Chapter 18 Chapter Eighteen

A mist hangs over the water at midnight, and above the mist are stars. Mason opened the car door and helped Della out of the car.The footsteps echoed as they made their way to the yacht club steward's cabin.In the damp, cold air of the night, the silhouette of the yacht moored to the shore seemed unreal and eerie. In the little room at the end of the pier a light was flickering.A man sitting in a warm corner of the house heard Mason and Della's "da, da, da" footsteps, got up and opened the door, beckoning them in with a smile. "Hi, Cameron," Mason said. "Good night." Cameron greeted them.

"Is everything ready?" Cameron's eyes flashed with a calm expression, and a short and thick pipe was tightly dangling from the corner of his mouth.He took off his pipes and said, "You'd better come in and warm up, because it's going to be cold on the lake. There's a stove in the cabin of the yacht, but you'll feel the chill before you get there. There is a pot of hot water on the table, and a little wine, if you two want some warm wine, I can..." Mason didn't wait for him to finish, and said, "It's up to the owner, I have no objection."

Cameron smiled. He glanced at Della, and then asked Mason with a little lack of confidence: "Two glasses or three?" Della answered first, "Three cups." Cameron put a lot of butter in three glasses, poured hot water, added sugar and seasoning, and then poured in some rum.He said: "I have a brother who works in dairy, so I have no shortage of butter. Would you two take your coats off?" "No need," Mason said. "After drinking we're going to start, but it doesn't hurt to warm up before we go." Della and Mason picked up thick china cups filled with wine, toasted each other, and then raised their glasses to sip.

Mason said with satisfaction: "It tastes really good." Cameron said: "Oh! It's really cold tonight. For about eight or nine months of the year, at midnight, the lake will be freezing cold. I have to go out often. To tell you the truth, I can go back to myself It's so refreshing to be in this cozy cabin." "Don't you feel lonely?" Della asked. Cameron smoked his pipe as if contented, then said: "No. I have a lot of books to read here, and... well, I don't know. If I lived in a big house, I might Feeling alone and lonely; but living in such a comfortable and pleasant little house, I will never be bored. If you stay here for a while, you will get used to being alone, and you may even feel that being alone is better than being with others More comfortable and pleasant."

"How long does it take to get to the yacht?" Mason asked. "Oh, not more than ten minutes. You want me to take you there in the dinghy and come back to pick you up around two o'clock in the morning, don't you?" "good." "Okay," Cameron said. "I'll do it again. Now I'm going to fix the time, because I don't like to be away from the house for too long, and I really shouldn't, but I think a short trip like this doesn't take much time, so it shouldn't matter That's right. However, I still need to calculate the time first; in this way, when I go to pick you up again, you are just preparing to come back. In short, the timing must be well coordinated. By the way, what clues did you find? ?"

"There is no clue. We just searched for some clues." Mason said with a smile. "Huh?" Cameron made a suspicious voice. "Of course, we might dig up something." "Not bad. By the way, how did I behave on the witness stand today? No harm to your case?" "Not at all." "Very well, I hope you can clear them of the crime. They are good people, Mr. Burbank is a good friend of mine, and his daughter is a very well-bred girl. Well... if we are ready, we will always Everyone can move." Mason and Della put down the empty glasses in their hands, and Mason said, "Let's go."

The motor of the small boat made a sound, and the bow of the boat broke through the waves, splashing waves of water on both sides of the hull; the piercing waves gradually expanded into ripples from near to far, and the ripples formed circles.The cold air of the cold night hit their faces, and the biting cold wind brushed their wet and cold fingers.The small boat sailed to the mouth of the river, and after a minute or two, it rounded a corner and began to push forward towards the deep water area of ​​the bay. "It's pretty hard to sail a boat here, isn't it?" Mason said. "Oh, once you get used to it, you'll be able to control it. Just identify some obvious targets and you'll be good to go. See a prominent place over there? Connect the top of that point with that faint light on the other side. An imaginary outline, keep them on the same line, and go in that direction. Look! I've cast them aft now."

