The River of Diamonds Page 3

  Shelborne put up his right fist to wipe the sweat from his upper lip. It shook like a leaf.

  'lust as your hand is shaking now, Mr Shelborne.'

  'I had blackwater fever,' Shelborne retorted. 'It did this to me…' He gestured at his bald head. 'Even as a young man I was completely bald.'

  Shardelow went in for the kill: 'You contracted black-water fever at Strandloper's Water, then?'

  'I suppose I must have — I was taken ill on the boat going back…'

  'So your partner might himself have died of blackwater?'

  'Yes.'

  Shardelow waved the deed of cession. 'Are you sure you did not obtain the shaky signature on this document from the hand of a man you knew was ill, so ill that he must die?'

  'No! No!'

  'Is that why you are so sure he did die?'

  'No!'

  'And you left him to die, having first extorted this vast potential wealth from him, under circumstances we shall never rightly know?' 'No! It wasn't like that…'

  Then how was it, Mr Shelborne?'

  'As I have told you.'

  Shelborne's faded clothes were soaked with sweat under the armpits, and he wiped his hairless head with a crumpled handkerchief.

  Shardelow merely stood and looked at him while the tape recorded only silence. Then he said in a matter-of-fact voice, 'We'll leave Caldwell's death and go on to the next point: it is particularly germane to my client's case.

  I presume you began prospecting the sea-bed immediately?'

  'No. I had no resources.'

  Shardelow picked up Shelborne's affidavit. 'I see that on your return to Walvis Bay from Strandloper's Water you signed on in a deep-sea Swedish sailing ship.'

  'That is correct.'

  'Your first step towards becoming a master mariner in sail?'

  'Yes.'

  'How long did it take — from ordinary seaman to master mariner?'

  'Close on ten years.'

  'What was your first command?'

  'I signed off before — in South America.'

  'Remarkable! You were nearly ten years in sail — with no doubt poor food and a hard life — in order to achieve a master's ticket and then you signed off without trying for a ship. Why? On the run from your conscience?'

  'I crossed the Atacama desert.'

  That is in Chile, is it not?'

  'Yes.'

  'Just keeping your hand in with deserts?'

  Shelborne grinned for the first time. 'You can call it that.'

  Then?'

  'I signed on as first mate in a Finnish windjammer loading nitrates in Valparaiso. We sailed across the Pacific to Vladivostok. From there I went inland and crossed the Takla Makan desert.'

  That's Tibet — Turkestan, rather. The roof of the world.'

  'Yes.'

  'You successfully braved these two deserts, which are as remote as you could hope to find anywhere in the world, yet you were not prepared in 1930 to venture in companionship with an experienced man like Caldwell into a. small desert just over 100 miles wide because you thought the going would be too tough?'

  Shelborne remained silent.

  'Although a self-styled collector of deserts, you shrank from putting on the hook, so to speak, the gem of them all?'

  'I returned to Mercury just before the outbreak of war. I have been there ever since.'

  The guano islands are, geologically and geographically speaking, part of the Namib — the desert which is rich in diamonds?'

  The tension seemed to have gone out of Shelborne. 'Yes.'

  Then there must be diamonds on the islands?'

  'By no means. Nowhere in South-west Africa are diamonds found more than twelve miles inland. The absence of diamonds in the desert — except for that twelve-mile coastal strip — is an undeniable fact; and an inexplicable one.'

  Shardelow, in reply to the Judge, said that the Mazy Zed outfit intended to call expert evidence regarding the nature of the diamond deposits off the Sperrgebiet. The fudge glanced at the big wall clock. Shelborne had been questioned for more than three hours.

  Shardelow said, 'One last point, Mr Shelborne: have you ever made use of your so-called right to prospect the sea-bed?'

  'In a manner of speaking, yes.'

  'Yes or no? Have you or have you not prospected the off-shore concession area?'

  Shelborne seemed uneasy. 'It is one of the wildest coastlines in the world… It has a formidable reputation…'

  'Answer the question!' snapped the Judge.

