Bagley, Desmond - The Golden Keel Read online

  "Oh, that Metcalfe," said Walker, impressed.

  Coertze said, "He doesn't look much to me. He won't be any trouble."

  "It's not Metcalfe alone," I said. "He's got an organisation and he's on his own territory. Let's face it; he's a professional and we're amateurs. Steer clear of Metcalfe."

  I felt like adding "and that's an order," but I didn't. Coertze might have taken me up on it and I didn't want to force a showdown with him yet. It would come of its own accord soon enough.

  So for a day and a half we were tourists in Tangier, rubbernecking our way about the town. If we hadn't had so much on our minds it might have been interesting, but as it was, it was a waste of time.

  Luckily, Metcalfe was preoccupied by his own mysterious business and we saw little of him. However, I did instruct Walker to ask one crucial question before Metcalfe left.

  Over breakfast, he said, "You know -- I like Tangier. It might be nice to stay here for a few months. Is the climate always like this?"

  "Most of the time," answered Metcalfe. "It's a good, equable climate. There's lots of people retire here, you know."

  Walker smiled. "Oh, I'm not thinking of retiring. I've nothing to retire from." He was proving to be a better actor than I had expected -- that touch was perfect. He said, "No, what I thought was that I might like to buy a house here. Somewhere I could live a part of the year."

  "I should have thought the Med. would be your best .bet," said Metcalfe. "The Riviera, or somewhere like that."

  "I don't know," said Walker. "This seems to be as good a place as any, and the Riviera is so crowded these days." He paused as though struck by a sudden thought. "I'd want a boat, of course. Could you design one for me? I'd have it built in England."

  "Sure I could," I said. "All you have to do is pay me enough."

  "Yes," said Walker. "You can't do without the old boat, can you?"

  He was laying it on a bit too thick and I could see that Metcalfe was regarding him with amused contempt, so I said quickly, "He's a damned good sailor. He nearly ran off with the Cape Dinghy Championship last year."

  That drew Metcalfe as I knew it would. "Oh," he said with more respect, and for a few minutes he and Walker talked boats. At last Walker came out with it. "You know, what would be really perfect would be a house on the coast somewhere with its own anchorage and boat-shed. Everything self-contained, as it were."

  "Thinking of joining us?" asked Metcalfe with a grin.

  "Oh, no," said Walker, horrified. "I wouldn't have the nerve. I've got enough money, and besides, I don't like your smelly Fairmiles with their stinking diesel oil. No, I was thinking about a red boat, a sailing boat."

  He turned to me. "You know, the more I think about it the better I like it. You could design a 10-tonner for me, something I could handle myself, and this place is a perfect jumping-off place for the Caribbean. A transatlantic crossing might be fun."

  He confided in Metcalfe. "You know, these ocean-crossing johnnies are all very well, but most of them are broke and they have to live on their boats. Why should I do that? Think how much better it would be if I had a house here with a boat-shed at the bottom of the garden, as it were, where I could tune the boat for the trip instead of lying in that stinking harbour."

  It was a damned good idea if you were a wealthy playboy with a yen to do a single-handed Atlantic crossing. I gave Walker full credit for his inventive powers.

  Metcalfe didn't find it unreasonable, either. He said, "Not a bad idea if you can afford it. I tell you what; go and see Aristide, a friend of mine. He'll try to rent you a flat, he's got dozens empty, but tell him that I sent you and he'll be more reasonable." He scribbled an address on a piece of paper and handed it to Walker.

  "Oh, thanks awfully," said Walker. "It's really very kind of you."

  Metcalfe finished his coffee. "I've got to go now; see you to-night before I leave."

  When he had gone Coertze, who had sat through all this with no expression at all on his face, said, "I've been thinking about the go . . ."

  I kicked his ankle and jerked my head at the Moroccan servant who had just come into the room." Tula," I said. "Moenie hier praat nie." Then in English, "Let's go out and have a look round."

  We left the flat and sat at a table of a nearby cafe. I said to Coertze, "We don't know if Metcalfe's servants speak English or not, but I'm taking no chances. Now, what did you want to say?"