Mason smiled and said, "I think you can let me directly apply for a yacht driver's license." Della said, "There's something up ahead." The boat's speed then slowed down. "That's the yacht," Cameron said. After they circled around the yacht, they approached the railing next to the yacht.Cameron said to Mason, "Okay, if you're going up now..." Mason nodded.He reached out, grabbed the row of wet and cold iron railings on the yacht, and then climbed up hard.Cameron threw him a rope and said to Della, "Miss Della, let me help you."

The two of them pulled Della onto the deck of the yacht.Cameron walked to the railing, pulled the boat to the side of the yacht, and said, "Now, the boat has run aground." "good." "Well... watch your steps. The boat will first tilt, then seem to be stuck, stop still, then suddenly tilt, and fall to one side... You want me to come back at two o'clock, right?" "Yes," Mason said. "Okay, I'll be there on time. You have to stand up, watch your steps, and don't get hurt." "We won't, don't worry," Mason said.

Cameron seemed unwilling to push the boat away and walked away. He stood there for a few seconds, holding on to the railing.The boat's motor was beeping lazily, and the faint stench of burning gasoline floated on the water. "Well... I'm leaving and I'll be back at two o'clock, right?" "That's right." "By two o'clock you'll be ready and ready to go back to shore?" "I think it's all right." "Well, see you later." Cameron pushed the dinghy away from the yacht and took a seat in the stern.The boat sailed away, drifted away, and disappeared after a few seconds; however, in the foggy night, the sound of the boat's motor continued to come, faintly, until finally disappeared in the silent night .