  'I have prospected as best I could. My equipment was somewhat primitive — grabs and dredges, weighted buoys with grease-traps to bring up samples from the ocean floor.'

  Rhennin pulled at Shardelow's sleeve and whispered urgently. Shardelow grinned and nodded.

  'Remembering an old custom among prospectors never to visit another's claim unless invited, I shall not ask you what you found,' he said blandly. 'You did say, however, that your equipment was… er…?'

  'Somewhat primitive.'

  'Somewhat primitive.' He turned the phrase appreciatively over on his tongue. 'And in your opinion wholly inadequate for the immense task of prospecting a wild coastline of 250 miles?'

  'Yes, wholly inadequate. You see…'

  'Quite so, quite so. Suppose you were floating a company to mine undersea diamonds, what would you estimate to be the capital required?'

  'Half a million sterling at least.'

  Shardelow almost bobbed. 'Thank you, Mr Shelborne, thank you very much. That is all I wanted to know.'

  The proceedings, when the court sat again after lunch, lacked the tense air of the morning. Shelborne sat near the young woman. Dr Clive Stratton, Chief Government Geologist for Northern Namaqualand (which included Oranjemund), was round, sun-tanned, didactic. The Judge listened patiently while he explained how a diamond was a piece of carbon which had crystallized under heat and pressure. There were, he said, three distinct types of diamonds in South Africa — the mined diamonds from famous places like Kimberley and Premier Mine, Pretoria; ordinary river alluvial stones; and South-west African stones. He paused as he drew this last distinction.

  Shardelow was on to it at once. 'Why do you stop there, Dr Stratton? What is so different about Southwest African stones?'

  'They are distinct in kind; in fact, they are unique, though there are similarities with Brazil diamonds…'

  'They are neither alluvial nor mined diamonds?'

  'No. They occur in marine terraces close to the sea.'

  'What are marine terraces, Dr Stratton?'

  'I'll put it this way: millions of years ago diamonds in the Sperrgebiet were deposited in rock which has since been covered with sand — up to forty feet of overburden, as we call it. The sand must be scraped away until the diamonds are exposed in gravel beneath or in rocky potholes. We know the approximate age of the diamond deposits because of the Oyster Line…'

  The Oyster Line, Dr Stratton?'

  The Oyster Line, Dr Stratton explained, had been named and discovered by a German-born geologist, Dr Hans Merensky, in 1927 at the Orange River mouth. Dr Merensky had a theory about the origin of diamonds, a revolutionary theory which was widely derided at the time — until he found the Oyster Line. Dr Merensky believed that diamonds on the Sperrgebiet would be found in conjunction with ancient fossilized oyster shells in marine terraces. Dr Merensky had traced a line of these ancient prehistoric shells on the seashore. He sank a trench a few feet long — and took from it a king's ransom in diamonds. He had discovered the greatest diamond field the world has ever seen.

  Shardelow said, 'Might one therefore assume that the same agency which distributed diamonds in the marine terraces of the Oyster Line a million years ago also deposited them on the bed of the sea?'

  Stratton looked uncomfortable. 'No, not quite… You see…'

  The Judge interrupted: 'The court does not see, Dr Stratton. Are you trying to convey to us that the diamonds in the Oyster Line terraces had a different point of origin
from those in the sea proper?'

  Stratton became voluble. There had been conflict for over half a century about the origin of the South-west Africa diamonds. There were three main theories: first, that the diamonds had been released by weathering from the ancient crystalline rocks of the basement system, but this had been exploded when no gem stones showed up among the shoreline rocks. The second theory had likewise been exploded, namely, that the South-west Africa stones had come originally from deep within the South African hinterland, had been washed down by the Orange River to the sea, and then been scattered by the powerful Benguela current. A variant of this second theory placed the point of origin in South-west, rather than South Africa, but this did not hold water either, because no diamonds had been found along the course of the Orange or of any other of the ancient rivers.

  'And the third theory, Dr Stratton?' Shardelow pressed. Stratton had hesitated, as if unwilling to present something damaging to his academic reputation.

