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With only one day to go, the telegram came from Pleydell-Smith It said:
EACH OBJECT CONTAINED ENOUGH CYANIDE TO KILL A HORSE
STOP SUGGEST YOU CHANGE YOUR GROCER STOP GOOD LUCK
SMITH
Bond also burned the telegram
Quarrel hired a canoe and they spent three days sailing it It was a cluiant cotton tree It had two thin thwarts, two heavy paddles and a small sail of dirty canvas It was a blunt instruht hours, cap'n," he said "Den we bring down de sail an' use de paddles Less target for de radar to see"
The weather held The forecast frohts were as black as sin The two ot in their stores Bond fitted himself out with cheap black canvas jeans and a dark blue shirt and rope-soled shoes
The last evening calad he was on his way He had only once been out of the training cae Quarrel's insurance-and he was chafing to get out of the stable and on to the track He admitted to hiredients-physical exertion, ood coht also be the satisfaction of throwing the 'holiday in the sun' back in M's teeth That had rankled Bond didn't like being coddled
The sun blazed beautifully into its grave
Bond went into his bedroouns and looked at them Neither was a part of hiht hand-but he already knew them as better weapons Which should he take? Bond picked up each in turn, hefting them in his hand It had to be the heavier S, if there was any shooting, on Crab Key Heavy, long-range stuff-if anything The brutal, stumpy revolver had an extra twenty-five yards over the Walther Bond fitted the holster into the waistband of his jeans and clipped in the gun He put twenty spare rounds in his pocket Was it over-insurance to take all this ht only be a tropical picnic?
Bond went to the icebox and took a pint of Canadian Club Blended Rye and soarden and watched the last light flame and die
The shadows crept from behind the house and marched across the lawn and enveloped hiht from the centre of the island, clattered softly in the tops of the pal the shrubs The fireflies, the 'blink-a-blinks', as Quarrel called the their sexual ht at Bond's heart He picked up the bottle and looked at~it He had drunk a quarter of it He poured another big slug into his glass and added so for? Because of the thirty oing into the unknown? Because of Doctor No?
Quarrel came up from the beach "Time, cap'n"
Bond sed his drink and followed the Cay quietly in the water, its bows on the sand Quarrel went aft and Bond climbed into the space between the forrard thwart and the bows The sail, wrapped round the short mast, was at his back Bond took up his paddle and pushed off, and they turned slowly and headed out for the break in the softly creah the reef They paddled easily, in unison, the paddles turning in their hands so that they did not leave the water on the forward stroke The sainst the bows Otherwise they o They just left the land and went off across the sea
Bond's only duty was to keep paddling Quarrel did the steering At the opening through the reef there was a swirl and suck of conflicting currents and they were in as by the swell Bond could feel the strength of Quarrel's great sweeps with the paddle as the heavy craft ed and plunged Again and again Bond's own paddle thudded against rock, and once he had to hold on as the canoe hit a buried h, and far below the boat there were indigo patches of sand and around them the solid oily feel of deep water
"Okay, cap'n," said Quarrel softly Bond shipped his paddle and got down off one knee and sat with his back to the thwart He heard the scratching of Quarrel's nails against canvas as he unwrapped the sail and then the sharp flap as it caught the breeze The canoe straightened and began to move It tilted slowly There was a soft hiss under the bows A handful of spray tossed up into Bond's face The wind of their et cold Bond hunched up his knees and put his ar to bite into his buttocks and his back It crossed hisand uncoht