Read Online Butler Did It! by Sally Pomeroy - Free Book Online

the
blowhole.
    “WHAT DID YOU FIND?”
    A second voice that sounded much closer
answered, “Not a thing.”
    “WELL, THE SON OF A BITCH HAS TO BE
HERE SOMEWHERE. KEEP LOOKING. DID YOU FIND ANYTHING IN THE
SPEEDBOAT?”
    “It looks like a rental from Praslin. I
found paperwork that says the renter was some woman named Katherine
Annenberg.”
    Damn , thought Katharine, we’ll be stranded here without that boat .
    Kobi gave Katherine a questioning look
from his one good eye. She sighed and nodded.
    He smiled painfully and whispered, “My
name is Kobi. Thank you for my life, Katherine.”
    “We aren’t out of this, yet.” She
whispered back. “You are badly injured. Do you have the strength
for an escape, if we get a chance?”
    “I don’t know, I think some of my ribs
are broken, but I will try,” he hoarsely whispered, obviously in
intense pain. “It hurts just to speak, let alone
breathe.”
    The loudspeaker buzzed again and the
guttural voice boomed across the shoal.
    “OKAY, FOLKS! WE’VE PLAYED THIS GAME
LONG ENOUGH. WE KNOW YOU ARE HIDING ON THE ISLAND. COME OUT WITH
YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR, AND I PROMISE THAT YOU WON’T BE
HARMED.”
    The look that Kobi and Katherine
exchanged showed that neither believed that bold lie.
    Despite the intense pain of his
injuries, Kobi steeled himself, and spoke.
    “ If you get the chance, you
must leave me and go for help.” He paused as a wave of nausea and
dizziness passed over him. “Tell my father …that I am very sorry …”
As Katherine watched, his one good eye rolled back in its socket
and he slowly collapsed.
    Katherine caught him before he fell
into the water. She moved back into the water herself and stretched
him out full length on the ledge. She checked his pulse and pulled
back the lid of his one good eye. The man was unconscious, his
pupil dilated. She knew what that meant. On top of all his other
injuries, the man had a concussion.
    She raged at the impossibility of her
situation. They couldn’t stay in the blowhole, or he would die. She
couldn’t go without being discovered by the men outside. Moreover,
she couldn’t do anything to treat Kobi’s injuries. Soon the
inevitability of her situation came home to roost. She would have
to wait until the hunters left, and only God knew how long that
might be.
    She ducked instinctively the second she
heard the bullhorn again echo down the blowhole chimney.
    “THEY HAVE TO BE HERE! KEEP LOOKING.
THERE IS NO PLACE ELSE TO GO.”
    “So, what do you want to do about the
dive boat?”
    The loudspeaker voice paused for a
moment and then barked a command.
    “TOW IT OUT INTO DEEP WATER AND TOSS A
GRENADE IN IT. WE DON’T WANT TO LEAVE ANY EVIDENCE
BEHIND.”
    “Not a problem.”
    “What do we do when we find the Kaffir
and this Annenberg girl?”
    “PUT THEM IN THE BOAT FIRST, OF
COURSE.”
    Katherine huddled on the shelf,
shivering from the chill in the cave and from fear. She prayed that
their hiding place wouldn’t be discovered. It was right in the
middle of this prayer that she remembered that she had left her
camera with the precious Coelacanth photographs on the sea bottom
near the reef wall.
    God Dammit! She silently cursed
in frustration, going from prayer to profanity in less than a
second. Damn my miserable luck.
    Katharine pulled herself back up onto
the ledge next to the unconscious man. The voices above had moved
away from their area and she hoped they were going away. Time
passed slowly. As the sounds from above got further and further
away, Katharine relaxed a little. Finally, after several minutes
without sounds, she decided to climb to the top of the blowhole and
see if she could get a glimpse of what was going on. As she neared
the top, she could hear the faint rumble of a boat
motor.
    I guess we got lucky that they
didn’t find the top of this hole. It must be well camouflaged. She discovered that the hole would have been difficult to see from
above as it came out under a slight overhang