The Snow Tiger / Night of Error

  ‘But if Campbell’s a mining man, what makes you think he’ll finance a deep sea adventure?’

  ‘I think he might,’ I said. ‘Metals are his business. Never gold or silver, nor the other end of the scale, the base metals. He’s dabbled in tin and copper and had a go at platinum once. Now it seems he’s concentrating on alloy metals – titanium, cobalt, vanadium and stuff like that. Now that rocketry is big business there’s a boom in these metals.’

  Geordie asked curiously, ‘How does he go about it – his investing, I mean?’

  ‘He takes advantage of us scientific types. He employs a few good men – people like Mark, for instance – and the number varies from time to time. Most of them are geologists, of course. He organizes field expeditions into remote parts, spots a body of ore, puts a million or so into proving and development, then pulls out and sells to the real big boys at a profit. I heard that in one of his recent ventures he put in two million dollars and a year of his time, then sold out at a net profit of a million and a quarter. Not bad for a year’s work, eh, Geordie?’

  ‘Not bad at all. But I’d say it needs experience and a hell of a lot of cold nerve.’

  ‘Oh, he’s a canny Scot, all right. I hope he’s still in town – I’ll find out tomorrow.’

  ‘What about Kane – why not put the coppers on to him?’

  I shook my head vigorously. ‘Not now. All they’d do would be to pass on a query to Tahiti and I’ve no positive faith in the activities of the French Colonial Police, especially when there’s a convenient legal death certificate handy. The delays would be awful, for one thing. No, I’ll see for myself – if I can get Campbell interested. I would dearly like to talk to Dr Schouten.’

  Geordie rubbed his chin meditatively. ‘I’m thinking of making one or two changes in the crew if we go on this caper. I’d like a couple of blokes I know from the old days. I wonder what Ian Lewis is doing now? When I met him a few months ago he said he found life a little tedious.’

  I vaguely remembered a tall, gangling Highlander. ‘What was he doing?’

  ‘Oh, he had a place in the Scottish wilderness that he said he’d be glad to leave. You know, I reckon I could get you half a dozen good chaps, all trained fighters and some of them seamen. I’ve got a couple anyway that I’d keep on for this trip.’

  I had a dawning suspicion of what was in Geordie’s mind. ‘Hold on – what’s the idea?’

  He said, ‘I’d like to see the bunch of thugs who’d stand up against some of your dad’s old mob. They may be getting older, but they’re not that old and they’re all trained commandoes. They’re not all settled down and married, you know.’

  ‘What do you think you’re doing – setting up a private army?’

  ‘Might not be a bad idea,’ he said. ‘If the other night is a sample of what to expect we might need a bloody army.’

  I sighed. ‘All right, Sergeant Wilkins. But no one who’s married or has other responsibilities, and you’d better hold your hand until we get Campbell tied up. We can’t do anything without money.’

  ‘Ah yes, the money,’ said Geordie, and looked very sad.

  III

  The following morning, quite early, I had a visit from the Inspector and one of his men. Geordie was already out and I was impatient to begin my search for Kane, but tried not to show it. The Inspector was cagey and suspicious, but very casual. I think his trouble was that he didn’t really know what to be suspicious of.

  He asked, ‘Know anyone in South America?’

  ‘Not off hand. No, I don’t,’ I said.

  ‘Um. The man you killed may have been a South American. His clothes were labelled from Lima, Rio and Montevideo. He could be from almost anywhere except Brazil.’

  ‘I think that answers one question. I couldn’t place the accent. What was his name?’

  The Inspector shook his head. ‘That we don’t know, Mr Trevelyan. Or anything else about him, yet. Are you quite sure you don’t know any South Americans?’

  ‘Positive.’

  He changed tack. ‘Wonderful thing, this science; I’ve found out everything there is to know about manganese nodules.’

  I said dryly, ‘Then you know more than I do – they’re not really my line. Did you find it interesting?’

  He smiled sourly. ‘Not very – they’re about as valuable as road gravel. Are you sure there wasn’t anything else in that suitcase that might have been of value?’