"Hmm..." Mason took out a flashlight from his pocket and said. "Let's go down below! Careful, Della. The deck is wet and slippery." Mason took another key out of his pocket, unlocked a padlock, pushed open the cabin door, and helped Della down a flight of stairs to enter the main cabin. "It's so warm!" Della exclaimed emotionally. "Indeed." Mason agreed, and lit a candle. "How did they keep warm on board?" "There's a small stove that burns charcoal and wood," Mason said. "They use that stove for cooking and heating, and I told Cameron I was going to start a fire in the stove, oh, there, it's all set." Mason struck a match, threw it into the stove, and immediately a flame crackled and ignited."We're just waiting for the tide to go out now," Mason said. Della looked at her watch and said, "Then the yacht is currently stranded?" "Yes," Mason said. "The backbone of the boat has rested on the mud." The yacht rolled a little, almost imperceptibly. "Not only was it stranded," Mason said. "And after a few minutes, it starts to list. I'm going to see how long before the low tide happens when the body rolls to the lower part of the cabin, and how the yacht starts to list as the tide goes out." Della's body trembled slightly. "Are you nervous?" Mason asked the director. "A little bit," Della replied. "The atmosphere here is really creepy. We'd better blow out the candles and wait in the dark. The flame in the stove will give enough light...I think it's a bit noticeable...Someone might come from the...well, cabin Porthole or porthole..." She broke off, then laughed. Mason blew out the candle quickly. "It's better this way," Della said. "I just kept feeling like someone was watching us from the window." Mason put his arms around her shoulders and said, "Stop thinking about it, no one will know we're here." She smiled, and there seemed to be a little apology in her laughter, and then leaned her body close to Mason's arm. The flames made a crisp sound and crackled, and a light red flame projected from the front of the stove.The two of them were silent, and in the silence, only the sound of the gurgling water passing by the stranded yacht was heard. The yacht swayed sideways again, with so little a roll that it was barely perceptible.Mason glanced at the shiny face of the watch and said, "Well, here's where I'm lying, pretending to be a corpse." Della looked towards the dark red blood-stained carpet and said, "I don't like to see you lying there." "why?" "It seems so unlucky, maybe...you can't lie in another place? Isn't it the same to lie in any corner?" "No," Mason said. "I must conduct this experiment here." Mason lay stretched out on the floor of the cabin, his head inches from the copper threshold of the cabin entrance. "How about this, Della." "Well, it's kind of weird. Makes me think of ghosts." "If only the ghost of Fred Milfield could come back and tell us what happened," Mason said. "We're going to have a big breakthrough." Della walked over and sat down on the floor where Mason lay.She put her hand on Mason's arm, slid down and took Mason's palm. Mason patted her on the shoulder and said, "I should be a corpse." Della smiled and said, "Don't you feel like a stiff, cold corpse?" "do not think so." The yacht moved slowly and tilted again. "The incline is not high enough for me to roll over to the other side of the cabin," Mason said. "But when I start scrolling, we're going to remember to look at our watches to see what the exact time is. Della, where's the flashlight?" "on the table." Mason sighed wearily and said, "I did have a hard day in court today; although the floor is hard, I feel much more relaxed now that I can lie on it and rest for a while." Della stroked Mason's forehead with her fingers and said, "You've worked so hard, no wonder you're so tired. You should take it easy." "Yeah," Mason agreed, sounding a little drowsy.After a few minutes he asked, "Della, what time is it?" She looked at Mason's watch and said, "It's almost half past one." "In ten or fifteen minutes, the truth will be known," Mason said. Della suddenly changed positions and said, "You don't have to be so awkward. Come on, raise your head." Della put Mason's head on her own lap, and said, "Isn't this much better? It's uncomfortable to put your head on the hard floor. Why don't you use your knees as a pillow, and you can know the results of the experiment." "No," protested Mason, his voice a little hoarse. "My head should be lying here... on the floor... I need to know exactly when the body starts rolling... Oh, never mind, if I'm completely relaxed, maybe it's okay to lie like this." Della ran her fingers over Mason's forehead, touching his brows and closed eyes, and brushed his hair back. "You just lie there and try to relax," she said in a soft voice. Mason raised a hand, took Della's palm, and moved it to his lips, pausing for a moment before letting go. After a while, Mason's breathing became regular, indicating that he was asleep.A few minutes later, the situation remained unchanged.Della sat still.The hull is now completely stranded, so it seems that the tilting action has stopped. Della herself was becoming drowsy too, the warmth of the cabin, the silence of the surrounding environment, and the fact that it was late at night after