Chapter 10

CAT AND MOUSE

I WAS IMPRESSED by the Nuevan Army Staff’s forethought about radio, but radio silence was also a nuisance, because it meant that we couldn’t communicate with the gunboat. Ezra had given instructions for the two launches to come in to the beach, and after our Nuevan breakfast (otherwise an early lunch) I went down to the inlet with Lieutenant-Colonel Strong, who had been appointed liaison officer with the naval force. We got there a little ahead of the boats, but we could see them coming in and they anchored a few minutes later. The officer in charge, a young lieutenant, came ashore in a rubber dinghy.

The gunboat, he told us, was on station about half a mile east of the high ground enclosing the eastern side of the Chacarima Inlet, which meant that she couldn’t be seen from the inlet itself. Her commander had been told to await orders.

‘I think we’d better go out to her,’ I said to Strong. ‘We can’t use R/T and there’s too much to explain for written orders. She can’t be more than about three miles away, and we should be on board in a quarter of an hour or so. I suggest that we go out in one of the launches, while the other waits here. Tell them to be armed and ready for action, and to arrest anyone who may come out from the Chacarima caves.’

Strong agreed to this. The lieutenant decided to stay with the waiting launch, and we went out in the other. They were good boats, about forty feet long, armed with heavy machine guns fore and aft, and carrying a crew of twelve. The officer in command of our launch told us that she could do nearly thirty knots and was a fine seaboat, having been built originally for the U.S. Coastguard Service. We soon raised the gunboat, still bearing her old Royal Navy name Penelope, but now N.N.S. (Nuevan Naval Ship) instead of H.M.S. Her commander was an elderly captain, who had served in the British Merchant Marine, and in the RNVR. He received us formally at the top of Penelope’s boarding ladder, with a smart guard drawn up to meet us, and a piper to pipe us on board.

‘I’m thankful to see you,’ he said. ‘We left in a great hurry this morning with orders to patrol here, but I’ve very little idea what we’re supposed to do. I hope you’ve brought some instructions for me.’

‘We have,’ replied Strong. ‘Can we go to your cabin?’

Strong introduced me. ‘Colonel Blair is a British officer who is acting as a military adviser to our Nuevan Army commander, Major-General Ezra. I take it that you do not know of the events in Fort James this morning?’

‘I know nothing. I received orders to put to sea at once, and did so.’

‘Much has happened since then,’ Strong said. ‘Our Army Intelligence Service discovered a plot against the independence of Nueva, an exceedingly grave business in which, I am sorry to say, the former Prime Minister, Mr Li Cook, is deeply implicated. The Army had to act at once. The Army Council has temporarily suspended the Nuevan constitution, put Nueva under military law, deposed Mr Li Cook, and appointed a Provisional Military Government, under Major-General Ezra, to govern Nueva until arrangements can be made for new elections. I have formally to ask you whether you are prepared to serve our Military Government.’

The captain took off his cap and rubbed his nearly bald head. ‘Only a year to go before my pension,’ he said ruefully. ‘Obey orders if you break owners – that’s an old Merchant Service saying. I had orders to come here, and I’m obeying them. When you give me more orders, I’ll obey those, too. It’s not for me to say who runs the Government. I know about your man Ezra, though I thought he was a brigadier, and I’ve a lot of respect for him. OK man. Tell me what I’ve got to do.’

Strong turned to me. ‘It might be helpful if Colonel Blair explained some things in a bit more detail.’

‘Gladly,’ I said. ‘It is not for me to go into the plot against Nueva. It has nothing to do with my Government –except that we are friends of Nueva, and want to help if we can. A new military weapon, of, perhaps, considerable importance, has been secretly developed in the Chacarima caves. We obtained information that Mr Li Cook was prepared to sell this secret to the Chinese, in return for an alliance with the Chinese to establish himself as dictator of Nueva backed by sufficient Chinese force to destroy the Nuevan Army and keep him in power. The Nuevan Army’s reaction to this you have heard. A Chinese envoy is on his way to settle things in a chartered American yacht. She is due off Chacarima this afternoon. Lieutenant-Colonel Strong will, I think, confirm that the new Nuevan Government wishes you to intercept this yacht, put a naval party on board to detain her radio operator, and prevent any use of radio, and escort her to Fort James, where a military guard will be waiting to take over from you.’

