“The safety pin,” he had announced. “The torpedo is now armed, with fifty-four pounds of guncotton ready to explode the moment this projecting bolt is depressed by impact. The sort of impact you would get if it hit the side of a ship.”
Macintyre had tugged gently on a rope to line it up with the outline of an old hulk, a fishing boat that had run ashore many years before and been abandoned. He thought it would be a nice demonstration of his invention’s power if this could be reduced to matchwood. When all was ready he took a deep breath, and pulled out the pin, which allowed the air from the pressurised tank to flow down the pipes into the small turbine which turned the propeller.
This is where Bartoli’s interventions came into play. At first, all went well; the propeller whirred, the machine began to move. But it quickly became apparent that, instead of heading in a dead straight line towards the hulk, it was veering very sharply off to the right, and only at about two miles an hour, rising and falling in the water like a demented porpoise. Already, the bankers were exchanging glances, and Macintyre was looking distressed.
Worse was to come. For it became obvious—something Bartoli had not intended at all—that the machine was describing an erratic circle in the water, so that its course would bring it back, more or less, to where it had started. That it was going to hit the boat, with that much-advertised fifty-four pounds of guncotton ready to explode on impact.
Something like panic had set in, everyone trying to figure out where the machine would hit and get as far away from it as possible. Only Macintyre stood there, immediately above the likely spot, as it lurched towards them.
Then, the motor stopped. Instead of the supposed fourteen hundred yards range, it gurgled to a halt after little more than three hundred, which was just as well, as another five yards and it would have blown the boat, and all in it, to kingdom come. There was a moment’s silence, then, with a loud and apologetic burp, it sank.
Fortunately, they were in a fairly deep part of the lagoon, as the torpedo went down headfirst and exploded the moment it touched the bottom. I had never witnessed such a thing, but apparently fifty-four pounds of explosive makes a tremendous bang. It must do, if it is enough to sink a battleship. There was a muffled roar, an eruption of water some forty feet high, a small tidal wave which almost turned the boat over, and everyone got soaked. The demonstration had come to its spectacular conclusion.
Macintyre’s backers were unimpressed, to say the least. They had seen the machine fail completely, they had been soaked and frightened out of their wits. The journey back to Venice took place in total silence.
I looked at Bartoli as he finished. “What did you do to it?” I asked.
“Very little, really,” he replied, in a tone which did little to disguise his feelings of guilt. “Just a turn of a screw here and a mismatched connection there. A bit of weighting to put the gyroscope out. Little things, of the sort Macintyre wouldn’t notice.”
“He certainly won’t now,” I said, “as it’s in little pieces. What about the bankers?”
He shrugged. “They didn’t say a word. Not even goodbye. They just marched off the boat when it docked and walked away. Macintyre tried to talk to them, say it worked fine, really. But they didn’t want to hear his excuses. Listen, I have to go back to him. He is really upset and he’s drinking. He could do something very foolish if he’s not watched. Are you sure we did the right thing?”
“Absolutely sure,” I said robustly. “I fully expect a letter from Ambrosian very soon. In their view, the only way to recover their money will be to persuade me to buy the debt before I realise that the machine is useless. News spreads fast in this city, so they will have to move quickly or it will be too late. If I hear something, I will let you know immediately. Meanwhile, go and find Macintyre, tell him not to despair, that all will be well. Tell him whatever you want, but cheer him up.”
I was right. When I returned home, there was a letter awaiting me. In the florid, formal Italian normal for such letters, it informed the illustrious signore—me—that my proposal concerning the Macintyre project had now been put to the board, and had been decided upon favourably. If I wished to pursue the matter, then I should indicate that I wished to purchase the credit note.
There was also a handwritten note from Ambrosian accompanying this formal missive. He had worked hard on this matter on my behalf, he said, and had only persuaded the board to agree because one member was away. He was due to return tomorrow and would undoubtedly try to overturn the decision when he heard about it. If at all possible, then I should come and conclude the deal as quickly as possible, otherwise it would be too late.
