A Hero for Leanda

left her. Conway had the dinghy at the stem. Kastella climbed in, still clutching the gun. The dinghy dipped alarmingly under his weight. Kastella pointed the gun at Conway . No last-minute tricks!” he said. “I don’t want to have to swim for it!” Conway picked up the oars and began to row in, very cautiously, aiming for a spot a hundred yards or so beyond the white gleam.
    The shore was close. A tiny breaking wave marked the edge. In a few moments the dinghy’s forefoot scraped lightly on the sand.
    Kastella got out. He stood for a second looking down at Conway . Well, I suppose I can’t expect you to wish me luck!” he murmured.
    ‘You’re dead right. I reckon I’ve done a pretty lousy thing bringing you here. All I hope now is that they catch you and jail you for life!” Conway started to shove the dinghy out.
    “Wait!” Kastella broke the gun, emptying the cartridges out on the sand. “You can take this now.... You may need it to protect yourself from Leanda!”
    Conway silently took the gun, and pushed the dinghy off.
    He rowed quickly, till he could no longer see the dark figure on the beach. Then he relaxed. It was all over-finished! Suddenly he began to laugh. Once he’d begun laughing, he couldn’t stop. He was so convulsed that he could scarcely row. He tried to stifle the sound, but his whole body shook with the gigantic effort to control himself. He was still laughing as he tied the dinghy to Thalia’s stern. He gave a great shout of laughter as he opened Leanda’s door. Inside, he rolled against her bunk, doubled up with mirth.
    She said, in an icy tone, “Have you gone mad?”
    “ I’ve done it!” he said. “I’ve done it! Oh, God!”
    “You’ve done a terrible thing.... I’ll never forgive you.”
    “There’s nothing to forgive,” he said, rocking helplessly. “Absolutely nothing to forgive.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You won’t be hearing any more of Kastella for a long, long time. I’ve just put him ashore on Heureuse!”

6

    Leanda said, “Now tell me how you did it!”
    It was an hour later. They had cleared the island on the last of the fuel and the engine had just sputtered to a stop. Conway had hoisted sail, and Thalia was ghosting westward in a light air with Leanda at the tiller. The sky had a look of dawn about it, but they were far enough away now for safety. The sense of urgency had gone with the engine beat. At last they could talk.
    Conway said, “It was simpler than you’d think.”
    “It couldn’t possibly have been simple.”
    “Well, there was a lot in my favor. Kastella knew nothing about navigation, don’t forget, and hardly anything about sailing....”
    “Start at the beginning,” Leanda said. “When did you first think of it?”
    “Oh, when Kastella was sitting up there on the coach roof, threatening you with nameless honors. I knew I’d got to do something—I’d made up my mind about that after the ketch incident. But I knew there was almost no chance I could get the gun away from him, and without the gun I couldn’t do anything against his will. Then, as he was talking, I happened to notice that we were coming up to the halfway line and that old phrase ‘the point of no return’ came into my mind and I suddenly wondered if it need be and if I couldn’t take him back to Heureuse and kid him it was Malindi. The coastlines were similar, and both had reefs and lagoons—they even both had a white building near the beach.... Anyway, that was the start of it.”
    “Couldn’t you have told me, Mike? It would have made such a difference....”
    “I know, but it might have made the wrong sort of difference. It was absolutely vital to the whole plan that you should make Kastella believe you and I were on opposite sides, so that—up to a point—he’d trust me, and you did it beautifully when you called me all sorts of names and smashed the compass. Your attitude had the ring of truth about it because it was true, and it stayed true all through. Kastella had his moments of doubt, but basically he was pretty sure I meant to earn that money. If you’d known of the plan you’d have had to act your part, and he might easily have seen through it.”
    “Yes, I see,” Leanda said. “I suppose you’re right— though it was one of the most ghastly weeks I’ve ever spent.... Anyway, go on.”
    “Well, you both played into my hands beautifully. You refused to help with the ship, which left Kastella and me to split the work