He smiled. I never thought about selling the gold legally; I didnt think you could. I thought the governments had got all that tied up. Maybe I should have met you sooner.
It wouldnt have done you any good, I said. I hadnt the brains then that I have now.
He laughed and we proceeded to kill the bottle.
II
Coertze came down to Cape Town two weeks later. I met him at the airport and drove him directly to the yard, where Walker was waiting.
Walker seemed to shrink into himself when I told him that Coertze was visiting us. In spite of his braggart boasts, I could see he didnt relish close contact. If half of what he had said about Coertze was true, then he had every reason to be afraid.
Come to think of it so had I!
It must have been the first time that Coertze had been in a boatyard and he looked about him with keen interest and asked a lot of questions, nearly all of them sensible. At last, he said, Well, what about it?
I took them down to the middle slip where Jimmy Murphys Estralita was waiting to be drawn up for an overhaul. Thats a sailing yacht, I said. A 15-tonner. What would you say her draft it I mean, how deep is she in the water?
Coertze looked her over and then looked up at the tall mast. Shell need to be deep to counterbalance that lot, he said. But I dont know how much. I dont know anything about boats.
Considering he didnt know anything about boats, it was a very sensible answer.
Her draft is six feet in normal trim, I said. Shes drawing less now because a lot of gear has been taken out of her.
His eyes narrowed. Id have thought it would be more than that, he said. What happens when the wind blows hard on the sails? Wont she tip over?
This was going well and Coertze was on the ball. I said, I have a boat like this just being built, another 15-tonner. Come and have a look at her.
I led the way up to the shed where Sanford was being built and Coertze followed, apparently content that I was leading up to a point. Walker tagged on behind.
I had pressed to get Sanford completed and she was ready for launching as soon as the glass-fibre sheathing was applied and the interior finished.
Coertze looked up at her. They look bloody big out of the water, he commented.
I smiled. That was the usual lay reaction. Come aboard, I said.
He was impressed by the spaciousness he found below and commented favourably on the way things were arranged. Did you design all this? he asked.
I nodded.
You could live in here, all right, he said, inspecting the galley.
You could and you will, I said. This is the boat in which were going to take four tons of gold out of Italy.
He looked surprised and then he frowned. Where are you going to put it?
I said, Sit down and Ill tell you something about sailing boats you dont know. Coertze sat uncomfortably on the edge of the starboard settee which had no mattress as yet, and waited for me to explain myself.
This boat displaces weighs, that is ten tons, and
Walker broke in. I thought you said she was a 15-tonner.
Thats Thames measure yacht measure. Her displacement is different.
Coertze looked at Walker. Shut up and let the man speak. He turned to me. If the boat weighs ten tons and you add another four tons, shell be pretty near sinking, wont she? And where are you going to put it? It cant be out in the open where the cops can see it.
I said patiently, I said Id tell you something about sailing boats that you didnt know. Now, listen about forty per cent of the weight of any sailing boat is ballast to keep her the right way up when the wind starts to press on those sails.
I tapped the cabin sole with my foot. Hanging on the bottom of this boat is a bloody great piece of lead weighing precisely four tons.
Coertze looked at me incredulously, a dawning surmise in his eyes. I said, Come on, Ill show you.
We went outside and I showed them the lead ballast keel. I said, All this will be covered up next week because the boat will be sheathed to keep out the marine borers.
Coertze was squatting on his heels looking at the keel. This is it, he said slowly. This is it. The gold will be hidden under water built in as part of the boat. He began to laugh, and after a while Walker joined in. I began to laugh, too, and the walls of the shed resounded.
Coertze sobered suddenly. Whats the melting point of lead? he asked abruptly.
I knew what was coming. Four-fifty degrees centigrade, I said. Weve got a little foundry at the top of the yard where we pour the keels.
Ja, he said heavily. You can melt lead on a kitchen stove. But gold melts at over a thousand centigrade and well need more than a kitchen stove for that. I know; melting gold is my job. Up at the smelting plant weve got bloody big furnaces.
I said quickly, Ive thought of that one, too. Come up to the workshop Ill show you something else youve never seen before.
In the workshop I opened a cupboard and said, This gadget is brand new just been invented. I hauled out the contraption and put it on the bench. Coertze looked at it uncomprehendingly.
There wasnt much to see; just a metal box, eighteen inches by fifteen inches by nine inches, on the top of which was an asbestos mat and a Heath Robinson arrangement of clamps.
I said, Youve heard of instant coffee this is instant heat. I began to get the machine ready for operation. It needs cooling water at at least five pounds an inch pressure that we get from an ordinary tap. It works on ordinary electric current, too, so you can set it up anywhere.
I took the heart of the machine from a drawer. Again, it wasnt much to look at; just a piece of black cloth, three inches by four. I said, Some joker in the States discovered how to spin and weave threads of pure graphite, and someone else discovered this application.
I lifted the handle on top of the machine, inserted the graphite mat, and clamped it tight. Then I took a bit of metal and gave it to Coertze.
He turned it in his fingers and said, What is it?
Just a piece of ordinary mild steel. But if this gadget can melt steel, it can melt gold. Right?
He nodded and looked at the machine dubiously it wasnt very impressive.
I took the steel from his fingers and dropped it on to the graphite mat, then I gave Walker and Coertze a pair of welders goggles each. Better put these on: it gets a bit bright.
We donned the goggles and I switched on the machine. It was a spectacular display. The graphite mat flashed instantly to a white heat and the piece of steel glowed red, then yellow and finally white. It seemed to slump like a bit of melting wax and in less than fifteen seconds it had melted into a little pool. All this to the accompaniment of a violent shower of sparks as the metal reacted with the air.
I switched off the machine and removed my goggles. We wont have all these fireworks when we melt gold; it doesnt oxidize as easily as iron.
