here for a few minutes more. I won't run away. I give you my word.'

'Think I'd take your word. It's daft, you are, to talk of such a thing.' His dark eyes watched me narrowly, the gun gripped in his hand. 'It's up to something, you are, man,' he said excitedly. 'And I'm taking no chances. I'm wanted for murder. And the only man who can get me out of the country safely is Captain Manack. Now, get down that shaft. Try anything and I'll shoot you.'

I laughed. 'You wouldn't dare,' I said. 'Captain Manack needs a live miner to open up that gallery. A dead one's no good to him. Look, Dave — I'll tell you why I want to stay up top a little longer. There's a girl up at the house. She used to know my mother. I've arranged to meet her down here. There, will that satisfy you? She's coming down at three o'clock — that's in ten minutes' time.'

'You're lying,' he breathed excitedly. 'I don't believe a word of it. It's up to something, you are. I know it. You want to get away on your own — turn King's Evidence, maybe. If you hadn't turned up the other night, I'd have taken Sylvia Coran with me and the police would never have known I'd survived the disappearance of the Isle of Mull. Your fault it is that I'm on the run. Do you understand? Your fault. And now you want to get away from me. Now you think I'm dangerous.' He was quivering with the violence of his feelings and there was a murderous gleam in his eyes. 'Well, I am dangerous,' he added. 'I'm not afraid of using a gun. And I don't want any more talk about girls. You're not meeting a girl. You're trying to get away. All that nonsense about seeing the old man safely up to the house. Lies, all damned, lousy, bloody lies. You're trying to get clear of us. Well, you're not going to do it, see. Now, get down that shaft or I'll start shooting.'

He was all worked up. The gun literally quivered in his hand as he brought it up. I believe he wanted to use it. I think he wanted to feel the power that firing a gun gives a man. He needed that sense of power, for he was scared — and that made him dangerous. I sat down on the protecting wall of the shaft. I did it with an assumption of ease which I certainly did not feel. 'Have some sense, Dave,' I said. 'Fire that thing and it'll be heard for miles. Kill me and — "

'It's fitted with a silencer,' he interrupted with a tight-lipped grin.

'All right,' I said. 'But if you kill me, Manack won't do anything for you. Right now he needs me.'

'I shan't kill you,' he answered.

'All right,' I said. 'But if you wound me, it'll be just as bad. Captain Manack needs that gallery opened up right away. A wounded miner is no more use to him than a dead one.'

Dave laughed. 'It's a good shot, I am. And a miner can work all right even if he has no toes.' His voice suddenly became almost strident. 'For Crissake, man, get down that shaft or do I have to hurt you?'

He raised his gun. He meant it. I could see that. I shrugged my shoulders. What was the good? I'd need my feet if I was to get Kitty away from this place. He was raising the gun now. His whole body trembled with the desire to fire it. His eyes were almost glazed. I had broken out into a sweat. 'All right, Dave,' I said quickly, as the black barrel of the gun pointed at my left boot. 'I'll go down.' He didn't seem to hear. I could see the white of his first finger knuckle as he squeezed at the trigger. 'All right, Dave,' I shouted.

His eyes lost their glazed look and met mine. Then he looked down at the gun in his hand. Slowly, almost reluctantly, he lowered his arm to his side. The sweat glistened on his face. He seemed dazed. 'Get on down, then,' he said in a voice that was strangely husky. He was like a man drained of all energy.

I went down the shaft. The rock holds were wet and slimy under my hands. Darkness and the sound of water closed me in. The world above was reduced to a white circle of light. The moon was so low that no light came down into the shaft. Then the circle of light was filled with Dave's dark figure and the yellow gleam of his torch shone on the rock walls.

Back in the hideout, he closed the entrance and bolted it. Then he had me sit on one side of the dugout whilst he squatted on a box on the other side, the gun across his knees and his black eyes watching me ceaselessly. I lit another miner's lamp and sat there thinking of Kitty. The hands of my watch moved slowly round to three o'clock.

Blast that frightened little Welshman! She'd be up there waiting for me. She'd think I wasn't coming because I was angry with her. My God, she might do anything if I didn't turn up. The picture of her seated by the kitchen range, dry-eyed and shaken with fearful sobs, leapt to my mind. She had blamed herself for what had happened. She was in no fit state of mind to be left alone. If I didn't meet her, she might… I thrust that thought out of my mind. She'd come down to the hideout as she had done before. No good imagining things. She was upset — terribly upset — that was all. It was quite natural. She wasn't the sort of girl who would go and do anything foolish.

But as the time drifted by I became more and more worried. I kept on seeing her standing up there all alone as the moon's shadows lengthened and lengthened. And then when I didn't come… There were the cliffs straight ahead of her. She'd think of the cliffs and how my mother had ended her life. She was bound to.

I kept on glancing across at Dave Tanner. And every time I did so, his black eyes would meet mine watchfully. Once he said, 'It's no good. I'm watching you and I'm not sleepy.'

I fancied I could hear the tick of my wrist-watch. It was so still. It was like a tomb. Suddenly there was a new sound. Dave started to his feet, the gun in his hand. It was the hollow sound of rock on rock. It came from the entrance-way. 'Somebody's trying to get in,' Dave whispered. His eyes were dilated and his whole body tense. 'It's the police. It's tapping, they are — searching for the entrance.'

'Nonsense,' I said. 'It's the girl. Open up, Dave.'

'No,' he cried. 'No. Stand back.'

His gun was pointed at my stomach. He was so strung up I didn't dare move. If I'd moved he'd have fired. 'I didn't tell the Captain,' he whispered. 'But when I was coming here I ran slap into the local bobby. Up on the main road, it was. I came that way because it was quicker than going round by the moors. He was standing quite still fiddling with his bike. I didn't see him until he shone his torch on me.'