Coasts of Cape York (52 page)

“Tough kid! Give us the maps or we will shoot the old duck. Then we will enjoy ourselves with Little Miss Pretty here. And if you still won't give us the maps then we will shoot her as well and then hunt you all down,” the man shouted.

“Oh my God!” Jacob croaked, his whole face taking on a ghastly, haunted look. “We must.”

“Yes, we must,” Willy agreed. “But first we will negotiate.”

Seeing Graham, Andrew and Carmen nod agreement Willy turned and called, “OK, we agree. We will hand over the maps. But we want to be sure we stay safe. If you hurt either of the women then we destroy the maps and then spend the night fighting you.  Do it our way and you get the maps easily.”

There was a minute's delay while the two men conferred. While they did Willy noted that the sun was now very low in the west, was already staring to slip behind the bulk of Blackwood Island. ‘Be dark in about an hour. Can we last that long?' he wondered.

The big man with the rifle yelled back up the hill, “What's the deal kid?”

Willy's mind had been racing, trying to come up with a plan that did not allow any more of them become hostages or place them in the power of a double-cross. To Jacob he said, “Who is that? Is that Gator?”

“Yes, and the other one is Corey,” Jacob replied.

Willy saw that he was trembling and licking his lips repeatedly. ‘I hope I don't look as scared as that,' he thought. ‘I won't make much of a fighter pilot if I crumple that easily!' But the only plan he could come up with was full of holes. He called back, “We need a few minutes to sort out Jacob's papers so that he still has his wallet and credit cards and so on. Then I will come down to the beach with the maps. One of you is to leave your gun and bring one of the hostages with you to meet me. The other man stays where he is with Mrs van der Heyden.  Got that?”

“I'm listening,” Gator called back.

Willy licked dry lips and felt annoyed with himself. He had not meant to consciously choose between the two females but Julia's age and good looks had influenced him and he knew it. He went on, “You can check that the maps are what you want and then we will step apart. I will lay the maps on the ground and you will walk back to your mate while the girl comes up the hill. I will stay near the maps until you let Mrs van der Heyden go. Once you have let her go I will walk away as she climbs up the hill.”

There was another delay while the men argued this. Then Gator yelled back, “I don't like it. What is to stop you just running off with the maps?”

“Because Mrs van der Heyden will be in full view of you for most of the time,” Willy replied, adding, “And because this is the easiest plan for you. It saves you from more murder charges and all those sorts of problems.”

Gator thought for a moment, then yelled back, “Yeah, OK. I will meet you at the bottom in five minutes.”

“Right,” Willy agreed. He turned to Jacob, surprised how calm and determined he felt. “OK Jacob, dig out the maps.”

Jacob looked sick but nodded. Willy led the way a bit further to the left and crouched behind a larger boulder. The others joined him, crowding in close. Graham touched Willy's arm and said, “You don't have to do this Willy. I'll go.”

Willy shook his head firmly. “I will do it,” he insisted, surprised at his own determination. Impatiently he held out his hand while Jacob fumbled in the zip wallet on his belt. A bundle of papers, bank notes, coins, notebooks and wallet were dug out and placed on a flat rock. Jacob tried to sort through them but his hands shook so much that Willy impatiently pushed them aside and picked up the wallet. He placed this aside and then quickly sorted out other papers and objects which were obviously not treasure maps.

There were two newspaper articles, the headlines of which piqued Willy's curiosity. One read: ‘Fate of Makassang Crown Jewels?' and the other said, ‘Mystery of who took the Makassang Crown Jewels.' ‘Hmm, crown jewels eh?' Willy thought. He held them up. “Are either of these important?”

Jacob shook his head. “They are but those crooks already have copies. They don't tell you where to look.”

“So what does?” Willy growled. He was fast losing patience with Jacob.

Jacob touched a section of chart and two pages of handwritten notes, plus a photocopy of several pages of a book. “Those are all the clues I have,” he said.

“Do the crooks know about them all?” Willy asked.

“Yes.”

