“Oh,” she exclaimed in dismay, “they’ve got one of the speedboats going. Quick! To those yachts over there. Give it everything you have. We can’t let them catch us here.”
Where a moment before she had been triumphantly sure of herself, inclined to engage in banter, she was now in a panic of desperation.
Mason hesitated a moment, then sank the paddle deep into the water.
“Don’t think this thing is going to be terminated when we get to your yacht,” Mason said. “I’m going to continue this investigationl”
“Continue anything you want to,” she said, “but let’s not be caught here like a couple of saps. They have a searchlight on that motorboat and … We’ll never make itl”
Aboard the speedboat, a canvas cover was jerked off the searchlight and a long, wicked pencil of light started swinging back and forth across the dark space of the water.
“Faster, faster!” she said, looking apprehensively back over her shoulder. “They’re too far upstream. If we can only make it. Another hundred yards and we’ll be…”
The searchlight suddenly, as though drawn by a magnet, swung in a half circle, passed directly over the canoe, hesitated a moment, wavered back, then speared the occupants in white glare.
“Oh, they’ve found us!” the girl exclaimed. “Please, please paddle.”
The motorboat swung in a half circle, bore down upon them at speed.
A yacht anchored broadside became interposed between the speedboat and the canoe, momentarily blotting out the beam of the searchlight.
“Hold everything,” Mason said, swinging the canoe abruptly toward the anchored yacht. “Grab something so you can hang on.”
“No, no,” she said, “this isn’t the one. We can’t go aboard this, and…”
“Grab,” Mason commanded.
She caught hold of a porthole, swinging the canoe abruptly around.
“Now duck,” Mason ordered, as the canoe came in close to the yacht.
Suddenly the girl sensed his maneuver and pulled the canoe forward as she dropped to the bottom. Mason, completely reversing his direction, paddled back under the bow of the yacht and up on the other side. The speedboat in the meantime had swung wide so that the beam of the spotlight could pick up the canoe again on the yacht’s port side. Mason waited until the momentum of the speedboat had carried it past, then paddled out from the starboard side of the yacht.
Waves made by the speedboat hit the canoe sideways, threatened for a moment to capsize it, then subsided. Mason crossed the wake of the speedboat, which by this time was slewing in a scrambled turn, having quite apparently put on too much speed considering the proximity of anchored yachts.
The girl cautiously surveyed the various yachts riding at anchor, and said, “The one we want is that little one a hundred yards over there. Here they are, coming back to look for us.”
Mason sized up the situation. “Sit tight. I’m going to try to make it to that big yacht over there.”
“But that belongs to …”
“We’re just going to use it as a shield,” he explained. “They’ve lost us now, and if we can keep out of sight they may think we went aboard one of these larger yachts.”
Mason put everything he had into paddling across the dark stretch of water. The speedboat made a complete circle, but by the time the searchlight had a clean sweep over open water, Mason had gained the far side of the yacht, checked the progress of the canoe, and swung in to the protecting shadows of the yacht’s hull. As the speedboat made another wide circle, Mason slipped under the bow of the yacht and came back on the starboard side. Watching his - opportunity, he rounded the stern and paddled swiftly to another good-sized yacht which had enough freeboard to offer them complete protection.
By this time the girl was trembling with excitement and the chill of her wet clothes.
Mason, checking the progress of the canoe in the shelter of the third yacht, could feel the faint vibrations of her shivers as her hands gripped the sides of the light canoe.
“You’re cold,” he said. “You’re shivering.”
“Of course I’m cold. These clothes have become icy, but don’t let a little shivering bother you. You’re doing fine. Now if you can only work down toward that little yacht…”
She broke off with chattering teeth.
Mason said, “You’ll catch cold. You shouldn’t . .
“What do you want me to do, take it off?” she asked.
“You might as well,” Mason told her.
“I might at that,” she admitted, pulling the wet garment away from the skin. “It clings, and sticks, and I suppose it’s darn near transparent. But…”
“Oh, oh!” Mason interrupted, “they’re making a wide circle completely around the outside of the anchorage. Perhaps we can make it. Want to take a chance?”
She said sarcastically, “You should know by this time that I’m a conservative young woman who never takes a chance.”
Mason shot the canoe out from the protection of the yacht, across a strip of open water, then gained the side of the little yacht the girl had pointed out.
“Quick,” she said, scrambling aboard. “We’re going to have to do something with this canoe. That’s why they’re circling, looking for the yacht which has…”
“Hoist it aboard,” Mason told her.
“There isn’t room to put it anywhere on deck.”
“Slide it into the cabin,” Mason suggested. “Put part of it in the cabin and leave part of it down here …”
“All right. Can we lift it?”
“Sure. It’s an aluminum canoe. You take the bow, take the stern. All right, let’s go.”
They lifted the dripping canoe across the deck, and, opening the cabin door, slid part of the bow into the cabin.
“Now,” she said, “I’m going to have a drink of whisky and you’re going to have a drink of whisky. Then you’re going to be a gentleman and turn your back. I can’t close the doors of the cabin with the canoe in here and there’s enough moonlight so…”
Mason said, “IH go outside and keep an eye on that speedboat…”
“You most certainly will do nothing of the sort. They’ll see you. You won’t be able to resist sticking your head up over the side just when they happen to swing the searchlight. You stay right here.”
Mason said, “I want some assurance that this bottle was the only thing you took. I…”
She said, “Sit tight and I’ll throw you my wet clothes. You can search them. I wish you wouldn’t be so darned suspicious.”
“I know,” Mason told her. “I’m a narrow-minded old fuddyduddy. I’ve always been suspicious whenever I see a woman jumping out of a window…”
“So you saw that, did you?”
He nodded.
She said, “Keep your eyes closed. Here comes a very wet and soggy dinner dress. Then I’m going to slip into a housecoat and … If I can find the darn thing … Here it is… Now, wait a minute … Okay, now you may open your eyes and we’re going to have a great big jolt of whisky without water and without ice.”
“Make mine light.” Mason warned.
Mason heard the clink of glasses, saw her moving about the small cabin, then heard the splash of liquid, and a glass was thrust into his hand.
“I think this, calls for a toast. Here’s to crime,” she said and then laughed.
Mason sipped the whisky, heard her pour herself a second drink.
“Ready for a refill?”
“No, I’m doing fine. Don’t hit that too hard.”
“I won’t,” she promised. “I don’t ordinarily take much, but I’m chilled right through to the bone.”
Mason said, “Suppose we take an inventory.”
“Of what?”
“That bottle.”