Bagley, Desmond - The Snow Tiger

by The Snow Tiger

  'I agree with Professor Rolandson,' said Harrison. 'We are very fortunate to have such a qualified witness who can give an account of the events before, during and after the disaster. What took you to Hukahoronui, Dr McGill?'

  'I met Ian Ballard in Switzerland and we got on very well together. When he came to New Zealand he invited me to visit him. He knew that I was coming to New Zealand on my way to the Antarctic and suggested that I arrive a little earlier than I had originally intended. He met me at the airport in Auckland and then we both went down to Hukahoronui.'

  Lyall held up his hand, and Harrison nodded to him. 'How long did the witness know Mr Ballard in Switzerland?'

  'Two weeks.'

  'Two weeks!' repeated Lyall. 'Did it not seem strange to you on such a casual acquaintanceship that Mr Ballard should undertake such a long journey involving an air flight from South Island to North Island to meet you at the airport?'

  Harrison opened his mouth as though to object, but McGill, his face hardened, beat him to it. 'I don't understand the import of the question, but I'll answer it. Mr Ballard had to attend a board meeting of his company in Auckland with which my arrival coincided.'

  'I didn't understand the tenor of that question, either, Mr Lyall,' said Harrison grimly. 'Does the answer satisfy you?'

  'Yes, sir.'

  'It will speed this inquiry if irrelevant questions are kept to a minimum,' said Harrison coldly. 'Go on, Dr McGill.'

  In the press gallery Dan Edwards said, 'There was some sort of malice behind that. I wonder what instructions the Petersons have given Lyall.'

  McGill said, 'There was a lot of snow on the way to Hukahoronui ...'

  Fifteen miles from Hukahoronui they came across a Volkswagen stuck in a drift, the skis strapped on the top proclaiming its purpose. It contained two Americans helplessly beleaguered by the snow. Ballard and McGill helped to haul the car free and received effusive thanks from the two men who were called Miller and Newman. McGill looked at the Volkswagen, and commented, 'Not the best car for the conditions.'

  'You can say that again,' said Newman. 'There's more snow here than in Montana. I didn't expect it to be like this.'

  'It's an exceptional season,' said McGill, who had studied the reports.

  Miller said, 'How far is it to Huka...' He stumbled over the word but finally got it out by spacing the syllables. 'Huka-horo-nui?'

  'About fifteen miles,' said Ballard. He smiled. 'You can't miss it -- this road goes nowhere else.'

  'We're going for the skiing,' said Newman. He grinned as he saw Ballard's eye wander to the skis strapped on top of the car. 'But I guess that's evident.'

  'You're going to get stuck again,' said Ballard. 'That's inevitable. You'd better go on ahead and I'll follow, ready to pull you out.'

  'Say, that's good of you,' said Miller. 'We'll take you up on that offer. You've got more beef than we have.'

  They hauled the Volkswagen out of trouble five times before they reached Hukahoronui. On the fifth occasion Newman said, 'It's real good of you guys to go to all this trouble.'

  Ballard smiled. 'You'd do the same, I'm sure, if the position were reversed.' He pointed. 'That's the Gap -- the entrance to the valley. Once you're through there you're home and dry.'

  They followed the Volkswagen as far as the Gap and watched it descend into the valley, then Ballard pulled off the road. 'Well, there it is.'

  McGill surveyed the scene with a professional eye. Instinctively he looked first at the white sweep of the western slope and frowned slightly, then he said, 'Is that your mine down at the bottom there?'

  'That's it.'

  'You know something? I haven't asked what you get out of there.'

  'Gold,' said Ballard. 'Gold in small quantities.' He took a packet of cigarettes and offered one to McGill. 'We've known the gold was there for a long time -- my fath er was the first to pick up the traces -- but there wasn't enough to take a chance on investment, not while the gold price was fixed at thirty-five dollars an ounce. But when the price was freed the company risked a couple of million pounds sterling in establishing the plant you see down there. At present we're just breaking even; the gold we're getting out is just servicing the capital investment. But the pickings are getting richer as we follow I he reef and we have hopes.'

  McGill nodded abstractedly. He was peering through the side window at the rock walls on either side of the Gap. 'Do you have much trouble keeping the road clear just here?'

