Free The Mask of Sumi by John Creasey Page B

out!”
    Mannering, just behind the girl, glanced up and saw what seemed to be a dark, moving shadow on the white side of the ship. He thrust himself forward, pushed Pearl in the back so that she shot over the edge of the gangway into the arms of two waiting stewards. Mannering jumped forward. He felt the gangway shudder as something big and heavy crashed on to it. A woman screamed.
    â€œMy God!” cried one of the stewards.
    There was a rending sound, a gasp, another scream. Mannering, staggering forward, was just aware of Pearl in the arms of a white-clad steward, of people dodging out of his way, of others looking horrified. He steadied, and looked round, fearfully.
    Joslyn lay on the battered gangway with a heavy wooden deck chair on him.
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    â€œHe’s all right, Mr. Mannering,” said Dr. Roughead, the ship’s surgeon. “Two or three days and he’ll be as good as new. No need to worry at all. How is the young lady?”
    â€œShaken and scared, that’s all.”
    â€œUnderstandable, very understandable indeed. I shudder to think what would have happened had that heavy chair struck anyone so fragile. Sure there’s nothing I can do for her?”
    â€œNothing at all.”
    â€œOr for you?” Dr. Roughead asked belatedly.
    â€œNo, I’m fine,” Mannering assured.
    He escaped from the doctor and went towards the drawing-room, in the bows, then up a narrow flight of stairs to the bridge deck. An Indian sailor waited for him at the head of the stairs, and smiled shyly at Mannering’s thank you. Mannering reached an open doorway, and heard Captain Cross saying: “It’s hard to believe, Charles.”
    â€œWe may find someone yet.”
    â€œMay I come in?” asked Mannering.
    â€œOh, yes – we’ve been waiting for you.”
    Cross, a compact, dark-haired man in his fifties, stood up from a chair in a spacious room. He wore a white shirt and knee-length shorts, and gave an impression of strength held on a tight leash. “You’ve met Charles East, the Master-at-Arms, haven’t you?”
    â€œBriefly,” said Mannering.
    They shook hands.
    â€œIt’s almost incredible, but we cannot find anyone who actually saw the beginning of the incident,” said Cross. “Two able seamen say they saw a man standing on the boat deck at the time, but he was hidden by stanchions and all they saw was his back. He must have been standing immediately above the gangways. Passengers often take their own chairs up there, to get some quiet, and although they shouldn’t, it’s winked at. It couldn’t have fallen, though.”
    â€œNo accident, then,” said Mannering.
    â€œIt simply wasn’t possible.”
    â€œThere isn’t much doubt that it was an attempt on your life,” East said. He was a big, hard-faced, hard-eyed man with a big jaw.
    â€œOh, come!”
    â€œDon’t you think so?” Cross sounded as if he was commanding Mannering to agree with him. His eyes, grey and alert, had the disconcerting directness of a man used to command.
    â€œWould it have killed anyone?”
    â€œIf it had struck in the right place,” East declared. “It was one of the heavy ones. If it had happened to hit Miss Toji it would at least have disfigured her.”
    â€œYes,” Mannering said. He did not voice his greatest fear: that the attack had really been on the girl. “I’d say it was meant to scare me, not to kill.”
    â€œI trust you’re scared,” Cross said. “Mr. Mannering, we have five days’ sailing across the Mediterranean. It could be a very unpleasant voyage if we thought this kind of thing was likely to happen.”
    â€œDon’t I know it,” Mannering said ruefully.
    â€œAre you sure the mask is aboard?” Again Cross gave the impression that he did not want to believe the obvious.
    â€œNo, but it seems very likely now,”