‘That is correct,’ said Strong. I think it was probably the first he had heard of most of the things I mentioned, but he supported me loyally.

‘Some job,’ said the captain. ‘What if she resists?’

‘The vessel is a yacht, and is unlikely to have anything in the way of armament,’ I said. ‘Your three-inch gun should give you complete superiority. It is possible that there may be people on board armed with rifles or revolvers, and that they will try to resist arrest. If so, you must meet force with force, and, if necessary, use your gun. You are well within Nuevan territorial waters, and if she tries to resist arrest you are entitled to use superior force on the orders of your Government.’

‘Well, I’ll get the gun manned and some shells up, though we haven’t had much gunnery practice. What time do you expect this yacht to turn up, and what is her name?’

‘We don’t know her name. We do know that she is described as a big yacht, and that she is due this afternoon. My own guess is that you can expect her any time now. She must be here well before dark, in time for the people on board to attend a demonstration which requires daylight.’

The captain went off to see about the gun. ‘Do you think we ought to stay?’ Strong asked. ‘I’m sure the old chap will do his best, but I can’t say that I feel a great deal of confidence in him.’

‘You’ve a damned good little Army, but you don’t seem to have taken your Navy all that seriously,’ I said.

‘We haven’t had much time. There was local recruitment to the Nuevan Regiment in British days, which gives us something of an Army tradition. At sea everything was in the hands of the Royal Navy. It’s left a gap which we haven’t filled.’

‘Well, that’s for the future. As of now, I’d like to get back to Major-General Ezra, but I’m afraid I agree with you – I think we ought to stay on board. The old man is probably a good seaman, but he may need stiffening when it comes to dealing with matters far outside his own experience. We can stay for a bit, anyway.’

As things turned out, we didn’t have to wait long, for the captain came back a few minutes later to say, ‘There’s a ship on the horizon now, which may be the yacht you were speaking of. Would you like to get the glasses on her?’

The ship was already visible to the naked eye, and through a pair of good naval binoculars she came up sharply. Yes, she could certainly be a big steam, or more probably diesel, yacht. She had yacht lines, and she was moving fast. Soon I could identify her ensign – it was clearly a U.S. flag.

‘Undoubtedly looks like her, and she seems to be on course for the Chacarima Inlet,’ I said. ‘We’d better steam towards her, and be ready to order her to stop. It may be necessary to send a round across her bow – you can aim well ahead of her to make sure of not hitting her by accident. But don’t fire yet. We must get a closer look at her. Have the gun ready, though.’

Then the yacht blew up.

It was a devastating explosion – one moment she was there, a fine-looking vessel of some 600–800 tons standing in towards the Chacarima Inlet, the next she was a mass of debris, almost disintegrated. The gunboat’s captain needed no telling what to do – distress at sea was something he understood instinctively. We were already steaming towards the wreck, now not more than a couple of miles away. He ordered the lifeboats to be swung out, and the sickbay got ready to receive injured survivors.

I kept my glasses on the wreckage, though there was little left to see above the water. My mind was racing. What had Charles Caval said in the cave? ‘We have arranged a demonstration for him . . . It will have to be at sea, of

course . . .’ Could something have gone wrong? Could that diabolical machinery have brought about a marine earthquake too soon?

But that was no earthquake, it was an explosion. The sea remained relatively calm, and we had felt nothing on the gunboat. Either there had been some violent explosion on board, or she had struck an exceptionally powerful mine. A mine! My God, could that have been an insurance policy for Charles’s demonstration? A mine could be set off by radio. But if there had been a radio controlled mine, would it have gone off on being struck? Well, it had gone off – the ‘how’ didn’t matter at the moment. Charles had spoken of a demonstration over a defined area – if there had been one mine, could there be others?

