I said, Well, I suggest we go back to Mr Theotopopouliss office and settle the details. Its getting late and I have to do some work on the boat.
To Coertze, I said, Theres no need for you to come. Well meet you for lunch at the restaurant we went to last night.
I had watched his blood pressure rising at Walkers fooleries and I wanted him out of the way in case he exploded. Its damned difficult working with people, especially antagonistic types like Walker and Coertze.
We went back to Aristides 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 youve 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.
Um, said Walker. You know, its a funny thing, but Ive lived all my life in South Africa where they mine scads of gold, and Ive never seen any. You cant buy gold in South Africa, you know.
Aristide raised his eyebrows as though this was unheard of.
Ive 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 Ive never seen a gold bar, he said pathetically. Ive got a lot of money, you know. Most people say Ive 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. Its 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 pretentions 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. Ill 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 more 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 the 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 Aristides 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 dont know. Im on this cruise with Hal here, and Im taking care of my needs with a letter of credit that was issued in South Africa. Ive already cashed in a lot of boodle at one of the other banks here I didnt realize I would have the good fortune to meet a friendly banker. He grinned engagingly.
Were not going to stay here long, he said. Well be pushing off in a couple of weeks, but Ill be back; yes, Ill be back. When will we be back, Hal?
I said, Were going to Spain and Italy, and then to Greece. I dont think well push on as far as Turkey or the Lebanon, although we might. I should say well be back here in three or four months.
You see, said Walker. Thats when Ill move into the house properly. Casa Saeta, he said dreamily. That sounds fine.
We took our leave of Aristide, and when we got outside, I said furiously, What made you do a stupid thing like that?
Like what? asked Walker innocently.
You know very well what I mean. We agreed not to mention gold.
Weve got to say something about it sometime, he said. We cant sell gold to anyone with saying anything about it. I just thought it was a good time to find out something about it, to test Aristides attitude towards gold of unknown origin. I thought I worked up to it rather well.
Like what? asked Walker innocently.
You know very well what I mean. We agreed not to mention gold.
Weve got to say something about it sometime, he said. We cant sell gold to anyone with saying anything about it. I just thought it was a good time to find out something about it, to test Aristides attitude towards gold of unknown origin. I thought I worked up to it rather well.
I had to give him credit for that. I said, And another thing: lets have less of the silly ass routine. You nearly gave me a fit when you started to pull Aristides leg about the ghosts. There are more important things at stake than fooling about.
I know, he said soberly. I realized that when we were in the vault. I had forgotten what gold felt like.
So it had hit him too. I calmed down and said, O.K. But dont forget it. And for Gods sake dont act the fool in front of Coertze. I have enough trouble keeping the peace as it is.
IV
When we met Coertze for lunch, I said, We saw a hell of a lot of gold this morning.
He straightened. Where?
Walker said, In a bloody big safe at Aristides bank.
I thought Coertze began.
No harm done, I said. It went very smoothly. We saw a lot of ingots. There are two standard sizes readily acceptable here in Tangier. One is 400 ounces, the other is one kilogram. Coertze frowned, and I said, Thats nearly two and a quarter pounds.
He grunted and drank his Scotch. I said, Walker and I have been discussing this and we think that Aristide will buy the gold under the counter, even after the gold market closes but well probably have to approach him before that so he can make his arrangements.
I think we should do it now, said Walker.
I shook my head. No! Aristide is a friend of Metcalfe; thats too much like asking a tiger to come to dinner. We mustnt tell him until we come back and then well have to take the chance.
Walker was silent so I went on. The point is that its unlikely that Aristide will relish taking a four-ton lump of gold into stock, so well probably have to melt the keel down into ingots, anyway. In all probability Aristide will fiddle his stock sheets somehow so that he can account for the four extra tons, but it means that he must be told before the gold market closes which means that we must be back before April 19.
Coertze said, Not much time.
