The Vivero Letter

Oh, yes; that's what I had to do. I had to make sure that Jack Edgecombe didn't make a balls-up of the farm; he wasn't too enthusiastic in the first place and a man like that could make an awful mess of all the Mayan ruins. There was that pillar I'd found right next to the oak tree great-grandfather had planted -- Old Cross-eyes I'd called him, and Fallon bad been very pleased, but I mustn't let Jack Edgecombe near him. Never mind, old Mr. Mount would see to everything -- he'd get a farm agent in to see to the excavation of the Temple of Yum Chac.

I put my hands to my eyes and wiped away the tears. Why the devil was I crying? There was nothing to cry about. I would go home now and Madge Edgecombe would make me tea, with scones spread thick with Devonshire cream and homemade strawberry jam. She'd use the Georgian silver set my mother had liked so much, and it would all be served on that big tray.

That big tray!

That brought it all back with a rush and my head nearly burst with the terror of it. I looked at my hand which was covered with drying blood and I wondered whose blood it was. I had killed a lot of men -- I didn't know how many -- so whose blood was this?

There and then I made a vow. That I would go back to England, to the sheltered combes of Devon, and I would never leave Hay Tree Farm again. I would stick close to the land of my people, the land that Wheales had toiled over for generations, and never again would I be such a damned fool as to look for adventure. There would be adventure enough for me in raising fat cattle and sinking a pint in the Kingsbridge Inn, and if ever again anyone called me a grey little man I would -- not in your condition,' he said, 'Some of these boys are trained swimmers -- I'll go see the teniente,'

I watched him walk across to a group of the soldiers, then I got to my feet, feeling every pain of it, and limped to the cenote and stood on the edge, looking down at the dark water. Pat came back at a run. The teniente has four scuba-trained swimmers and some oxygen bottles. If you'll tell them where the girl is, they can take oxygen down to her.' He looked down at the cenote. 'Good Christ!' he said involuntarily. 'Who's that?'

He was looking down at the body of Gatt which lay sprawled on me wooden dock. His mouth was open in a ghastly grin -- but it wasn't really his mouth. 'It's Gatt,' I said unemotionally. 'I told you I'd kill him,'

I was drained of all emotion; there was no power in me to laugh or to cry, to feel sorrow or joy. I looked down at the body without feeling anything at all, but Harris looked sick. I turned away and looked towards the helicopters. 'Where are those bloody divers?'

They came at last and I explained haltingly what they were to do, and Pat interpreted. One of the men put on my harness and they jury-rigged an oxygen bottle and he went down. I hoped he wouldn't frighten Katie when he popped up in the cave. But her Spanish was good and I thought it would be all right.

I watched them carry Fallon away on a stretcher towards one of the choppers while a medico bandaged me up. Harris said in wonder, 'They're still finding bodies -- there must have been a massacre.'

'Something like that,' I said indifferently.

I wouldn't move from that spot at the edge of the cenote Until Katie was brought up, and I had to wait quite a while until they flew in proper diving gear from Campeche. After that it was easy and she came up from the cave under her own steam and I was proud of her.

We walked to the helicopter together with me leaning on her because suddenly all the strength had left me. I didn't know what was going to happen to us in the future -- I didn't know if such an experience as we had undergone was such a perfect beginning to a marriage, but I was willing to try if she was.

I don't remember much about anything after that, not until I woke up in a hospital in Mexico City with Katie sitting by the bedside. That was many days afterwards. But I vaguely remember that the sun was just coming up as the chopper took off and I was clutching that little gold lady which Vivero had made. Christ was not to be seen, but I remember the dark shape of the Temple of Yum Chac looming above the water and drifting away forever beneath the heavily beating rotors.

The end.