Passage by Night - Jack Higgins [66]
The corridor was deserted and he went down the stairs at the far end. On the ground floor, there seemed to be a great many people moving about, some in uniform, but many of them patients. He moved into a pleasant tiled foyer. Facing him was a wide glass door.
A uniformed porter was standing in the porch and he looked at Manning curiously. 'Can I get you a cab, sir?'
Manning was about to say yes when he remembered that he had no money. He shook his head. 'First day up. I could do with the exercise.'
He realized he had made a bad mistake before he had gone fifty yards, but he kept on moving through the side streets toward the harbour, staying in the shade as much as possible.
Sweat ran down his face in rivulets, soaking through the pajama jacket and his shoulder was beginning to hurt when he finally turned a corner onto the waterfront.
It was packed with jostling humanity and he moved into the crowd, trying to protect his injured shoulder as much as possible. Someone swung a basket against it and he stifled a cry and forced his way through to the stone wall at the edge of the wharf.
He could see the Grace Abounding about a hundred yards away round the curve of the harbour. Anna was standing in the stern dangling a bucket on a line into the water. As he watched, she started to swab the deck.
A hand tugged at his sleeve and he looked down into the face of Twenty-two, the little black boy in the American football jersey who'd shown them where Garcia lived an eternity ago.
'Heh, mister, remember me?'
'I'm never likely to forget you.' Manning pointed across to the Grace Abounding. 'Go and tell the lady who's swabbing the deck of that boat that I'm sorry. This is as far as I could get under my own steam.'
The boy looked completely mystified. 'Is that all, mister?'
'Tell you what I'll do,' Manning said. 'After you've told her, wait for me on the boat. I'll bet you ten shillings it'll be worth it.'
The boy darted into the crowd and was immediately lost to view and Manning sat on the wall. The heat was tremendous and he closed his eyes, fighting against the darkness that tried to move in on him. When he opened them again, Anna was standing a few feet away.
Her expression was a strange mixture of incredulity, dismay and anger. She rushed forward, took his handkerchief from his breast pocket and mopped the sweat from his face.
'You fool!' she stormed. 'You stupid damned fool! What do you want to do? Kill yourself?'
He shook his head. 'I'm trying to convince a stubborn Greek that I love her, that's all.'
She sagged against him for a moment, holding onto his jacket, and he gently stroked her hair with his free hand.
'Is there a chance for us, Anna? Do you honestly think there's a chance?'
She looked up at him, her face vibrant and alive. 'I know one thing, Harry Manning. If we don't try, we'll regret it for the rest of our lives.'
She slipped an arm about his waist and together they moved through the crowds towards the Grace Abounding.
A Biography of Jack Higgins
Jack Higgins is the pseudonym of Harry Patterson (b. 1929), the New York Times bestselling author of more than seventy thrillers, including The Eagle Has Landed and The Wolf at the Door. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide.
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, Patterson grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland. As a child, Patterson was a voracious reader and later credited his passion for reading with fueling his creative drive to be an author. His upbringing in Belfast also exposed him to the political and religious violence that characterized the city at the time. At seven years old, Patterson was caught in gunfire while riding a tram, and later was in a Belfast movie theater when it was bombed. Though he escaped from both attacks unharmed, the turmoil in Northern Ireland would later become a significant influence in his books, many of which prominently