  He said, "I've been thinking about bringing the gold in here. How are we going to do it? You said yesterday that bullion has to be declared at Customs. We can't come in and say,' Listen, man; I've got a golden keel on this boat and I think it weights about four tons.'"

  "I've been thinking about that myself," I said. "It looks as though we'll have to smuggle it in, recast it into standard bars, smuggle it out again a few bars at a time, then bring the bars in openly and declare them at Customs."

  "That's going to take time," objected Coertze. "We haven't got the time."

  I sighed. "All right; let's take a good look at this time factor. To-day is 12th January and Tangier shuts up shop as far as gold is concerned on 19th April -- that's -- let me see, er -- ninety-seven days -- say fourteen weeks,"

  I began to calculate and to allocate the time. It would be a week before we left Tangier and another fortnight to get to Italy. That meant another fortnight coming back, too, and I would like a week spare in case of bad weather. That disposed of six weeks. Two weeks for making preparations and for getting the gold out, and three weeks for casting the keel -- eleven weeks altogether, leaving a margin of three weeks. We were cutting it fine.

  I said, "We'll have to see what the score is when we get back here with the gold. Surely to God someone will buy it, even if it is in one lump. But we don't say anything until we've 'feat it."

  I began to have visions of sailing back to Egypt or even India like some sort of modern Flying Dutchman condemned to sail the seas in a million pound yacht.

  Walker did not go much for these planning sessions. He was content to leave that to Coertze and me. He had been sitting listening with half an ear, studying the address which Metcalfe had given him.

  Suddenly he said, "I thought old Aristide would have been an estate agent, but he's not." He read the address from the slip of paper. "' Aristide Theotopopoulis, Tangier Mercantile Bank, Boulevard Pasteur." Maybe we could ask him something about it."

  "Not a chance," I said derisively. "He's a friend of Metcalfe." I looked at Walker. "And another thing," I said. "You did very well with Metcalfe this morning, but for God's sake, don't put on that phoney Oxford accent, and less of that' thanks awfully' stuff. Metcalfe's a hard man to fool; besides, he's been to South Africa and knows the score. You'd have done better to put on a Malmesbury accent, but it's too late to change now. But tone it down a bit, will you?"

  Walker grinned and said, "O.K., old chappie."

  I said, "Now we'll go and see Aristide Theoto-whatever-it-is. It wouldn't be a bad idea if we hired a car, too. It'll help us get around and it adds to the cover. We are supposed to be rich tourists, you know."

  III

  Aristide Theotopopoulis was a round man. His girth was roughly equal to his height, and as he sat down he creased in the middle like a half-inflated football bladder. Rolls of fat flowed over his collar from his jowls and the back of his neck. Even his hands were round -- pudgy balls of fat with the glint of gold shining from deeply embedded rings.

  "Ah, yes, Mr. Walker; you want a house," he said. "I received a phone call from Mr. Metcalfe this morning. I believe I have the very thing." His English was fluent and colloquial.

  "You mean you have such a house?" inquired Walker.

  "Of course! Why do you s uppose Mr. Metcalfe sent you to me? He knows the Casa Saeta." He paused. "You don't mind if it's an old house?" he asked anxiously.

  "Not at all," replied Walker easily. "I can afford any alterations provided the house suits me." He caught my eye, then said, hastily, "But I would like to suggest that I rent it fo
r six months with an option to buy."

  Aristide's face lengthened from a circle to an ellipse. "Very well, if that is what you wish," he said dubiously.

  He took us up the north coast in a Cadillac with Coertze following in our hired car. The house looked like something from a Charles Addams' cartoon and I expected to see Boris Karloff peering from a window. There was no Moorish influence at all; it was the most hideous Victorian Gothic in the worst possible taste. But that didn't matter if it could give us what we wanted.

  We went into the house and looked cursorily over the worm-eaten panelling and viewed the lack of sanitation. The kitchen was primitive and there was a shaggy garden at the back of the house. Beyond was the sea and we looked over a low cliff to the beach.

  It was perfect. There was a boat-house big enough to take Sanford once we unstepped the mast, and there was a crude slip badly in need of repair. There was even a lean-to shed where we could set up our foundry.

