The Golden Keel / The Vivero Letter. Desmond Bagley

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СКАЧАТЬ walk the hills at night. It will be safe to have lights if they cannot be seen from the village.’

      Coertze said, ‘No lights can be seen from the village.’

      ‘All the same, we must have a cover,’ I said. ‘If we have to hang around in the vicinity for at least one day then we must have a sound reason. Has anyone got any ideas?’

      There was a silence and suddenly Walker spoke for the first time. ‘What about a car and a caravan? The English are noted for that kind of thing – camping and so on. The Italians don’t even have a word for it, they use the English word. If we camp out for a couple of nights we’ll be only another English crowd as far as the peasants are concerned.’

      We all thought about that and it seemed a good idea. The Contessa said, ‘I can arrange for the car and the caravan and a tent.’

      I started to tick off all the things we would need. ‘We want lights.’

      ‘We use the headlights of the car,’ said Coertze.

      ‘That’s for outside,’ I said. ‘We’ll need lights for inside. We’ll need torches – say a dozen – and lots of torch cells.’ I nodded to Morese. ‘You get those. We need picks and shovels, say four of each. We’ll need lorries. How many to do the job in one haul?’

      ‘Two three-tonners,’ said Coertze with certainty. ‘The Germans had four, but they were carrying a lot of stuff we won’t want.’

      ‘We’ll have to have those standing by with the drivers,’ I said. ‘Then we’ll need a lot of timber to make crates. The gold will need re-boxing.’

      ‘Why do that when it’s already in boxes?’ objected Coertze. ‘It’s just a lot of extra work.’

      ‘Think back,’ I said patiently. ‘Think back to the first time you saw those boxes in the German truck. You recognized them as bullion boxes. We don’t want any snooper doing the same on the way back.’

      Walker said, ‘You don’t have to take the gold out, and it wouldn’t need much timber. Just nail thin pieces of wood on the outside of the bullion boxes to change their shape and make them look different.’

      Walker was a real idea machine when he wasn’t on the drink. He said, ‘There must be plenty of timber down there we can use.’

      ‘No,’ I said. ‘We use new wood. I don’t want anything that looks or even smells as though it’s come from a hole in the ground. Besides, there might be a mark on the wood we could miss which would give the game away.’

      ‘You don’t take any chances, do you?’ observed the Contessa.

      ‘I’m not a gambler,’ I said shortly. ‘The timber can go up in the trucks,’ I looked at Morese.

      ‘I will get it,’ he said.

      ‘Don’t forget hammers and nails,’ I said. I was trying to think of everything. If we slipped up on this job it would be because of some insignificant item which nobody had thought important.

      There was a low, repeated whistle from the dockside. Morese looked at the Contessa and she nodded almost imperceptibly. He got up and went on deck.

      I said to Coertze, ‘Is there anything else we ought to know – anything you’ve forgotten or left out?’

      ‘No,’ he said. ‘That’s all.’

      Morese came back and said to the Contessa, ‘He wants to talk to you.’

      She rose and left the cabin and Morese followed her on deck. Through the open port I could hear a low-voiced conversation.

      ‘I don’t trust them,’ said Coertze violently. ‘I don’t trust that bitch and I don’t trust Morese. He’s a bad bastard; he was a bad bastard in the war. He didn’t take any prisoners – according to him they were all shot while escaping.’

      ‘So were yours,’ I said, ‘when you took the gold.’

      He bridled. ‘That was different; they were escaping.’

      ‘Very conveniently,’ I said acidly. It galled me that this man, whom I had good reason to suspect of murdering at least four others, should be so mealy-mouthed.

      He brooded a little, then said, ‘What’s to stop them taking it all from us when we’ve got it out? What’s to stop them shooting us and leaving us in the tunnel when they seal it up again?’

      ‘Nothing that you’d understand,’ I said. ‘Just the feeling of a girl for her father and her family.’ I didn’t elaborate on that; I wasn’t certain myself that it was a valid argument.

      The Contessa and Morese came back. She said, ‘Two of Torloni’s men are in Rapallo. They were asking the Port Captain about you not ten minutes ago.’

      I said, ‘Don’t tell me that the Port Captain is one of your friends.’

      ‘No, but the Chief Customs Officer is. He recognized them immediately. One of them he had put in jail three years ago for smuggling heroin; the other he has been trying to catch for a long time. Both of them work for Torloni, he says.’

      ‘Well, we couldn’t hope to hide from them indefinitely,’ I said. ‘But they mustn’t connect you with us – not yet, anyway – so you’ll have to wait until it’s dark before you leave.’

      She said, ‘I am having them watched.’

      ‘That’s fine, but it’s not enough,’ I said. ‘I want to do to Metcalfe what he’s been doing to us. I want Torloni watched in Genoa; I want the docks watched all along this coast for Metcalfe’s boat. I want to know when he comes to Italy.’ I gave her a detailed description of Metcalfe, of Krupke and the Fairmile. ‘Can you do all that?’

      ‘Of course. You will know all about this Metcalfe as soon as he sets foot in Italy.’

      ‘Good,’ he said. ‘Then what about a drink?’ I looked at Coertze. ‘It seems you didn’t scare Metcalfe off, after all.’ He looked back at me with an expressionless face, and I laughed. ‘Don’t look so glum. Get out the bottle and cheer up.’

      V

      We didn’t see the Contessa or Morese after that. They stayed out of sight, but next morning I found a note in the cockpit telling me to go to the Three Fishes and say that I wanted a watchman for Sanford.

      I went, of course, and Giuseppi was more friendly than when I had last seen him. He served me personally and, as he put down the plate, I said, ‘You ought to know what goes on on the waterfront. Can you recommend a watchman for my boat? He must be honest.’

      ‘Ah, yes, signor,’ he said. ‘I have the very man – old Luigi there. It’s a pity; he was wounded during the war and since then he has been able to undertake only light work. At present he is unemployed.’

      ‘Send him over when I have finished breakfast,’ I said.

      Thus it was that we СКАЧАТЬ