Matt Helm 10 - The Betrayers by Donald Hamilton

Author:Donald Hamilton [Hamilton, Donald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Helm 10
Published: 2012-07-14T18:29:12+00:00

"Are you doing that for fun, or are you just learning to drive?" Isobel asked as we took off impulsively after buying aspirin. She patted her hair into place and tightened her seat belt.

"When you get tired of it, I'll be glad to take over."

"I hope you're not going to turn out to be one of these competent damn females," I said. "I like the helpless type much better. Anyway, I've handled everything from a gull-wing Mercedes to an Army six-by-six; I'm going to lick this Supermarket Special if it takes au night."

"Well, you're not doing my headache one bit of good."

"So take an aspirin, doll," I said. "That's what we bought them for."

Having established, if anyone was listening electronically, that the course of true love

wasn't running quite smoothly, we drove south across the narrow waist of the island and up along the curving leeward shore under a clear blue sky. Behind us loomed the giant mass of Haleakala, still wreathed in clouds from about five thousand feet up. I gather you can see the top occasionally, but you have to get up early in the morning to do it.

The coast highway was a two-lane blacktop road flanked by feathery trees, identified in the guide book by the local name of kiawe. They looked to me just like plain old Texas mesquites that had got plenty of vitamins. I didn't stop in the historic little coastal village of Lahaina that I'd described to Isobel, but I did drive through slowly enough to make sure that, as I'd expected, there was a long dock holding pleasure and fishing boats of every description. At least one of them ought to be for hire, I reflected, and Molokai was just around the corner, nautically speaking.

As a matter of fact, the island of lepers was clearly visible across the water to the north as we drove on. To my landlubber eyes, it looked like a long and risky small-boat voyage, and it was a pretty obvious gambit anyway, but I might as well play at it until something better turned up. I could at least go through the motions of making the arrangements. That would give the golden boy and his hawkfaced friend something interesting to report and the more interest I aroused here, the less would be left over for Jill, wherever she was.

Then we were passing a group of elaborate resort hotels and a beautifully manicured golf

course where athletic characters, male and female, were getting lots of healthful exercise in little electric carts. The shoreline got more rugged as we continued north until we spotted a hill overlooking a lovely, sandy cove. Spilling down the sides of the hill was a rambling hostelry that somebody had obviously used a lot of expense and ingenuity in designing; a little less might have been more in keeping with the spirit of the Islands.

But this was a high-class joint that didn't intend to be mistaken for anything else. As we drove up, I saw Isobel break out the repair kit and attend to her hair and lipstick.

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