'Pour me one, will you?' He came over to the bar. 'Must be near lunch time.'
I glanced at the cuckoo clock, which was still ticking away merrily as though nothing had happened. It was twelve-thirty. 'I have never felt less like food,' I said.
'Good God! You've seen worse than this,' he said as he took the drink I handed him.
'I know,' I said. 'But that was war. I suppose one gets used to the idea of death during one's battle training. But killing a margin cold blood, that's different. I thought he was going to shoot her.'
'Don't worry — he will. And he'll shoot us, too, if we don't do something about it.' He raised his glass. 'Cheers!' he said. He was quite cool. 'It's a funny thing,' he said, 'the effect that gold or jewels, or any form of concentrated wealth, has on men. Take our friend Stelben; he slaughtered nine men, as casually as you or I would cut a film script. It's the same with Mayne. Already he's killed three men and caused another to commit suicide. That's the straightforward killer for you — the gangster, the man who kills without thought or feeling. He's, a pretty dull fellow really, no emotions. It's only what he does that's exciting.'
'Why the devil did you want to get involved in this business?' I said.
He gave me a quick glance. 'Yes, I was afraid you'd ask that sooner or later.' He hesitated. 'You know, I've been wondering about it myself during the past few minutes. Pride, I suppose, and my insatiable desire for excitement. I had a good record as an Intelligence officer, you know. I didn't fall down on many things. But I did fall down on the matter of Stelben and his gold. And when I read of his arrest and how he had become the owner of Col da Varda, something told me the scent was hot again. I just had to do something about it. And then, when you sent me that photograph, I knew I was right. I recognised Mayne and I thought I recognised Keramikos. I just had to come over and see what was going on. But when I talked this morning about stoking up the fires, it never occurred to me that things would move so swiftly.' He patted me on the shoulder. 'Sorry!' he added. 'I didn't mean to land you in a mess like this. Make no mistake about it, Neil — we're in a pretty tight spot.'
'Well, let's get out of it,' I said.
'How?'
'Surely we could make Tre Croci on skis?'