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noticed him since reaching the ledge. There had been too much to do.
But now, as he approached me, he seemed to have an air of truculence, and
there was something about his eyes - a queer sort of confidence, something
like a sneer. He was somehow different. He'd lost the dazed look. He came r
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ight over to me and stopped in front of me. 'I want a word with you, Craig, '
he said. There was a sudden authority in his tone that stopped me in my t
racks. He had spoken loudly and I saw several of the men stop work to watch
us.
'Well?' I asked.
'In future you'll keep away from my wife,' he said.
'That's for her to decide,' I answered, trying to keep the anger I felt out of
m y voice.
'It's an order,' he said.
I stared at him. The hell it is,' I said. 'Get to work on the boats, Bland.'
He shook his head, grinning. I saw the fever of excitement in his eyes. 'Yo u
don't give orders here.' And then in a moment of quiet he said, 'Mister C
raig. Please understand that, now that Larvik is dead, I am in command.' He
swung round on the men, who were all watching us now. 'In the absence of m y
father I shall, of course, take command here as his deputy. As commander
I brought the ropes across. Craig, as second-in-command, should have remain ed
with the rear party as I instructed, but--' He shrugged his shoulders. '
As a newcomer to the company,' he said to me, 'you will realize that you ar e
too inexperienced to have any sort of command in a situation like this.'
He turned abruptly and strode towards the men. There was almost a swagger i n
the way he walked.
I just stood there for a moment without moving. I was too amazed by the abs
urdity of the thing to make a move. I remember thinking: Howe was right. He
's got back his confidence. Nordahl's death, the ramming - he's forgotten i t
all. And I cursed myself for not realizing he was dangerous.
He began shouting orders at the men. I saw the amazement I felt written on
their faces. But they were overawed by the terror of their surroundings. Th ey
would follow any leader, so long as he led. I started forward, and as I
came up to Bland I heard him announce the reinstatement of Vaksdal and Kell er
as mates. He gave an order. The men hesitated. Their eyes shifted to me.
Bland turned. The sneer was gone now. But the truculence was still there.
I ordered him to pick up one of the packing cases. His eyes shifted quickly
from me to the men. Another instant and he'd believe what he wanted to bel
ieve - that he was not responsible for the predicament we were in. That mad
scramble across the ice had almost wiped any sense of guilt from his mind.
And as he didn't move when I repeated the order, I knew there was only one
thing to do. 'McPhee. Kalstad.' The two Hval 4 men moved forward. 'Arrest that
man,' I ordered. And then, turning quickly to Bland, I said, 'Erik Bla nd, you
are charged with the murder of Bernt Nordahl and also with the deli berate
ramming of Hval 4, an action which caused the immediate death of two men and
which may be responsible for all our deaths. You will be held and committed
for trial when and if we ever reach civilization.'
I was watching his eyes all the time as I spoke. For a moment, they had a wi
ld, almost hunted look. Then he laughed. 'You can't get away with this, Crai
g,' he shouted. 'First you try to steal my wife, now you try to get control of
the company through her.'
I called to two or three of the Hval 4 men and with Kalstad and McPhee mov ed
in to get him. I new just what he was capable of now and I was taking n o more
chances. I wanted him secured. He watched us approach and I thought for a
moment he was going to fight. His face was very white under his bro wn beard
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and his eyes shifted uneasily from side to side.
Then suddenly he turned and slithered down the ice of the ledge. A man-hunt
wasn't going to be good for morale, but I was determined to get him. I sen t
Kalstad and the rest after him. He had stopped at one of the packing case s
that had apparently been burst open with a pick. I thought we'd mastered him
without the sordid business of a fight. I had turned back to speak with the
men, when Howe gave a shout of warning. As I swung round, Bland was li fting a
rifle out of the broken packing case.
Kalstad started to run towards him. Then he and the men behind him checked
suddenly. Bland had the gun cocked and levelled straight at them. He was la
ughing at them. A shot rang out close behind me. I turned to find Vaksdal s
truggling with Howe. Vaksdal had hold of his arm, and as he twisted it back
the gloved fingers released the weapon. It fell to the ice. For a moment t
here was a glint of nickel-plating slithering down the ramp, then it disapp
eared over the edge.
Bland was coming up the ledge now, and he was driving the Hval 4 men back at
the point of his gun. He was immensely pleased with himself. You could see it
by the gleam in his eyes and the way he walked. He bunched all the survivors
together. None of us hesitated to obey. His eyes were narrowed a nd cold, and
his manner and the way he held the rifle made it clear that h e would not
hesitate to use it.
He called Vaksdal and Keller over to him. They hesitated uncertainly. Blan d
as the son of the chairman of the company was one thing. Bland with a gu n
another. But they went down to him all the same. He spoke in Norwegian.
They looked at me and then began muttering amongst themselves. 'He tell th em
it is safe to have only one leader,' Gerda translated for me. 'That he is in
command and that it is mutiny if they do not obey him.'
The thing had got to be stopped at once. I called out to the men. And then J
udie's hands were tugging at my arm Bland was yelling at me to shut up. He h
ad the gun to his shoulder and was aiming straight at me. 'Keep quiet. Dunca
n,' Judie pleaded. 'He will shoot. There is plenty of time.'
Howe, just behind me, said, 'We've got to get his gun.'
As we hesitated, one or two of the men moved down the slope of the ledge tow
ards Bland. In an instant they would all go. They needed a leader. Bland had a
gun and the will to use it. It seems incredible now. But out there on tha t
ledge in that chaotic wilderness of ice it didn't seem so incredible. The law
of the wild holds good when it comes to pitting your puny strength again st
the violence of nature. If we could stop the men, isolate Bland and his t wo
mates, then the sheer threat of our numbers would wear him down. I starte d
forward. If I got killed - well, it was just too bad. In the moment of hor ror
the men might rush him then.
But just as I moved out to stop what had begun to look like a general move
ment towards Bland, Gerda rushed past me. She stopped, facing the men with her
back to Bland. Her small, bulky figure blocked their way down the led ge and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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