I said, Ive worked out all the probable times for each stage of the operation and we have a month in hand. But therell be snags and well need all of that. But that isnt whats worrying me now Ive got other things on my mind.
Such as?
Look. When and if we get the gold here and we start to melt it down, were going to have a hell of a lot of ingots lying around. I dont want to dribble them to Aristide as theyre cast thats bad policy, too much chance of an outsider catching on. I want to let him have the lot all at once, get paid with a cast-iron draft on a Swiss bank and then clear out. But it does mean that well have a hell of a lot of ingots lying around loose in the Casa Saeta and thats bad.
I sighed. Where do we keep the damn things? Stacked up in the living room? And how many of these goddammed ingots will there be? I added irritably.
Walker looked at Coertze. You said there was about four tons, didnt you?
Ja, said Coertze. But that was only an estimate.
I said, Youve worked with bullion since. How close is that estimate?
He thought about it, sending his mind back fifteen years and comparing what he saw then with what he had learned since. The human mind is a marvellous machine. At last he said slowly, I think it is a close estimate, very close.
All right, I said. So its four tons. Thats 9000 pounds as near as dammit. Theres sixteen ounces to the pound and
No, said Coertze suddenly. Gold is measured in troy ounces. Theres 14.58333 recurring ounces troy to the English pound.
He had the figures so pat that I was certain he knew what he was talking about. After all, it was his job. I said, Lets not go into complications; lets call it fourteen and a half ounces to the pound. Thats good enough.
I started to calculate, making many mistakes although it should have been a simple calculation. The mathematics of yacht design dont have the same emotional impact.
At last I had it. As near as I can make out, in round figures well have about 330 bars of 400 ounces each.
Whats that at five thousand quid a bar? asked Walker.
I scribbled on the paper again and looked at the answer unbelievingly. It was the first time I had worked this out in terms of money. Up to this time I had been too busy to think about it, and four tons of gold seemed to be a good round figure to hold in ones mind.
I said hesitantly, I work it out as £1,650,000!
Coertze nodded in satisfaction. That is the figure I got. And theres the jewels on top of that.
I had my own ideas about the jewels. Aristide had been right when he said that gold is anonymous but jewels arent. Jewels have a personality of their own and can be traced too easily. If I had my way the jewels would stay in the tunnel. But that I had to lead up to easily.
Walker said, Thats over half a million each.
I said, Call it half a million each, net. The odd £150,000 can go to expenses. By the time this is through well have spent more than weve put in the kitty.
I returned to the point at issue. All right, we have 330 bars of gold. What do we do with them?
Walker said meditatively, Theres a cellar in the house.
Thats a start, anyway.
He said, You know the fantastic thought I had in that vault? I thought it looked just like a builders yard with a lot of bricks lying all over the place. Why couldnt we build a wall in the cellar?
I looked at Coertze and he looked at me, and we both burst out laughing.
Whats funny about that? asked Walker plaintively.
Nothing, I said, still spluttering. Its perfect, thats all.
Coertze said, grinning, Im a fine bricklayer when the rates of pay are good.
A voice started to bleat in my ear and I turned round. It was an itinerant lottery-ticket seller poking a sheaf of tickets at me. I waved him away, but Coertze, in a good mood for once, said tolerantly, No, man, lets have one. No harm in taking out insurance.
The ticket was a hundred pesetas, so we scraped it together from the change lying on the table, and then we went back to the flat.
V
The next day we started work in earnest. I stayed with Sanford, getting her ready for sea by dint of much bullying of the chandler and the sailmaker. By the end of the week I was satisfied that she was ready and was able to leave for anywhere in the world.
Coertze and Walker worked up at the house, rehabilitating the boat-shed and the slip and supervising the local labour they had found through Metcalfes kind offices. Coertze said, You have no trouble if you treat these wogs just the same as the Kaffirs back home. I wasnt so sure of that, but everything seemed to go all right.