The Collected Short Stories of Louis L'Amour, Volume Four (39 page)

“Only one gun,” Jim said, getting up. “You take it, Colonel. I’ll have another in a minute.”

He walked directly to the door and without a second’s hesitation, pulled it open. The native guard turned, and Ponga Jim’s fist met him halfway. Coolly, Jim dragged him inside, smacked him again, and then passed his rifle to Arnold and his knife to Slug.

Ponga Jim grinned. “Folks, it might be a good idea to wait here until they come back again, but I’m no hand to wait. Personally, I say we move right now. We make a break for the open, and once there, if attacked, it is every man—and woman—for himself. Make for the river at the big bend below. Ambunti. That’s where the ship is.”

He jerked open the door, and they started walking, fast. They had reached the end of a long, low stone hall before they were seen. A native guard half turned. Then he opened his mouth to scream. Jim sprang, but too late. A ringing yell awoke a million echoes in the hall. Then Jim slugged him.

But the native was big, and he was tough. With a yell of savage fury, he dove for Jim’s legs. Jim tried to sidestep and then fell headlong.

“Run, damn you!” he yelled at the others.

Then he jerked to a sitting position and hooked a short left to the native’s eye. It jarred the man loose, and Jim lurched to his feet and kicked him viciously in the stomach. With a howl of pain, the man rolled over on the floor.

In the yard outside there was a rattle of gunfire. And suddenly Fritz Heittn stepped into sight with a submachine gun. His eyes narrowed with eagerness as he saw the group clustered just beyond the door, and he lifted the gun. Then he saw Ponga Jim.

Concealed by a bend in the stair, Jim was slipping quickly and silently up the stairs. A dozen steps away when Heittn saw him, Jim leaped to his feet and lunged, even as Heittn brought the machine gun down and pulled the trigger!

But suddenly, even as Jim staggered erect, the gun slipped by him and went plunging down the stair. At the top of it, Fritz Heittn stood dead still, his eyes wide and staring. Then slowly, he leaned forward and fell face down on the steps. Sticking from between his shoulder blades was the haft of a big knife!

Startled, Jim stared along the stone platform where Heittn had stood. Coming toward him, at a rapid trot, was Lyssy. Grinning, he stooped over and retrieved his knife.

W
ITH A QUICK SLAP
on the Toradjas’s shoulder, Ponga Jim ran down the steep steps and grabbed up the fallen machine gun. Then he stepped to the door. Across the narrow landing field he could see Arnold and Brophy disappearing into the woods after the others. Following them were Blucher and a dozen renegades.

Ponga Jim took in the situation at a glance. The two planes, one a heavy bomber, the other a small amphibian, were not a hundred yards away. Without a second’s hesitation, Jim made his decision. He started down the landing field, which was actually a wide stone terrace belonging to the temple of Qasavara, toward the planes. A bullet whizzed by his ear from behind and smacked viciously against the stones ahead of him. Wheeling around, Jim caught sight of two figures silhouetted against the sky on the temple roof. He swept the machine gun to his shoulder, fired a burst, and saw one of the men fall headfirst over the parapet and take a long plunge to the stone terrace below. The other man vanished.

Jim wheeled, and as he turned a gun crashed, almost in his ear it seemed, and a bullet smashed into the machine gun and glanced off, ripping a gash in his sleeve and tearing a ragged cut along his arm. Franz Kull was standing not ten feet away, a Luger aimed at Ponga Jim’s stomach. The gun was pointed and the finger tightening on the trigger, and there wasn’t a chance in the world of him missing at that distance.

Jim staggered, and slowly his knees buckled. He tumbled over on his face. Kull hesitated, lowering the Luger to cover Ponga Jim’s still form.

“Got him,” Kull whispered. “They got him after all!”

He glanced quickly around. Blucher was furiously directing his band of renegades in the pursuit of the escaped prisoners.

Kull smiled and slipped the gun into his waistband. He stood for a minute, staring down at Ponga Jim Mayo’s body, at the slow pool of blood gathering under his left side.

“Almost,” he said, “I am sorry.”

