Casimir: "I'm as good a shot as you are, buster, and I want to be sure this job's done right."
Pause.
Casimir: "Almost five minutes. If he can come up now he's a seal. Especially with his body oxygen-starved after all that running."
In the slowness of Dalgetty's brain there was a chill wonder about the woman. He had read her thought, she was FBI, but she seemed strangely eager to hunt him down.
"Okay, le's get outta here."
Casimir: "You go on. I'll wait here just in case and come up to the house pretty soon. I'm tired of following you around."
"Okay. Le's go, Joe."
It was another four minutes or so before the pain and tension in his lungs became unendurable. Dalgetty knew he would be helpless as he rose, still in his semi-hibernating state, but his body was shrieking for air. Slowly he broke the surface.
The woman gasped. Then the automatic jumped into her hand and leveled between his eyes. "All right, friend. Come on out." Her voice was very low and shook a trifle but there was grimness in it.
Dalgetty climbed onto the ledge beside her and sat with his legs dangling, hunched in the misery of returning strength. When full wakefulness was achieved he looked at her and found she had moved to the farther end of the cave.