  'We didn't seem to have trouble years ago when I used to live here. But we're having a fair amount now. The town has got some of the company's earth-moving machinery on more-or-less permanent loan.'

  'It'll get worse,' said McGill. 'Maybe a lot worse. I did a check on meteorological conditions; there's a lot of precipitation this year and the forecast is for more.'

  'Good for skiers,' said Ballard. 'Bad for mining. We're having trouble getting equipment in.' He put the car in gear. 'Let's get down there.'

  He drove through the town and then to the mine office. 'Come in mid meet the senior staff,' he said, then hesitated. 'Look, I'm going to be a bit busy for maybe an hour.' He grinned. 'Finding out if they've made a fortune while I've been away. I'll get someone to take you to the house.'

  'That'll be fine,' said McGill.

  They went into the office building and Ballard opened a door. 'Hello, Betty. Is Mr Dobbs in?'

  Betty jerked her thumb. 'Inside with Mr Cameron.'

  'Fine. Come on, Mike.' He led the way to an inner office where two men were discussing a plan laid on a desk. 'Hello, Mr Dobbs; hello, Joe. I'd like you to meet a friend who'll be staying in Huka for a while -- Mike McGill. This is Harry Dobbs, the mine manager, and Joe Cameron, the mine engineer.'

  Dobbs was a thin-faced New Zealander with a dyspeptic expression who looked as though his wife's cooking did not agree with him. Cameron was a broad-shouldered American pushing sixty but not admitting it. They shook hands, and Ballard said, 'Everything okay?'

  Cameron looked at Dobbs and Dobbs looked at Cameron. Dobbs said in a thin voice, 'The situation is deteriorating at the same rate.'

  Cameron chuckled. 'What he means is that we're still having trouble with this goddam snow. We had a truck stuck in the Gap yesterday; took two 'dozers to get it out.'

  'If we can't keep up essential supplies then output is going to be restricted,' said Dobbs.

  'I don't think we'll make a profit this half year,' said Ballard. 'Mike, here, says things will get worse, and he ought to know -- he's a snow expert.'

  'Don't take that as gospel,' protested McGill. 'I've been known to be wrong.' He looked through the window. 'Is that the mine entrance?'

  Cameron followed his gaze. 'Yes, that's the portal. Most people think of a mine as having a vertical shaft, but we just drove an adit into the mountainside. It slopes down inside, of course, as we follow the reef.'

  'It reminds me of a place in British Columbia called Granduc.' McGill slanted his eyes at Cameron. 'Know it?'

  Cameron shook his head. 'Never heard of it.'

  McGill looked oddly disappointed.

  Dobbs was saying, '... and Arthur's Pass was closed for twelve hours yesterday, and the Haast has been closed since Tuesday. I haven't heard about Lewis Pass.'

  'What have those passes to do with us?' asked Ballard. 'Our supplies come from Christchurch and don't cross the mountains at all.'

  'They're the main passes across the Southern Alps,' said Dobbs. 'If the government can't keep them open, then what chance do we have? They'll be using every machine they've got, and no one is going to send a snow plough to clear a way to Hukahoronui -- it's a dead end.'

  'We'll just have to do the best we can, Mr Dobbs.' Ballard jerked his head at McGill. 'Let's get you settled in, Mike.'

  McGill nodded and said to the room at large, 'Nice to have met you.'

  'We'll have to get together,' said Cameron. 'Come over to my place and have dinner some time. My daughter's a great cook.'

  Dobbs said nothing.<
br />
  They went into the outer office. 'Betty will show you where the house is. The bedroom on the left at the back is yours. I won't be more than an hour.'

  'Take your time,' said McGill.

  It was nearly three hours later when Ballard turned up and by that time McGill had unpacked, taken a walk around town which did not take long, and returned to the house to make an urgent telephone call.

  When Ballard came into the house he looked tired and depressed. When he saw McGill he winced as recollection came back. 'Oh, hell! I forgot to tell Mrs Evans we were coming back. There's no grub ready.'

  'Relax,' said McGill. 'There's something in the oven -- McGill's Antarctic Burgoo, as served in all the best restaurants south of latitude sixty. We'll eat well.'

  Ballard sighed in relief. 'I thought we'd have to eat in the hotel. I'm not too popular there.'