I loved the audacity of the man, the smooth and reasonable way he managed to tell such enormous lies. A fine fellow indeed—astute, calculating, ruthless, mendacious; it cheered me up considerably.
I hurried back to the bank as swiftly as I could, then dallied a little, in order to make him a little more nervous. At six-twenty in the evening, just ten minutes before it was about to close, I presented myself and asked to see Signor Ambrosian.
You may think that I should have attended to other matters. Perhaps I should have gone myself to tell Macintyre what was happening; should have gone to see Cort. I agree. I should have done both of these. And if I did not, it was not because I did not consider both of them. But I believed Bartoli could take care of Macintyre and as for Cort—what can I say? I was not yet ready to face him.
“I am so glad we can reach agreement on this matter,” I said once I had sat down and accepted the offer of a glass of cold wine.
“As am I,” he replied with a warm smile. “Although, as I said in my letter, it was not easy to accomplish. But I felt that really we did not want to get involved in the business of setting up factories. However excellent Mr. Macintyre’s machine, any profits that might accrue become greatly postponed. And we Venetians no longer do this sort of thing; we prefer to leave it to the more enterprising English, and pursue lesser, short-term profits ourselves. It is no doubt why England has an empire and Venice has lost hers.”
“That may be so. Certainly I think you do not have a ready supply of the necessary engineers, managers and skilled workers that would allow you to set up such an establishment here. Such people can be found more easily in England.”
“You will manufacture there?”
“I think so. The most obvious customer is the Royal Navy. If it will buy, every other navy in the world will have to follow suit. And it is a patriotic organisation. They will not buy foreign wares if they can avoid it.”
“In that case, I will watch your progress with the greatest interest,” he said. “Now, perhaps we might get the business dealt with? Then I would be very happy to invite you to dinner.”
“That is kind,” I replied. “But I feel I should go and find Mr. Macintyre, and tell him the news. I was just about to go and see him this afternoon, in fact, when your letter arrived.”
Ambrosian ordered a sheaf of papers on his desk, turned them round and proffered them to me. “Then you will no doubt have a great deal to discuss when you see him. Perhaps you wish to read this? I am assuming you can read Italian? If not, I will gladly call someone in to translate.”
I said I could manage, and spent twenty minutes sipping my wine, and struggling through to make sure there was nothing untoward. The language was legal, but essentially clear, and why should there be any hidden catches? It was a deed of sale drawn up in a hurry, and the object was to get rid of a useless property as quickly and cleanly and as absolutely as possible.
“Yes,” I said eventually. “Now, about the price…”
“I would have thought…” he began with a slight frown.
“I am evidently to buy £500 of debt. Now we have to agree at what price I shall acquire it.”
Ambrosian positively beamed at me, and reached for the bottle of wine, pouring two more glasses before settling back in his seat. This, of course, was exactly what he wanted; nothing is more suspicious than
someone prepared to pay a full price. Besides, where was the enjoyment in such a miserable, straightforward transaction?
“In view of the long-term risks, and the inevitable requirement to raise a large amount of additional capital, without which this machine is no use at all, to you or anyone else, I thought a small discount might be in order. To reflect the savings to your bank of divesting itself of this loan.”
“But you yourself have said how much potential it has.”
“And so it has. But at the moment it is without value. You do not wish to go further with it, and I suspect there is no one else in the world who would be prepared to buy it at any price. It is a question of discovering a fair rate for relieving your bank of an unwelcome burden…”
And off we went, for an hour of pure entertainment, which both of us appreciated and which I in particular needed. Here deception was open and understood, emotion under control. It was an antidote to my troubles and concerns. I suggested that a 50 per cent discount would be the very least I could possibly accept. He expressed surprise that I did not consider a price over and above the nominal sum, to reflect the risks that the bank had already absorbed. I countered that those risks were more than covered by interest payments already received…
But, all the way through, I knew he was thinking that the moment I talked to Macintyre, the value of his loan would go down to nothing immediately. Either he reached agreement with me soon, or he lost his entire investment. I gave him an extra £33 and we settled. For £283, I bought the sole and complete rights to the most important new weapon seen for a century.
