Doom's Break Read Online Free PDF Page A

beach.
    Now came the least pleasant part of the task. He removed the lid of the chum pot and, using a leafy twig stripped from a bush, began to splash the rope with the sticky muck. The smell was appalling, but he could see by the moonlight that the chum left a dark stain on the rope wherever it landed. In a couple of minutes it was done. The rope was thoroughly stained.
    He walked out into the water with the stinking rope over one shoulder, slid in on the other side, and swam sidestroke out toward the ship. As he went he unreeled the rope from his shoulder and played it out behind him. When he reached the ship, he pulled himself up at the bow on the anchor cable. The cable passed through an oval hole in the gunwale before fastening to a bollard just aft of the bow. Thru slipped the end of his chum-stained rope through that hole, then crawled back onboard and heaved on the rope to pull it clear of the water. It came up quickly, and he wound it around the bollard with a double hitch. Now it stretched above the water all the way back to the tree on the shore and, being stained, was hard to see in the dark.
    Mergas was still unconscious on the deck behind the mast. Back in the cabin, the men were still singing some bawdy song. They broke into guffaws with the conclusion of each verse.
    There was still time to save Simona.
    Thru climbed back over the bow, and this time he dove in headfirst, knifing down into the water. They weren't likely to hear him now. He stayed under the surface all the way back to the shore, coming up only when he could put his feet down.
    Still, no sound of uproar from the ship. The fates were with him. He hurried up the beach, grabbed the chum pot, and slipped into the forest.
    Back at the bottom of the tree, he dipped his branch in the pot and smeared the awful stuff onto the trunk all the way up to the rope. He put a thick gob or two on the rope as well. Then he climbed down and took the pot farther inland.
    Through the undergrowth he spread the stuff, flicking it here, there, and everywhere, on bark and ground and fallen leaves. Within a few minutes he'd spread the stench far and wide above the narrow beach. Then he traced a path back to the tree, redoubling the spatters on the ground, right up to the trunk of the tree.
    The powerful smell hung under the trees. Everything that lived there was immediately aware of it.
    He did not have long to wait. He saw the first ants scurrying across white sand under the moonlight before he got back to the tree. A moment later, a sharp pain on his left ankle warned him that it was time to get out of the bushes. Several more stings were delivered before he could get down to the beach and throw himself back into the water.
    He stayed in the surf, keeping low, and swam for the point.
    He was halfway there when the ship erupted at last into roars of rage. The men had finished their wine, emerged from the cabin, and found Mergas out cold. Being excited by wine, they misinterpreted the scene at first, thinking him merely malingering.
    "Should've known you'd try and sleep through your watch!" one of the men charged. Mergas did not respond, even to a less than gentle nudge by Tricko's boot.
    Then someone noticed the substitution of a bag of sailcloth for the creature they'd planned to eat for breakfast.
    They howled in anger. In sudden dread they turned and all tried to get into the passage at once in their haste to assure themselves that the girl was still captive. That set them to squabbling, even exchanging a few blows. Finally someone announced that she was still there, untouched, and they gave a universal sigh of relief.
    By this time, unseen by the fishermen, the first ants had reached the ship. The chum-soaked line was a highway covered in ants, and they were heading one way.
    Thru swam around the shallow headland before emerging onto the rocks. Fortunately, the wind was keeping the surf off the headland that night. He scrambled up into a position from which he could