A Hero for Leanda

taking orders from me.” He continued to approach until he was only a few feet away. Then, still watching Conway out of the corner of his eye, he turned the gun on the young Negro in the ketch’s bows. “Let go that rope,” he called. “Let it go, boy, or I’ll blow your head off.”
    For a moment the Negro seemed paralyzed. Kastella pointed to the rope and jerked the gun. The gesture was more effective than any words. Suddenly the boy flung himself on the rope and cast it off.
    “Keep her going, Conway ,” Kastella said.
    The ketch quickly fell away astern. The Negro boy was shouting. Soon the others joined him in the bows, crying and gesticulating. The gap widened. A long, despairing wail came over the sea. It sounded like “Na pas di leau... ! Na pas di leau . . !”

4

    The gun was pointing at Conway again. Kastella’s face had the closed look of a man who’d made up his mind on a course of action and meant to go through with it. His forefinger was crooked round one of the triggers in a very businesslike way. Conway had to fight the urge to turn his head away from the barrels. A blast of shot in the face at that range! Sweat poured off him.
    “Be careful, Kastella!” he said. His mouth was dry— words came with difficulty. “You’ll never get to Africa if you press that thing too hard, you know.”
    “That’s true,” Kastella said. “Of course, the opposite is also true. Unless I have good hopes of getting to Africa , there’ll be no particular reason why I should be careful. It looks as though co-operation is in both our interests.” For a moment there was no sound in the ship but the beat of the engine. Then Conway said, “Is it all right for me to get the tow rope in?”
    “Of course.”
    Conway hauled the trailing rope clear of the propeller and silently coiled it. Leanda was staring at Kastella and the gun as though she were hypnotized.
    “Now let us get back on our proper course,” Kastella said. “To the west!”
    Conway moved the tiller over and took Thalia round in a tight half circle until she was heading into the evening sun. As they swept past the motionless ketch, the wailing broke out again. Leanda suddenly came to life. “You can’t leave them,” she cried. “Oh, you can’t !” She half rose from her seat.
    “I must,” Kastella said. “Sit down and keep still.... Full speed ahead, Conway!”
    For a second, Conway hesitated. The gun jerked. Conway bent and opened the throttle wide. “You callous, double-crossing bastard!” he said softly.
    Kastella shook his head. “Not callous, Conway —just realistic. Not double-crossing, either—the arrangement to tow them in was yours, not mine. I warned you not to make it.”
    “They’ve only enough water for a day or so,” Conway said. “At least you could stop and give them a bit more— we can easily spare it.”
    “We don’t know that. Didn’t you say this passage could take weeks? I’m determined to run no more risks.”
    “Not long ago you were prepared to cross on five gallons!”
    “That was when there seemed to be no alternative.”
    “It’s murder, I tell you. They’ll die of thirst.”
    “I hope not, Conway . If they do, it can’t be helped .“
    “Oh, it’s wicked,” Leanda cried. “It’s monstrous.... How can you ?“
    “I have to put first things first, Leanda. Our people need me. You know that. You came on this expedition because you knew it. Now success is within sight. We can’t risk throwing everything away.”
    “But those poor people, those children... 1 ”
    “In time of war,” Kastella said, “the innocent always suffer. Spyros is at war. The people of Spyros are suffering, too. They, too, are being murdered—by the English. This is no time to be squeamish.”
    Leanda gazed at him incredulously. “I scarcely recognize you,” she said. “You talk like a stranger.”
    “It could be that you never really knew me,” Kastella said, with a thin smile.
    By now the ketch had fallen far behind. The cries were growing faint. Leanda looked appealingly at Conway . “Mike... ?”
    He shrugged. “What can we do?”
    She got up, white-faced, ignoring the gun. “Can I go below?” she asked.
    “Certainly...” Kastella stepped back to make way for her, the gun still at the ready. “But I warn you not to do anything silly. You’ll only get—very badly hurt.”
    She walked past him into the saloon and closed the door behind her.

    There was a little silence after she’d gone.