a tiring day in court, making her head nod involuntarily. up. The floor of the cabin tilted suddenly, the yacht seemed to remain still, and then unexpectedly tipped to one side. At this moment, Della woke up in shock, dumbfounded and speechless.Instinctively, she grabbed the cabin hatch for support.Mason's slender body rolled all the way down. When he woke up from a deep sleep, his first natural reflex was to reach out and grab the carpet.Then Della heard a crash as Mason's body hit the starboard side wall of the cabin. After a while, she heard Mason laughing from a dark corner. "Ha! Della, I think I fell asleep just now. Look, it's exactly forty-three minutes past one. According to my mental calculations, it's exactly four hours and a minute after high tide. Of course , there is a slight difference in the height of the tide, which we must take into account; but it is only a few inches. . . . and . . . " "What's that sound?" Della asked in surprise.Before Mason finished speaking, he stopped suddenly. "Listen!" Mason said in a warning tone. They listened.There was a regular vibration sound outside, and the sound gradually became louder as it approached from far away—the sound had a peculiar slapping sound, as if a very strong impact force hit the yacht. "What's that?" Della asked in a low voice. "A dinghy," Mason whispered. "Come to us?" "yes." "Could it be the man who's coming back for us?—perhaps there's something wrong with his dinghy, and . . . " "It's too early to be him," Mason said. "Della, be quiet. Where are you now?" "I'm by the fire looking for the poker," said Della. "If the person outside is the murderer..." "Shh!" Mason hissed her warningly. Mason groped forward in the dark, got close to Della, and whispered, "Find that flashlight." "I've been looking for it just now, but I can't find it." Della said softly. "The flashlight must have fallen off the table when the yacht tipped. Come on, boss, take the poker, it's heavy! And..." When the small boat collided with the yacht, the impact force was transmitted from the outside of the yacht through the hull. They heard heavy footsteps on the deck; there was a distinct sound from the hatch as the door slid open along the metal gutter. Mason dragged Della to the door leading to the back cabin. "Come on!" Mason said softly. "Go to the cabin." Just as Mason pushed Della into the back cabin, a flashlight cast a large bright circle of light into the cabin, and then quickly went out.A foot landed on the stairway and stopped, and a few seconds later the man's foot was retracted and the hatch slammed shut again.There was another sound of footsteps on the sloping deck, and then they heard the sound of the man stepping into the boat; the oars slapped wildly on the water, making splashes and splashes. "Quick!" Mason said, groping in the direction of the stairs. "Della, find the flashlight. Feel it in the lower part of the cabin. It must have rolled there. When you find it, give it to me." Mason stepped up the stairs, his head and shoulders sticking out and immediately exposed to the cold night air. The mist that hung over the water was wetter and lower than before, like a white cloud, covering the sound and distorting the sight in front of us. In the darkness, the mysterious figure was paddling hastily and frantically, causing an uproar and a splash of water. "Hey! That man!" Mason yelled. "Come back here!" The oars went faster; but otherwise there was no response from the foggy darkness. "Boss, the flashlight is here." Della handed the flashlight to Mason, and Mason pressed the button, and a beam of light pierced through the fog, but it couldn't hit anything. The oars were getting weaker and weaker. Mason murmured, making impatient noises. "What frightened him away?" Della asked. "We didn't make any noise." "It's the stove," Mason explained. "As he pushed open the hatch on the ladder, the heat rushed up; as soon as he felt the heat of the fire, he was suddenly aware that someone was on board the yacht." "My God! Boss, I'm so scared. My joints are freezing, especially my knees," Della said. Mason dragged Della to him, turned off the flashlight, and stood with her listening. The droplets of mist condensed along the hull of the yacht and fell on the water with a tick-tick sound; there was no other sound. "He may stop paddling now and let the tide push his boat forward." Mason's voice showed disappointment. "God, I wish Cameron would show up in his dinghy right now." They stood and listened; presently Della moved restlessly. "Boss, I seem to hear the sound of a boat." They pricked up their ears and listened carefully again; there was a particularly deep sound that grew louder, and finally became a distinct "da, da, da", the intermittent sound of a motor-it was a small boat. "He was coming from the direction that the boat disappeared," Mason said. "He may have just passed the boat. Let's tell him to come quickly." Mason turned on the flashlight, raised the beam a little, and drew circles forward several times, using the signal to instruct the boat to speed up. After a minute or two, the boat approached them from a dark distance; then, the regular vibration of the stern motor stopped, and Cameron guided the boat to the downhill side of the yacht with his skillful