We were closing the wreckage rapidly. I called urgently to the captain, ‘Bear away and stop her. On no account go the other side of the wreck. Get boats lowered as soon as you can to investigate, but don’t take your ship any nearer than she is now.’

The launch had also made for the wreckage, and was almost up to it. ‘Radio,’ I said. ‘It doesn’t matter now! I must speak to the launch.’

There was a naval walkie-talkie outfit on the bridge. The captain gave it to me and I called urgently ‘Penelope to launch, Penelope to launch. I have an important message for you.’

Discipline on that launch was good, for although they had not been using radio, their radio set was manned. ‘Launch to Penelope. Reading you loud and clear. Proceed with message. Over.’ Thankfully I heard the response. I told them to reduce speed, make what search they could for survivors, and not to go beyond the wreck. ‘Keep a sharp look-out for mines,’ I added.

By the time I had finished speaking the boats were being lowered. I borrowed the captain’s loud-hailer and repeated the warning about mines.

There were no survivors. Two bodies were picked up dead, and brought on board the gunboat. One was Chinese, the other European. As the European body was laid out on the deck, the captain said, ‘I know that man! He has sailed with me often when I worked on the inter-island packet boats. It is Mr Nicolas Caval.’

No one had seen anything that looked like a mine, but neither the launch nor the lifeboats had searched in the area where I thought it most likely that mines would be, if there were any to be found. I marked it on the captain’s chart. ‘Until it can be swept it must be regarded as a danger area,’ I said.

I asked Lieutenant-Colonel Strong to order the gunboat to enter the Chacarima Inlet and to anchor about half a mile off the entrance to the caves. ‘Tell him to keep steam up, and to be ready to slip his cable and give chase at a moment’s notice,’ I said. ‘It would also be a good idea to get his gun trained on the cave entrance. He should get his searchlight ready, too.’

We didn’t wait to return to the inlet with the gunboat. The launch which had been searching the wreckage was called alongside, we went on board, and she took us back to the beach at speed.

There had been a considerable build-up of troops while we were away. A whole company was now installed at the western end of the beach, within rifle-range of the entrance to the caves. Another company was in reserve at the eastern end. I suggested to Strong that when the gunboat arrived at least half of the men in the reserve company should be ferried out to her launches – they would add substantially to the gunboat’s firepower if it became necessary to force the entrance.

The men on the beach had seen the explosion out to sea, and were anxious to know what it was. Since radio was still not being used a dispatch rider had been sent to Major-General Ezra with news of the explosion, though obviously he could give no details. This man had just returned, with a message from Ezra asking that I should go to him at the command post on the ridge as soon as I could be got ashore. The launch that had remained by the beach was about to go out to recover me from the gunboat when the other launch brought us back.

Strong, as liaison officer with the naval branch of the Nuevan armed forces, felt that he had better stay on the beach. I went back to the ridge in a jeep. It was a rough ride over parts of the unmade track, but men were at work clearing undergrowth and filling the worst ruts with an amalgam of twigs, small branches and earth, making the track much more usable for vehicles.

Ezra was relieved to see me. So was Ruth. She had been valuable to him in being able to describe the installations in the cave and he did his best to be nice to her, but he was frantically busy in dealing with messages from Fort James as well as organising the military side of the operation, and for much of the time Ruth had been on her own, not knowing what was happening and increasingly worried about me.

I gave a rapid account of the explosion and of what seemed to me the puzzling features of it. ‘I do not believe that it was any sort of earthquake,’ I said. ‘There was no tidal wave, nothing to indicate any disturbance on the seabed. It was undoubtedly a very severe explosion. Of course it could have been an explosion on the yacht, but if so it was an extraordinary coincidence that it should happen where it did. My own guess is that the sea area was mined, to provide an explosion where it was wanted if the earthquake system didn’t work.’

‘That would be like Charles,’ Ruth said. ‘He had negotiated his big deal, and he wouldn’t care a cent if part of it was faked.’