He stooped and caught Jim by the arm, turning him over. He saw Jim’s eyes flicker open and saw the right fist start, and in one panic-stricken moment, realized he had been tricked. Then that fist slammed against the angle of his jaw, and he staggered, grabbing for his gun.

Like a tiger, Jim was on his feet. A left knocked the gun from Kull’s hand, and a right sent him reeling against the parked bomber. But Kull straightened, slipped Ponga Jim’s left, and hooked a hard left to the head. He ducked a right, and sunk a left in Jim’s body, then a right.

Ponga Jim grinned. “A boxer, eh?” he said.

He jabbed quickly, and the punch set Kull off balance. A right caught him in the midsection, and a sweeping left sent him to his knees. Coolly, Jim stepped back.

“Get up, Kull, and take a socking!” he ordered.

Kull straightened and then rushed, hooking hard with both hands. Jim staggered, grinned, and tied Kull up, whipping a wicked left to his head and body. The punches traveled scarcely six inches, yet they landed with sledgehammer force. Kull jerked away, and Mayo whipped up a right uppercut that knocked him back against the plane. Then Jim stepped in and crossed a short, hard right. Kull slipped to the stone pavement.

Ponga Jim wheeled and swung open the door to the cabin of the amphibian.

T
HE MOTOR SPUTTERED
and then roared into life. Out of the corner of his eye, Jim saw Blucher turn, puzzled. Then he started, and gave her the gun. It was little room for a takeoff, but enough, and Ponga Jim cleared the trees at the other end of the terrace by a matter of inches. He banked steeply and came back flying low.

Blucher stared at him, puzzled, and a half dozen of the renegades stared upward. Then Jim cut loose with both machine guns, raking the terrace.

With a roar of rage, Blucher jerked up his gun, but the blast of leaden death was too much for him, and he broke and ran for the jungle. His men were less fortunate, and the machine guns swept the terrace like a bolt of lightning.

Then it was all over. Slowly he wheeled above the huge stone building, getting a good look at it for the first time, the great towers, the battlements, and the queer, fantastic architecture. Jim glanced over the side, and nothing moved on the terrace.

He turned the plane and flew for the distant masts of the
Semiramis.

N
IGHT HAD FALLEN
when they met on the captain’s deck of the tramp freighter. Above on the bridge, Slug Brophy paced casually, watching the channel as the dark jungle-clad banks slid by.

Ponga Jim leaned back in his deck chair, pushing back his cap.

“There goes your Qasavara trouble, William!” he said cheerfully. “Again Mayo comes to the rescue. It seems I have to save the British Empire about once every thirty days.”

Arnold chuckled. “You aren’t doing so bad. Picked up a nice amphibian plane, just like that.”

“The fortunes of war, William, merely the fortunes of war! Hello! Here comes Ulysses!”

The big Toradjas stopped a few feet away and then stepped forward, handing Ponga Jim a thick wad of Bank of England notes. Colonel Sutherland gulped, and his eyes widened. “Me find him House of Qasavara,” he said. “You take, eh?”

“You bet I’ll take!” Jim said, winking at Arnold. “Ah, the sinews of war! Ulysses, you are now a member of my crew, a full-fledged member!”

“You betcha!” Ulysses said.

“That man,” Major Arnold said positively, “has the makings of either a thief or a philosopher!”

Ponga Jim got up and offered his arm to Carol.

“Both, William, both! He’s going to be a soldier of fortune!”

Well of the Unholy Light

R
ain had fallen for three days, and the jungle dripped with it. The fourth day had begun with heavy showers and faded into a dense fog. Yet despite the rain, the drums had not stopped.

The path was a slide of mud between two solid walls of jungle, green by day, an impenetrable blackness by night. Three miles by trail they had said. It would be like Frazer to live in such a place. He walked slowly. The drums bothered him.

He knew as much about the interior of Halmahera as anyone did, which wasn’t a great deal. Mostly, the natives lived along the coast, rarely going into the interior. But the drums were somewhere beyond Mount Sahu, apparently, and they might be as far away as Gam Konora.

