Sad Wind From the Sea - Jack Higgins [44]
Rose nodded. 'The roof was damaged. Cannon shell, I think.'
Mason grunted and said, 'Well, what now?'
Hagen grinned. 'I'll blast it open. It's a damned good job Charlie produced that plastic waterproof explosive.'
Mason shrugged and said: 'Okay, Hagen. You're the boss.' He brought the blasting equipment up from the cabin while Hagen hauled up the anchor and O'Hara started the engines and moved Hurrier to the edge of the lagoon.
As they prepared the charges Mason said: 'Do you think we've moved far enough? No good blasting ourselves as well.'
Hagen, nodded. 'It's a small charge,' he said. 'I only want to open the launch up - not blow the thing apart.'
He adjusted his diving equipment and went over the side again carrying the prepared charges and detonators and wire. He could not see as clearly as he would have liked and he realized that dusk was falling fast. He laid two charges at strategic points amongst the tangled mass that blocked the cabin door and wired them up. He worked fast and returned to the surface within a few minutes, the wire clutched firmly in one hand. He sat on deck feeling suddenly very tired, and Mason said, 'How was it?'
Hagen grinned tiredly. 'Not so bad. Visibility is beginning to get poor, though.' He nodded to O'Hara who depressed the plunger of the detonating box. The water heaved and there was a dull roar and Hurrier rocked violently as the surface of the lagoon was disturbed. After a few moments wreckage began to float to the surface of the water and kept coming up for about fifteen minutes. They watched in silence and gradually the shadows deepened as the sky turned to gold and crimson far out over the sea.
The water was cloudy with mud and sand and Rose said: 'You can't go down again, Mark. You won't be able to see a thing.'
For a moment Hagen almost gave in and then the stubbornness that was the essential core of his nature took control. 'Bring me the lamp,' he told O'Hara. He turned to Rose and said, with a weary smile: 'I've dived at night many a time. You have to when it's someone else's pearling ground.'
O'Hara appeared from the wheelhouse with the lamp, a large, powerful spot on a long cable, which plugged into the boat's lighting system and was specially designed for underwater use. Hagen carried the lamp in one hand and a crowbar in the other when he dived again.
The beam thrown out by the lamp was very powerful and he saw the wreck almost all the way down, and for some reason it looked sinister and ghostly. Perhaps it was just that he was tired, he thought, and just the slightest bit light-headed, but as he poised over the wreck he felt afraid. The launch was still tilted over at the same crazy angle, but in place of the tangled mass of wreckage was now a gaping black hole. He floated down and shone his lamp into the cabin but could see nothing. For a moment he hesitated and then, holding the lamp in front of him, he ventured into the interior.
He shone the lamp into each corner of the cabin but saw nothing unusual. It was a strange sensation to be floating with the ceiling beneath his feet and the floor above his head. There was a door to another cabin in front of him and he swam towards it and immediately his spotlight touched upon a jumble of bricks and broken boxes that lay in a heap in the angle of the wall and the ceiling. The gold! There it was, the reality after all the dreaming, and then he was aware of a movement out of the corner of his eye. He swung the beam upwards, illuminating all the cabin, and saw with horror a man walking towards him, arms extended. Hagen screamed soundlessly and struck out with the crowbar and the figure bounced away to the other side of the cabin and hovered there.
Chang's brother! Hagen suddenly felt weak and faint. In his state of exhausion and under the eerie conditions it had seemed as if the