Free Passage by Night (v5) by Jack Higgins

him by the collar and tried to haul him over the stern.
    Manning went down the ladder quickly, jumped into the speedboat and helped him. Mikali sprawled across the rear seat, his clothes clinging to his gross body, blood trickling from his smashed mouth. Manning produced his wallet and counted out twelve one hundred dollar bills. He stuffed them into the Greek's breast pocket.
    'All debts paid, Mikali. Bother the old man again and I'll break your neck.' He turned to Dimitri.
    'And you're a witness. He's had his money. Don't forget.'
    He jumped for the ladder and Dimitri started the engine and took the speedboat away in a long sweeping curve. Manning watched until it had disappeared behind the cay and then turned.
    The old man was sitting on the bench outside the wheelhouse, filling his pipe. When it was going to his satisfaction, he puffed out a cloud of smoke and shrugged. 'So we go to San Juan?'
    'You sure?' Manning said.
    Papa Melos nodded. 'What else can I do? You save my life, you save my boat. It's fate.'
    'What about you?' Manning said to the girl.
    She was standing at the other rail, her back towards him. She turned and looked at him gravely. 'I don't see that we really have any choice. We are a proud people, Mr Manning. We like to pay our debts.'
    For a moment Manning had an insane desire to tell them the truth, to warn them that they were imperiling much more than the boat if they went through with this thing. But then he remembered his reason for going.
    He shrugged. 'That's fine by me. I'm ready to start when you are.'

9
South from Andros
    He was not conscious of having slept, only of being awake and looking at his watch and realizing, with a sense of shock, that it was three in the morning. He pulled on his heavy reefer jacket and left the cabin.
    There was a slight sea mist lifting off the water and the Cretan Lover was kicking along at a tremendous pace. There was no moon, but the night sky was a jewel-studded delight and there was a strange luminosity to the water. He walked along the heaving deck, stepping over the three tuna they had caught on the previous afternoon, and went into the wheelhouse.
    Papa Melos was standing at the wheel. He cut a fine, weird figure, his head apparently disembodied in the light from the compass.
    'How are things going?' Manning said.
    'Couldn't be better.'
    He slipped to one side, allowing Manning to take over the wheel, and leaned against the door filling his pipe.
    'What time will we make San Juan?'
    The old man shrugged. 'If weather holds, just before noon tomorrow.'
    'Will there be any restriction on how long we can stay?'
    'There never used to be, but as I said before, things have changed.'
    'Will we have much trouble finding a buyer for the fish?'
    'I shouldn't think so, not with tuna as prime as those are.' Papa Melos applied a match to the bowl of his pipe. 'You're a handy man with a rod. As good as any I've seen. Come to think of it, photographer, you're a pretty good sailor.'
    'I've been around small craft all my life and the Special Boat Service was a first-rate grounding.'
    'But that was a long time ago,' Papa Melos said. 'Before the flood.'
    There was a question in his voice, unspoken but still there. Manning ignored it and said easily, 'Some things a man never forgets how to do.'
    'I suppose not.' The old man yawned. 'Think I'll get some sleep. I'll take over at seven.'
    He moved away along the deck, humming to himself, and Manning lit a cigarette, pulled a hinged seat down from the wall and settled back comfortably, the wheel steady in his hands.
    There was little point in worrying what might happen when they reached San Juan. He would have to play the cards as they fell. A slight, ironic quirk tugged at the corners of his mouth. Come to think of it, he seemed to have been doing just that for the greater part of his life.
    Gradually his mind wandered back along forgotten paths and he thought of people and incidents long gone. This was a period he looked forward