Десмонд Бэгли - The Golden Keel

‘Well, I’m damned.’ I thought of all the precautions I’d taken to put Metcalfe off the scent; I thought of all the times I’d beaten my brains out to think up new twists of evasion. All wasted — he wasn’t fooled at all!

‘I thought you’d get rid of him,’ Metcalfe said. ‘He was a dead loss all the way through. I thought you’d put him over the side or something like that.’

I looked at Coertze, who grinned at me. I said, ‘He was probably a murderer, too.’

‘Wouldn’t be surprised,’ agreed Metcalfe airily. ‘He was a slimy little rat.’

That reminded me — I had probably killed a man too. ‘Where’s Krupke?’ I asked. ‘I haven’t seen him around.’

Metcalfe snickered. ‘He’s groaning in his bunk — he got a faceful of splinters.’

I held out the back of my hand. ‘Well, he did the same to me.’

‘Yes,’ said Metcalfe soberly. ‘But Krupke is probably going to lose an eye.’

‘Serve him damn’ well right,’ I said viciously. ‘He won’t be too keen to look down rifle sights again.’

I hadn’t lost sight of the fact that Metcalfe and his crew of ruffians had been doing their damnedest to kill us not many hours before. But there wasn’t any advantage in quarrelling with Metcalfe about it — we were on his boat and he was going to put us ashore safely. Irritating him wasn’t exactly the best policy just then.

He said, ‘That machine-gun of yours was some surprise. You nearly plugged me.’ He pointed to a battered loudhailer on the sideboard. ‘You shot that goddamn thing right out of my hand.’

Francesca said, ‘Why were you so solicitous about my husband? Why did you take the trouble?’

‘Oh, I felt real bad when I saw Hal slug him,’ said Metcalfe seriously. ‘I knew who he was, you see, and I knew he could make a stink. I didn’t want anything like that. I wanted Hal to get on with casting the keel and get out of Italy. I couldn’t afford to have the police rooting round.’

‘That’s why you tried to hold Torloni, too,’ I said.

He rubbed his chin. ‘That was my mistake,’ he admitted. ‘I thought I could use Torloni without him knowing it. But he’s a bad bastard and when he got hold of that cigarette case the whole thing blew up in my face. I just wanted Torloni to keep an eye on you, but that damn’ fool, Walker, had to go and give the game away. There was no holding Torloni then.’

‘So you warned us.’

He spread his hands. ‘What else could I do for a pal?’

‘Pal nothing. You wanted the gold out.’

He grinned. ‘Well, what the hell; you got away, didn’t you?’

I had bitter thoughts of Metcalfe as the puppet master; he had manipulated all of us and we had danced to his tune. Not quite — one of his puppets had a broken string; if Walker had defeated us, he had also defeated Metcalfe.

I said, ‘If you hadn’t been so obvious about Torloni the keel wouldn’t have broken. We had to cast it in a bloody hurry when he started putting the pressure on.’

‘Yes,’ said Metcalfe. ‘And all those damned partisans didn’t help, either.’ He stood up. ‘Well, I’ve still got to run this boat.’ He hesitated, then put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a cigarette case. ‘You might like this as a souvenir — Torloni mislaid it. There’s something interesting inside.’ He tossed it on the table and left the saloon.

I looked at Francesca and Coertze, then slowly put out my hand and picked it up. It had the heavy familiar feel of gold, but I felt no sudden twist to my guts as I had when Walker had put the gold Hercules into my hand. I was sick of the sight of gold.

I opened the case and found a letter inside, folded in two. It was addressed to me, care of the yacht Sanford, Tangier Harbour, and had been opened. I started to read it and began to laugh uncontrollably.

Francesca and Coertze looked at me in astonishment. I tried to control my laughter but it kept bursting out hysterically. ‘We’ve... we’ve won... won a sweep... a lottery,’ I gasped, and passed the letter to Francesca, who also started to laugh.

Coertze said blankly, ‘What lottery?’

I said, ‘Don’t you remember? You insisted on buying a lottery ticket in Tangier — you said it was for insurance. It won!’

He started to smile. ‘How much?’

‘Six hundred thousand pesetas.’

‘What’s that in money?’

I wiped my eyes. ‘A little over six thousand pounds. It won’t cover expenses — what I’ve spent on this jaunt — but it’ll help.’

Coertze looked sheepish. ‘How much did you spend?’

I began to figure it out. I had lost Sanford — she had been worth about £12,000. I had covered all our expenses for nearly a year, and they had been high because we were supposed to be wealthy tourists; there had been the exorbitant rental of the Casa Saeta in Tangier; there was the outfitting and provisioning of the boat.

I said, ‘It must run to about seventeen or eighteen thousand.’

His eyes twinkled and he put his hand to his fob pocket. ‘Will these help?’ he asked; and rolled four large diamonds on to the table.

‘Well, I’m damned,’ I said. ‘Where did you get those?’

‘They seemed to stick to my fingers in the tunnel.’ He chuckled. ‘Just like that machine pistol stuck to yours.’

Francesca started to giggle and put her hands to her breast. She produced a little wash-leather bag which was slung on a cord round her neck and emptied it. Two more diamonds joined those on the table and there were also four emeralds.

I looked at both of them and said, ‘You damned thieves; you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. The jewels were supposed to stay in Italy.’

I grinned and produced my five diamonds and we all sat there laughing like maniacs.

Later, when we had put the gems away safe from the prying eyes of Metcalfe, we went on deck and watched the hills of Spain emerge mistily from over the horizon. I put my arm round Francesca and said wryly, ‘Well, I’ve still got a half-share in a boatyard in Cape Town. Will you mind being a boat-builder’s wife?’

She squeezed my hand. ‘I think I’ll like South Africa.’

I took the cigarette case from my pocket and opened it with one hand. The inscription was there and I read it for the first time — ‘ Caro Benito da parte di Adolf — Brennero —1940.’

I said, ‘This is a pretty dangerous thing to have around. Some other Torloni might see it.’

She shivered and said, ‘Get rid of it, Hal; please throw it away.’

So I tossed it over the side and there was just one glint of gold in the green water and then it was gone for ever.