Fallon went very still. What do you know about the Vivero letter?
I know it was stolen from us nearly two years ago and I know that you have it now. She looked across at me. What conclusions would you draw from that, Mr Wheale?
I looked at Fallon speculatively. The chemicals were mixing nicely and maybe theyd brew a little bit of truth. I was all for stirring up the broth. I said, Do you have this letter?
Fallon nodded reluctantly. I do I bought it quite legally in New York, and I have a receipt to prove it. But, hell, these are a fine pair to talk about theft. What about the papers you stole from me in Mexico, Halstead?
Halsteads nostrils pinched in whitely. I stole nothing from you that wasnt mine. And what did you steal from me just my reputation, thats all. There are too many thieving bastards like you in the profession, Fallon; incompetents who build their reputations on the work of others.
Why, you son of a bitch! roared Fallon. You had your say in the journals and no one took any notice of you. Do you think anyone believes that poppycock?
They were facing each other like fighting cocks and in another minute would have been at each others throats had I not yelled at the top of my voice, Quiet! They both turned, and I said in a calmer voice, Sit down both of you. Ive never seen a more disgraceful exhibition by two grown men in my life. Youll behave yourselves in my house or Ill turn the lot of you out and neither of you will ever get to see this bloody tray.
Fallon said sheepishly, Im sorry, Wheale, but this man got my goat. He sat down.
Halstead also seated himself; he glared at Fallon and said nothing. Katherine Halsteads face was white and she had pink spots in her cheeks. She looked at her husband and tightened her lips and, when he maintained his silence, she said, I apologize for our behaviour, Mr Wheale.
I said bluntly, You do your own apologizing, Mrs Halstead; you cant apologize for others not even your husband. I paused, waiting for Halstead to say something, but he maintained a stubborn silence, so I ignored him and turned to Fallon. Im not particularly interested in the ins-and-outs of your professional arguments, although I must say Im surprised at the charges that have been made here this afternoon.
Fallon smiled sourly. I didnt start the mud-throwing.
I dont give a damn about that, I said. You people are incredible. Youre so wrapped up in your tuppenny-hapenny professional concerns that you forget a man has been murdered because of that tray. Two men are already dead, for Gods sake!
Katherine Halstead said, Im sorry if we appear so heartless; it must seem peculiar to you.
By God, it does! Now, listen to me carefully all of you. I seem to have been dealt a high card in this particular game Ive got the tray thats so damned important. But nobody is going to get as much as a sniff at it until Im told the name of the game. Im not going to operate blindfolded. Fallon, what about it?
He stirred impatiently. All right, its a deal. Ill tell you everything you want to know but privately. I dont want Halstead in on it.
Not a chance, I said. Anything you want to tell me, you do it here and now in this room and that applies to you, Halstead, too.
Halstead said in a cold rage, This is monstrous. Am I to give away the results of years of research to this charlatan?
Youll put up or youll shut up. I stuck out a finger. The doors open and you can leave any time you like. Nobody is keeping you here. But if you go, that leaves Fallon with the tray.
Indecision chased over his face and his knuckles whitened as he gripped the arms of the chair. Katherine Halstead took the decision from him. She said firmly, We accept your conditions. We stay. Halstead looked at her with a sudden air of shock, and she said, Its all right, Paul; I know what Im doing.
Fallon what about you?
I guess Im stuck with it, he said, and smiled slowly. Halstead talks about years of research. Well, Ive put in quite a few years myself. It wouldnt surprise me if we both know all there is to know about the problem. Heaven knows, Ive been falling over this pair in every museum in Europe. I doubt if the pooling of information is going to bring up anything new.
I might surprise you, said Halstead sharply. You have no monopoly on brains.
Cut it out, I said coldly. This confessional is going to be run under my rules, and that means no snide comments from anyone. Do I make myself quite clear?
Fallon said, You know, Wheale, when I first met you I didnt think much of you. You surprise me.
I grinned. I surprise myself sometimes. And so I did! Whatever had happened to the grey little man?