‘I think we can leave that for the moment,’ I said. ‘What matters is that the ship and the Chinese envoy are gone. The fact that a Chinese body was picked up virtually proves that the ship was carrying the Chinese envoy – if you are expecting a ship with Chinese on board to appear at a given time and place, and such a ship does appear, it’s stretching coincidence too far to bother about the possibility that it was a quite different ship, with quite different Chinese. We don’t know if the body was that of the envoy, or of a member of his staff – maybe we shall never know. We can assume that the ship was the envoy’s ship, and that the envoy is now dead.’

‘Yes, we can assume that,’ Ezra said.

‘It changes the whole situation,’ I went on. ‘Before the explosion there was always a risk that the cave party was in radio contact with the ship – in fact, we know they were – and that they might send a signal warning off the ship, or asking the ship to create a diversion or bring help from somewhere. They can’t do that any longer. I think it’s time to use radio in a big way. Get Fort James to broadcast news of the overthrow of the Prime Minister and the setting up of military government. The broadcast is almost bound to be picked up in the cave. Allow a little time for it to sink in, and then try to establish radio contact with the cave. Tell them their position is hopeless and that their only chance is to give themselves up.’

Ezra considered this for a moment. Then he said, ‘I think you are right. Having agreed not to use radio I’m a bit doubtful of going on the air to Fort James – they may suspect that things have gone wrong in some way. But I’ve kept the helicopter – that can get back to Fort James quickly, and I’ll send a written message with an officer who will be trusted. What about young Theophilus? He is my own aide. Do you need him any longer?’

‘He has been most helpful, and I wouldn’t like him to think that we just don’t want him. But we certainly don’t need him.’

‘I’ll see that his feelings aren’t hurt. Right, I’ll get things moving.’

When he’d gone, I asked Ruth, ‘What do you make of the other body’s being Nicolas Caval?’

‘Charles’s father? Oh God, Peter, I don’t know.’

‘Obviously he was very much mixed up in things. Presumably he was the main contact with Li Cook, and it looks as though he was the go-between with the Chinese. It may sound mad, but I can’t help feeling that the main impulse on the Nicolas-Charles side came from that old family feud with the Edward Cavals. They appear to have hated our Edward, and they have always wanted his money and his land. It’s fairly clear now that they tried to kill him at Chacarima. As their share, or part of their share, in the deal with Li Cook they may have demanded that Edward Caval should be disposed of and his property transferred to them. As dictator of Nueva Li Cook would have been able to do that.’

Ruth shuddered.

We heard the helicopter take off and Ezra walked back to us. ‘The helicopter won’t take more than twenty minutes to get to Fort James, and we should be on the air in half an hour or so,’ he said. ‘Now I must get hold of our signals officer. He’ll be delighted to have something to do. It must be tiresome to have all that lovely equipment and be ordered to keep radio silence.’

The mobile signals’ unit was housed in a couple of vans, under the command of an alert and clearly well trained captain. His first job was to prepare for the reception of the broadcast from Fort James, which simply meant tuning in to the station. Ezra’s timing was almost exactly right – in thirty-one minutes from the departure of the helicopter we heard the announcer saying ‘Stand by for an important announcement.’ Then came the Nuevan national anthem, and a statement declaring, ‘This is an official announcement by the new Government of Nueva. A most grave crisis threatening the independence of our State has been averted by the Army. It has been necessary to remove Mr Li Cook from the post of Prime Minister and temporarily to suspend the constitution. The Army Council has appointed a committee of three, under Major-General Ezra, to form the provisional military government of Nueva. No one who has not taken part in the plot against the State has anything to fear. All Government officials, police and schoolteachers have been ordered to remain in their posts and to carry on exactly as before. All businessmen and private citizens are asked to carry on with their normal work in the normal way. As soon as possible the provisional military government will organise the holding of elections to provide civilian government again. Long live Nueva.’

The signals’ captain’s next job was to try to establish radio contact with the cave. ‘Have you any idea what sort of equipment they have?’ he asked.

‘No, but there is a deep-water anchorage in the cave and a fair-sized modern freighter is almost certainly still there,’ I said. ‘She will have the usual marine radio installation. I should try calling on the standard marine frequency and see what happens.’