hands. "Della, come on," Mason said. "let's go." Mason stabilized his footing, put his hands under Della's armpits, and lifted her from the deck into the boat.A moment later, Mason also entered the boat and sat beside Della. "Quick!" Mason said to Cameron. "We're chasing a small boat, and it's coming back in the direction you came from. Go at full speed, and after about two minutes, turn off the motor, and we'll listen to see what happens." "A boat?" Cameron asked. "I don't charter any boats, I..." "Okay, stop talking!" Mason urged. "Let's go quickly." The boat's motor vibrated regularly again, splashing water from the stern; clammy air blew on their faces as the boat sped forward. "Okay," Mason said again after a few minutes. "Let's stop and listen." Cameron turned off the motor and the boat glided on the water; now the gurgling of the water to match the boat's motion prevented them from hearing anything else.Gradually, as the speed slowed down and lost momentum, the atmosphere of silence surrounded them, and the oars on the oar racks did not make any sound. After listening intently for two or three minutes, Cameron said, "It won't do anything, unless we happen to meet his boat. But he'll hear us approaching, and he'll row away; when we When the motor is turned off, he stops rowing, and when he hears the motor, he starts rowing again." "Okay," Mason said. "In that case, there's only one way. We zigzag up and down. He must be somewhere around here." Cameron started the engine immediately, and the boat shuttled back and forth in the fog, making a circuitous advance.Mason sat at the bow of the boat, staring intently ahead, trying to search for any vague shape, hoping that it would slide across the lake in front of him, or appear directly in front of the boat. But he couldn't see anything suspicious. The motor was turned off again, and Cameron said, "Mr. Mason, I dare not go any further because I'm about to lose my way. I can't see any obvious targets from here, and I'm really not sure what we're doing now." where." "Okay," Mason admitted. "I think it's basically like looking for a needle in a haystack. Which way is the yacht moored? I'm going to go back again." "Well..." Cameron said. "I'm not sure, but I will try to find a way to see if I can find the location of the yacht. It should be near here." After steadying the bow of the boat, Cameron said: "I can't leave my house for too long. In fact, I shouldn't have left at all. Strange, who else would want to board that yacht?" "I'm starting to wonder about that myself," Mason said. "Maybe he knew we were on the boat, so he didn't have time to take anything. Oh wait! Maybe we don't have to go back to the yacht, maybe he..." Just about a quarter of a mile to the right a flame quickly turned into a conflagration, and the explosion shattered the silence of the night with such a loud crash that it nearly knocked them overboard.In an instant, the rumbling sound was deafening. Cameron turned off the motor instinctively, and the boat drifted quietly with the lake for a while.Above them, a whirring, swishing sound came from the sky, and the sound became clearer and stronger.Then, a few hundred yards to the left of the boat, there was a splashing sound, and a moment later there was another splashing sound all around them. "Debris from the blast," Mason said. Cameron changed the angle of the pipe in his mouth and said, "Did you suddenly change your mind and say maybe you don't need to go back to the yacht, just thinking of this sudden explosion?" "Yes," Mason said. "Let's go back quickly." Cameron started the boat motor and sailed forward quickly.The boat jumped forward a bit, then circled half a wide circle and turned around.The mist clings tightly to their faces until it condenses into droplets like drizzle and then slides down.As they made their way along the lake, the bitter cold pierced through their clothes and pressed against their skin and bones. "It shouldn't be too long," Cameron said. "Hope I haven't lost my way. That's all." For several minutes, the three of them just sat quietly in the boat, too cold to speak.Then, a cylindrical buoy loomed out of the darkness in front of the boat, and Cameron spun the boat around to avoid the buoy in front of him; after a while, he turned the boat hard to the left.As the mist suddenly thinned, a vague shadow of land gradually came into view under the dim starlight.At this time, a light appeared in front of it, surrounded by a halo of moisture condensation.The boat turned a corner, and it seemed that without any psychological preparation, the darkness in front of me unexpectedly turned into a row of fog-shrouded yachts, one after another, moored on the shore near the yacht club. Although the journey just now took only a short time, the cold wind had already made Mason tremble and tremble.He scrambled to the shore, clutching the cable. Cameron turned off the boat motor, took the cable from Mason, and tied it to the rock anchor on the shore. "What do you think?" he asked Della. "Hmm..." Della said shivering, and then laughed again. The three of them walked towards Cameron's warm and comfortable hut together.After arriving at the door, Cameron opened the door; suddenly, a gust of hot air came from the stove, and the warm air surrounded