She began to plead. Her voice was an abject whine and now I knew what that feverish, starved look in her eyes meant. He had started to move towards the stairs when suddenly there was a violent banging on the front door. Somebody was calling out, asking us to open.
It was Sansevino who opened it. A man staggered in with a blast of hot air and a rolling cloud of choking dust. He had his arm flung up to guard his face. He was white with ash, and cinders as big as peas rolled off the shoulders of his overcoat. As Sansevino flung the door to I had a momentary glimpse of a world that was black like a pit, a world that stirred and moved and was alive with an ugly hissing, sifting, drifting sound. The man shook himself like a dog. ‘I sure am glad I found your house,’ he said to Sansevino. And as the ash fell away from him I saw who it was. ‘You’ve had a lucky escape, Mr. Racket,’ I said.
He stared at me. And then his face creased in a smile. ‘Well, if it isn’t Mr. Farrell. Well, well — we just don’t seem to be able to keep away from each other, do we? And the Countess. Wonderful!’ He was coughing and beaming at us at the same time. I introduced him to Sansevino. ‘A fellow countryman of yours,’ I added and tried hard not to sound sarcastic.
‘Glad to meet you, sir.’ He wrung Sansevino’s hand. ‘I motored up to Santo Francisco. They told me it was the best place to see Vesuvius at night. Well, I certainly seen something. The folks at home will never believe me when I tell them. I was right there in Santo Francisco when it started.’ He shook his head in wonderment. ‘Stupendous! Just stupendous! I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. No, sir! And I’ve been down to see the volcanoes in Mexico.’
‘Is it possible to get away by car?’ Zina asked him.
He shook his head. ‘Not a chance, lady. Countess, I mean. When it started all the villagers came out into the streets. At first I thought they were rubber-necking, same as me. But then they started loading up their carts and I only just got out before the road was blocked with screaming horses and bullocks and humans. I’d got the idea by that time that it was going to be dangerous and I started to drive back down towards the autostrada. Then the ash began to fall. Couldn’t see a damn thing. Not a damn thing. It was like trying to drive along a pit shaft just after they’ve blown the coal face. Black as hell!’ He turned to me. ‘Remember those two people we saw at Pompeii — a man and a girl?’
I nodded.
‘They were out there. I ran slap into the back of their convertible.’
I glanced at Zina. She was looking at Sansevino. ‘What were they doing?’ she asked.
‘Just looking at the mountain, I guess. They were parked outside the gates to your place. They told me there was a villa up here so I came along. Didn’t fancy the hood of my little beetle-car would last long if the ash got hot.’