I grinned at Geordie. 'Where did you put Kane, by the way?' I asked casually.
'We haven't a brig on the ship, but we're making one now. In the meantime he's under guard in my cabin.'
Campbell's jaw dropped. 'You mean you've got Kane?'
'Of course,' I said. I didn't say that it had been a near thing, or how close we came to not achieving our objective. 'We thought we'd hand him over to the Tongan police but circumstances – ah – preceded that.'
'What circumstances?'
'Ramirez's ship got a bit bent,' I said. 'I couldn't control the lads.' I gave Geordie a sly look – I was taking his argument and using it against Campbell.
'How bent?'
'One of us had an accident with some explosive,' I said.
'That thump we heard? As we left harbour? You blew up their ship?' He was incredulous.
'Oh no, nothing like that,' said Geordie placatingly. 'There's a bit of a hole in their engine crankcase, that's all. They won't be following us in a hurry.'
They won't have to,' said Campbell. 'What do you suppose Ramirez is doing now? He'll have got back to his ship -seething mad thanks to you fools – found it wrecked, and by now he'll be presenting himself at the nearest police station, still in his wet clothes, claiming assault and piracy. I should say that within an hour there'll be a fast patrol boat leaving Nuku'alofa and coming right after us. And we won't get out of it as we did in Tahiti – this time we are in the wrong.'
We looked at each other in silence.
'Or maybe he won't,' said Campbell slowly. 'Not after what I told him back there.' He jerked his head astern.
'What was that?' I said. I saw that Campbell's eyes suddenly held the same glint that I'd seen in Geordie's earlier that night.
'I said the Tahitian police were very unhappy. I said they knew about Hadley and Kane and that they had witnesses who'd seen Ramirez with them at Tanakabu, the first time they went there.'
'What witnesses?'
He grinned at us. That's what Ramirez wanted to know. I said three of the hospital patients and a couple of staff had seen him. He laughed at me, but it hit home.'
'I don't know anything about any witnesses,' I said.
'Mike, sometimes you're pretty slow on the uptake – there were no goddam witnesses, as far as I know. But someone had to think fast to get us out of this jam. I told Ramirez that the police were looking for more evidence, but that they already had him fairly linked with the events on Tanakabu, and that if he went to the cops in Tonga with any kind of story about us pirating his ship, and if we were picked up, then we'd make enough of a stink to get the Tahitian police down here fast.'
Geordie said, 'Now, that's interesting. We know he was at Tanakabu – Schouten saw him.'
'Exactly,' said Campbell. 'And how does he know that someone else didn't see him too? He can't take the chance -he'll have to lie low. As long as the suspicions of the Tahiti police remain just that – suspicions – he'll be happy. But he won't stir up anything that will give the cops a line on him. At least, I hope not. So I hope he'll dummy up about your stupid raid.'
I said, 'He won't go to the police while we have Kane. Kane is our trump card. Ramirez wouldn't dare let Kane get into the hands of the police.'
'Mike, he's a clever man. Clever and subtle when he has to be. I wouldn't put it past him to wriggle out of that one.'
'And something else,' I said. 'Maybe the raid wasn't as stupid as you think – a bit hare-brained, I'll grant you, but worth while. What we found on that ship was as subtle as a crack on the head with a hammer.' I gestured to Ian. Trot out your collection of ironmongery.'
Ian delved in various pockets and brought out the bolts he had taken from the rifles. Campbell's eyes widened as he saw the mounting pile they made on the deck.
'He had ten rifles?'
'Fifteen,' I corrected. The others were automatic action. We've smashed them and dropped them over the side. Plus four sub-machine guns and a lot of pistols.'
Geordie dug into his pocket and produced a hand grenade which he tossed casually. There were a few of these too. I hung on to a couple.'
'Not much subtlety about that, is there?' I asked.
'And he's got twice as many men as he needs,' said Geordie. 'He isn't paying that big crew to stand half-watches either.' Geordie, too, wasn't losing any opportunity to rub Campbell's nose in it.
Campbell's eyes flickered as he watched the grenade bounce in Geordie's hand. 'For God's sake stop that. You'll blow us all up. Let's go down to the saloon and have a drink -it's pretty damn late.'
It was in fact getting into the small hours of the morning but I felt wide awake, and everyone else seemed to share that feeling, even Campbell. Only Clare and Paula, after a brief appearance on deck, had vanished below again.
'No,' I said to Campbell's offer. 'I want to talk to Kane -now. And I want to be dead sober when I do it. Is he conscious, Geordie?'
'Nothing that a bucket of sea water won't cure.'
The three of us went down to the cabin, leaving Ian on deck, to find Jim and Nick Dugan stolidly on guard. Kane was conscious – and scared. He flinched when we went into the cabin and huddled at the end of Geordie's bunk as though by making himself smaller he wouldn't be noticed. Four of us made a crowd in the small cabin, and Kane was, and felt, thoroughly hemmed in.
He looked as haggard as when I'd first seen him in London, unshaven and ill, and carried his right arm awkwardly – I remembered that Clare had shot him. His eyes slid away when I looked at him.
'Look at me, Kane.'
Slowly his eyes moved until they met mine. His throat worked and his eyes blinked and watered.
'You're going to talk to us, Kane, and you're going to tell us the truth: You might think you're not, but you are. Because if you don't we'll work on you until you do. I was at Tanakabu, Kane, and you must know that anyone who was there won't be squeamish in their methods. I'm a civilized man and it may be that I'll be sickened – but don't count on that, Kane, because there are more than a dozen men on this ship who aren't nearly as squeamish as I am. Do you understand me, Kane? Have I made myself perfectly clear?'
But there was never going to be any resistance out of him. His tongue flickered out and he licked his lips and croaked incoherently. He was still reacting to the blow over the head, a physical problem to add to his mental ones.
'Answer me.'
His head bobbed. 'I'll talk to you,' he whispered.
'Give him a whisky, Geordie,' I said. He drank some of it and a little colour came into his face, and he sat up straighter, but with no less fear in his face.
'All right,' I said deliberately. 'We'll start right at the beginning. You went to London to find Helen Trevelyan and then me. Why?'
'Jim boobed,' he said. 'He let that suitcase get away. There were the books and the stones in it. We had to get them back.'
'You and Ramirez and some of his cut-throats, right?'
'Yair, that's right.'
'But you didn't get them all back, did you? Did Ramirez know that?'
'He said – you must have something else. Didn't know what.'
'So he laid you alongside me to try and find out what I had?'.
'Yair. And to pass word where you went, anytime I could.' Now he was volunteering information, and it was getting easier. Campbell and Geordie were silent and watchful, leaving the going to me. I was eager to find out about Mark but decided to lead up to that by taking other directions first, which would also serve to confuse Kane.
'You smashed our radio, didn't you?'
'Yair. I was told to.'
'And led Hadley in the Pearl around on our track?' We already knew this but I let him confirm it.
'Why did you tell the Papeete police that we'd burnt the hospital? Surely even you could see that we could disprove that pretty easily.'