THREE
It was an astonishing, incredible and quite preposterous story, and, if I did not have a queer and inexplicable photograph up in the darkroom, I would have rejected it out of hand. And yet Fallon was no fool and he believed it and so did Halstead, although I wouldnt have bet on the adequacy of his mental processes.
I ruled the proceedings firmly while the story was being told. Occasionally there were outbursts of temper, mostly from Halstead but with a couple of bitter attacks from Fallon, and I had to crack down hard. It was quite apparent that, while none of them liked what I was doing, they had no alternative but to comply. My possession of the tray was a trump card in this curious and involved game, and neither Fallon nor Halstead was prepared to let the other get away with it.
Fallon seemed to be the more sensible and objective of the two men so I let him open the account, asking him to begin. He pulled his ear gently, and said, Its hard to know where to start.
I said, Begin at the beginning. Where did you come into it?
He gave his ear a final tug, then folded one thin hand on top of the other. Im an archeologist, working in Mexico mostly. Do you know anything about the Mayas?
I shook my head.
Thats a great help, he said acidly. But I dont suppose it matters at this stage because the preliminaries had nothing to do with the Mayas at all superficially. I came across several references in my work to the de Vivero family of Mexico. The de Viveros were an old Spanish family Jaime de Vivero, the founder, staked his claim in Mexico just after the time of Cortes; he grabbed a lot of land, and his descendants made it pay very well. They became big landowners, ranchers, owners of mines and, towards the end, industrialists. They were one of the big Mexican families that really ruled the roost. They werent what youd call a very public-spirited crowd and most of their money came from squeezing the peasants. They supported Maximilian in that damn-fool effort of the Hapsburgs to establish a kingdom in Mexico in the eighteen-sixties.
That was their first mistake because Maximilian couldnt stand the pace and he went down. Still, that wasnt enough to break the de Viveros, but Mexico was in upheaval; dictator followed dictator, revolution followed revolution, and every time the de Viveros backed the wrong horse. It seems they lost their powers of judgement. Over a period of a hundred years the de Vivero family was smashed; if there are any of them still around theyre lying mighty low because I havent come across any of them. He cocked an eye at Halstead. Have you come across a live de Vivero?
No, said Halstead shortly.
Fallon nodded in satisfaction. Now, this was a very wealthy family in its time, even for Mexico, and a wealthy Mexican family was really something. They had a lot of possessions which were dispersed during the break-up, and one of these items was a golden tray something like yours, Wheale. He picked up his briefcase and opened it. Let me read you something about it
He pulled out a sheaf of papers. The tray was something of a family heirloom and the de Viveros looked after it; they didnt use it except at formal banquets and most of the time it was locked away. Heres a bit of gossip from the eighteenth century; a Frenchman called Murville visited Mexico and wrote a book about it. He stayed on one of the de Vivero estates when they threw a party for the governor of the province this is the relevant bit.
He cleared his throat. Never have I seen such a splendid table even in our French Court. The grandees of Mexico live like princes and eat off gold plate of which there was a profusion here. As a centrepiece to the table there was a magnificent array of the fruits of the country on golden trays, the most magnificent of which was curiously wrought in a pattern of vine leaves of exquisite design. I was informed by one of the sons of the family that this tray had a legend that it was reputed to have been made by an ancestor of the de Viveros. This is unlikely since it is well known that the de Viveros have a noble lineage extending far back into the history of Old Spain and could not possibly have indulged in work of this nature, no matter how artful. I was told also that the tray is supposed to hold a secret, the discovery of which will make the recipient wealthy beyond measure. My informant smiled as he communicated this to me and added that as the de Viveros were already rich beyond computation the discovery of such a secret could not possibly make them effectively wealthier.
Fallon dropped the papers back into the briefcase. That didnt mean much to me at the time, but Im always interested in any secrets concerning Mexico so I copied it out as a matter of routine and filed it away. Incidentally, that bit about the noble lineage in Old Spain is phoney, the de Viveros were social climbers, men on the make but well come to that later.
