Sad Wind From the Sea - Jack Higgins [46]
She turned her head towards him and her lips were slightly parted as she waited for him to speak and then a voice said: 'Well! Well! Early birds!' Mason walked out of the cabin.
He sat down beside them on the hatch and Rose said, 'I'll get another cup.'
Mason offered Hagen a cigarette and as he lit it, said: 'Am I mistaken or did I interrupt something? Have you told her?'
'I was going to tell her as you came in.'
Mason nodded and said thoughtfully, 'Are you still going to tell her?'
Hagen started to say yes and then he suddenly knew that the moment had passed. He sighed and cursed softly. 'No, it will have to wait a little while longer.'
Mason laughed and there was sympathy in his voice. 'You know I feel sorry for you, Hagen. From being the white-haired boy you're going to become the worst heel she's ever met.' He slapped him on the shoulder. 'Come on. Let's get breakfast over and we can start the diving.'
For a moment Hagen lingered on deck. He could hear Mason greet Rose with a joke and she laughed gaily, and he cursed softly to himself because he knew that Mason was right. For the moment he decided to leave the situation as it was and went down into the cabin.
It was nine-thirty when Hagen made the first dive and by that time the sun was high in the sky and visibility under water was crystal-clear. He poised over the launch, looking her over, and laughed to himself when he thought of his fears of the previous evening. The sunlight streamed through the water and coloured fish swam in and around the launch. He swam down and entered through the shattered entrance to the cabin. Sunlight streamed down through the crystal water and in through the port-holes, perfectly illuminating the interior so that, when he passed into the inner cabin, the gold was clearly visible.
The bars of gold lay in a jumbled mass in the angle of the cabin roof. Presumably when the launch had tilted the boxes must have been smashed open against the bulkheads. He picked up one of the bars and found it comparatively light to handle. It retarded his rate of progress to the surface a little but he kicked strongly and his rubber flippers did the trick. He came out into the sunlight and Mason leaned over and took the bar from him. Hagen pulled himself over the rail and they all gathered round. 'It doesn't look like much,' Rose said in a disappointed tone.
Hagen laughed and pulled his heavy sheath knife from his belt and scraped the dull metal surface of the block. The gold showed through, suddenly glinting in the sunlight, and O'Hara whistled. They examined the bar in silence for a moment. Mason was the first to speak. 'How much do you think it's worth?'
Hagen weighed the bar in his hands for a moment. 'Hard to be accurate,' he answered. 'I'd say this bar weighs about five pounds. Should be worth in the region of two thousand five hundred dollars.'
Mason's eyes gleamed momentarily and then his expression changed. 'That means there must be a hell of a lot of bars to bring up.'
'I was wondering when you'd realize that,' Hagen said. 'About a hundred, I'd say.'
Rose had been listening quietly and now she interrupted. 'I think there were five boxes originally, Mark.'
He nodded. 'What I'll try to do is repack the bars and secure the boxes in a cocoon of rope. That way they should hold long enough to be hauled to the surface.'
'It's going to take a long while, lad,' O'Hara told him.
'It would take a damned sight longer to bring the stuff up a bar at a time,' Hagen said with a shrug.
The necessary precautions were quickly made. O'Hara and Mason swung the spar from which the block and tackle were suspended out over the side and lowered the heavy hook and cable down into the water. When Hagen dived for the second time he carried a spare coil