“Report to Abel.”
“Who’s in Washington.”
Ellery shrugged. “Then we wait till he gets back.”
“Suppose,” said his father, “suppose Abel doesn’t get back till Friday, June twenty-second?”
Ellery tapped his lip with the edge of the note.
“Or suppose he gets back in time. We report. He says ‘Thank you, gentlemen, that’s what I thought, here’s your hat — take off!’ So we fly into the sunset, or whatever the devil direction New York is from here — and I ask you, Why? What were we needed for in the first place?”
“And what,” mumbled Ellery, “what do they do with Brother Judah? Skin him alive? Hang him by the neck till he can’t even swallow Segonzac? Slap his skinny little wrist?”
“Climb out of those wet clothes, son. No sense getting pneumonia on top of a first-class skull ache.”
They undressed in silence.
8
What followed was intolerable. For what followed was nothing at all. All the next day Abel did not return to the island. Karla could not see them — she was reported ill, nothing of importance, but Dr. Storm was keeping her in bed. King Bendigo returned to the Home Office and, as if to make up for the day he had lost, remained there until far into the night, working with Peabody. The Queens saw Judah two or three times; he waved amiably but managed to keep out of their way. They had long since discussed the advisability of tackling Judah on their own initiative, without waiting for Abel, but they decided against this.
There was literally nothing to do.
So they wandered over the island.
“Maybe,” remarked the Inspector, “I can add to my little bundle of notes and sketches.”
Even the Shirts had disappeared. At least, no block was put in their path and no one, so far as they could make out, trailed them.
On the second day after the incident of the boxing glove, they were exploring a part of the island neither had seen before. There were no factories or workers’ homes here. It was a barren place, an area of sand dunes and leathery scrub, with the blue glass of the sea rolling in to smash into splinters against the cliff walls. This was one of the spit ends of the island, exposed to the sea on three sides, and it had probably been left in its natural state because of the difficulty of effective camouflage.
“But not entirely,” said Ellery. “If you’ll look up there — where the thick stuff starts growing — you’ll see something that looks like the biggest leaning birch tree you ever saw. Only it’s a sixteen-inch gun.”
“Who’d want this Godforsaken place, anyway?” snarled his father. “What’s that?”
“What’s what?”
The Inspector was a little ahead, to one side of a dune, and when Ellery joined him with a stride the stride stopped short.
The cliff wall crumbled at their feet to make a steep but negotiable path down to the beach. Between the shoreline and the base of the cliff there was a concrete building. It was not a large building, and its few iron-barred windows were so small that it looked like a fort in miniature. Palm trees had been planted about the structure, which was streaked and slashed with green and dun-colored paint. From the sea it was probably indistinguishable from its background.
Around the entire area rose a twelve-foot metal fence topped with barbed wire.
Ellery pointed to some camouflaged cables. “Electrified.”
There was a little blistery bulb of a lookout on top of the building, with a narrow embrasure through which machine-gun muzzles protruded. Uniformed men, heavily armed, patrolled the enclosure.
“Soldiers of the Kingdom of Bendigo,” said Ellery through his teeth. “They must get lonely way out here. Maybe they’ll loosen up to a kind word.”
Ellery scrambled down the path, the Inspector at his heels. Bits of shale flew from under their feet. The sun was hot.
As they reached the base of the cliff they came upon a small Residence car. There was a key in its ignition lock, but the car was empty. They looked around. There was no beach road. They had had to leave their car up on the cliff some distance away, where the road ended.
“Now how the dickens did this car get down here?”
“A tunnel.” Ellery pointed. “Plugged up — see the camouflaged door? It must lead up through the rock and join the main road somewhere back there. Cliff doors, God help us! I tell you, Dad, these people never grew beyond the age of eight.”
“They’re little hellers, though,” said his father dryly.
“Halt!”
The gate was locked. Just inside were two soldiers armed with sub-machine-guns. The guns were trained on the Queens’ bellies through the gate. Between the soldiers loomed an officer with a sun-black face and eyes the color and warmth of oyster shell.
A little to one side, smoking a brown cigarette, stood Colonel Spring.
“Good morning,” said Ellery to Colonel Spring.
The Colonel smoked.
“What do you want?” The officer had a harsh, mechanical voice.
“Nothing especially. Just rubbernecking — Major, is it? I’m still not familiar with your insignia system.” Maybe Spring didn’t like to interfere in the routine duties of his subordinates. He was standing there as if he had never seen them before. “May we come in, Colonel, and look around?”
Colonel Spring smoked.
“Your passes!” rapped the officer.
“What is this place, anyway?” muttered the Inspector.
All right, Colonel, if that’s your game... “Yes, what are you boys playing at way out here, Major?”
“Your passes!” There was no humor in that robot voice.
The Queens stopped smiling.
“We don’t have any passes,” said Ellery carefully. “Colonel Spring can tell you who we are.”
“I know who you are. Your pass.”
“We have King and Abel Bendigo’s personal permission to go anywhere on the island. Hasn’t the word come down?”
“Produce it!”
“Produce what?” Ellery was growing angry. “I’ve told you. Your King said we could go anywhere we pleased.”
“In this place you must produce a written pass signed by Colonel Spring. This is forbidden ground. If you have no pass, leave at once. Do you have a pass?”
“Well, I’ll be damned,” said the Inspector.
Ellery deliberately looked the Colonel over. The hippy, elegant little man in the uniform might have been watching the antics of a cageful of trained fleas. “All right, Colonel, here we are and there you are. Inspector Queen and I want a pass. Make one out.”
The little Colonel smiled. “Certainly, Mr. Queen. But then you’ll have to have it counter-signed by King Bendigo or Abel Bendigo. Those are the rules. Apply to my office in the usual way. Good morning.” He poised the smoldering brown butt of his cigarette delicately, dropped it, and ground it with the heel of his boot into the shaly sand.
“Come on, son,” said Inspector Queen.
Four things happened almost simultaneously.
The only visible door of the concrete building opened and the chubby figure of Dr. Storm appeared, carrying a medical bag; behind him towered an enormous guard.
Ellery snatched a pair of binoculars from his pocket, clapped them to his eyes, and trained them on one of the barred windows of the building.
Colonel Spring stiffened and said something to the officer in a sharp voice.
The officer jumped forward, shouting to the lookout in the blister. Apparently the current charging the fence was operated from the tower. The officer seized the gate and unlocked it.
“Arrest these men,” said Colonel Spring.
The binoculars were tom from Ellery’s grasp by the officer and the next moment the Queens were in the grip of the two armed soldiers.