Pretty soon after that I seemed to run into the de Viveros no matter which way I turned. You know how it is you come across a strange word in a book, one which youve never seen before, and then you come across it again twice in the same week. It was like that with the de Viveros and their tray. Coming across references to the de Viveros is no trick in Mexico they were a powerful family but, in the next year I came across no less than seven references to the de Vivero tray, three of which mentioned this supposed secret. It appeared that the tray was important to the de Viveros. I just filed the stuff away; it was a minor problem of marginal interest and not really in my field.
Which is? I asked.
The pre-Columbian civilizations of Central America, he answered. A sixteenth-century Spanish tray didnt mean much to me at the time. I was busy working on a dig in south Campeche. Halstead was with me then, among others. When the dig was finished for the season and wed got back to civilization he picked a quarrel with me and left. With him went my de Vivero file.
Halsteads voice was like a lash. Thats a lie!
Fallon shrugged. Thats the way it was.
So far we hadnt reached any point at which the tray was important, but here was the first mention of the deep-rooted quarrel between these two men, and that might be of consequence so I decided to probe. What was the quarrel about?
He stole my work, said Halstead flatly.
The hell I did! Fallon turned to me. This is one of the things that crop up in academic circles, Im sorry to say. It happens like this; young men just out of college work in the field with older and more experienced workers I did the same myself with Murray many years ago. Papers get written and sometimes the younger fellow reckons hes not given due credit. It happens all the time.
Was it true in this case?
Halstead was about to speak up but his wife put her hand on his knee and motioned him to silence. Fallon said, Most certainly not. Oh, I admit I wrote a paper on some aspects of the Quetzaecoatl legend which Halstead said I stole from him, but it wasnt like that at all. He shook his head wearily. Youve got to get the picture. Youre on a dig and you work hard all day and at night you tend to relax and, maybe, drink a bit Now, if theres half a dozen of you then you might have a bull session what you English call talking shop. Ideas fly around thick and fast and nobody is ever certain who said what or when; these ideas tend to be regarded as common property. Now, it may be that the origin of the paper I wrote happened in such a way, and it may be that it was Halsteads suggestion, but I cant prove it and, by God, neither can he.
Halstead said, You know damn well that I suggested the central idea of that paper.
Fallon spread his hands and appealed to me. You see how it is. It might have gone for nothing if this young fool hadnt written to the journals and publicly accused me of theft. I could have sued the pants off him but I didnt. I wrote to him privately and suggested that he refrain from entering into public controversy because I certainly wasnt going to enter into an argument of that nature in the professional prints. But he continued and finally the editors wouldnt print his letters any more.
Halsteads voice was malevolent. You mean you bought the goddamn editors, dont you?
Think what you like, said Fallon in disgust. At any rate, I found my de Vivero file had vanished when Halstead left. It didnt mean much at the time, and when it did start to mean something it wasnt much trouble to go back to the original sources. But when I started to bump into the Halsteads around every corner I put two and two together.
But you dont know he took your file, I said. You couldnt prove it in a law court.
I dont suppose I could, agreed Fallon.
Then the less said about it the better. Halstead looked pleased at that, so I added, You both seem free and easy in throwing accusations about. This isnt my idea of professional dignity.
You havent heard the whole story yet, Mr Wheale, said Mrs Halstead.
Well, lets get on with it, I said. Go ahead, Professor Fallon or do you have anything to say, Dr Halstead?
Halstead gloomed at me. Not yet. He said it with an air of foreboding and I knew there were some more fireworks ahead.
Nothing much happened after that for quite a while, said Fallon. Then when I was in New York, I received a letter from Mark Gerryson suggesting I see him. Gerryson is a dealer whom I have used from time to time, and he said he had some Mayan chocolate jugs not the ordinary pottery jugs, but made of gold. They must have come from a noble house. He also said he had part of a feather cloak and a few other things.
Halstead snorted and muttered audibly, A goddamn feather cloak!
I know it was a fake, said Fallon. And I didnt buy it. But the chocolate jugs were genuine. Gerryson knew Id be interested the ordinary Mayan specialist doesnt interest Gerryson because he hasnt the money that Gerryson asks; he usually sells to museums and rich collectors. Well, I run a museum myself among other things and Ive had some good stuff from Gerryson in the past.