Hurricane by L. Ron Hubbard

sticky blood. The blow had been clean. Using a belt and the rifle sling, Spar securely bound the man.
    He was about to rap on Peg Mannering’s door when he heard footsteps below. Looking down the stairway he could see that Enrico and Count Folston—the Saint—had entered the great hall. Not daring to make another move, Spar knelt and watched intently.
    The words came up to him, hollow in the great emptiness of the place.
    “Have you sent it?” said Folston.
    “Ten minutes ago,” replied Enrico. “Chacktar attended to it. He should be back shortly with the answer.”
    “If the fools in Martinique relay that radio, yes.”
    “I do not quite understand. . . .” said Enrico, cautiously.
    “What matter if you do not?” flared Folston.
    “I . . . was merely thinking. . . .”
    “You were not brought here to think,” said Folston.
    “The men were wondering, that was all.”
    Folston studied the other, rapping his well-kept nails on the table the while. Then, evidently deciding that the men were entitled to some sort of explanation, he leaned forward. “We are all about to become very rich.”
    Enrico nodded as though he had fully expected that.
    “Frederick Perry thinks a great deal of his son in spite of the fool’s actions. He thinks that Tom upholds the precious virtue of the Perry family and that Tom will come around in a few years. Old Perry was very wild in his youth.”
    “But why is Tom Perry here?” asked Enrico.
    “Fool,” replied Folston. “If I say that I will turn young Perry over to the French authorities, to save his name old Perry will do almost anything. If I hand young Perry to the French, they will send him to the penal colony. Is not that enough?”
    “But what has he done?”
    Spar, who only saw that these two were blocking his  one avenue of escape, writhed with impatience. But now he began to listen intently.
    The Saint went on. “Tom Perry thinks he killed two men in Martinique. As a matter of fact, he did not. We were visited by this fellow who calls himself Captain Spar. Henri received a letter from DeJong in Paramaribo, saying that this fellow I had caused to be put away was heading north, intent on killing me.
    “At the moment I had need of a corpse. And so I had Henri send this Captain Spar to a certain tavern with a package full of nothing. Spar was to wait there for other men, but in reality, Spar was waiting for his own execution.
    “Henri and one of his dear friends set out to kill Spar, thus giving me the corpse I wanted, but, unfortunately, Spar killed them.”
    “Henri dead?” cried Enrico.
    “Yes, yes, very sad. But he was getting temperamental. Wanted more money anyway. He would have sold us if the price had been to his liking. But as I say, Spar killed the pair.
    “Then we drugged young Perry and our very efficient Chacktar had the boy carried to the tavern and brought to. It thus appeared, even to Tom, that he had murdered a couple men. He was very pathetic about it, too, and then became very defiant. But he believed he had done it, nonetheless.
    “And, too, we had a witness in Spar, who had really done the killing. Spar had nothing to lose and so he said that young Perry had done the deed. As I did not think I had any further use of Spar, I intended to have him killed that night. But Larson, the fool, stalked out of the place and said that he would have nothing more to do with Perry.
    “I had already seen to it that the Venture ’s mate was in the hospital because that mate is a hardheaded fool, and Larson’s walkout left me without anyone to captain the Venture . And you’ll agree, Enrico, my old, that the Venture is very necessary to us, eh? Be careful of Spar. Do not kill him all the way. Leave him enough body and brains to navigate the Venture.
    “What do you think of the Saint now, Enrico?”
    “Marvelous!” cried Enrico, the perfect yes-man. “But about Perry.”
    “To save his name and his son, he will deed over half of the Perry Sugar Central