It was a simpler world then: a gentleman’s word—especially an English gentleman’s word—was as good as gold, quite literally. For payment, I wrote out a brief note to my bankers in London, asking that £283 be paid into credit of the Banco di Santo Spirito’s correspondent in the City. And that was payment made, for even if I turned out to be a charlatan, with not enough money in the bank to cover the amount, Coutts would have felt obliged to pay, and Ambrosian knew this quite well—although I had no doubt that he had already made enquiries about me. He placed all the documents into a large, thick folder, sealed it with a massive seal using prodigious quantities of wax, and handed it over to me, shaking my hand.
“My congratulations, dear sir,” he said with a smile. “And may I say how greatly I admire your trust in your fellow countryman? I would not so readily take such a risk on something without knowing whether it would fulfil its inventor’s promises.”
“Oh, goodness, I’ve done that,” I said as I paused at the door. “It worked splendidly last week. I gather it didn’t perform so well today, but that is a matter easily fixed. No, I have no doubt the torpedo has a great future before it.”
I bowed graciously, restrained myself from smiling in triumph, and left. To his credit, his face showed no anger at all; indeed, I think I even saw just a little twitch of appreciation.
CHAPTER 16
I thought it was time to put Macintyre out of his misery, and tell him that his future was assured, or as assured as I could make it. I had refined my calculations over the past few days, and what I planned was well within my financial capabilities, although I had no doubt I would have to call on friends such as Mr. Cardano for some support at various stages. I was excited; more excited than I had ever been, and it was a welcome distraction from Louise. The more I thought of torpedoes, of banks and factories, the less I thought about her.
My vision was becoming clearer by the minute. It was all very well passing my time as I had done in the past few years, but the buying and selling of shares and bonds is a secondhand operation, removed from the real source of wealth generation. And the prospect of organising an enterprise fascinated me. I did not, I should make it clear, intend to become the manager myself; I knew my limitations and the day-to-day operation of a factory would quickly have wearied me. But setting up the way the managers worked within an elegant, balanced, efficient structure of my own devising—this suffused me with pleasurable anticipation, made me look forward, not back. My eyes turned to England and stopped being dazzled by Adriatic light.
I was in a hurry now. This beautiful, ridiculous old relic was not where things got done, was not where money was made. It was a distraction only, a pause, a place where time was wasted, lives ruined. I needed to inform Macintyre, get the workshop packed up into crates, and the whole lot transported back to England. Somewhere on the south coast, I thought, near to water, which was obviously necessary for testing, not too far away from the great naval bases, close enough to a supply of skilled labour. And where land was cheap enough so that a large enough site could be acquired with ease.
So I was in a confident mood, although that did not last long; when I arrived once more at Macintyre’s workshop it was dark and abandoned; I called out, rapped on the doors, listened for any sound, but there was nothing at all. Nor was he to be found in the little rooms that he and his daughter called home, a scruffy, decrepit building a few hundred yards away. Only the girl was there, all alone.
“Where is your father?”
She shook her head.
“Don’t you know?”
“No. He’s out. I don’t know where.”
“How long have you been here on your own?”
“All day.” She said it defiantly, as though it was the most normal thing in the world.
“I need to find him quickly. I have some good news for him. Will you tell him? It’s important. I have very good news for him.”
She hesitated, and looked at me suspiciously. Some inward tussle was going on inside her tousled head.
“You do know where he is, don’t you?”
She nodded.
“Inside?”
She nodded again.
