the fog had grown so dense that kintyre knew his goal only by the car parked at the roadside. "don't stop!" he cried, the moment it hove into view. "brake easy. let me out a hundred yards on." he began to open the door. "the nearest phone i remember is a gas station a few miles farther south. don't raise your own posse and come back. they'd hear you and might shoot her first. wait for the police. good luck."

they rolled softly through a dripping gray swirl. kintyre stepped from the car. contact jarred in his feet. almost, he fell, running alongside it in search of balance. then the dark wet body slipped from him and was lost. he heard a muffled slam as guido closed the door, the rising drone of speed, and now just his shoes thudding on pavement.

he stopped himself and jogged back. he was no track star, but he remembered to conserve his wind. the fog was moving with him, its eddies and streamers gave him the nightmare sense of a treadmill bound south. he could see the highway and something of the right-hand cliff that rose up and lost itself overhead. to his left there was nothing, world's edge and smoky endlessness. the air was chill.

presently he regained the automobile. it was a new model, built for an impression of lowness and width; it sat and bared its teeth between blind headlights like some garish dinosaur defying the glaciers. judas! suppose this was only a harmless passer-by? but a signboard told him point perro, and who else would have come today? kintyre tried the door. it wasn't locked. he eased it open to read the registration on the steering column.

gerald r. clayton. so. kintyre felt his hands shaking. one more reassurance, before he went down the path. the dashboard thermometer showed the engine still warm. they hadn't been here long.

i do not wish for a god to help me, he thought. but i wish i had one to thank.

he filled his lungs and emptied them, filled and emptied them. those were dank breaths, but they helped him ease up. he had three armed men to face; if he must also war with himself, it would be hopeless. not that he felt any great conviction of winning. but—yes. he reached under the dash and yanked loose the ignition wires. after he was dead, that might delay their escape with corinna.

he climbed the low barbed-wire fence. it guarded a jut of cliff maned with harsh yellow grass. you had to go to its very edge to see that there was a beach underneath. as he approached, he began to hear the surf. incoming tide: breakers crashed among rocks, the water streamed down again with a roar, whirlpools gurgled in small grottoes. he did not think a human cry would be heard this far above.

when he came to the brink, he could just make out a sketch of jumbled crags and a laciness on the bull combers; then the rifted mist hid the sea from him again. there would be a highness to either side, the arms enclosing this inlet, but those were lost in the gray. he walked cautiously until he saw the path, a goat track plunging downward.

its dirt was gritty under his feet. despite himself, he loosed gravel showers now and again. after each he stopped, crouching and listening for voices. there were none: only the surf, snorting more loudly every time. the fog was his friend, could he have approached without it? yes, he'd have found a way somehow, swum around a headland if he must, but the fog helped him. no proof of supernatural assistance, of course; this was a notoriously wet stretch of coast; however, he was advantaged thereby.

at the cliff's foot he stood among half-seen boulders and considered where his enemy might be. not more than a hundred yards from him, but he had perhaps fifty feet of unclear vision. this pea soup was thickening by the minute. if the others arrived, say, twenty minutes ago, they would have been granted better visibility, could have selected a spot. kintyre stretched his memory. the cliffs made a semicircular wall, with driftwood and great stones at its foot; the diameter was a narrow strip of sand, paralleled by a line of rocks. these latter were below high-water mark and would be drenched already. kintyre could just glimpse the sleet-colored ocean breasting them. okay. so his quarry was under the cliff. was there some way to lure one of them out?

an idea came. it was hazardous, but no more so than blundering blind. and he was not afraid of what might happen to him. in a certain way, he had been given another chance to rescue morna; he could not but take it.

crouching in the rocks, he started to cough, as much like a sea lion's bark as he could manage. it was a bad imitation, but he dealt with pavement people. the noise went deep, wet, and ringing among the breakers.

"what's that?"

from the right! kintyre fell on his stomach and began to eel his way over the rocks.

"a gahdam seal yet." larkin's youthful whine. "holy moses, what a spot!"

"better go see." it was an unfamiliar bass. silenio.

"ah, nuts, you go."

"you heard me, terry," said silenio.

"the girl knows this coast," said clayton. kintyre flowed over a bleached white tree trunk. it snagged his shirt, he had to stop and fumble for his liberty. and the fog talked and talked.

"it's just a seal, isn't it, miss lombardi?"

no answer.

"silenio," said clayton.

a tearing gasp: "let go, you'll break my arm, let go!"

"i'm sorry to have to do this, miss lombardi," said clayton. "but now that we've gotten settled here, such things will happen pretty continuously. unless you cooperate. so to start with—that was a seal we heard barking, wasn't it?"

"yes. oh!"

