Angel's Ransom Read Free Page A

the foreigner in his European world; and big, sun-tanned, good-natured Blake, easy of speech, easy of manner, unreserved in his loyalties, uncomplicated in his way of thought. The fact that he had accepted her in good faith only sharpened her irritation. It was his own fault that he was so easily deceived. Deception could be bought, and Belgian baronesses were not the only adventuresses.
    She did not realize until sometime afterward how much of her feeling about Blake was pique. Men were ordinarily more malleable than he when she set out to make them realize that she was desirable.

    Cesar, the Angel ’s steward, found the handbag in the morning. Cesar was Monegasque, with a Monegasque ’s native wisdom of the world, but he was mildly surprised that the captain had entertained a feminine visitor while the crew slept. Although feminine visitors were commonplace enough aboard the yacht, its owner rather than its captain usually entertained them, and the steward knew that Freddy Farr had spent the night ashore. He explored the contents of the bag for some hint of the owner ’s personality, made a shrewd guess at her complexion and tastes, and dis creetly left his find on the chart table in the yacht ’s pilot-house. The captain would be certain to see it there without having his attention called to it.
    Blake smiled at Cesar ’s silent tactfulness when he saw the bag. He went through it for some clue to the girl ’s address, and found nothing that would help him return it to her. But she knew of the cruiser ’s intended departure, and he thought she might logically be counted on to reclaim her property before they sailed. Otherwise he would have to send it up to S û ret é Publique at the last moment, trusting to the Principality ’s efficient police to find her.
    The bag contained nothing of apparent importance or great value. He tossed it back on the chart table as a minor incident of the yacht ’s sailing.
    It was a requirement of the Angel ’s owner that the cruiser be always in readiness to put to sea. Freddy Farr was essentially a landsman, unable to understand that more than a few minutes were necessary to pump 20 tons of fuel and water and load provisions. Delay made him restless. In the years that he had been Freddy ’s skipper, Blake had learned to keep tanks topped up at all times, freezers filled with food, stores in good supply. So prepared, he had a 2,500-mile cruising range under his hand, and he often needed it. Freddy ’s whim this time, stimulated by a run of bad luck at the casino on the bluff and the uneasy conviction that the Belgian baroness ’s lawyers were closing in on the Angel , was to flee bad luck and writs of attachment for parts unknown. He was, as the newspaper stories implied, perfectly capable of giving the yacht away, in a drunken moment, to a girl who pleased him, as the baroness had pleased him until she had the temerity to try to force delivery of the promised gift. At that point Freddy felt persecuted.
    The Angel had already lingered a day or two longer in port than was safe in view of the baroness ’s announced intention to immobilize it by legal action, but given the choice of two evils Freddy would rather lose the yacht than sail without company. Ashore, he picked up and dropped bosom companions as he did roulette chips, certain that the supply would last as long as the fortune he had inherited. At sea, isolated in the small self-contained world of the cruiser, his horror of solitude made it necessary for him to surround himself with cronies who would eat his food, drink his liquor and keep him company as long as it cost them nothing. Alcohol and company were the two necessities of Freddy ’s life, and while both were easy for him to come by in normal circumstances, company for a sea cruise of indefinite length to an unannounced destination took time to gather.
    From the baggage that had come aboard that morning, Blake guessed that he would have three or four passengers.