“Please let me in. I won’t say you told me.” She frowned seriously, bit her lip, then stepped aside. The little sitting room and kitchen were filthy and smelled of old cooking and unwashed clothes. Dark and dingy, the furniture broken down. Poor child, I thought, to be brought up like that. She said nothing more, but simply looked at me seriously, disapproval on her face.
“Macintyre!” I called out. “Where are you? It’s Stone. I need to talk to you.”
There was a thump from the next room, as though something had fallen heavily onto the floor. And eventually Macintyre appeared. He was drunk; dead drunk, redder of face than usual, clothes awry, stumbling and leaning against the door to keep upright.
“Celebrating your good fortune?”
He didn’t even manage to scowl.
“Are you able to talk?”
“Course I am,” he said, and slowly walked to the table, and sat down heavily. “What do you want?”
“I’ve been talking to Bartoli. I’ve heard about the test. Is that the reason you are like this?”
He didn’t answer. So I laid it out to him, simply and clearly, stopping and checking that he understood what I was saying. “So, you see,” I concluded, “all is well. You are delivered from the hands of the Italian bankers, the torpedo is safe and, I would guess in about nine months, we will be in a position to begin production. All we have to do is get everything back to England.”
I’d gone into too much detail. Somewhere along the way I had lost him. He stared at me, head low on his shoulders looking like a confused, dim-witted bullock. I could see his mouth moving as he tried to follow what I was saying. I don’t know what he got from my little speech, but he didn’t seem grateful.
“You did this behind my back?”
“My dear Macintyre,” I cried in surprise and with some annoyance, “I would have told you, truly I would. But I was meeting Signor Ambrosian over quite a separate issue and the topic of your machine came up. I mentioned that I would greatly like to invest in it, and he turned me down point-blank. Out of the question, he told me. I did not mention it, because there was nothing to mention.
“And then, only this afternoon, I received a letter saying that he’d changed his mind. But that I had to make up
my mind as swiftly as possible. I had to take a decision then and there, otherwise all would have been lost.”
“You’ve stolen my invention from me.”
“I’ve not stolen it from you. Because of your foolishness it wasn’t yours anyway.”
“Let me buy it back, then. If you’re a man of honour. It’s mine, you know it is. As long as I’m alive it will be mine.”
“You don’t have any money.”
“I’ll get some.”
I shook my head. “No, you won’t.” I did not, fortunately, have to deal with what I would have done if he had been able to find some.
“And whose business will it be?” he asked sullenly. “What if I want to enter into partnership with someone else? What if I do not wish to have anything to do with you?”
“Then you will be free to do so,” I said evenly, “if you can raise the money to buy back your patent. Then find a partner willing to work with you. And raise the money to finance production. But could you really think of someone better to work with? You are hopeless with money and you know it. Leave that to me.”
“But you never told me.” He had fixed on this; it was the one point which had penetrated the alcoholic haze and lodged in his mind.
“Well, I apologise for that, if it offends you. But do see reason. I am not forcing you to do anything. You can stay here in debt if you really want to. Except that the debt will be to me, not to Ambrosian. Do you have any objections to entering into a partnership with me?”
“Yes.”
“What are they?”
“I don’t want to.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’ve cheated me.”
It was hard to keep patience with him. Why he wasn’t dancing up and down for joy was quite beyond me. Why could he not see how much this was to his advantage?
“Listen, Macintyre,” I said, firmly and calmly, trying to impose myself on him. “You are drunk. In a moment I will leave you alone. When you are sober we can talk again. But bear this in mind before you drink yourself into an even greater stupor. I am in a position to put thousands of pounds behind this machine of yours. You will have the finest workshop in the world at your disposal. Your machine will be perfected and manufactured, without you having to bother with anything at all. All that I am offering you. If you think not consulting you is such a betrayal that you wish to turn my offer down, then you may do so. I do not need you. I can manufacture the torpedo without your help, and will do so, if necessary.”