“OK, they will do. Now, when I start going down the hill, you all creep up the hill another fifty metres or so, but do it one at a time and slowly so as not to alarm them,” Willy said. As he said this an angry shout from the beach made him stand up and wave. “Keep your hair on! I'm coming,” he shouted back.

Carmen grabbed his hand. “Good luck Willy. I think you are very brave.”

Willy managed a smile back and wondered if he was. Removing his hand he wiped it on his trousers and then picked up the vital papers. Then he began to climb back down the hill. The first few steps he found hard because his heart was pounding so rapidly he found it hard to concentrate and to focus. But then he saw the Gator lay down his pistol and take Julia by the arm.

As Willy climbed slowly down he saw Gator and Julia start walking slowly along the beach towards the bottom of the hill. Willy took his time, every nerve alert. He was very conscious that he might be dead in a few minutes and he paused several times to savour the beauty of the scene, to sniff the fresh breeze, to admire the ruddy glow of the sunset.

Then he continued on down. It took two minutes for him to reach the beach and he arrived at the same time as Gator and Julia. Making sure that there was a big boulder between him and the man with the rifle Willy stood and waited, trying to appear calm. Gator stopped and shoved Julia behind him. Thrusting out his hand he said, “OK kid, let's see.”

Willy looked back, noting the eyes showing through the holes in the balaclava. With something of a shock he realized he knew the man. “You are man who burgled the Beck's; the man we saw in Cooktown,” he stated.

The mouth twisted into a sardonic grin. “Yeah, I wondered where it was that I'd seen you, but I couldn't place you,” Gator answered.

“Do you work for Mr Jemmerling?” Willy asked.

“Nope. I don't work for anyone but myself. Who's Mr Jemmerlink?” Gator answered.

Willy shrugged. He was certain that Gator was speaking the truth and it seemed to lift a heavy cloud from his mind. Instead he said, “You have been stalking the van der Heydens.”

Gator gave a harsh laugh. “Sure we have, the schmucks! But it hasn't been easy keeping tabs on them, even with radar. They've been all over the bloody place as though they weren't sure where to look.”

Willy could not resist a wry smile. “Yes, I don't think navigation is one of their strong points,” he said. That made Julia blush and he felt a tiny surge of guilt. “So why did you burgle the Becks?” he asked. He remained tense, ready to try to fight the man off if he tried to attack him.

Gator shrugged impatiently. “Because these dopes are looking for a plane wreck and we were told that Mr Beck is the local expert on World War Two wrecks. But none of his stuff was any use to us so we had to go back to tailing this crowd. Now give me the maps.”

That made sense to Willy so he held the papers tightly so that Gator could see them clearly.  As he did he was afraid Gator would just reef them out of his grip and run. There were then a couple of anxious minutes while Gator carefully scrutinized them. Then, to Willy's relief, he shrugged and said, “They seem to be the ones.”

“They are,” Willy answered. “So you were going to wait till the van der Heydens had found the plane and the treasure and then you were going to move in and take it off them?” he said.

Gator frowned, then grinned, the sight of the cruel mouth showing through the balaclava sending shivers through Willy. “Sure we were.”

“So why didn't you wait?” Willy asked. “Why come into the open now?”

“We thought they had found it and when we saw them go off with that barge we decided to act. Now, let's get on with this,” Gator answered.

Willy nodded. “OK, you let Julia go and back off. Then I will put the papers down,” he said.

This was the critical moment and Willy tensed ready. But Gator just grunted and shoved Julia past him, then stepped back and waited. Satisfied that neither he nor Julia was within easy lunging distance Willy bent down and put the papers down. To prevent the wind from blowing them away he placed a small stone on them. He then stepped back.

Julia joined him and he pointed up the hill. “Go and join the others,” he instructed. She did not argue but began climbing the slope. Gator took several more steps backward and so did Willy. Their eyes remained locked, neither trusting the other. Willy gestured, “Go on, you go back and let Mrs van der Heyden go.”

To his relief Gator turned and walked away without argument. This made Willy suspicious but he did not know what else to do. So he stood and waited, making sure he could not be shot by the rifle. A minute later he breathed out as he saw Mrs van der Heyden start climbing up the hill. Once he saw that Willy turned and also started climbing. For added safety he angled further away.