their bodies, as if warmly welcoming them in a silent way.The teapot singing on the flame is like a kitten crouching beside the stove to keep warm while scratching its fur, giving people a cozy feeling like home. Cameron didn't say a word.After turning on the light, he poured three cups of hot water, mixed with seasonings, butter, and sugar, and added a good deal of liqueur. Mason said: "It's just right to drink some of this stuff at this time." Della added: "This glass of wine is the rain after a long drought for me. I just thought I couldn't bear it; clothes are of no use at all in such a cold fog." Cameron lit his pipe and said in agreement: "If the cold protection effect is not good, the sharp cold wind and cold air will directly penetrate your clothes and invade your body." He lifted the lid on the stove, and threw in two oak logs; and added some water to the teapot.Then his gaze shifted to the window. "There's a car coming here." "What time is it?" Mason asked. "Two and fifteen." "It's been a rough time, it seems like years have passed," Della said with a smile. Mason took out a pencil and paper from his pocket, and said, "I want to look at your tide timetable and see how different the tide conditions tonight are from the night of the incident. I..." "This way," Cameron said. "It's two men who appear to be police officers." There was a sound of footsteps outside, and the steps on the floating board had a strange rumbling sound. "It sounded like a drumbeat," Della said, and coughed nervously. "And an ominous drumbeat." The two men opened the door without knocking and entered.At this time, they ignored Mason and Della for the time being, and stared at Cameron with four eyes, and then asked, "What's the matter with that explosion?" "Burbank's yacht blew up." "We thought so too. Did you take anyone there tonight?" Cameron pointed at Mason and Della. "Did they really get on that yacht?" "Yes, that's right." "How long after they were gone did the explosion happen?" "Between five and ten minutes, no more than ten minutes." The officer looked Mason up and down in a hostile manner for a moment, then said, "Pack your things, dude, you're coming with us to Police Headquarters." "Stop kidding," Mason told him. "I have to appear in court tomorrow. I'm Paley Mason." "I don't care who you are. In short, you have to go to the headquarters with us." Mason explained patiently: "Originally, a small boat drove to the place where the yacht was moored. At that time, I thought that someone was coming to get something on the yacht; I was very panicked when we were on fire. Now, I finally understand: the original purpose of the man was to plant a time bomb. However, the man did not know that we would leave the yacht so soon, so he thought it was a time bomb that separated us from the yacht. Great opportunity for the yacht to blow up at the same time. The man opened the hatch, began to step into the cabin, then turned and fled the yacht, paddled quickly away, and disappeared into the night-this series of actions turned out to be deliberately delaying time to Just in case we have any doubts about his real purpose on board the yacht. Perhaps, the man planted the time bomb within seconds of boarding the yacht." "What does that person look like?" "We didn't see the man's face." "What kind of boat is that?" "We didn't see either." The officer grinned—a disconcertingly eerie grin that also radiated a sense of superiority. "You should have done better," he said, adding reproachfully, "and you're a lawyer." Mason said, "For God's sake, please radio the police and tell them to search the entire riverfront for anyone suspicious loitering around. When the man came ashore, See if you can find the boat moored there, and then you'll have a good view—if, of course, he hasn't gone ashore." "If I believed your story, and got sucked into your story, and turned the department into a tizzy, wouldn't I be embarrassing myself? No, Mason, I'm sorry, in my case It seems that the target of our investigation should be you two. You and this lady have been on that yacht, what did you do there?" "To study the dynamics of the tides." "Oh, is that so?" said the officer sarcastically. "You go on the boat with a time bomb, and when you leave, you press a button to detonate the bomb. You set the time in advance so that you can leave the scene in time and smoothly." "Stop kidding," Mason said. "Why did I blow up that yacht?" "Then why would someone blow up that yacht? You have more reason to do it than anyone else." The officer turned to Cameron and said, "Did he just come back? Or was he just looking for an excuse to hang around the yacht?" , come back when the yacht explodes?" Cameron seemed to hesitate. "Answer me quickly," said the inspector. "It's not like that," Cameron finally said. "We were looking for the little boat all over the place in the fog, going back and forth." "Near the yacht?" "About a quarter of a mile." The officer exchanged glances with his companion, then sniffed and looked at the three empty glasses. "What did you just drink?" he asked Cameron. "Rumella?" "Yes, we did drink some rum." Cameron said indifferently, and then added some tobacco to the pipe. The officer turned to Mason and said, "Okay, let's go. You two come back with us."