‘Do you know the freighter’s name?’

‘No, because when I saw her it appeared to have been painted out. Try calling “Chacarima caves”.’

The captain operated the set himself. ‘Nuevan Army calling Chacarima caves,’ he said. He repeated the call twice. Then, ‘Can you read me? Over.’

Ezra, a small group of officers with him, Ruth and I waited in tense silence. The captain had the handset, and the rest of us could do nothing but watch his face. Nothing happened. He called again, and again there was no response. ‘Doesn’t seem to raise anyone,’ he said. ‘We’re on high ground and the distance is not great. We ought to be able to get through. Of course, their radio may not be manned, or possibly there is radio obstruction in the formation of the caves.’

‘There may be, but from the way they spoke when I overheard them I certainly formed the impression that they had received a radio message in the cave.’

‘Try again,’ Ezra said.

There was still no response.

‘They may be reading you all right and just staying off the air themselves,’ I said. ‘How about giving them a bit more information? Something like, “If you have not already done so, tune in to Fort James radio. Your plot has been discovered. The Nuevan Army is in force at Chacarima, and a gunboat is patrolling the inlet. You cannot escape. Your only chance is to give yourselves up. You will have a fair trial. If you try to stay where you are you have no chance at all”.’

‘Sounds all right – can you write it down, Colonel?’ Ezra said. ‘We can try it, anyway.’

I wrote my suggested message on a signal pad and gave it to the captain. He called again, and read it out. I thought that we had met the usual blank response, when suddenly his whole being seemed to leap into activity. He seized a pad and wrote furiously. Then he spoke into the set again, ‘Message received. Stand by for further communication.’ He gave the signal pad to Ezra, who read the message to us. It was arrogant and defiant.

‘You are fools,’ it ran. ‘This is an ultimatum. It is now four o’clock. Unless Brigadier Ezra – I do not like usurped rank – comes alone into the cave, unarmed and carrying a white flag, before five o’clock, the Chacarima ridge and all the men on it will be destroyed. Ordered by the Prime Minister of Nueva.’

‘Get them again,’ Ezra said, ‘and give the phone to me.’ The captain called as before, and added, ‘I am now giving the handset to Major-General Ezra. Stand by for him.’

Ezra said, ‘This is Major-General Ezra. I assume I am speaking to Mr Li Cook. Your attitude is futile. We are Nuevan soldiers, and all Nuevan soldiers are ready to give their lives for Nueva. If by some diabolical means you contrive to kill some of us our comrades will storm your cave and they will not be inclined to show you any mercy. And if you kill all of us here, there are many more brave Nuevan soldiers to take our places. You and those with you must come out, in your ship if you like, and give yourselves up. A naval gun is trained on the entrance to the cave. If you try to run for it, your ship will be sunk. I promise you a fair trial – nothing more. If you do not accept this offer I shall order the cave to be stormed. I give you until four thirty. I repeat, four thirty. Over.’

We could hear the faint sounds of a live telephone coming from the R/T receiver, but could not make out any words. When Ezra put down the handset his face was grave. ‘He threatens to destroy the whole of Fort James,’ he said.

Asking Lieutenant-Colonel Garcia to stay with him Ezra sent the other officers to their posts. He told the signals’ captain to maintain a constant radio watch on the cave, to send any messages to him at once, but not to engage in any conversation other than that required for signals procedure. Then he beckoned to Ruth and me, and the four of us walked to a little glade about a hundred yards away, where we were alone.

‘I am wondering if it is not my duty to surrender. The destruction he threatens to civilians is too terrible to contemplate,’ he said.

‘It is one thing to threaten, it is quite another to perform,’ I remarked, though I was not feeling the confidence I tried to show.

‘Something destroyed Chacarima House.’

‘Whatever that something was it did not destroy the American yacht.’

‘How can you be sure of that?’

‘For two reasons. First, the physical appearance of the explosion – it was definitely an explosion, and not an earthquake. My second reason is more a matter of inference, but I think it is quite valid. If you assume that the explosion at sea was brought about by some action from the cave, why did it happen when it did? He needed the safe arrival of the yacht – he could have no conceivable purpose in destroying her.’