  'Some people think there is a diamond pipe or pipes — you could call it the fountainhead or parent rock — buried under the sea off the Sperrgebiet, from which all diamonds have for thousands of years been spread along the coast by the current.'

  What do you, as an expert, think of that?'

  'Frankly, I think it is nonsense…'

  Shardelow wasn't having the Mazy Zed's chances spoiled by Stratton's academic sectarianism. He said, smoothly:

  'But it was a view held — propounded even — by no less an authority than Dr Merensky himself, was it not?'

  'Merensky held radical theories which have not been proved.'

  'That is what the experts said about his Oyster Line theory — before he discovered Oranjemund.'

  The Judge intervened: 'Has evidence been brought forward, one way or the other, to prove or disprove this idea of an undersea origin of all the diamonds?'

  'No, my lord. I said at the outset, that there is considerable controversy about the origin of diamonds on the Sperrgebiet. But we who have worked here with them for a lifetime…'

  'Thank you, Dr Stratton. To sum up, then, you would consider it not unlikely that there are diamond deposits on the sea-bed off the Sperrgebiet?'

  'Subject to various qualifications, yes.'

  Stratton stood down as the Judge nodded for the next witness.

  The court orderly rose.

  'I call Mary Caldwell.'

  3

  The Gquma

  The young woman sitting opposite me rose.

  Shelborne, a few chairs away from her, had also half-risen. I thought it was out of courtesy — until I saw his face. It was like lead. The bald head was thrust forwards and sideways towards the smart, black-hatted figure in a poinsettia red costume very much a la mode. Incredulity, doubt, fear one might almost have said, were perceptible in his face as she edged past him.

  Shardelow leaned across towards Rhennin and myself: The old man from the sea is in trouble.'

  Shelborne may or may not have taken leave of Caldwell in the way he had described, but the past was certainly coming up and hitting him right now.

  Mennin, the counsel who had brushed off our inquiry by saying he was merely holding a watching brief for an important client, grinned across at the Mazy Zed side, scarcely able to contain his triumph at our discomfiture. Until that moment it seemed to have been generally accepted that Caldwell had been a bachelor.

  Rhennin muttered, Three-sided fight now. I wonder what sob-stuff she's going to put over about dear old Dad.'

  The Judge's ascetic, inquisitorial face held little promise for that line of approach.

  The orderly intoned, 'You are Mary Caldwell and the evidence you shall give…'

  She raised her black-gloved hand — which perfectly set off her elegant suit — and was duly sworn.

  'Your age, Miss Caldwell?' Mennin asked.

  Her voice was slightly husky, deeper than usual in a woman.. The hazel eyes were flecked with amber. 'Thirty-three.'

  'Where were you born?'

  She looked amused; I liked the smile. 'Do you really want to know?'

  The fudge's voice was edged. 'Miss Caldwell…'

  'In a train.'

  'In a train?'

  'In the desert south of here. The engine driver was trying to make his best time to the nearest railhead; my mother…'

  'Yes, Miss Caldwell. Your occupation?'

  'Diamond sorter.'

  The best diamond sorters are Bushmen because of their keen eyesight. I had not heard of a woman sorter before. Certainly she wasn't dressed out of a sorter's pay.

  Rhennin said in an aside to me, 'Looks as though Caldwell must have left money after all, despite his jinx.'

  Mennin said, 'Isn't that a somewhat unusual occupation for a woman?'

  She was defensive. 'I've trained for it, although I've never actually done it. For a number of years I have been a companion to my mother, who is an invalid.'

  Shelborne was slumped forward, chin in hand, eyes fixed on Mary Caldwell.

  Mennin said formally, 'My lord, the application I am making to this court is that the undersea prospecting rights of the Sperrgebiet seaboard rightly belong to Caldwell's widow, Mrs Kathleen Caldwell, at present resident in Cape Town and, as you have heard, a permanent invalid, and therefore unable to attend this hearing. My client contests the validity both of the claim of Frederick Shelborne and that of the Mazy Zed organization as counter to rights already accorded by the former German Government. We contest this cession made at Strandloper's Water on grounds that it was made under dubious circumstances.'

