Chapter 15
It was dark when we wound up on a sandy side-road off the beach highway and Helen parked her car in a grove of Australian pines, which screened it from the road.
She explained, "We'll have to hike it from here on foot ... up the beach about half a mile, then over the dunes to the Intercoastal canal."
"And what makes you so sure the schooner will be anchored there?" I asked stupidly.
"I've heard lots of scuttlebutt. And this is really the only stretch of waterway for miles around that affords almost total privacy. I don't think we made a mistake coming out here," she added firmly.
I nodded. "I'll take your word ... and I pray to God you are right! Let's get on with it."
We scurried out of the car and plodded through the thick, heavy sand for almost five minutes before following a narrow path leading away from the beach between two dunes, capped by a thick growth of sea-grape bushes.
"Keep down now among the stand of sea-grape," Helen whispered flicking off her flashlight. "If the schooner is here at all, it should be just about there ... and there it be!"
It was a handsome boat-all white and mahogany, with two tall masts. I felt a terrible tingle up and down my body, but for a moment I hesitated and admired the big beauty that looked so slim and eager, ready to run through any sea. Then slowly, I became aware of movement on deck, and when I looked more sharply I gasped and stared, frozen in disbelief.
Shirley was lashed to the mast, and three hooded despoilers, in various stages of leather dress and undress, stood looking at her naked, voluptuous beauty!
"I'll kill them with my bare hands!" I managed to husk.
"Keep quiet and down," Helen commanded me. "There might be a guard watch here on shore."
"I don't care...!"
"Shush!" Helen snapped. "This is a deadly game, Steve. Believe me, Madge Carpenter and her crew are dangerous! And this could be-bad trouble."
"Then I want you out!"
"I'm staying in-until the bitter end," she assured me. "Besides, you couldn't possibly accomplish this rescue mission successfully without my help."
"Like?"
"Like distracting their attention while you swim out and slip aboard. And this I do by creating a real loud ruckus here on shore."
"But that's too dangerous for you, Helen!"
"Naw. Remember, I have a gun-that's not a toy!"
"And if they do too?" I breathed.
"That Carpenter bitch bull wouldn't stand for a shoot out, Steve. Granted, she has money she hasn't counted yet-but intuition tells me she wouldn't want to burn it up on criminal defense lawyers."
"Okay," I sighed. "Let's get the ball rolling-before those pukes touch Shirley!"
I went down to my shorts, then slipped into the tepid water of the canal, swimming out to the schooner with long, easy strokes. The Inter-coastal was calm, breathing in the gentle swells that pulsed from the southeast, and I submerged for about the last fifty yards, then came gently blowing to the surface to hear Helen shouting at the schooner party from back on shore.
"Somebody help me! Please-help me! I'm ... in danger-of my life!"
Above me-I was now poised on the lowest rung of the aft ladder-I heard the scuffle of feet running away from me to the forward deck, then voices called out to Helen, and I scurried up ... up ... up on deck. And before Shirley could utter a surprised cry I was clinging to her, and her cheek fell against my chest and she sobbed quietly as if the moment were an accumulation of all earthly tragedy.
Neither of us spoke a word; this was not a time for words ... and I had to work quickly to unshackle her from the mast. I knelt and examined the leg-irons those depraved bastards had put on her, then thanked God they weren't securely locked.
Suddenly Shirley quivered tense and screamed!
"You! Come here to me!" demanded a strong, slightly female voice from behind me.
I whirled, stumbling to a half-crouch, and my eyes went wide and bugged at sight of the big Amazon. Standing in white leather high heeled boots with her head completely hooded was a devil dyke taller than any Tarzan. But it was the long three-tongued whip she dangled menacingly that drew my eyes to nearly popping out.
"Well? Who the hell are you, miserable man?" this devil dyke further demanded. "Answer me!"
"Up yours, Mister Madge Carpenter!" I snarled.
"How the hell do you know my name?"
"Can the twenty questions," I snapped, freeing Shirley from the mast at last. "Over the side, Shirley!"
"Stop-in your tracks!" Madge thundered.
Instead, I grabbed Shirley and half-dragged her across the deck to the ladder in her terror and stupification. I seemed to have the strength and daring of twenty men ... but I wasn't prepared for Madge's abrupt fury ... and the triple lash of her whip cut into my broad back so furiously that I almost toppled. I staggered back into balance ... only to get the vicious whip wrapped around my legs-and with one swift tug of Madge's powerful arm ... I was floored on the hard deck!
For a moment I was stunned by the air being knocked out of me; I was only conscious of the agonizing screams pouring out of Shirley again and again. Then I heard Madge yelling, "I'll punish you for spoiling my party! You miserable fool-I'll teach you to trespass!"
Now there was noise-gruff voices, rough cries ... and again the black leather whip slashed across my back and buttocks without mercy. Then two hooded men grabbed me by the hair, dragged me across the deck, and my arms and legs were pulled almost out of their sockets as they arranged me in a spread-eagled position. Naturally I tried to fight them ... but I was completely helpless! I shook my head from side to side ... yet the peculiar, mouthless leather helmet was fitted over my head in a moment ... in the exact moment that Shirley was fitted with a like one that stopped her sobbing, hideous screams.