Every few seconds Willy stopped climbing, partly to get his breath back but mostly to monitor Mrs van der Heyden's progress up the hill. To his relief she angled over towards him. Satisfied she had a good start Willy started climbing quickly.

It was as well that he did because Gator snatched up his pistol and started running along the beach towards the maps while Corey raised his rifle and went straight up the slope after Mrs van der Heyden.

‘The mongrels! They are not going to let us go at all. They are going to hunt us down,' Willy realized.

 

 

CHAPTER 34

 

MAROONED!

 

A spasm of pure fear coursed through Willy. Then he resumed scrambling frantically up the slope, still angling away to his left. He found it a particularly difficult activity.  Even without being hunted it required fitness and agility and he was already feeling winded. Added to this was the need to keep looking around to try to keep track of the situation. This meant he several times stumbled or slipped because his whole attention was not focused on the jumble of rocks up which he was climbing.

After a particularly hard fall he slowed down and took more care. ‘If I break my ankle or leg I won't get away at all,' he thought. Rubbing a bruised knee he again looked around. Shots, followed by yelling and shouting made him climb over a boulder to where he could see what was causing it.

He saw that it was being done by Graham, Andrew and Carmen. They were bobbing up and down behind rocks, hurling cricket ball sized stones down the hill towards Corey. This was obviously to cover Mrs van der Heyden while she struggled frantically up to join them. To Willy's delight he saw several stones land close to Corey, bouncing or shattering when they did. Corey cried out in anger and ducked.

‘That is a good idea,' Willy thought, ‘But bloody risky!' That gave him an idea. Looking back down the hill he saw that Gator had begun clambering up after him. A quick search provided Willy with a suitable sized stone. After a careful glance to check where his target was Willy stood and flung it as hard as he could. His eyes followed the stone as it flew down the slope.

‘It is going to hit him!' he thought in disbelief and satisfaction.

But at the last second Gator moved. The stone struck the boulder in front of him and then bounced, striking the man hard in the chest. Gator went down, shouting in pain. A moment later he reappeared, swearing and very angry. “You little bastard! I'll kill you!” he screamed. Raising the pistol he fired.

Willy ducked even as the pistol spat. The bullet struck a nearby rock and went shrieking off to ricochet around hillside. ‘That worked,' Willy decided. He picked up another stone and hurled it, ducking back even as Gator's pistol fired again. This time his aim was not as good but nor was Gator's as he missed. Willy had no idea where the bullet went. Taking advantage of a third stone he scrambled up around another boulder.

Facing back down the slope he hurled two more stones. Off to his left the others were still hurling both taunts and stones. A glance showed Willy that Mrs van der Heyden had reached them and was being urged on up the hill. Julia had joined in the stone throwing, hurling hers towards Gator.

Willy gave her a grateful grin and moved up the hill a bit further. Then he looked around again. ‘Where is Jacob?' he wondered. Fearing he might have been hit he looked hard but saw no sign of him. Commanded by Graham, who was shouting orders, the others were pulling back one at a time. ‘Army cadet doing fire and movement,' Willy noted. Thinking it an excellent idea he yelled to Julia, “I'll throw, you go back up the hill a bit and then cover me.”

Julia did so and Willy hurled three rocks. Then he looked back up the hill and saw her wave, then throw a stone. Willy scrambled back up the slope until he was level with her. By then his breath was coming in rasping, hot gulps and he was wildly excited. A quick look back down the hill revealed that neither of the crooks had moved much further up.

“We are winning this,” Willy cried, as much to cheer himself up as to inform Julia. “Let's do that again.”

Julia gave a mischievous giggle and that lifted Willy's spirits even more. He collected four stones then called, “OK, go!”

As he tossed the stones Julia went uphill fast. Then Willy followed. By then he was at least a hundred and fifty metres from the beach and, he estimated, about half way up the hill. Crouching under cover he looked through a bush and saw that the crooks were not following. Corey was still shooting occasionally but Willy judged he was well out of the pistol's effective range. Graham, Andrew, and Carmen worked their way back and across to join him.