The only way he could tell when he reached the clearing was by the sudden feeling of space around him. Then he glimpsed a light from the bungalow. He wondered again why Frazer had sent for him. The man had never been one to ask for help. He had been notoriously a lone wolf.

Suddenly he dropped to a crouch and then squatted down, listening. Someone was coming around the house! He dropped one hand to the gravel path to balance himself and waited. The footsteps stopped abruptly, and he realized the person had stepped off the path. He heard then the soft
swish
of receding steps through the grass. He started to call out, but then thought better of it and waited.

After a moment, he stepped up on the verandah and rapped softly. There was no reply. He pushed the door open and stepped in.

Then he stopped. The headless body of a man lay on the floor beside the desk! Staring, he stepped closer, noticing an old tattoo on the hand, between the forefinger and thumb. A faded blue anchor. Stepping carefully around the pool of blood, he glanced at the papers on the desk. He was just reaching to pick them up when a cold voice interrupted:

“So, we have a murderer!” The man’s voice was flat. “Put your hands up.”

Looking up he saw three men standing in the doorway. The speaker was a tall man with a cold white face, blue eyes, and blond hair. The others were obviously policemen.

“I’m afraid you’ve made a wrong guess,” he said, smiling. “I came to pay Bent Frazer a visit and found things like this.”

“Yes?” The man was icily skeptical. “Nevertheless, you will consider yourself under arrest. It so happens that Benton Frazer had no visitors. He was a recluse.”

“You think I murdered this man?”

“What else am I to think when I find you standing over the body with bloody hands?”

Involuntarily, he glanced down. His right hand was bloody!

But mingled with the blood sticking to his hand were tiny bits of sand and gravel. The path, that was it! When he crouched he had put his hand down. Whoever had carried the head away had obviously gone that way or else was wounded himself. Then, he thought swiftly, the man he had heard had not been the murderer, unless he had returned on a second trip!

“Don’t be dumb,” he said sharply. “If I killed him, where’s the head?”

The man scowled. “You could have disposed of that. Hans,” he snapped, “keep an eye on the prisoner. Thomsen, you will search the house!” He turned to the prisoner. “I am Karl Albran, the resident official from Susupu. Now what is your name, and where are you from?”

“My name?” the prisoner echoed. “My name is Mayo—Ponga Jim Mayo. I’m skipper of the freighter
Semiramis,
of Gorontalo.”

“Ponga Jim Mayo!” Albran’s face blanched. Then slowly the expression faded, to be replaced with something like triumph. “So,” he said softly, “Ponga Jim Mayo! I have heard of you, my friend.” Albran turned slightly. “Hans, this fellow has made something of a record for escaping from tight corners. So shoot if he makes even one false move.”

Hans smiled wolfishly. “This is one corner he won’t get out of!” he said. “I hope he tries.”

After Albran turned on his heel and left the room, Jim let his eyes rove around. There was still the problem of the murdered man. To the right of him, and near the window, was a pool of water. Remembering his own movements, he recalled that he had come around the other side of the blood, and none of the three recent arrivals had stood over there. Then, naturally, it had been someone else, who had arrived on the scene and surveyed it carefully and without interruption. Probably the man who had stepped from the path. But who?

A white man, Jim was sure. Bare feet don’t make such a sound on a gravel path. And white men in Halmahera were few and all too easily traced. Albran? He considered that. Yet it was hardly probable. And why had the head been removed?

Albran and Thomsen returned to the room with two other men. One of them Jim recognized instantly as Doc Fife. The roving surgeon was known in all the islands. He glanced at Jim out of shrewd eyes.

“Albran tells me you killed Frazer,” said Fife, smiling a little. “I told him he was crazy.”

Jim shrugged, said nothing.

Albran’s eyes were cold. “I found him here, starting to go through the papers on the desk. The body was still warm, and Jim had blood on his hand. Has it now. And I say he killed Frazer!”

Ponga Jim stared at Albran very thoughtfully. “Want a case pretty bad, don’t you?” he said.

Albran smiled coldly. “This is a time of war. I shall not delay the progress of justice, but order you shot—immediately.”