  McGill let that pass. 'There's just one thing I can't find -- your booze.'

  Ballard grinned. 'Come on.'

  They went into the living-room, and McGill said, 'I used your phone. I hope you don't mind.'

  'Be my guest.' Ballard opened a cupboard and took out a bottle and two glasses.

  'You get your supplies from Christchurch. I know you're tight for space but is there a chance of getting a parcel in for me?'

  'How big?' McGill made sketching motions with his hands, and Ballard said, 'Is that all? We can do that.' He checked his watch. 'That truck Cameron had trouble with is leaving Christchurch with a load. I might be able to catch it before it leaves.'

  He crossed the room and picked up the telephone. 'Hello, Maureen. Ian Ballard here. Can you get me the Christchurch office?'

  'I had a look round town,' said McGill. 'It looks mostly new.'

  'It is. When I lived here it was a tenth of the size.'

  'Nicely laid out, too. Is most of it mine property?'

  'A lot of it. Houses for the married couples and single quarters and a club house for the bachelors. This is a mine house. My predecessor lived in one of the old houses but I prefer this one. I like to be on the spot.'

  'How many mine employees?'

  'At the last count it was a hundred and four -- including office staff.'

  'And the total population?'

  'A bit over eight hundred, I'd say. The mine brought a fair amount of prosperity.'

  "That's about what I figured,' said McGill.

  An electronic voice crackled in Ballard's ear, and he said, 'This is Ballard at the mine. Has Sam Jeffries left yet? Put him on, will you?' There was a pause. 'Sam, Dr McGill wants to talk to you -- hold on.'

  McGill took the telephone. 'McGill here. Do you know where Advanced Headquarters for Operation Deep Freeze is? Yes ... near Harewood Airport. Go to the Headquarters Building and find Chief Petty Officer Finney ... yes, finney as in fish ... ask him to give you the parcel for me ... McGill. Right.'

  'What was all that about?' asked Ballard.

  McGill took the drink which Ballard offered. 'I just thought I'd keep myself occupied while I'm here.' He changed the subject. 'What's with your Mr Dobbs? He looks as though he's swallowed a lemon.'

  Ballard smiled wearily and sat down. 'He has a chip on his shoulder. He reckons he should have been put on the board of directors and have my job, instead of which he got me. To make it worse, my name is Ballard.'

  'What's that got to do with anything?'

  'Don't you know? If you trace things back far enough the whole mine is owned by the Ballard family.'

  McGill spluttered into his drink. 'Well, I'll be goddamned! I've been hobnobbing with the plutocratic capitalists and never knew it. There's a name for that kind of thing -- nepotism. No wonder Dobbs is acid.'

  'If it's nepotism it isn't doing me any good,' said Ballard. There was a touch of savagery in his voice. 'I don't have a penny except my director's fees.'

  'No shares in the company?'

  'No shares in this or any other Ballard company -- but tell that to Dobbs and he wouldn't believe you. I haven't even tried.'

  McGill's voice was soft. 'What's the mater, Ian? Come from the Wrong side of the family?'

  'Not really.' Ballard got up to pour himself another drink. 'I have a grandfather who's an egotistical old monster and I had a father who wouldn't co-operate. Dad told the old boy to go to hell and he's never forgotten it.'

  'The sins of the fathers are visited on the children,' said McGill thoughtfully. 'And yet you're employed by a Ballard company. 'There must be something there somewhere.'

  'They don't pay me any more than I'm worth -- they get value for money.' Ballard sighed. 'But, God, I could run the company better than it's run now.' He waved his glass. 'I don't mean this mine, this in a piddling little affair.'

  'You call a two million pound company a piddling affair!' said McGill in wonder.

  'I once worked it out. The Ballards control companies with a capital value of two hundred and twenty million pounds. The Ballards' own shareholdings are about forty-two million pounds. That was a few years ago, though.'

  'Jesus!' said McGill involuntarily.

  'I have three rapacious old vultures who call themselves my uncles and half a dozen cousins who follow the breed. They're only interested in loot and between them they're running the show into the ground. They're great ones for merging and asset-stripping, and they squeeze every penny until it hurts. Take this mine. Up in Auckland I have a Comptroller of Accounts who reports to London, and I can't sign a cheque for more than a thousand dollars without his say-so. And I'm supposed to be in charge.'