  I looked at everything, estimating how long it would take to put in order, then I took Coertze on one side while Aristide extolled the beauties of the house to Walker.

  "What do you think?" I asked.

  "Man, I think we should take it. There 'can't be another place like this in the whole of North Africa."

  ." That's just what I was thinking," I said. "I hope we car. find something like this in Italy. We can get local people to fix up the slip, and with a bit of push we should be finished in a week. We'll have to do some token work on the house, but the bulk of the money must go on essentials -- there'll be time to make the house livable when we come back. I'll tip Walker off about that; he's good at thinking up wacky reasons for doing the damnedest things."

  c We drifted back to Walker and Aristide who were still going at it hammer and tongs, and I gave Walker an imperceptible nod. He smiled dazzingly at Aristide, and said, "It's no use, Mr. Theotopopoulis, you can't talk me out of taking this house. I'm determined to have it at once -- on a six months' rental, of course."

  Aristide, who hadn't any intention of talking anyone out of anything, was taken aback, but making a game recovery, said, "You understand, Mr. Walker, I can give no guarantees . . ." His voice tailed off, giving the impression that he was doing Walker a favour.

  "That's all right, old man," said Walker gaily. "But I must have a six months' option on the house, too. Remember that."

  "I think that can be arranged," said Aristide with spurious dubiety.

  "Won't it be fun, living in this beautiful house?" said Walker to me. I glared at him. That was the trouble with Walker; he got wrapped up in his part too much. My glare went unnoticed because he had turned to Aristide. "The house isn't haunted, or anything like that?" he demanded, as though he equated ghosts with dead rats in the wainscotting.

  "Oh, no," said Aristide hurriedly. "No ghosts."

  "A pity," said Walker negligently. "I've always wanted to live in a haunted house."

  I saw Aristide changing his mind about the ghosts, so I spoke hastily to break up this buffoonery. I had no objection to Aristide thinking he was dealing with a fool, but no one could be as big a damn' fool as Walker was acting and I was afraid that Aristide might smell a rat.

  I said, "Well, I suggest we go back to Mr. Theotopopoulis's office and settle the details. It's getting late and I have to do some work on the boat."

  To Coertze, I said, "There's no need for you to come. We'll meet you for lunch at the restaurant we went to last night."

  I had watched his blood pressure rising at Walker's fooleries and I wanted him out of the way in case he exploded. It's damned difficult working with people, especially antagonistic types like Walker and Coertze.

  We went back to Aristide's office and it all went off very well. He stung us for the house, but I had no objection to that. No one who splashed money around like Walker could be anything but an honest man.

  Then Walker said something that made my blood run cold, although afterwards, on mature consideration, I conceded that he had built up his character so that he could get away with it. He said to Aristide, "Tangier is a funny place. I hear you've got bars of gold scattered about all over the place."

  Aristide smiled genially. He had cut his pound of flesh and was willing to waste a few minutes in small talk; besides, this idiot Walker was going to live in Tangier -- he could be milked a lot more. "Not scattered, exactly," he said. "We keep our gold in very big safes."

  "Urn," said Walker. "You know, it's a funny thing, but I've lived all my life in South Africa where they mine scads of gold, and I've never seen any. You can't buy gold in South Africa, you know."

  Aristide raised his eyebrows as though this was unheard of.

  "I've heard you can buy gold here by the pound like buying butter over the counter. It might be fun to buy some gold. Imagine me with all my money and I've never seen a gold bar," he said pathetically. "I've got a lot of money, you know. Most people say I've got too much."

  Aristide frowned. This was heresy; in his book no one could have too much money. He became very earnest. "Mr. Walker, the best thing anyone can do in these troubled times is to buy gold. It's the only safe investment. The value of gold does not fluctuate like these unstable paper currencies." With a flick of his fingers he stripped the pretensions from the U.S. dollar and the pound sterling. "Gold does not rust or waste away; it is always there, always safe and valuable. If you want to invest, I am always willing to sell gold."

  "Really?" said Walker. "You sell it, just like that?"

