Sad Wind From the Sea - Jack Higgins [49]
One of the soldiers sprawled against him, his legs thrashing the water, and Hagen grabbed him by the belt and towed him down into the deep water. He wrapped his legs around the rail of the launch and clamped a forearm round the man's throat. It wasn't pretty watching him die. He struggled violently, his limbs moving sluggishly, and there was a nightmarish edge of horror to the whole thing. Suddenly a clawing hand reached back and wrenched the breathing-tube from Hagen's mouth. Hagen compressed his lips and tightened his grip. Blood began to seep from the man's nostrils in two clouds and a moment later he swung loosely against Hagen's arm. Hagen unlocked his fingers and let go. The body bounced away, spun round twice, and settled on to the floor of the lagoon.
There was a roaring in his ears and his temples pounded. He kicked out sharply for the surface and then above him and slightly to one side he saw a tremendous disturbance. It was Mason and the other soldier, locked together, and from the looks of it Mason was not having things all his own way. It was neither the time nor the place for chivalry. He swam towards them, jerking the heavy knife from the sheath at his belt as he approached. He pushed the knife blindly into the soldier's back, using both hands, and kicked for the surface.
He bumped against the side of Hurrier, choking and gasping for breath. A second later Mason surfaced a few feet away. O'Hara pulled them over the rail, one after the other, and they lay on the deck, coughing violently. After a while Hagen sat up and began to check the aqualung and his breathing-tube. 'What are you going to do?' Mason demanded.
Hagen scrambled wearily to his feet. 'Going after that last bar,' he said. 'I think I can just make it.'
'You're mad!' O'Hara screamed. 'That bloody gold's sent you off your head.'
Hagen spat and coughed a little. 'I'm not leaving two and a half thousand down there for the sake of a few minutes' work and a couple of stiffs,' he said and lowered himself over the rail.
As he sank slowly down through the water he felt utterly weary and a little light-headed. If a thing's worth doing at all it's worth doing right, he thought, and he twisted his body and hung suspended over the remaining bar. As his hands fastened over it he suddenly realized the difference between himself and the other two. There was a limit to what they would do - even for money. But not yours truly, he thought sleepily, as he drifted up towards the surface, away from the body that bounced on the sands of the lagoon and the other that slowly descended in a cloud of blood. Mason reached down and took the bar from him. His face was strained and there was something in his eyes, an expression that Hagen couldn't quite analyse. 'You're a fool, Hagen,' the big man said as he hauled him on to the deck. 'But I'll say this for you. You've got more cold-blooded guts than any man I've ever met.'
'Save the compliments,' Hagen gasped. For a moment he stood swaying against the wheelhouse and then he said: 'For Christ's sake help me to get this gear off. We've got to get moving.'
Mason and O'Hara stripped the diving equipment from him and he went below and dressed quickly. His head was splitting and he lit a cigarette with shaking fingers and spat it out in disgust at the taste of it. Mason flopped down on the opposite bunk and O'Hara stood in the doorway. 'What are we going to do, lad?' the old man said.
Hagen took out one of the carbines and loaded it. 'We're going to look for her,' he said, and as the words issued from his lips another voice was saying silently: 'Don't be a fool. Get out of it with the gold while you can, before the whole thing blows up in your face.'
Mason laughed flatly. 'Don't be a bloody fool,' he said. 'We don't even know where the village is.' He straightened up and ran a hand through