  He breathed heavily. 'When I came here I went underground and that night I prayed we wouldn't have a visit from the Inspector of Mines before I had time to straighten things out.'

  ' Had someone been cutting corners?'

  Ballard shrugged. 'Fisher, the last managing director, was an old fool and not up to the job. I doubt any criminal intent, but negligence combined with parsimony has led to a situation in which the company could find itself in serious trouble. I have a mine manager who can't make decisions and wants his hand held all the time, and I have a mine engineer who is past it. Oh, Cameron's all right, I suppose, but he's old and he's running scared.'

  'You've got yourself a packet of trouble,' said McGill.

  Ballard snorted. 'You don't know the half of it. I haven't said anything about the unions yet, not to mention the attitude of some of the town people.'

  'You sound as though you earn your pay. But why the hell stick to a Ballard company if you feel like this?'

  'Oh, I don't know -- some remnants of family loyalty, I suppose,' said Ballard tiredly. 'After all, my grandfather did pay for my education, and quite extensive it was. I suppose I owe him something for that.'

  McGill noted Ballard's evident depression and tiredness and decided to change the subject. 'Let's eat, and I'll tell you about the ice worms in Alaska.' He plunged into an improbable story.

  FOUR

  The next morning was bright and sunny and the snow, which had been falling all night, had stopped, leaving the world freshly minted. When Ballard got up, heavy-eyed and unrested, he found Mrs Evans in the kitchen cooking breakfast. She scolded him. 'You should have let me know when you were coming back. I only learned by chance from Betty Hargreaves last night.'

  'I'm sorry,' he said. 'I forgot. Are you cooking for three?' Mrs Evans usually ate breakfast with him; it was a democratic society.

  'I am. Your friend has gone out already, but he'll be back for a late breakfast.'

  Ballard consulted his watch to discover that he had overslept by more than an hour. 'Give me ten minutes.'

  When he had showered and dressed he felt better and found McGill in the living-room unwrapping a large parcel. 'It came,' said McGill. 'Your truck got through.'

  Ballard looked at what was revealed; it was a backpack which appeared to contain nothing but sections of aluminium tubing each nestling in an individual canvas pocket. 'What's that?"

  'The tools of my trade,' said McGill. Mrs Evans called,
and he added, 'Let's eat; I'm hungry.'

  Ballard toyed with his breakfast while McGill wolfed down a plateful of bacon and eggs, and pleased Mrs Evans by asking for more. While she was out of the room he said, 'You asked me here for the skiing, and there's no time like the present. How's your leg?'

  Ballard shook his head. 'The leg is all right, but sorry, Mike -- not today. I'm a working man.'

  'You'd better come.' Something in McGill's tone made Ballard look at him sharply. McGill's face was serious. 'You'd better come and see what I'm doing. I want an independent witness.'

  'A witness to what?'

  'To whatever it is I find.'

  'And what will that be?'

  'How do I know until I find it?' He stared at Ballard. 'I'm serious, Ian. You know what my job is. I'm going to make a professional investigation. You're the boss man of the mine and you couldn't make a better witness. You've got authority.'

  'For God's sake!' said Ballard. 'Authority to do what?'

  'To close down the mine if need be, but that depends on what I find, and I won't know that until I look, will I?' As Ballard's jaw dropped McGill said, 'I couldn't believe my eyes at what I saw yesterday. It looked like a recipe for instant disaster, and I spent a damned uneasy night. I won't be happy until I take a look.'

  'Where?'

  McGill got to his feet and walked to the window. 'Come here.' He pointed at the steep slope above the mine. 'Up there.'

  Ballard looked at the long curve, blinding white in the sunlight. 'You think ..." His voice tailed away.

  'I think nothing until I get evidence one way or the other,' said McGill sharply. 'I'm a scientist, not a soothsayer.' He shook his head warningly as Mrs Evans came in with a fresh plate of bacon and eggs. 'Finish your breakfast.'

  As they sat down he said, 'I suppose you can find me a pair of skis.'

  Ballard nodded, his mind busy with the implications of what McGill had said -- or had not said. McGill dug into his second plateful of breakfast. 'Then we go siding,' he said lightly.