“What?” Fife demanded angrily. “You can’t do that! Nothing has been proved—”

“Proved?” Albran demanded. “Am I to deny the sight of my eyes?”

“Wait a minute!” Jim snapped. “I’m getting sick of this nonsense! If the sight of your eyes was worth anything you’d know the dead man is not Bent Frazer!”

Albran whirled, consternation in his eyes. Fife looked startled.

“What do you mean?” Albran demanded.

“That faded blue anchor tattooed on the man’s hand?” Jim said drily. “Frazer wouldn’t let himself be tattooed. He was at least two inches taller than this man and not so heavily built. This is Kimberly Rinehart. He was a friend of Frazer’s. I knew him well and recognized the body as soon as I came in.”

“Then—then where’s Frazer?” Albran exclaimed, “He must have murdered this man!”

“Nuts,” Jim said drily. “Frazer wouldn’t kill Rinehart. He is one of the few friends Frazer ever had. In fact, I think whoever killed this man thought he was killing Frazer. I think somebody wanted Bent Frazer dead. They sent a man to kill him, and he killed the wrong man.”

“Perhaps you know more about that than we do!” Albran snapped. “We’ll take you back to the village!”

“Okay.” Jim shrugged.

Hans stepped toward him, and Ponga Jim started to follow Albran. But suddenly his foot slipped in the blood and he plunged forward, his head smashing into Albran’s back and knocking him through the door into a sprawled heap on the path outside. Tumbling across him, Jim rolled over, scrambled to his feet and dove into the night and the jungle.

Thomsen snapped a quick shot into the night, and Ponga Jim grinned as it went yards from its object. After his first plunging run had carried him through the thick wall of jungle, Jim had stopped dead still. To move meant to make noise. He realized suddenly that he was clutching a bit of paper from the desk, picked up at the moment Albran discovered him. He thrust it in his pocket.

Back at the bungalow, Albran was shouting orders at Thomsen and Hans. Nearby, Doc Fife was talking in low tones with the man who had come up with him, a man whose face Ponga Jim could not distinguish.

Gradually Jim worked around a thick clump of ferns. Slowly, carefully, he worked his way back from the clearing. For a half hour he tried nothing but the most careful movement. Then he struck out, moving more boldly, and found the bank of a small stream. He stepped in carefully, found it shallow, and began to wade downstream toward the shore.

Walking in the water made travel faster, and Jim had time to think. He didn’t know why Bent Frazer had written him after all this time. He had no idea what Kim Rinehart would be doing there or why he should be killed or, if his theory was right, and Kim had been killed by mistake, just why anyone should want to kill Frazer.

And where did Albran fit in? The Dutch resident was a recent appointee, although he had been in the islands for some time, despite frequent trips back to the Netherlands. Yet, somehow, Jim couldn’t believe that he didn’t know more than he had any right to know. How had he happened on the scene so soon? And where had Doc Fife come from? Who was the man with him? And who was the man who had passed Jim in the darkness?

He was glad when he got back to the shore and could use his flashlight to signal the nightwatch on the
Semiramis.
Yet when he turned in he was no closer to a solution….

P
ONGA
J
IM AWAKENED
to a banging on his door. Then he heard Slug Brophy, his chief mate, roar:

“Skipper! Wake up, will you? A couple of Dutch coppers out here want to put the pinch on you. Shall I drop the anchor on ’em?”

Jim sat up on his bunk. “Let them come aboard,” he said finally. “I’ll see them in the saloon. And tell Li I want some breakfast.”

Karl Albran, his lean face dark and ugly, was waiting in the saloon when Ponga Jim came out. With him was Doc Fife and another man whom Jim recognized instantly without giving any indication of it. A fourth man came in a moment later, and Jim’s eyes narrowed slightly before he smiled. Essen, he thought.

He sat down. “Don’t mind if I eat, do you? Nothing like a few ham and eggs to set a man up.”

“I suppose you know,” Albran said icily, “what you can get for resisting an officer?”

Jim chuckled. “Sure, but I also know what I could get walking down a trail ahead of a man who wanted me dead, too. And I don’t want any.”

