Its mouth ended in a huge canvas sock, perhaps six feet in diameter. It was carried on high stanchions above the jetty and stopped just short of the hold of the tanker. From just to the right of the crane, an overhead conveyor-belt in a corrugated-iron housing ran out from the cliff-face. The rest of the crew would be below, battened away from the guano dust. There was no sign of life On board except one figure lolling at the wheel in the enclosed bridge. The tanker was called Blanche, and the Ant of Antwerp showed at her stern. It stood well out of the water, its deck perhaps twelve feet above the quay. An aged tanker of around ten thousand tons deadweight was secured alongside the top of the T. In front of him the jetty ran twenty yards out into the sea and ended in a T. #CRAZY TOAD FROG DRIVER#It was the Chinese Negro boss, the driver of the marsh buggy. Round the corner, not more than ten yards away, was the crane. A narrow rocky track, made by the feet of the workers, led down the other side and round the bulge of the cliff. But softly, gently, slowly The prize was almost intolerably sweet. Slowly, a thin, hard smile broke across the haggard, sunburned face. Nowīond sat and thought, measuring distances, guessing at angles, remembering exactly where the crane driver's hands and feet were on the levers and the pedals. A voice called out, startlingly close, "Okay to go?" There was a distant answer: "Okay." The crane engine accelerated. Bond crept softly forward, watching his footholds for loose stones. Round the bead, the track filtered through a maze of giant, tumbled boulders. He caught a glimpse of the tip of his spear lancing into the centre of a black eyeball and then the whole sea erupted up at him in a fountain of blackness and he fell and hung upside down by the knees, his head an inch from the surface of the water.īond, leaving drops of blood behind him, picked his way carefully down the track and along the bottom of the shadowed cliff. It would be about six o'clock, the dawn of a beautiful day. Perhaps even now they were watching the scout groups far out at sea locating the fish. Far above him the cormorants were wheeling round the guanera. Clouds tinged with golden pink were trailing away towards the horizon. There was one hope, only oneīond looked up at the sky. Now the eyes and the great triangular beak were right out of the water and the beak was reaching up for his feet. He could even feel his spine being stretched. Bond was being pulled down, inch by inch. The eyes were glaring up at him, redly, venomously, and the forest of feeding arms was at his feet and legs, tearing the cotton fabric away and flailing back. Now the head of the squid had broken the surface and the sea was being thrashed into foam by the great heaving mantle round it. The wounded squid had emptied its ink sac at him.īond had not time to worry about them. It was covered with black slime, and blackness stained the sea for twenty yards around. He got a hold and reached up his other hand and slowly, agonizingly, pulled himself up so that he was sitting in the fence. So he must be alive Dazedly Bond let go the spear from his trailing hand and reached up and felt for the nearest strand of wire. But he could feel the wire cutting into the tendons behind his knees. His eyes were stinging and there was a horrible fish taste in his mouth. What had happened? Had he gone blind? He could see nothing. He tore it out, got it between his two hands and wrenched the doubled wire almost straight. On the bridge, the watch was lighting a cigarette.īond thrust his knife between his teeth and his hand dived for the crook of the wire spear. Twenty yards away, Doctor No, also with his back to Bond, stood sentry over the thick rich cataract of whity-yellow dust. The neck above the open khaki shirt was naked, offered, waiting. His guess at the distances had been right. Then Bond sat down and meticulously went over the photograph that was in his brain.īond stepped up to the rock and inched an eye round. Bond reached for the top cable and frantically began to edge along the swaying fence towards the rocky headland twenty yards away. To build the wire fence the men must have come from the left, from the direction of the jetty. Left was towards the ship, but also towards Doctor No. Then don't wait Get away quick Wildly Bond looked to right and left. Nothing, nothing but the spreading stain of black. But where was the squid? Would it come back? Bond searched the sea.
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