West from Singapore (Ss) (1987) (20 page)

"If not the Nazis," Jim protested, "then who could it be?" "I wish I knew." Arnold's eyes narrowed. "But you'd better come along and tell this to Skelton. He's in charge here in Port Tewfik. The man who will have to know and to act."

Chapter
II.

Death Strikes the Semiramis Seated in the office of Anthony Skelton, two hours later, Ponga Jim Mayo repeated his story, quietly and in detail. Two other men were there besides Demarest and Arnold.

One he was introduced to as Captain Woodbern, of the Navy. The other was General Jerome Kernan.

Before Ponga Jim's story was completed, Skelton was tapping his desk impatiently.

Captain Woodbern was frankly smiling. "Major Arnold," Skelton said abruptly, "I've heard a great deal of your ability. I've also heard of the work Captain Mayo has been doing in the Far East. Which makes me the more surprised at your taking our time, Major, with such an obvious cock-and-bull story. This Captain Mayo evidently has a peculiar sense of humor or is susceptible to hallucinations. Such a story as his is preposterous on the face of it!"

Arnold stiffened. "I know Captain Mayo too well, Mr. Skelton," he replied stiffly, "to doubt his word. If he says this story is true, then I believe it is true!"

"Then you're more credulous than any intelligence officer should be!" Skelton snapped.

"Captain Mayo evidently saw something," Captain Woodbern said, smiling, "but I'm afraid the darkness, the battle, the flames, and the general excitement caused his imagination to work a little overtime."

General Kernan turned slightly in his chair. He was a big man with a hard jaw, a cold eye, and a close-clipped mustache. "Mayo isn't the type to be seeing things, Skelton," he said.

"Major Arnold has known him for some time, and his work has been valuable. I want to hear more of his story."

Skelton glanced down at some papers on his desk. "We'll see that proper investigation is made," he said shortly. "In fact, we have already ordered two destroyers to the scene."

Ponga Jim leaned forward. "Then, Mr. Skelton," he said quietly, "you've sent two destroyers to destruction. Either they will return having found nothing, or they'll never come back." He got up abruptly. "Thanks for believing my story, General. As for you, Skelton, I'm not in the habit of having my word questioned. All I can say or do about that here and now is to assure you that you are following the same trail of incompetence and smugness of others who didn't believe Hitler would attack Britain, did not believe in parachute troops, or that the Japanese would bomb Pearl Harbor and the Philippines while suing for peace. Well, do what you choose. I shall investigate further myself!"

Skelton's eyes blazed.

"No," he said sharply, "you won't! In the Far East your blunderings may have been occasionally convenient, but we want no civilian interference here. You make one move to investigate or to interfere and I'll have the Semiramis interned for the duration!"

Ponga Jim smiled suddenly. He leaned his big brown fists on the edge of the desk and looked into Skelton's eyes.

"Listen, pal," he said coldly, "you may have a lot of red tape around the throats of other better men than you. But I'm not subject to your orders, and I'll sail when and where I please. If you want to intern my ship, I've got five-point-nines and plenty of ammunition. You'll think you've tackled something. When I get ready to sail, I'm sailing. Stop me if you feel lucky."

He glanced at Arnold, whose face was white.

"Sorry, William, but you can't help that. Be seeing you." He strode from the room.

Skelton's face was deathly white. "I want that man put under arrest and his ship interned!" he snapped.

General Kernan got to his feet.

"You're starting something with the wrong man, Skelton," he said smoothly. "If necessary, Captain Mayo would shoot his way out of harbor or sink trying."

"Nonsense!" Skelton snapped.

"No." Kernan was looking after Mayo thoughtfully. "The man's a Yank, but I was doubting if they had any left like him. Now that I know they have, I feel a lot better. Mayo's another of the school of Perry, Farragut, Decatur, and Hull."

Nathan Demarest left the room quietly, glanced down the hall along which Mayo had gone, and then stepped into an empty office and picked up the telephone.