  ‘Inspector, it was just junk. The kind of stuff that anyone might carry in a case, apart from the nodules, that is.’

  ‘Looks as though Mr Wilkins might have been right, after all. You surprised the burglars before they could pinch anything else.’

  I didn’t fall for that one – the Inspector didn’t for one moment believe it was an ordinary break-in. I said noncommittally, ‘I think you’re right.’

  ‘The inquest will be next Wednesday,’ he said. ‘You’ll get an official notification, both of you.’

  ‘I’ll be there.’

  Then they were gone and I thought about South America. That was nearer the Pacific than Spain, but apart from that it made no particular sense to me. And then, belatedly, I thought of Mark’s connection with Jonathan Campbell, and Campbell’s reputed connection with some South American mining venture, and I had something else to chew on. But it still made no sense, and for the time being I gave up.

  Finding a rich Canadian in London’s millions was a damn sight easier than finding a poor Australian. The rich are circumscribed in their travelling. The Institute gave me the address of the conference centre, and they gave me the address of the hotel Campbell was staying at, and I had him at the third phone call. Campbell was blunt and curt to the point of rudeness. Yes, he could give me half an hour of his time at eleven that morning – it was already nine-thirty. His tone indicated that if he thought I was wasting his time I’d be kicked out in the first two minutes. The telephone conversation lasted only that long.

  At eleven I was at the Dorchester and was shown up to Campbell’s suite. He opened the door himself. ‘Trevelyan?’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘Come in.’

  He led the way into a room once a luxury living-room but now fitted out as a temporary office, complete with desk, files and secretary; he sent her out and seated himself behind the desk, gesturing me to sit opposite. He was a broad, stocky man of about sixty with a square, tanned face lined with experience. Somebody once said that after forty a man is responsible for his own face; if that’s so then Campbell had had a lot of responsibility in his time. His eyes were a frosty blue and his hair iron grey and grizzled. His clothes were expensive and only the slightest accent indicated his transatlantic origin.

  I decided that attack was the best policy. I produced the half-nodule and put it on his blotting pad. ‘That assays at ten per cent cobalt,’ I said without preamble.

  He picked it up and looked at it carefully, masking any curiosity. ‘Where did it come from?’

  ‘The bottom of the Pacific.’

  He looked up and stared at me, then said, ‘Are you any relation of the Mark Trevelyan who worked for me a while back?’

  ‘He was my brother.’

  ‘Was?’

  ‘He’s dead.’

  Campbell frowned. ‘When and where did he die?’

  ‘About four months ago – in the Pacific.’

  ‘Sorry to hear it,’ he said but perfunctorily. ‘A good scientist.’

  I detected the careful note in his voice, and thought that here was someone else who had seen through Mark, or had had some example of how my brother went about his affairs. I wondered if it was a business problem, or if it had had anything to do with his daughter’s relationship with Mark. I couldn’t assess whether it was going to make things harder or easier for me.

  He carried on looking at me rather than at the specimen. ‘Trevelyan – I’ve heard the name more recently. Oh yes!’ He turned and produced a tabloid newspaper from a shelf and shook it out. �
�Are you the Trevelyan mentioned here? The one who killed a man defending his home? An Englishman’s castle and all that stuff?’

  I caught a glimpse of the headline: SCIENTIST KILLS BURGLAR. Quite mild, considering the paper. I nodded. ‘That’s right.’

  He pursed his lips and put aside the paper, and then came back to business. ‘This is a manganese nodule. There are billions of them lying on the bottom of the Pacific. There are quite a few in the Atlantic too.’

  ‘Not many there,’ I said. ‘And the quality’s poor. Too much sedimentation.’

  ‘True.’ He tossed the stone and caught it. ‘The highest cobalt assay so far is a fraction over 2 per cent. That one came from the central Pacific. Where did this one come from?’

  I looked at him blankly and shook my head. He smiled suddenly and it transformed his face – he had a very charming smile. ‘All right, I tried,’ he said. ‘You’d be surprised how often it works. Do you know why I am able to reel off facts about manganese nodules?’