Coertze was staring at the machine. How does it do that?
Something like a carbon arc, I said. You can get temperatures up to five thousand degrees centigrade. Its only intended to be a laboratory instrument, but I reckon we can melt two pounds of gold at a time. With three of these gadgets and a hell of a lot of spare mats we should be able to work pretty fast.
He said doubtfully, If we can only pour a couple of pounds at a time, the keel is going to be so full of cracks and flaws that Im not sure it wont break under its own weight.
Ive thought of that one, too, I said calmly. Have you ever watched anyone pour reinforced concrete?
He frowned and then caught on, snapping his fingers.
We make the mould and put a mesh of wires inside, I said. Thatll hold it together.
I showed him a model I had made, using fuse wire and candle wax, which he examined carefully. Youve done a hell of a lot of thinking about this, he said at last.
Somebody has to, I said. Or that gold will stay where it is for another fourteen years.
He didnt like that because it made him appear stupid; but there wasnt anything he could do about it. He started to say something and bit it short, his face flushing red. Then he took a deep breath and said, All right, youve convinced me. Im in.
Then I took a deep breath of relief.
III
That night we had a conference.
I said, This is the drill. Sanford my yacht will be ready for trials next week. As soon as the trials are over you two are going to learn how to sail under my instruction. In under four months from now we sail for Tangier.
Christ! said Walker. I dont know that I like the sound of that.
Theres nothing to it, I said. Hundreds of people are buzzing about the Atlantic these days. Hell, people have gone round the world in boats a quarter the size.
I looked at Coertze. This is going to take a bit of financing. Got any money?
About a thousand, he admitted.
That gets tossed into the kitty, I said. Along with my twenty-five thousand.
Magtig, he said. Thats a hell of a lot of money.
Well need every penny of it, I said. We might have to buy a small boatyard in Italy if thats the only way we can cast the keel in secrecy. Besides, Im lending it to the firm of Walker, Coertze and Halloran at one hundred per cent interest. I want fifty thousand back before the three-way split begins. You can do the same with your thousand.
That sounds fair enough, agreed Coertze.
I said, Walker hasnt any money and once youve thrown your thousand in the kitty, neither have you. So Im putting you both on my payroll. Youve got to have your smokes and three squares a day while all this is going on.
This bit of information perked Walker up considerably. Coertze merely nodded in confirmation. I looked hard at Walker. And you stay off the booze or we drop you over the side. Dont forget that.
He nodded sullenly.
Coertze said, Why are we going to Tangier first?
Weve got to make arrangements to remelt the gold into standard bars, I said. I cant imagine any banker calmly taking a golden keel into stock. Anyway, thats for the future; right now I have to turn you into passable seamen weve got to get to the Mediterranean first.
I took Sanford on trials and Walker and Coertze came along for the ride and to see what they were letting themselves in for. She turned out to be everything Ive ever wanted in a boat. She was fast for a deep-sea cruiser and not too tender. With a little sail adjustment she had just the right amount of helm and I could see she was going to be all right without any drastic changes.
As we went into a long reach she picked up speed and went along happily with the water burbling along the lee rail and splashing on deck. Walker, his face a little green, said, I thought you said a keel would hold this thing upright. He was hanging tightly on to the side of the cockpit.
I laughed. I was happier than I had been for a long time. Dont worry about that. Thats not much angle of heel. She wont capsize.
Coertze didnt say anything he was busy being sick.
The next three months were rough and tough. People forget that the Cape was the Cape of Storms before some early public relations officer changed the name to the Cape of Good Hope. When the Berg Wind blows it can be as uncomfortable at sea as anywhere in the world.
I drove Walker and Coertze unmercifully. In three months I had to turn them into capable seamen, because Sanford was a bit too big to sail single-handed. I hoped that the two of them would equal one able-bodied seaman. It wasnt as bad as it sounds because in those three months they put in as much sea time as the average week-end yachtsman gets in three years, and they had the dubious advantage of having a pitiless instructor.
Shore time was spent in learning the theory of sail and the elements of marline-spike seamanship how to knot and splice, mend a sail and make baggywrinkle. They grumbled a little at the theory, but I silenced that by asking them what theyd do if I was washed overboard in the middle of the Atlantic.
Then we went out to practise what I had taught at first in the bay and then in the open sea, cruising coastwise around the peninsula at first, and then for longer distances well out of sight of land.
I had thought that Coertze would prove to be as tough at sea as apparently he was on land. But he was no sailor and never would be. He had a queasy stomach and couldnt stand the motion, so he turned out to be pretty useless at boat handling. But he was hero enough to be our cook on the longer voyages, a thankless job for a sea-sick man.
I would hear him swearing below when the weather was rough and a pot of hot coffee was tossed in his lap. He once told me that he now knew what poker dice felt like when they were shaken in the cup. He wouldnt have stood it for any lesser reason, but the lust for gold was strong in him.
Walker was the real surprise. Coertze and I had weaned him from his liquor over many protests, and he was now eating more and the air and exercise agreed with him. He put on weight, his thin cheeks filled out and his chest broadened. Nothing could replace the hair he had lost, but he seemed a lot more like the handsome young man I had known ten years earlier.
More surprisingly, he turned out to be a natural sailor. He liked Sanford and she seemed to like him. He was a good helmsman and could lay her closer to the wind than I could when we were beating to windward. At first I was hesitant to give him a free hand with Sanford, but as he proved himself I lost my reluctance.
At last we were ready and there was nothing more to wait for. We provisioned Sanford and set sail for the north on November 12, to spend Christmas at sea. Ahead of us was a waste of water with the beckoning lure of four tons of gold at the other side.
I suppose one could have called it a pleasure cruise!
BOOK TWO The Gold