  'Why then did you not cross-examine Mr Shelborne?'

  Mennin smiled.

  The reason is simple, my lord. Mr Shelborne had the document — the original — for which my client has been searching for many years. The best we were able to do was to produce a sworn copy from the records of the former German authorities. Mr Shelborne was good enough to produce irrefutable proof of my client's claim.'

  The fudge said, 'Very well. Now, Miss Caldwell, why cannot your mother attend?'

  She fumbled in her handbag. 'I have a medical certificate here. She has had a stroke and is not able to speak, or properly comprehend.'

  The fudge nodded and Mennin asked, 'Your late father, the famous Mr Caldwell, made your mother his sole legatee and, one presumes, after her death yourself?'

  'Not quite. My mother inherited nothing of value from my father.'

  I could see the fudge's disbelief.

  'May I explain. My father went away on his last adventure leaving us poor. We were living at a place called Kleinzee…'

  Kleinzee! It was one of the great strikes of the diamond coast!

  'We had a house, more of a shack really. My father went away. My mother has told me that a few days later she wanted some lime to whitewash the house; we

  couldn't afford to buy paint. She searched in the veld for some likely rock to grind up. She kicked up a piece. It came away — full of diamonds. It was a diamond matrix.

  The ground was next to our shack. Its owner made my mother a grant — a very handsome grant — for her lifetime. He soon became a millionaire. It ceases when she dies.'

  'So, Miss Caldwell, the ill-luck which had dogged your father all his life once more had come into play?'

  'Yes. He was recalled from what is now Oranjemund — four years before Merensky's strike — when he was on the point of making the discovery of discoveries. He'd found diamonds here…'

  'And from what you have just told the court, he missed another fabulous fortune on his very doorstep at Kleinzee by going off into the unknown?'

  She looked a little tired. 'Yes. His bad luck was proverbial. There was also The Cliffs, near Port Nolloth. He…'

  She made a little defeatist gesture. Shelborne's hand on his chin twitched and he coughed asthmatically. His face seemed even more gaunt.

  Mennin went on: 'Mr Shelborne, having been a close companion of your father's on many expeditions, must have been well known to you
r family?'

  She looked puzzled. 'No. My mother never mentioned such a person.'

  'Did he ever come to your home at Kleinzee?'

  'I was a few months old when he went away, and I never heard of the name when a child.'

  'After your father's… ah… final disappearance he did not show up?'

  'No. My lord, all this is new to me. I have been told that the newspapers were full of the disappearance of my father. For months — even years later — there were articles about him. He was a name associated almost romantically with diamonds and I think people somehow expected him to come back, crowned with luck, you might say. Luck had eluded him so desperately all his life.'

  Mennin said, 'Yes the only man who could have shed light on your father's disappearance was — we have his own words for it — training to become a master mariner, and then later crossing deserts in the remotest corners of the globe?'

  She nodded and shot a glance at Shelborne, who was staring at the floor.

  'Nevertheless, today, more than three decades later, he comes forward with a paper signed by your father ceding him the undersea prospecting rights. For half a lifetime he has done nothing about these rights except drop a few dredges and buoys with grease traps…'

  'Ask questions, Mr Mennin — do not put words into the witness's mouth.'

  'As your lordship pleases. Now, Miss Caldwell: do you remember what your father looked like?'

  The Judge intervened. 'Mr Mennin, the witness could not have been a year old at the time of her father's disappearance.'

  'I was about to say, my lord, that I naturally have no personal recollection of him. My mother, however, described him as big and dark.'

  'Bearded or clean-shaven?'

  She dug again in her bag. 'Here is a photograph of my father and mother, taken in Port Nolloth a few weeks after my birth. You'll see, he was bearded, with a shock of thick black hair. My mother said he could run down a buck in the desert, he was so strong.'

  'After your father vanished, your mother never had any further communication from him?'

  'None.'

  Mennin, having created his impression, handed her over to Shardelow to cross-examine.