The River of Diamonds

Shelborne said harshly, 'Don't shine that torch in my eyes, Rhennin! I am a man of peace, but…'

I laughed. I didn't recognize my own voice. 'Peace! Yet you carry a Schmeisser! Five men you've killed sitting there…!'

'Drop that pistol!'

'You killed Caldwell too!'

'If either of you makes a move, I swear before God that it will be the last you ever make.'

I could see, in the half-light, the dune of flesh which banked up above his right cheekbone when he was agitated. The gullies in his face were deeper, the eyes wide and luminous.

Rhennin burst out: 'But the message — how…?'

Shelborne nodded to a figure in seaman's clothes lying sprawled inside the doorway. 'He sent "fauler Zauber": I overheard it. The radio is behind the door there. It was the one bit of sense I could make out in what he sent, "silly humbug". The game, the diamonds — a silly farce, you must agree.'

Rhennin burst out. 'He didn't mean it that way… The operation… you shot them down as they played; they weren't ready.'

'Look — do you see bullet-marks?'

'You double-talking bastard…!'

Shelborne raised the Schmeisser. One burst would cut a man in half. 'Throw down your guns — here, at my feet. You first, Tregard. If Koeltas is to be believed, you're the more dangerous of the two.'

I surrendered the Colt. 'So you've got Koeltas? He ran out to sea when the Bells sounded.'

'I picked him up on Hollam's Bird Island.' His voice was grim. 'He thought I was out of the way. He couldn't resist the temptation of a little poaching.'

The cutter?'

'Of course — she'd outrun the Malgas any time. Koeltas is back at the hut now. Unfortunately Kim…'

'Man of peace!' I sneered. My respect for the man grew: I would not have dared to fight it out single-handed with Koeltas's cut-throat crew.

The Luger too!'

Rhennin threw the pistol.

'Now the torch!'

Rhennin rolled it towards Shelborne. As he bent down to retrieve it, that would be the time to jump him. The same thought must have crossed his mind, for he sank unwaveringly, warily, on his haunches, the Schmeisser aimed.

'Get inside the hut!'

The torch beam reflected from the dead eyes of the U-boat ace at the top of the table and dully from the piles of uncut stones. The five captains were dressed in heavy off-white rolltop sweaters under black reefer jackets. Their caps were on the table. The insignia was the same, their clothes were alike, but it was the realization of one item of dreadful uniformity which sent a thrill of horror down my spine — their matching red hair. It was all exactly the same shade. No two men could have been born like that, let alone five.

Rhennin's swift step over the sentry's body and his words stopped mine. 'Immelmann! Werner! Hessler! Schmidt!'

His agonized roll-call was the first since Seekriegsleitung had searched the ether, day after day, for Gruppe Eisbar. They were not to know that SKL, the brilliant fighting machine, had itself gone to its death before they could answer. Korvettenkapitan Rhennin's face was vigorous, young, alert, a younger edition of Felix. Ironical to die here on land at the hand of a diamond-struck prospector 600 miles from the Western Approaches, away from the destroyers' depth-charges, the Asdic, the minefields.

'Dieter!'

The sightless eyes stared. Rhennin tore open the reefer jacket to look for bullet-holes so that the cards spilled out of the dead man's hand. But there were no wounds.

Rhennin lost control of himself. 'You swine! You bloody swine! He never had red hair! They've all got red hair! All red hair! You monster! — you dyed their hair!' He plucked unseeingly at Dieter's jacket.

Shelborne rapped out: 'Stand out of my line of fire!'

I yelled helplessly. 'He doesn't know what he's saying or doing…!' The Schmeisser gave a metallic, pre-death clunk as Shelborne switched the lever over to rapid fire. 'Stop! Stop…!'

Rhennin staggered towards the entrance, cannoning into the man opposite Dieter. The body crashed sideways to the floor. Shelborne's torch sought his eyes, blinding him.

'Gruppe Eisbar!' he mouthed. 'Here are Goering's diamonds, Dieter! Here they are! You never made off with them! How did he destroy the whole Rudel, Dieter? One man! You swine, you bloody swine!'

Shelborne was rock-steady. 'Pull yourself together, man! His hair is red because of the guano. The ammonia in the guano — it turns all their hair red! They're all like that, every corpse in the graveyard! It mummifies them too!'

It was the only thing that would have stopped him except a bullet. He stood swaying over the body of the sentry. Then he took a great grip of himself. His voice was shaky. 'What did you do with the U-boats, Shelborne?'

His voice was cool, soothing almost. 'All this took place a.long time ago, Rhennin. I'm sorry about your brother. I didn't realize you had any inkling he was on Mercury.'

I told him about the Knight's Cross.

'I didn't steal it — I haven't moved them,' he said. He was watchful but persuasive, sympathetic. Spontaneously, the comparison sprang into my mind — his manner was like Mary's. The thought sickened me. What else had he taken from Caldwell in addition to his life?

Shelborne said, 'We'll go to the huts. The path is very slippery — you'd better rope yourselves. I'll follow — with the Schmeisser.'

Rhennin asked, in a strangled voice, 'The crews of Crupper Eisbar — they are all dead?'

'Yes.'

'May I see them too?'

'They are in their ships. They are not preserved like the captains by the guano. They won't be a pretty sight.'

'The wolf-pack — you know where it is, then?'

'I have it safe also.'

I said, 'In the Glory Hole, of course.'

'Of course — where else?'

'Is that why you killed Piet Pieterse?'

'You are here to answer questions, not me.'

Rhennin said, indicating the heaps of uncut diamonds, 'What…?'

'They thought it was rather fun to play for stakes — diamond stakes — like that. There must be Ј50,000 lying on the table.'

'They wouldn't have stolen it.'

'I didn't say they did. They were relaxing, waiting for a radio signal from U-boat headquarters. There are plenty more diamonds in the cache…' I said, 'In the Glory Hole, too, of course.'

'Of course.'

'Another of your secrets.'

'I didn't know about the hoard until Gruppe Eisbar came.'

'Is it still there?'

'Yes. And the U-boats.'

I moved closer so that I could read his eyes. 'Shelborne, you've been here more than twenty years. That whole time would have been worth waiting for the one day when the wind, the tide and the air explosions would have been right so that you could bring out the cache. There must have been such days — but no. What is it that can kill a U-boat pack, five captains, a heavily-armed patrol boat, thousands of buck — and yet cannot induce you to enter the Glory Hole and bring out a fortune?'

He said softly, 'The Bells of St Mary's.'

I laughed, but it came out wrong. 'Or Caldwell's ghost.'

He was so withdrawn that he didn't notice how the muzzle of the Schmeisser had fallen. The black clothing gave the illusion that there was nothing of him but the bald head and abstracted face.

His reply was strange, forced, and he reminded me of our time together on Sudhuk. He meant to kill me then, and I felt sure he intended to now. 'You might rightly say the ghost of the Namib. If ghost means a survival of something which was and now is not, or only in some other form…'

So I had been right: he was speaking of the ancient prehistoric river barrier and its complementary diamond fountainhead.

He ignored me and swung back into the present, addressing Rhennin. 'Are you satisfied now that I didn't kill your brother and the others?'

Rhennin shook his head like a drunk. 'Not with bullets — there's not a mark on him. But he died, and you killed him: that I know.'