‘A mistake while experimenting?’

‘Possibly. But there remains the physical evidence of the sort of explosion it was. I think it probable that there are at least one, perhaps two, other mines. That could be checked by sweeping the area.’

‘There is not time.’

‘I respect your feelings, Major-General, but surely there is another important consideration,’ Garcia said. ‘If you surrender, Mr Li Cook will simply return to power. Can we accept as the ruler of Nueva a man who is prepared to destroy Fort James, with the appalling loss and suffering that would bring, for his own purposes?’

Ezra looked at his watch: it was seventeen minutes past four. ‘My ultimatum expires in thirteen minutes,’ he said. ‘If I am not going to give in I should order an attack on the cave.’

‘There’s someone coming from the signals truck,’ Ruth said. A runner came up, and our spirits rose a little. Had the cave party decided to give in?

Ezra read out the signal. ‘If you attempt to storm the cave I shall act at once. If there is no attack I am prepared to wait until five o’clock. If by that time Brigadier Ezra has not presented himself alone as instructed Fort James will be devastated. By order. The Prime Minister.’

The runner was waiting. ‘There is no reply,’ Ezra said.

It was twenty-two minutes past four.

If Ezra’s nerve had been shaken, he had recovered it. I admired the man tremendously. ‘I shall call up Strong on the beach and order the troops to go in at half-past four,’ he said.

‘Don’t,’ I said. ‘Keep him guessing. He’s all ready to meet an assault, and he may have considerable small-arms fire. If the troops go in at half-past four there will be heavy casualties.’

‘If they don’t go in, Fort James may be destroyed.’

Ruth broke in, ‘Can you get me a map? It ought to be a geological map, but if there isn’t one can I have any map of the area?’

‘I can get you a map after I’ve called up Lieutenant-Colonel Strong.’

‘Please – please. Don’t let any men be killed until I have seen the map. I’ve been thinking desperately, and I may be able to tell you why the Chacarima earthquake worked, and why I don’t think any others will.’

‘She knows more about this than anybody else. Hold up your order and let her see the map,’ I said.

‘All right, but only for a few minutes.’ Garcia ran to the signals truck and came back with a big map-case. ‘These are the old surveys of our colonial days, that’s why they are in inches,’ he said. ‘There is an inch-to-the-mile sheet similar to the old British Ordnance Survey maps but, I fear, less accurate, and a 2 ½ inches-to-the-mile sheet which is better because it has some up-to-date revisions for the benefit of the tourist industry. It covers a much smaller area, of course.’

‘I’ll have the larger-scale map. It will have to do.’

Ruth moved away a little, sat on the ground, and pored over the sheet. ‘I can only go roughly from the contours and the pattern of vegetation, but I think I’ve got it,’ she said. ‘From the caves to the site of the old Chacarima House seems just the shape of earth formation that Phil used as a model for his work. It is fundamentally unstable – there’ve been earthquake shocks at Chacarima before. And the distance from the caves is short – that’s why the maths and Phil’s radio-wave shock principle could work. I can’t tell anything about the seabed, but looking at the shape of the land on that side of the Chacarima Inlet, it’s quite different from the land round Chacarima House. It’s a much more stable formation, and I don’t believe that Phil’s process could work in that area. I suspect that Charles tried it after he’d killed Phil, found he couldn’t get anywhere, and used mines instead. He’d probably been thinking of ordinary high explosive as an insurance policy all along, and I daresay the freighter brought a good supply.

‘This sheet goes nowhere near Fort James, but it covers a bit of this ridge. Everything this side of the Carima river looks quite stable, and I don’t believe they could do anything to affect the ridge, still less to touch anything beyond it as far away as Fort James.’

Ezra looked undecided. He turned to me, ‘You suggest we simply call his bluff?’

‘Yes. Let him wait till five o’clock. Let him start up all his bloody machines. If nothing happens, he’ll know that he hasn’t any power left.’

‘It’s an appalling gamble.’