  ‘I was wondering.’

  ‘Your brother told me,’ he said. ‘He wanted me to fit an expedition a couple of years back. I must say I was tempted.’

  ‘Why didn’t you?’

  He hesitated, then said, ‘I lost a packet in South America. It caught me off balance and until I reorganized I didn’t have any fluid capital. About that time your brother left my company, and he hadn’t left me enough to go on by myself.’

  ‘I hope you’re better placed now,’ I said dryly. ‘Because that’s why I’ve come to you – now it’s my turn to ask you to fund an expedition.’

  ‘So I gathered,’ he said, equally dryly. He touched the nodule. ‘I must say you brought more than your brother did. He talked a good story but he never showed any concrete evidence. You say this assayed at ten per cent cobalt?’

  ‘I assayed it myself yesterday afternoon – the other half, that is.’

  ‘Mind if I have this assayed – independently?’

  ‘Not at all,’ I said equably.

  He laughed, showing his charm again. ‘All right, Trevelyan, I won’t need to. I’m convinced of this anyway.’

  ‘I’d prefer it if you did,’ I said. ‘I could do with corroboration. But I must tell you that what you’ve got in your hand is all the evidence I have to show.’

  His hand clenched around the nodule. ‘Now you do begin to interest me. I think you have a story, Mr Trevelyan. Why don’t you tell it and quit beating around the bush?’

  I had already decided that if we were to work together at all I must hold nothing back. It was only moderately risky. So I told him everything, and when I’d finished we were well past my original half hour. He listened in absolute silence until I was done and then said, ‘Now let’s see if I’ve got all this straight. One, your brother died out in the Pacific; two, a man called Nelson whom you have never heard of sent you a case which contained notebooks and nodule samples; three, Kane shows up and pitches what you think is a cock-and-bull yarn; four, the suitcase is stolen by presumed South Americans with additional violence including one killing; five, you retain one nodule, analyse it and find a fantastic percentage of cobalt; and six, you also retain a diary of your brother’s which you can’t even read.’

  He looked at me for a long time and then said gently, ‘And on the basis of this you want me to invest maybe a million dollars.’

  I got out of my chair.

  ‘Sorry to have wasted your time, Mr Campbell.’

  ‘Sit down, you damned fool. Don’t give up without a fight. I haven’t said I won’t invest, have I?’ He saw the look on my face and added, ‘And I haven’t yet said I will, either. Have you got that diary here?’

  Wordlessly I took it from my breast pocket and handed it over the desk. He flicked it open and turned rapidly from page to page. ‘Who taught your brother to write shorthand?’ he asked disgustedly. ‘St Vitus?’

  ‘Basically it’s Pitman’s,’ I said. ‘But Mark adapted it.’ I could have gone on to say that Mark had always been secretive, never liking anyone to know what he was doing. But I kept my mouth shut.

  Campbell tossed the diary aside. ‘Maybe we can get something out of it somehow – maybe a cipher expert can sort it out.’ He turned in his swivel chair and looked out of the window towards Hyde Park, and there was a long silence until he spoke again.

  ‘You know what really interested me in this improbable story of yours?’

  ‘No, I don’t.’

  ‘Those South Americans,’ he said unexpectedly. ‘South America has been unlucky for me, you know. I lost nearly ten million down there. That’s when Mark’s expedition went down the drain, along with a lot of other things. And now Mark has come back – in a sense – and more South Americans are involved. What do you make of that?’

  ‘Not a thing,’ I said.

  ‘I don’t believe in coincidence. Not when it happens like this. What I do have to consider lies outside your domain, perhaps – the complications of international law regarding mining, especially offshore, undersea stuff. International relations – so I have to know more about the areas you want to research. Financing. Distribution. Markets.’

  I was a little taken aback. Perhaps I was too much of the research scientist – the hard facts of commercial dealing had hardly occurred to me. But on reflection I could hear no note of doubt or dismay in Campbell’s voice, only the sound of a man mulling over the forthcoming ramifications of the deal he was being offered – and liking it. There was undoubtedly the faint note of challenge in his attitude, and this encouraged me. I guessed that he, like Geordie’s old pal Ian Lewis, may be finding life a little boring at present and was attracted by the novelty of my proposition.

