He could hear the changing beat of its engine. On the bridge, the watch was lighting a cigarette.įrom close by came various sounds and echoes. Twenty yards away, Doctor No, also with his back to Bond, stood sentry over the thick rich cataract of whity-yellow dust.
The neck above the open khaki shirt was naked, offered, waiting. His guess at the distances had been right. Then Bond sat down and meticulously went over the photograph that was in his brain.īond stepped up to the rock and inched an eye round. It would be about six o'clock, the dawn of a beautiful day. Perhaps even now they were watching the scout groups far out at sea locating the fish. Far above him the cormorants were wheeling round the guanera. Clouds tinged with golden pink were trailing away towards the horizon. The wounded squid had emptied its ink sac at him.īond looked up at the sky. It was covered with black slime, and blackness stained the sea for twenty yards around. He got a hold and reached up his other hand and slowly, agonizingly, pulled himself up so that he was sitting in the fence. So he must be alive Dazedly Bond let go the spear from his trailing hand and reached up and felt for the nearest strand of wire. But he could feel the wire cutting into the tendons behind his knees. His eyes were stinging and there was a horrible fish taste in his mouth. What had happened? Had he gone blind? He could see nothing. Apart from aiming the canvas mouth of the conveyor, there was nothing else for anyone to do. On the other side of the mountain men would be working, feeding the guano to the conveyor-belt that rumbled away through the bowels of the rock, but on this side no one was allowed and no one was necessary. There was no other sound, no other movement, no other life apart from the watch at the ship's wheel, the trusty working at the crane, and Doctor No, seeing that all went well. The morning breeze feathered the deep-water anchorage, still half in shadow beneath the towering cliffs, the' conveyor-belt thudded quietly on its rollers, the crane's engine chuffed rhythmically.
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