‘It’s not quite a gamble. I am a mathematician, and I know something about the process,’ Ruth said.

It was twenty-three minutes to five. A little wind rustled the leaves of the forest-covered ridge. The clearing, for all the Army vehicles parked round it, looked extraordinarily peaceful. Ezra was wrestling not only with his problem, but with himself. Ignorant as most of us are about mathematics, in the European and American world we have been battered by the Einsteins and the atom splitters into some kind of submission to the physicists and mathematicians. Ezra’s people were of older human stock, atavistic fears of magic nearer to the surface of their mind. He himself had probably no Carib blood, but the ancient Carib ways of thought permeated the subconscious minds of many of his people. The Chacarima caves were the abode of strange powers, the preserve of the jealous spirit of the Carima river. The power to bring about earthquakes was magic, dangerous, devilish magic, but not necessarily unreal – indeed, the very fear of it made it seem the more likely that in some horrible way it might be real. A cool mathematical judgment might influence Ezra’s reason; it had much less influence on his subconscious imagination.

Reason won. It was nineteen minutes to five.

‘Should we send a signal to Fort James to warn people just in case anything happens?’ Ezra asked.

‘No,’ I said. ‘Such a signal could only cause panic. You’ve decided on a course of action, and if the reasons for the decision are good there’s no need to send a signal.’

‘It’s damned hard to wait.’

‘Think of the people waiting in the cave. Their nerve must be near cracking. Li Cook can’t exactly want to destroy Fort James, even if he thinks he can. It won’t exactly make him popular.’

‘We can’t see anything from here,’ Ruth said. ‘Do you think we could go back to the road? A little way along, where it crosses the summit, we can see over the inlet.’

It was a valuable interruption. ‘Sure,’ said Ezra. ‘We’ll go in my car.’

He didn’t send for a driver but took the wheel himself. I got in beside him, Ruth and Garcia in the back. The earth track had been much churned up by vehicles and the car needed careful handling. By the time we had negotiated the track back to the road, and driven along the road to the summit, it was six minutes to five.

The road crossed the summit through a cutting. The inshore bank was wooded, the bank on the coastal side of the road here was a great slab of exposed rock. We got out of the car and climbed the rock. From the top there was a superb view over the inlet. We could see the huge archway that was the entrance to the Chacarima caves, the gunboat, looking like a toy boat, anchored in the bay. My watch had a sweep second-hand, and this was the hand to look at now. There was only seconds to go.

‘He’ll be pulling his switches now,’ I said. ‘Ruth seems to have been right.’

But was she? Even as the words left my lips we were conscious of a low, sickening rumble. The rock on which we stood remained quite firm, the trees on the ridge moved gently in the breeze. But something was happening to the massive headland that towered over the Chacarima caves. Rocks were tumbling down the sheer cliffs, the whole central mass of the headland seemed to be caving in. The low rumble changed to a tremendous roar and a huge plume of white water soared into the sky. It was as if the great waterfall inside the caves had suddenly been reversed, to be hurled upwards instead of cascading into its ravine. We must have been a good three miles away, but we were drenched with spray from it. Like heavy rain, the spray blotted out all vision.

‘My God, the reciprocal effect!’ Ruth said. ‘I told you it could sometimes happen. They’ve brought the whole headland tumbling down on themselves!’

The spray lasted only for a minute or so. When it cleared we could see what appeared to be an enormous crater where the top of the headland had been. The archway making the sea entrance to the caves was shattered, and the channel was now open to the sky. There were some heavy waves breaking on the beach, but the gunboat was still there, and there didn’t seem to be any particular damage to the foreshore.

‘Nothing more can happen now,’ Ruth said. ‘The whole of that cave system must have been unstable, and a reciprocal shock wave, coming back from the stable structure of the ridge, sent it crashing. I wonder why there wasn’t a tidal wave in the inlet?’

‘The cave system we used from the other side of the headland may have acted as a safety valve,’ I said. ‘There may be tremendous damage in that other bay. As nobody seems to live there perhaps it doesn’t matter much.’