Read Angel's Ransom for Free Online

’s head with one fist while he fought to back the wheel with his other hand, instead of putting his full strength and weight on the wheel , and Blake accepted the punish ment to hold to the spokes, grimly keeping his head down to take Jules ’s blows, painful but ineffectual, on his skull, willing the Angel to its destruction while he waited for the crash of Holtz ’s pistol and the tearing shock of a bullet, knowing even in his fear of death the triumphant thought, You’re beaten, little man! You’re beaten! until a shattering blow over the kidneys loosened his muscles and sent him sagging to his knees, clawing ineffectually at the wheel that spun away from him. Another calculated, agonizing blow, and a third, sprawled him on the deck, only dimly conscious of Holtz standing over him with the Walther clubbed to strike again but hearing with acute clarity Marian ’s voice say, with loathing, ‘You revolting little beast!’ and the sharp crack of another blow that was not aimed at him. Then the Angel was heeling, sharply, more sharply still as the drum of the motors changed. There was a moment of taut uncertainty, then Jules ’s deep, relieved growl, ‘We made it. We’re clear.’
    The Angel ’s motion changed as she accepted the rolling movement of the open sea. The first rocking plunge of her bow took Blake down with it, into oblivion.

TWO
    The crew of the Angel did not leave the Bureau de la S û ret é Publique as they had entered the building, in a group. Cesar burst through the door first, running hard for the harbor . The others, old Michaud still stubbornly refusing to be hurried, caught up with him on the Quai du Commerce, where he stood cursing steadily at the sight of the Angel pointed for the Mediterranean. Together they watched the yacht approach the mouth of the harbor , veer unexpectedly toward the south jetty, hang for moments on the edge of catastrophe, then clear the danger and slip out to sea.
    ‘Beached, by God!’ Michaud said darkly. ‘I would not have believed it of the captain! Money corrupts all that it touches!’
    ‘Beached, my eye!’ Cesar ’s reply was hot. ‘Are you so thick that you can’t see we were tricked ashore by those two gangsters so they could seize the yacht while we were out of the way? They have knocked the captain over the head and are falling over their heels to make a getaway!’
    ‘You read too many detective stories.’
    ‘And you too much political puff! How do you explain the near wreck in the harbor mouth, if the captain is still in command? Or does a yacht take the bit in its teeth and shy like a runaway horse? Eh? Eh?’
    ‘The probable truth - I say probable, because I am not gifted with the positive insight granted to those who know everything –’ Michaud took out his pipe and stoked it with irritating calm - ‘the probable truth is that the writ we have all been expecting from day to day to take the Angel into court has made its appearance, and Farr has ordered a departure while departure is still possible. The rights of his crew are of little importance compared to the safety of his property. It is always so with the rich.’
    The cook said, ‘Just the same, the law is the law. We are not discharged until we are paid up and signed off. He must still pay us wages.’
    ‘All we have to do is collect them,’ one of the deckhands said. ‘And what about our gear? I am not as lucky as some, to have come away with my pipe.’
    ‘How can you talk about a pipe when a whole yacht has been pinched under your eyes, dumbhead !’ Cesar raged. ‘Don’t you see why we were sent off to chase the moon? Those two gangsters planned it all!’
    ‘Gangsters!’ Michaud gave a snort that blew out the match with which he was trying to light his pipe. ‘You have gangsters on the brain. What gangsters?’
    ‘The big salaud and the rabbit-faced salaud who were on the jetty! The ones who invented the fake permis ! Do you see them there now, or anywhere?’ Cesar