"go look, terry," said silenio.

kintyre put his ear to the stones. he heard them rattle. if he could intercept larkin, get him from behind without any noise....

he tried to judge whence the footsteps came. there were no more voices, no sound at all except larkin and the sea. kintyre followed, bent nearly double.

when he saw the vague shape, he changed course to intercept. larkin was little more than a trench coat and a hat, fog-blurred. he was making no attempt to be silent, he slipped and stumbled, but his progress was quick. kintyre decided he was going to get away, rose and sprinted the last few yards.

larkin heard the hunter. he turned. "what—" kintyre hit him. they went down together. kintyre tried to get an arm around larkin's throat. he didn't quite manage it. larkin screamed.

that was a lost cause already. kintyre wriggled free of threshing arms and legs, rolled away and bounded to his feet. larkin was crawling to hands and knees. his face was a white blob with holes for eyes and mouth. he continued to scream.

kintyre fled toward the sand. he heard silenio curse. "what is it? what's going on out there?"

"it's a raid!" bawled larkin. he reeled erect, the switchblade in one hand.

"get back here!" said silenio.

kintyre whirled and threw himself prone. the sand was hard against his stomach. he could make out larkin at the very edge of visibility, head weaving around. "where did he go?" larkin was crying. "where is he?"

"get back, i said, back here before i start shooting!" yelled silenio.

larkin groped a way toward the bodiless voice. kintyre went on hands and feet this time, a quadruped rush. larkin heard something and looked behind him. kintyre went flat, simultaneously. larkin faced back toward the cliff and resumed. kintyre came after him again.

three feet away, kintyre stood up and leaped.

larkin could not miss that. he spun on one heel, his knife already slicing. kintyre moved in, presenting his left side, staying just out of reach. larkin stepped forward. he was wary on the uncertain footing, too wary to be thrown hard. kintyre feinted a blow with his left hand. larkin slipped aside to avoid it. that took some of the rattlesnake speed off his striking blade. kintyre's right hand chopped down, edge on, as he bent at the waist. the steel went half an inch past his belly. his hand connected with the arm behind. in that awkward stance it was not a blow of the real bone-cracking force, but larkin moaned and went down on one knee.

kintyre kicked at his neck. larkin lowered his head and took the impact on the skull. this boy was good! it threw him onto his back, though. kintyre circled for an opening. larkin sat up, poised the knife in one hand, and threw it.

kintyre felt a dull blow in his left biceps. he stared down. the knife stood in the muscle, blood was a red shout against skin and cloth. larkin scrambled to his feet and pelted in the direction of silenio's cries.

kintyre knew little shock. coolness at such moments was normal; he even had time to think that. the blood was simply oozing around the steel, no important vessel had been cut. he went after larkin.

the boy slipped on a wet rock. there were shadows ahead, clayton's lair? kintyre sprang for him. to hell with defensive judo. larkin had just gotten up. he heard the feet which followed, turned around and lifted his hands. "help!" he shrieked.

"i'm coming!" cried silenio in the gray.

larkin flung himself into a clinch. his arms wrapped around kintyre's waist with astonishing strength. automatically, kintyre's right arm went up to jam into his larynx. but larkin's chin was down, guarding the throat. his right hand let go and reached after the knife in kintyre's flesh.

kintyre pressed a thumb into the boy's jugular. larkin choked and pulled himself free. the knife came with him, in his grasp; blood runneled from the metal. he stepped in to rip. kintyre's right hand traveled up. the heel of it struck larkin at the root of the nose.

larkin gurgled and flopped backward. his face was no longer quite human: the blow had driven his nasal bone into the brain. so much for him.

silenio burst from cold clouds. he was a squat balding man with a round blue-cheeked face. there was an automatic in his hand. he looked a fractional second upon kintyre and the body. then he fired.

kintyre was already running. he didn't hear the bullets, or even the ricochets, only the flat smack! smack! smack! as the gun went off behind him. he crouched low, zigzagging a little. a pistol is not a very accurate weapon. when he felt sand under his feet again, he looked back. nothing but fog. he heard clayton and silenio calling to each other.

he glanced down at his wounded arm. it bled merrily. he flexed the fingers, tested their resistance to pressure: good, nothing had been severed which a few stitches wouldn't heal. but until he got the stitches, if ever, he had an arm and a half at best.

and clayton and silenio were still holding corinna. it wouldn't take them long to think of making a hostage of her.

kintyre hurried to the base of the cliff and went along it as quietly as he could. a weapon, how about throwing stones, no, they all seemed too large or too small. bare hands were limited by the reach of an arm. passing a log, he stopped to feel after clubs. he found a broken-off branch, four feet long and not very crooked. it had a narrow end, almost a point. salt water and weather had turned it bone-white, iron-hard.

kintyre followed the cliff. when he heard them talking again, he went with his back flat against it. total silence would be his one chance, when he got into seeing range; they mightn't look his way.

they sat behind a log, a yard or two from the precipice. clayton was huddled into a topcoat, hands in pockets, squatting wretchedly on a flat boulder. silenio stood up, sentrylike, the gun in his hand.

corinna sat facing clayton. her arms were free; a rope lashed her ankles. the long hair was heavy with dampness. she didn't seem to have been injured yet, except for that one short episode—

"it could only have been kintyre," clayton was saying. "and alone. otherwise this beach would be solid with police."

