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Save This PageHe was checking his hands for more bugs"I know...
He was checking his
hands for more bugs"I know how you feel," I said,
"but I don't think we have time for you to do a
full delousing
"Point taken, but unless you've chewed on one of
those maricones, you don't know how I feel
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"Tell us what to do, boss," Jack saidHe was
looking uneasily into the pit, from which that
sallow stench was still issuing
"Wireman, you have fired the speargun - right?"
"Yes, at targetsDidn't I say
I was the marksman of the group?"
"Then you're on guardJack, shine that light
I could see by his face that he didn't want to,
but there was no choice - until this was done,
there'd be no going backAnd if it prada fairy wasn't done,
there'd never be any going back
Not by the land route, at least
He picked up the long-barreled flashlight, clicked
it on, and shone the powerful beam down into the
hole"Ah, God," he whispered
It was indeed a cistern lined with coral rock, but
at some point during the last eighty years the
ground had shifted, a fissure had opened -
probably at the very bottom - and the water inside
had leaked outWhat we saw in the flashlight's
beam was a damp, moss-lined gullet eight or ten
feet deep and about five feet in diameterLying
at the bottom, entwined in an embrace that had
lasted eighty years, were two skeletons dressed in
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rotten prada borse ragsBeetles crawled busily around them
Whitish toads - small boys - hopped on the bones
A harpoon lay beside one skeletonThe tip of the
second harpoon was still buried in Nan Melda's
yellowing spine
The light began to swayBecause the young man
holding it was swaying
"Don't you faint on us, Jack!" I said sharply
"That's an order!"
"I'm okay, boss But his eyes were huge, glassy,
and behind the flashlight - still not quite steady
in his hand - his face was parchment whiteShine it down there again
It was one of the Table Whiskey kegs, now little
more than a hump under a heavy shag of mossOne
of those white toads was crouched on itIt looked
up christian dior saddle bag at me, lids nictitating malevolently
Wireman glanced at his watchI'm
thinking maybe fifteen minutes before sundown
Could be a little more, could be less?"
"So Jack puts the ladder into the hole, and down I
goyou have just one arm
"She took my daughterYou know
this is my job Wireman looked at Jack"Which leaves
the watertight container question
"Don't worry," he said, then picked up the ladder
and handed me the flash"Shine it down there,
EdgarI need both hands for what I'm doing
It seemed to take him forever to get the ladder
placed to his satisfaction, but finally the feet
were on the bottom, between the bones of Nan
Melda's outstretched cartier tank watch arm (I could still see the
silver bracelets, although now overgrown with moss)
and one of Adie's legsThe ladder was really very
short, and the top rung was two feet below groundlevel
That was all right; Jack could steady me to
begin withI thought of asking him again about
the container for the china figure, then didn't
He seemed completely at ease on that score, and I
decided to trust him all the wayIt was really
too late to do otherwise
In my head a voice, very low, almost meditative,
said: Stop now and I'll let you go free
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Wireman looked at me without surprise"You heard
it, too, huh?"
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I lay on my stomach and backed into the rolex watches ladies h