  Aristide smiled. "Just like that." His smile turned to a frown. "But if you want to buy, you must buy now, because the open market in Tangier is closing very soon." He shrugged. "You say that you have never seen a bar of gold. "I'll show you bars of gold -- many of them." He turned to me. "You too, Mr. Halloran, if you wish," he said off-handedly. "Please come this way."

  He led us down into the bowels of the building, through grilled doors and to the front of an immense vault. On the way down, two broad-shouldered bodyguards joined us. Aristide opened the vault door, which was over two feet thick, and led us inside.

  There was a lot of gold in that vault. Not four tons of it, but still a lot of gold. It was stacked up neatly in piles of bars of various sizes; it was boxed in the form of coins; it was a hell of a lot of gold.

  Aristide indicated a bar. "This is a Tangier standard bar. It weighs 400 ounces troy -- about twenty-seven and a half pounds avoirdupois. It is worth over five thousand pounds sterling." He picked up a smaller bar. "This is a more convenient size. It weighs a kilo -- just over thirty-two ounces -- and is worth about four hundred pounds.

  He opened a box and let coins run lovingly through his pudgy fingers. "Here are British sovereigns -- and here are American double eagles. These are French napoleons and these are Austrian ducats." He looked at Walker with a gleam in his eye and said, "You see what I mean when I say that gold never loses its value?"

  He opened another box. "Not all gold coins are old. These are made privately by a bank in Tangier -- not mine. This is the Tangier Hercules. It contains exactly one ounce of fine gold."

  He held the coin out on the palm of his hand and let Walker take it. Walker turned it in his fingers and then passed it to me reluctantly.

  It was then that this whole crazy, mad expedition ceased to be just an adventure to me. The heavy, fatty feel of that gold coin turned something in my guts and I understood what people meant when they referred to gold lust. I understood why prospectors would slave in arid, barren lands looking for gold. It is not just the value of the gold that they seek -- it is gold itself. This massive, yellow metal can do something to a man; it is as much a drug as any hell-born narcotic.

  My hand was trembling slightly when I handed the coin back to Aristide.

  He said, tossing it, "This costs mo.re than bullion of course, because the cost of coining must be added. But it is in a much more convenient form." He smiled sardonically. "We Sell a lot to political refugees and South American dictators." When we were back in
his office, Walker said, "You have a lot of gold down there. Where do you get it from?"

  Aristide shrugged. "I buy gold and I sell gold. I make my profit on both transactions. I buy it where I can; I sell it when I can. It is not illegal in Tangier."

  "But it must come from somewhere," persisted Walker. "I mean, suppose one of those pirate chaps, I mean one of the smuggling fellows, came to you with half a ton of gold. Would you buy it?"

  "If the price was right," said Aristide promptly. "Without knowing where it came from?"

  A faint smile came to Aristide's eyes. "There is nothing more anonymous than gold," he said. "Gold has no master; it belongs only temporarily to the man who touches it. Yes I would buy the gold."

  "Even when the gold market closes?"

  Aristide merely shrugged and smiled.

  "Well, now, think of that," said Walker fatuously. "You must get a lot of gold coming into Tangier."

  "I will sell you gold when you want it, Mr. Walker," said Aristide, seating himself behind his desk. "Now, I assume that, since you are coming to live in Tangier, you will want to open a bank account." He was suddenly all businessman.

  Walker glanced at me, then said, "Well, I don't know. I'm on this cruise with Hal here, and I'm taking care of my needs with a letter of credit that was issued in South Africa. I've already cashed in a lot of boodle at one of the other banks ',,. here -- I didn't realise I would have the good fortune to meet '" a friendly banker." He grinned engagingly.

  "We're not going to stay here long," he said. "We'll be pushing off in a couple of weeks, but I'll be back; yes, I'll be back. When will we be back, Hal?"

  I said, "We're going to Spain and Italy, and then to Greece. I don't think we'll push on as far as Turkey or the Lebanon, although we might. I should say we'll be back here in three or four months."

  "You see," said Walker. "That's when I'll move into the house properly. Casa Saeta," he said dreamily. "That sounds fine."