“So I gathered. Hurry up, will you?” Jim’s voice sounded strained. “I have a feeling…”
I had it too-the queasy, quavery shaking of the entrails that was becoming only too familiar. The women had hoped to summon the gods and they had succeeded in arousing the greatest of them all.
The ground began to rock gently. Then the sky to the north caught fire. A column of flame shot up amid a roar of erupting gas. In the livid, unearthly glare every blade of grass, every twig stood out as if outlined in fire.
The women broke. I don’t know whether it was superstition or natural fear that made them flee; most of them had families, and they knew what might follow. Or perhaps they interpreted the spectacular demonstration as a sign that the gods weren’t pleased with the proceedings.
A few of the toughest women lingered. Helena was one of them. A glowing lump of magma struck the ground behind her; she glanced at it and then looked at us. Her expression turned me cold, and in the extremity of the moment it seemed to me that I could read her mind. Maybe the gods were getting impatient because the sacrifice was delayed.
Kore was crawling around on the ground, trying to find the knife, which she had dropped in her terror. Jim was struggling, trying to free himself. Helena was stalking toward us, glaring. Redhot stones were falling. Then, through the chaos, a voice rose, in a bellow whose volume made it impossible to identify the speaker.
“Police!” Kore gasped. “It is the police!”
“It can’t be,” Jim gasped back; he was still struggling. “There aren’t any-Kore!”
But Kore was gone. I had never seen her move so quickly. The few remaining women had dispersed too. We were alone in the clearing. And the rocks were still falling, red-hot coals of magma from the tormented entrails of the volcano. I was struggling too-a senseless action, but I couldn’t help it, it was horrible to be unable to move amid the hail of molten debris. A stone hit the ground six feet away, spattering fragments. One of them stung my leg. I was screaming-I’m not ashamed to admit it-and my eyes were shut tight.
When I opened them again, it was like waking from tormented sleep to the reassurance of reality. The clearing was utterly peaceful. The stars shone down, blurred by lingering dust particles, but serene and steadfast. Then I saw Jim and I knew the nightmare wasn’t over.
His final struggle to free himself had succeeded. His wrists were scraped raw, but his hands were unbound; they rested, lax and empty, on the dusty ground. Dust grayed his hair as he lay face down. There was no sign of the rock that had struck him.
There was no rock, because he had not been hit by a rock.
Slowly, shrinkingly, my eyes moved up from the booted feet of the man who stood beside me-up, all the way, till they reached his face, with its magnificent, spreading moustache.
“So it was you,” I said.
Sir Christopher stuck the gun in his belt. He had been holding it by the barrel.
“I was the police, yes,” he said. “The women were too distraught to realize that the official forces of the island have many other problems on their hands just now.”
“That’s not what I meant,” I said.
“So Keller has broken his silence.” Sir Christopher stood musing for a moment. “I thought he might. How unfortunate for you.”
“But this is so unnecessary,” I groaned. “I thought Frederick was the traitor. If you hadn’t given yourself away by knocking Jim out-”
“You aren’t thinking,” Sir Christopher said reprovingly. “You may have been misled, but you are the only one. You are an undisciplined child; eventually you would accuse your father, and as soon as he learned what really happened thirty years ago, he would have known I had…”
It was strange, how he avoided a direct admission. It wasn’t caution; who could hear him now, except me? Yet he couldn’t bring himself to say the word. He could commit the act and kill to conceal it, but he couldn’t say it.
“You mean,” I said, “ Frederick could prove he was innocent?”
“My dear girl,” Sir Christopher said impatiently, “when there are only two suspects, and one knows he is innocent, he knows who must be guilty! Yes; he could have proved that he was on the other side of the peninsula, in the company of a dozen men, during the crucial period. And he is vicious enough to expose me. He is a cold, unfeeling man. I couldn’t risk that. Even if I were not imprisoned, my career and my family name would be destroyed.”
“Not to mention all those titles you are looking forward to. I suppose it wouldn’t do me any good to promise to keep quiet?”
“I’m afraid not.” Sir Christopher moved behind me and began tugging at the bonds that held me to the tree.
“This is your fault, you know,” he said in a petulant voice. “I tried my best to induce you to leave Thera. Without you, Frederick would have been forced to end his operations and he would never have encountered Keller. It was imperative that I prevented a meeting between them. Keller has become distressingly unstable these last few years, and I feared the sight of Frederick might move him to clear his dirty little conscience. When I learned that Frederick had made plans to come here, I had to move heaven and earth to arrange my own dig. Then that wretched boy wrote asking to join me. I could hardly refuse without appearing small-minded, could I? I had no reason to expect that he would pose a problem; his name was not the same, and he and Keller were unlikely to meet. Had I realized how much he resembles his uncle, I might have acted differently; but frankly I can’t see it myself, I don’t know why Keller… Damn these ropes!They seem to be wire wrapped in cloth. Some ritual invention of Kore, no doubt. Her insane cult has been extremely useful to me. But if it had not existed, I would have discovered other means. The ability to make use of the means at hand is a sign of intelligence.”
“You were the one who staged the accidents,” I said. “The avalanche, the booby trap, even the shot yesterday… That was aimed at me, not at Keller.”
“Stop squirming,” Sir Christopher snapped. “This is difficult enough without your making it harder.”
I started to ask why he was bothering to free me, but I didn’t want to give him any ideas that might hasten the inevitable end. It would have been so simple for him to drop one of those handy chunks of magma on my head. Then I realized that he was as anxious as the women must be to conceal any signs of his activities. If I was found dead under these conditions, there would be an investigation, and someone would be held responsible. An investigation was dangerous; some shrewd policeman might stumble on a hint of Sir Christopher’s activities. But there would be no need for an investigation if I was found some distance away, unbound, and mashed by a fall or avalanche. Keller would keep quiet in order to protect Kore. Jim might be suspicious, but…
I felt as if someone had clamped a giant fist around my ribs. Selfish concern for my own skin had blinded me to Jim’s danger. Had he seen the man who knocked him out? If he had not, and if Sir Christopher could be convinced that Jim didn’t know of his uncle’s betrayal, he might let Jim live. It would double the risk to kill us both.
I thought furiously, so preoccupied that I was only vaguely aware that the wires were loosening. I couldn’t blurt out a flat statement of Jim’s ignorance, that would be as bad as asserting the opposite.
Then I saw something that made me forget my dilemma. The fire was dying down, so the something was only a shadow, visible for a moment above the low ridge that surrounded the ancient amphitheater. It had looked like the shadow of a man.
I used to pride myself on my ability to react quickly in a crisis. But this was a crisis of monumental proportions, and I had only a few seconds to convince Sir Christopher that Jim was unwitting and to distract his attention from the rescuer-if it was a rescuer, and not just a shadow in my mind… I was further handicapped by myweakness, which was apparent as soon as the ropes fell away from my body. I was stiff as a board and my hands had gone numb. When I tried to stand I toppled over sideways, like a rigid statue of a seated woman.