“Are you insinuating that I—”

Jim nodded. “You’re darned right I am.” He took a mouthful of ham and eggs. “I’m not playing poker this time, Albran,” he said. “That walk down the mountain last night in the wet didn’t suit me a little bit. I don’t know what this racket is all about, but your part of it smells.”

“Why, you—” Albran’s face turned crimson with anger. “I’ll—”

“No, you won’t,” Jim said quietly. “And if you wanted to use the law, you can’t use it on my ship. I’ve got a crew here, mister, a tough crew. So don’t get any fancy ideas.”

“I think,” Fife said, interrupting, “that Mr. Bonner and I”—(so Colonel Sutherland of the British Intelligence was now Mr. Bonner, Jim thought)—“have convinced Mr. Albran that it is highly improbable that you would kill a man who had been your friend, and without reason. However, there must be an investigation, and Mr. Bonner here, who has had some business connections with Benton Frazer, is anxious the case be cleared up. We thought you might help us.”

Jim shrugged and then told them of receiving a message from Frazer and of what followed. He told it casually, carelessly, eating all the while.

“How about the message?” Bonner asked. “Did that give you any information?”

Jim reached into his coat pocket and tossed it on the table. It read:

COME AT ONCE
.
SOMETHING RIGHT DOWNYOUR ALLEY. TELL NO ONE
.
IMPORTANT YOU ARRIVE BEFORE THE FIFTH
.

FRAZER
.

“You have no idea what he wanted?” Fife asked. “Had he said anything previously that would be a clue?”

“Listen,” Jim said. “I hadn’t seen Frazer or heard from him in ten years. We worked some together but we were never what you’d call friends.”

“I’m sorry about last night,” Albran said suddenly. “If I’d thought, I’d have realized the truth. A few days ago Frazer discharged a Papuan, a former headhunter. Obviously, he killed him for revenge and then fled to New Guinea with the head.”

Ponga Jim chuckled. “No soap, pal.”

“What do you mean?” Essen said. “Is it not obvious if the head is gone that a headhunter must take it? Who else had use for heads?”

Jim chuckled. “Whoever killed Kim didn’t know I was going to come along so conveniently and be accused. He wanted Frazer out of the way, because Frazer knew something. But he didn’t want any investigation or questions asked. So he took the head, thinking it would be passed off as a headhunter’s job.”

“Why couldn’t it be?” Bonner asked.

“Simply because,” Jim said drily, “headhunters do everything according to habit and custom. The removal of a victim’s head follows a set pattern. Papuans always do it in the same manner, and rather neatly. Our friend who knocked off Kim just hacked off the head, not knowing his Papuan customs. As I said,” Jim looked up, grinning at Essen, “the guy who figured that one out was a dumb cluck with a head like a cabbage.”

“Then you believe Frazer, or rather, Rinehart, was killed by a white man?” Fife asked thoughtfully.

Ponga Jim nodded. “I sure do. Furthermore,” he added, “Frazer is still around somewhere, still ready to tell what he knows. Find him and you’ll blow the lid off more than Kim Rinehart’s murder. And when you begin to get suspects, ask them one question.”

“What?” Albran demanded.

“Ask them: ‘What do you know about the Well of the Unholy Light’!”

Silence gripped the saloon, and Jim saw Fife watching Essen. The man’s face was set and stiff. He was staring at Ponga Jim, his glance fairly ablaze with hatred.

“What do you mean?” Bonner asked. “What is the Well of the Unholy Light?”

“Back up on the slope of Gam Konora is a well that shows a peculiar, misty glow at night,” Jim explained. “It is phosphorescent or something. You can’t trace the origin of the light, either. There’s a
batu paduran
there. In other words, a stone city. It isn’t so very far from here. A day’s travel if you know the trails.”

“What does it have to do with this murder?” Fife asked.

Ponga Jim Mayo got up slowly, reaching for his cap.

“That’s your problem,” he said seriously. “But whoever killed Rinehart will answer to me. He wasn’t my friend, but we fought a couple of wars together, and men who do that don’t fail each other. So,” Jim looked first at Essen and then at Albran, “I’m declaring myself in for the duration!”