"he may have the whole force on its way here," grumbled silenio.

"that's possible. i think we had better get going. but remember, it's a single man. if you can nail him, we're safe."

clayton stooped and began to untie corinna. "i'm sorry about this," he said.

"like hell you are!" she spat. even now, kintyre must grin at her rage, it was so much corinna.

"as you like," shrugged clayton.

"why are you doing this?" she asked, almost with wonder.

sudden pain sharpened clayton's voice: "i've got three children. they'd be dragged down with me. the mud would stick to them all their lives. no!"

kintyre glided forward. corinna spied him over clayton's shoulder. through the watery air he saw her lips part. she cocked her head and looked out at sea. "what was that?" she exclaimed.

clayton and silenio turned wholly from kintyre. he made the last few yards in a rush.

silenio whipped around. kintyre was almost upon him. he raised the gun. kintyre thrust with his stick. it was ill-balanced, but he had fenced for many years. he got silenio's hand and knocked it around. the gun went off with a crack; stone and lead spurted. kintyre jabbed silenio in the stomach. silenio fell to his knees. he still had the gun. kintyre snapped the point of his stick to the back of his enemy's hand and bore down. bones parted; the stick went through, into the sand.

silenio howled and tried to pull it loose. from the edge of his eye, kintyre glimpsed clayton's bulky frame launched at him. he let go the stick and caught an extended arm. he heaved clayton over his shoulder and onto the rocks.

silenio freed himself and scrabbled for the automatic. kintyre put his foot on it. silenio rose and threw himself at his opponent. the weight struck kintyre's left biceps. agony went like lightning. he staggered back, holding the arm.

the man from chicago laughed. he picked up the gun, awkwardly left-handed, and fired.

and missed. kintyre recovered himself, moving in again. another shot went off nearly in his face. another miss. there wouldn't be a third, he knew. he snatched up the stick. silenio backed off, grinning with hatred. he steadied his left hand with the wounded right and took careful aim.

kintyre lunged. it was a swordsman's movement, more leap than stride, with all his mass behind it. he took silenio in the throat.

silenio dropped the gun, clawed at the stick, and began to fold up. he tried to call out, but could only say blood. he sat down in a dazed way, plucked at his neck, and bled to death.

kintyre had no time to notice it. he saw clayton coming back. it did not seem possible clayton could still move; the left side of his face was one giant bruise, the cheek flayed. kintyre groped after the gun. where was it?

clayton advanced with a rush. he fell the last six feet. raising his head and his arm, he showed metal in the hand. "got it!" he said.

kintyre pounced on him. they rolled over, kneeing and gouging. clayton hammered a fist on kintyre's hurt. the grasp on him loosened. clayton writhed free, got up and ran. the fog whirled him from sight.

kintyre pulled himself to hands and knees. blood dripped from his wounds, bright little puddles formed on the ice-gray stones. his head tolled.

hands fell gently upon him. he sat back, leaning into the circle of her arms. her hair brushed his face. "you came," she said.

"are you hurt?" he asked.

"no. there wasn't time. oh, your poor arm!"

"can you make some kind of bandage for it? my tee shirt will do."

"it isn't sterile. no, there are antibiotics these days, thank god for that." she pulled the garment over his head, sawed the seams across on an edged stone, and ripped it up. he noticed that her dress was gray. when she looked directly at him, her eyes and blonde hair were the only color in his world.

"thank god for you," she added.

her hands were deft, fashioning a compress and binding it in place. he kept his head toward the sea, listening. "what is it?" she asked.

"clayton. where did he go?"

"wouldn't he try to escape?"

"if so, fine. i sabotaged his car. or even if he gets it going, he'll never make it out of this state. but i'm afraid he realizes as much himself."

she knelt behind him, where he sat on the ground regaining his breath, and laid a hand in his hair. she asked steadily: "what will he do?"

"in his place," said kintyre, "i'd come back and kill us. he should have done that when he broke free of me, he had the gun. but of course he was half stunned. now that he's had a little time to think the situation over—yes. if he got rid of us, there'd be no witnesses to prove he hadn't also been kidnaped and was the single fortunate survivor. the kind of lawyers he can afford would have at least a chance to brazen out that yarn."

he stood up. "fade back along the cliff, away from the path," he said. "find yourself a sheltered spot and hunker down in it. if you need help, scream."