Ponga Jim walked swiftly down the street and then stopped in a place for a drink.

When he turned to leave, he saw a slim, wiry man sitting at a table near the door.

The man did not look up, but something in the man's attitude made Mayo suspicious.

He would almost have sworn it was the same man he had seen loitering outside Skelton's office as he left. He scowled. Who would want him followed in Suez?

The quay was a litter of piled barrels and cases, of gear and bales. Ponga Jim was just passing a huge crane whose bulk forced him to the edge of the dock, when a black body catapulted from the darkness and smashed him with a shoulder, just hip high.

He felt himself falling and grabbed desperately, catching his attacker by the arm.

They fell, plunging into the black water with terrific force, but even as they sank Ponga Jim felt his attacker's arm slip from his grasp, and the next instant the man had drawn a knife and lunged toward him.

Ponga Jim dived and felt the hot blade of the knife along his shoulder. His lungs all but bursting, he slammed a punch into the man's belly. He saw his attacker's mouth open, but the man was a veritable fiend, and he lunged again with the knife, teeth bared. Ponga Jim pushed away, kicking the man in the belly. Then they broke water.

Instantly, the fellow took a breath and dived, but Ponga Jim went down with him.

At one time Ponga Jim had been a skin diver for pearls. The swift thought flashed now that this fellow was good, and he had a knife, butThe man swung in the water, his body as slippery as an eel's, and then he lunged at Ponga Jim with the knife.

But Mayo was too fast. He dived again, catching the man's wrist. Turning the arm, he jerked it down across his shoulder with terrific force.

Then he pulled free, smashing a fist into the fellow's belly for luck. As he swam he could see the man sinking, his teeth bared, his mouth leaving a trail of bubbles.

The arm was broken.

Ponga Jim swam to a small boat dock and scrambled from the water. For a moment he stood there, dripping and staring back, but there was nothing to be seen. He put his hand up, and it came away from his shoulder bloody.

"Somebody," he muttered softly, "doesn't like me!"

The dark shape of the Semiramis loomed not fifty feet away. He climbed the ladder to the dock and then moved warily toward the freighter. As he came up the gangway, a dark shape materialized from beside the hatch. He recognized the halfshaven head of the big Toradjas, one of his trusted crew.

"It's all right, Lyssy," he said. "It's me."

"Something happen astern, Captain. Somebody-" Lyssy saw Ponga Jim's dripping clothes, and his eyes widened. "Somebody try to kill you?"

"That's right." Mayo glanced back at the dock. "Keep your eyes open. Who else is on watch?"

"Big London, he forward. Longboy aft. Sakim, he around somewhere, too."

"Has anyone been here?"

"Yes, Captain. One man he come say he want to talk to you. He say very important.

He say General Kernan send him." "Where is he?" Ponga Jim demanded.

"In your cabin. You say no man come aboard, this man he worry to see you. We lock him in."

Ponga Jim grinned. "Okay. You stay here."

He quickly climbed the ladder to his deck and then fitted his key in the lock of his door. He swung it open-and stopped dead in his tracks. The man sitting in Ponga Jim's favorite chair, facing the door, had been shot above the left eyebrow.

Slowly, Ponga Jim reached behind him and drew the door to. He circled the body, studying it with narrowed eyes. Then he stepped behind the body and sighted across the dead man's head in line with the wound. The bullet had come through the open porthole.

In line with the port was the corner of the warehouse roof. Whoever had fired the shot had stood on that corner and made a perfect job.

Ponga Jim went out to the deck and called Lyssy. "Did you hear a shot?" he demanded.

"No, Captain, nobody shoot!" Lyssy said positively.

That meant one thing to Ponga Jim. A silencer had been used.

"The man up there is dead," he said. "He was shot from that warehouse roof."

Sakim came up, and Ponga Jim hurriedly scratched a note. "Take this message to Major Arnold at this address," he instructed. "Give it to no one else. Then return here."