Through the narrow eye-slits of the helmet I watched Madge come toward me ... with what evil intent? Her huge hands, covered with tight white leather gloves, started to twitch with small spasms, then the eager fingers suddenly flicked like little snakes to rip off my shorts in splitting shreds. And she began to fondle me intimately, to tweak me cruelly ... to no appreciable degree under the despicable circumstances! But she continued the lewd caresses, plying the line of my limpness until she was reassured that she could not possibly firm my tissues, and then she stepped back.
For a moment she was gone, and there was the sound of her pulling something from a leather bag. Then she was in front of me again ... displaying an impossibly long, absolutely monstrous artificial object! And I damned near passed out! There wasn't a doubt in the world about where she was going to put it!
Yet I was strangely transfixed with the excellent theatrical flair Madge employed as she strapped it securely around her hips. It was done with ease and deliberate slow motion action, as if she wanted to savor this extended time until she had taken everything from it ... or wait for the moment that I would begin to beg for mercy by struggling my body! But I gritted my teeth and vowed not to give her this satisfaction.
Then it happened!
It was inevitable!
One moment Madge slithered out of my view, slipping behind me ... the next moment her icy hands gripped me by the hips ... and she made full abrupt use of the artificial object.
The shock and agony tore me into pieces. There was no escaping the incredible torture-I was distended, stretched, scorched ... then hammered over and over again with steady swift savagery, until the burning and searing drove me close to numbing shock.
And then suddenly her arms moved down from my captive chest and her fingers became adamant again. And the most astonishing part of this was ... this time the kneading effect was electrifying! Every muscle, every fiber of my entire body fought against the humiliating result that Madge desired. But suddenly-it happened! Unmercifully she continued the repetitious thrusts that wrenched me apart again, until the split moment of ecstasy was sheer agony once more ... and endured with her harsh laughter now in my ringing ears.
Five, ten minutes later-abruptly, Madge withdrew, heedless of what the still-powerful object ripped out from my insides with its disengagement ... and leaped back before my watery eyes to stride deliberately over to the wiggling Shirley!
I made a silent shriek in the mouthless hood and struggled now ... but the men who had fitted the hood for me regrasped me in complete bondage! I must admit that I felt very close to vomiting ... when Madge swatted the flat handle of her whip across Shirley's buttocks!
Again and again she was punished by the handle whacking, until her creamy white skin was flushed red with rawness, and her entire body quivered with jolting quakes at each blatant blow.
Then Madge moved behind!
She assumed the position with her fingernails digging into Shirley's heaving breasts and-and- Helen swore the command. "Hold it! That's enough!" she screamed from the schooner's rail that she clutched almost precariously ... pointing the pistol!
And it was as if Madge Carpenter and her crew became instantly hypnotized and paralyzed to total immobility. The four strong hands shot off me ... and in a moment I had plucked the stifling leather hood up over my head and Shirley's alike. She began to shake as if laughing silently in some terrible relief; then she fainted.
"Get 'em!" Madge commanded her crew of bullies.
And Helen cried out, "I'll shoot! I mean it. Nobody moves a muscle, until the Coast Guard gets here.. My companion back ashore went after them," she added the he smoothly. "Get yourself and Shirley over the side, Steve!"
I had already hauled Shirley over the railing, close to Helen, when Madge suddenly called the whole bluff and started a small pandemonium by commanding, "Somebody start the engines! Then we'll get them-run them down in the water!"
We forgot the ladder and quickly jumped. In my arms, Shirley's dead weight acted like a buoy to keep us surfaced, and after a moment Helen came shaking her head and blowing up right beside us.
It was in that moment that Madge's warning was delivered in a high, hoarse shout. "My God! Don't forget to turn on the blower to flush out the gasoline before you switch on the ignition...!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The air and water reverberated with three successive and thunderous explosions. A massive geyser of red-hot flames shot skyward, igniting the black starless night in a searing glow of nature's fury....
And the oil slick water-top all around us was suddenly ablaze!
"Under! Go under!" Helen screamed ... then a tongue of flame scorched and sizzled her long wet hair!
Stunned, I grabbed breath and dove. I knew that Shirley, still unconscious, would get her lungs filled ... but there was absolutely no other way to escape. Underwater, Shirley's dead weight seemed to hold me back, to fight against me, but I frantically lunged, on ... on ... on. Miles ... miles-and my lungs were bursting to the point of dizzy nausea ... the limit just before the claim of water-logged unconsciousness ... and then the silent deep surrendered and spewed us up on the sandy shore!
Then Shirley was yanked away from me. Down she went to the ground with a zealous Helen performing the obvious duty of artificial respiration. Three minutes ... five minutes! A twinge of horror was steadily growing within me.
Abruptly, there it was-a sputter first, then a choked and gagging cough!
I hunch-crouched there in the soggy sand watching the mysterious spurt of life being reactivated, and then I wanted to beat my chest and yell from the treetops like a Tarzan ... tamed at long last!