  He poked the nodule with his finger. ‘There are two things necessary for industrial civilization – cheap power and cheap steel. What’s the iron oxide content of this?’

  ‘Thirty-two per cent by weight.’

  ‘That does it. The cobalt will make it economically feasible and the result is a cheap high-grade iron ore, a hell of a lot of manganese, plus some copper, vanadium and anything else we can pick up. Cheap metals, billions of dollars’ worth and cheaper than anyone else can produce. It can be tied into one neat, strong package – but it needs careful handling. And above all it needs secrecy.’

  ‘I know. I’ve already been stalling off a police inspector who thinks there’s more to the burglary than meets the eye.’

  Campbell appeared satisfied. ‘Good. You’ve got the point.’

  ‘Then you’re willing to finance an expedition?’ I asked. It was almost too easy, I thought, and I was right.

  ‘I don’t know yet. I want to make some investigations of my own, enquiries which I can make and you can’t. And maybe I can find Kane for you. Besides, you may not be in a position to undertake anything for some time – you killed a man, remember.’ His smile this time was more grim than charming. ‘Not that I blame you for it – I’ve killed men myself – but let’s wait for your inquest before deciding anything.’

  IV

  It was six days to the inquest, the longest six days I’ve spent in my life. To fill in the time I got down to writing the paper that I was supposed to turn out. It wasn’t a very good paper as it happened; I had too much else on my mind to concentrate really well.

  By the end of the week Geordie still hadn’t found Kane, though he’d got a lot of other things moving. ‘It’s hopeless,’ he said to me. ‘A needle in a haystack would be easier – this is like trying to find one particular wisp of hay.’

  ‘He may not be in London at all.’

  A truism which didn’t help. But on the morning of the inquest Kane was found – or rather, he found me.

  He called at the flat just as I was leaving for the court – Geordie as usual was out ahead of me and would meet me there. Kane was looking a little the worse for wear with bloodshot eyes and a greying stubble on his cheeks. He coughed raspingly and said, ‘Sorry to trouble you, Mr Trevelyan, but you did say I was to keep in tou
ch.’

  I looked at him in astonishment and choked back the questions that were on the tip of my tongue. I invited him inside and did a bit of fast thinking as I poured him a cup of coffee. Geordie and Campbell had as much at stake in this as I had, and besides I wanted witnesses when I questioned Kane. I decided to play it softly, though I could hardly bear to speak to him without losing my control.

  I made myself smile pleasantly at him. ’Had enough of England, Mr Kane?’

  ‘It ’ud be a nice country if it wasn’t for your bleeding weather. We could do with some of this rain back in Queensland, my word.’

  ‘But you’ve enjoyed your stay?’

  ‘I’ve had a bonzer time,’ he said. ‘But my stay’s over, Mr Trevelyan. I got to gambling again. I’ll never learn.’

  ‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ I said.

  He looked at me hopefully. ‘Mr Trevelyan, you said you might be able to arrange a passage for me. I wondered …’

  ‘Do you have to get back to the Pacific immediately?’

  For some reason that didn’t please him. ‘Not specially, no. But I’ve got no boodle. If I had some cash or a job I’d like to stay around a bit. I thought maybe you could …’

  I said, ‘I have a friend who has a yacht which he’s fitting out. He and I hope to get in some sailing together, and I think he needs crew. How would that suit you?’

  He took the bait eagerly. ‘That ’ud be just fine, Mr Trevelyan!’

  I put an opened writing pad in front of him, trying to hold back my own eagerness. ‘Write down the name of wherever you’re staying so that I can get the owner to contact you,’ I said. ‘He’ll want to interview you but I’ll make it all right with him. And I’ll let you have something ahead of your pay, to cover your rooming costs. How’s that?’

  He wrote an address down. ‘I’ll do that. Thanks a whole lot, Mr Trevelyan.’

  ‘That’s all right,’ I said generously. ‘You’ve earned it.’