He went back into his cabin and, closing the door, careful not to disturb the position of the body, he searched the murdered man's pockets. He spread everything he found on his desk and studied the collection carefully. There was a key ring with several keys, a billfold, a fountain pen, a gun, some odd change, mostly silver, and a ticket stub indicating that the victim had but recently arrived from Alexandria. Also, there was a magnificent emerald ring, the gem being carved in the form of a scarab.

Turning his attention to the billfold, Ponga Jim found a packet of money amounting to about eighty Egyptian pounds, around four hundred dollars. In one pocket of the billfold was a white card and on it, in neat handwriting, a name.

After a few minutes thought, he pocketed the key ring, the card with the name, and the emerald ring. On second thought, he returned the ring to the table, retaining the other things he had chosen.

Chapter
III Too Late!.

At a sudden rap on the door, Ponga Jim looked up. He opened the door to find Major Arnold, General Kernan, and Nathan Demarest awaiting him. They had come promptly in answer to Mayo's note.

Arnold crossed at once to the body and made a cursory examination.

"Then this man who has been killed never managed to talk to you?" General Kernan asked.

"No," Ponga Jim replied. "I was delayed myself. Someone tried to add me to your list of killings."

Arnold looked up quickly. "I noticed you were wet. Did they shove you in?"

Ponga Jim nodded. He was looking across the room at a mirror.

"Yes. Good attempt, too. But I don't kill very easy."

"What happened?" Demarest asked. "Did you-catch him?" "No. I killed him. He cut me a little, but not much."

"But you were in the water," Demarest persisted. "How could you kill him?"

"I killed him," Ponga Jim said quietly, "in the water. He got his belly and lungs full of it."

Demarest's eyes narrowed a little, and then he glanced at the body. "That man was a half-caste," he said. "But his killers must have taken him for you."

"I don't think so," Ponga Jim said. "I think the killer knew who he was shooting."

"So do I," Kernan said. "This man who was shot came here with a message for you.

He came to me first, learned you were here, and said he would talk to no one but you. Had some message for you."

Arnold straightened up. "Had you noticed something, Jim? No identification on this man. Not a thing. We can check on this ticket stub and the gun, but I'm sure they will give us nothing."

"What about the ring?" Ponga Jim asked.

"Old, isn't it?" Arnold said. "And odd looking. It might be a clue."

Ponga Jim picked up the ring. "Look at that again, William. Emeralds and rubies were carved into scarabs only for royalty. The emerald itself is big, the ring too heavy for ordinary wear. It's probably a funeral ring, and probably dates back three thousand years. That ring is museum stuff. But I'll bet it didn't come from any museum."

"Why?" General Kernan asked. He examined the ring curiously.

"Such prize archaeological specimens are too well cared for. And if anything as valuable as that were lost, everyone would have heard of it. No, this man, whoever he was, had found a tomb and had been looting it."

"He might have picked it up in some thieves' market," Demarest protested.

"What I'm wondering," Arnold said, "is how all this can tie in with your mysterious battleship? A thief with a stolen ring or one looted from a tomb could scarcely have anything to do with such a thing."

"That battleship," Ponga Jim suggested, "or even if I was crazy and it was only a submarine or two, must have a base. The first problem, it seems to me, is to locate that base. The fact that the ship is in the Red Sea gives us a chance to keep it here-if we can. My theory is that this dead guy may have known where the base is, and maybe that knowledge ties in with that ring."

Major Arnold stayed on after the others had gone.

"Go slow, Jim," he advised. "Skelton doesn't approve of civilians interfering in government affairs, and he persists in maintaining that you have no right to have an armed ship, that actually you're a pirate."

"Yeah?" Ponga Jim chuckled. "Maybe he's right. I'm an American, even though I've spent little time there. My shipping business is in war areas but I'm not asking America's protection. I protect myself. But seriously, William, this business has got me going in circles. Why the rush to kill me? Who knows, except you guys, that I saw that warship? Who knows that a shipowner and skipper like myself would ever dream of investigating the thing? Why should this guy with the ring come to me?"