"you?" for the first time he heard fear. she stood up, and trembled.

"as i said, he has a gun and he will probably be stalking us, if he hasn't started yet," kintyre answered. "i'd better forestall that."

she considered him with a somehow old look.

"all right," she said. "there is no other way. christ guard you."

she reached up and kissed him, a brief light contact, and walked away.

kintyre stood thinking of a certain letter. it had been written by machiavelli from the farm at san casciano, after he had gone there disgraced, tortured, and exiled, with all his work fallen, to dust. he wrote a friend:

"all my life i have behaved as i chose in love affairs. i let love do as it likes with me, i have followed it over hill and over vale, through fields, through woods, and after all i think i have done better than if i had avoided it."

you needed a certain courage to be happy.

kintyre turned and went toward the path. it was a starting point for his search; clayton's instinct would have been to bolt. he made no effort to be still. a snap shot in the fog wouldn't hit him, except by chance, and his racket would draw attention from corinna.

nevertheless, when the fire came, it was shocking. from the sea!

kintyre whirled and padded toward the water. clayton must have thought to circumvent him, wade out and around till he struck the cliff. or perhaps he figured to hide among the rocks and—no matter. it was necessary to get him.

the tide was coming in heavily now. kintyre saw how the sand gleamed, even in this sunless air, and then how it was whelmed in foam. spray beat his face; he heard a hollow sucking roar among the stones. where was clayton?

out in the surf, it tongued flame. he saw the beach furrowed beside him. so—crouched on a rock, approachable only through the water! kintyre ran along the shore, trying to get out of visual range before a bullet smote him. the pursuing shots had a muffled sound.

he entered the water. it was savagely cold. it pulled at his ankles, sand shifted under the tidal drag. how deep was it where clayton laired? not over a man's height: clayton was planning to get corinna also, he'd have to come back ashore without wetting his gun too much. not that a brief soak would disable a well-oiled automatic. but he would first lure kintyre to him, if he could. a man struggling through chest-deep turbulence ought to make an easy target.

kintyre strained eyes into the fog. he could just see the fortress rock as a shadow, fifteen feet high at the peak, forty feet long, gibraltar-shaped. breakers hurled against its seaward flank. this was a rapidly sloping bottom. the depth on clayton's side was hardly over four feet, but it might be ten at the western end of the rock.

kintyre waded straight out until a wave hit him in the face. he kicked off his shoes and swam.

his bad arm gave him saw-toothed pain and reddened the water. he used his right, a side stroke. the undertow grabbed him and yanked him outward. he wrestled to stay afloat. a comber went over him. briefly he was in a remembered darkness.

he drank salt fear, threshed to the wave's top, and spun down into the trough behind it. a chill seething had him. it bawled in his ears. he knew himself empty of strength and hope.

the sea battered itself upon the earth, recoiled, laughed, and reared back to gallop in again. it was like the beating of a maul. a ship, a man, a girl could be crunched between wave and stone until ribs broke across. kintyre strangled in a noisy wild night. he was spewed up again for a moment, scornfully. spray sheeted in his face. the cold drained him, he could feel how warmth ran out. the sea rolled him over and toned in his skull.

somehow you could swim, he thought. it was only to keep going. though all the world were smashed on a reef, you could keep going. and there could be victory.

he saw the rock face shine before him. the waves pounded him against its roughness. fog smoked in his eyes. he let the sea upbear him, and took its anger, while he fumbled about. his fingers closed on something, a handhold. his toes sought beneath the surface.

he pulled himself out.

for a little while he lay on the sloping stone back. the tide covered his feet. life returned in some measure. he sighed and began to climb.

at the peak he looked over. clayton sat on a small ledge, four sheer yards below him. the ruddy hair hung dark, there was blood matting one side of the long narrow head. clayton's gun wove about in a seeking fashion, aimed toward shore and then down again. once he jerked, making an odd little whimper like a lost child, and fired. the sound was flat, nearly lost among rumbling tides.

a twelve-foot jump could easily miss that tiny projection—and once fallen into the water below, kintyre would be clayton's. but so he would be if he tried to crawl down.

he made his estimates, poised, and sprang.

his feet struck clayton between the shoulders. they went over together. it spouted where they hit. a wave swung in from the ocean and climbed the rock in one white burst.

kintyre came up. he stood in four feet of water. clayton was just arising. somehow, incredibly, he still had the gun. it lifted, at point-blank range.

kintyre's left arm found the power to chop down. the gun was knocked loose. the sea ate it. kintyre laid his good hand upon clayton. enough.