The Lonely Skier (18 page)

At Ponte nelle Alpi we stopped to put on chains. The roads had a thick coating of snow as we climbed into the mountains. It was freezing and the surface was slippery. Shortly after Cortina, Kapitan Stelben ordered us to halt by blowing on his horn. It was just after two o'clock in the morning. We were at the top of a pass. I examined my map and identified it as the Tre Croci Pass and the big square block of buildings we had just passed as the Tre Croci Hotel.

The Kapitan drove up alongside my car and informed me that he had been given sealed instructions to be opened at this spot. He produced an envelope and opened it. He then informed me that he was ordered to place the gold under guard in a concrete building at the top of a cable sleigh nearby. He then took the lead and we branched off the main road on to a track. Within a few hundred metres we reached a concrete building and were challenged by a sentry.

The Kapitan explained his instructions and the sentry called the Korporal of the guard. When the Korporal came out, Kapitan Stelben handed him the instructions. The Korporal appeared puzzled and stated that he must speak with his officer, who was billeted at the hotel. The Kapitan informed him that such a delay was impossible and referred him to the instructions, which apparently stated that the gold must be transferred with the least possible delay and its storage completed before first light. He said that as soon as the gold had been stored he himself would accompany the Korporal of the guard to interview his officer.

To this the Korporal agreed. We then broke the seals of the truck and proceeded to off-load the cases of gold and transfer them to the sleigh, the whole of the guard, which consisted of only two men and the Korporal, assisting. Whilst this was in progress, the Korporal approached me and expressed concern that he had not been permitted to report to his officer. He was a Bavarian and belonged to an anti-aircraft unit which had taken over from the ski troops who had been training there. They were building heavy flak positions at the top of the
slittovia
. He pointed out to me that it was strange that he had not been warned to expect the arrival of such an important convoy and, after some discussion, I became uneasy in my mind, especially as my men were openly grumbling because they had been led to believe that they were proceeding to Germany.

The sleigh would only take half the gold. And when this was loaded, I went with the Korporal of the guard to the Kapitan. The Korporal insisted that he be permitted to report to his officer. Kapitan Stelben at first refused permission. He became very angry and threatened the Korporal with punishment for obstructing the work of the
Gestapo
. I pointed out to the Kapitan that the absence of the Korporal would not interrupt the transfer of the gold, especially as one of the men of the guard was capable of driving the sleigh.

In the end Kapitan Stelben agreed to accompany the Korporal forthwith to see his officer. He instructed me to proceed to the top with the first load. I was to leave one of my men with the remaining guard in charge of the trucks. He then departed with the Korporal.

I posted my man on the truck containing the gold and, with the rest, boarded the sleigh. At the top of the
slittovia
was a building, like a concrete emplacement, which housed the haulage machinery. Near it was a small refuge hut, and just above this were earth workings where the flak guns were being installed. We had barely completed the unloading when the telephone rang in the machine-room. I went in and answered it. It was the Kapitan. He ordered me to have the boxes moved to the edge of the deepest of the pits dug for the concrete gun platforms. Whilst my men were doing this, I was to send the sleigh back for him. This I did and ordered the men to move the boxes to the gun positions. A path had been worn from the top of the
slittovia
to these workings. But it was very slippery. The slope was steep and the boxes difficult to manage. My men grumbled a great deal.

We had not completed this work when the Kapitan arrived. He complained that we were slow. And he kept glancing at his watch. He seemed agitated. The men grumbled even in front of him and he blamed me for not having control.

When the work was completed and the boxes stacked round the pit, he said, ‘Parade your men in the machine-room, Korporal. I want a word with them.' I did this, parading them in a single line on the far side of the room where there was a little space. I was nervous and so were the men. Discipline was not good at this stage of the war, but we were still afraid of the
Gestapo
. The Kapitan gave an order to the driver of the sleigh and he came in with a sheepish look.

Then the Kapitan entered and shut the door. His face twitched and I noticed that there was blood on his tunic and on his left hand. I thought he had fallen and cut himself. He seemed irrit-able and plucked nervously at the sling of the automatic gun on his shoulder. ‘One of the cases in the truck has been opened and some gold is missing,' he said. ‘I am going to search each of you in turn. About turn!' We turned automatically so that we were facing the blank concrete wall.

For some reason I turned my head. I saw then that he had the gun in his hands. At the same moment that I turned, he began firing. I sprang at the naked electric light bulb which was fixed to a wall socket just above my head. I hit it with my fist. In doing this I tripped over a piece of machinery and fell against the cable drum. The room was completely dark. It was full of smoke and the noise of the gun was very loud in that confined space. I felt half stunned, for I had hit my head.

A torch was switched on. I lay still. I could see the Kapitan through a gap in a large wheel against which I was lying. He climbed over to the wall and began examining the bodies, one by one. He had his torch in one hand and his revolver in the other. The door was quite near me. I slid quietly along the floor behind the cable drum and reached it. He turned and fired as I opened it. The bullet hit me in the arm. I staggered out and then felt myself falling. I rolled over and over down a steep slope and finished up in soft snow. I had fallen down the sleigh track.

I climbed into the shelter of the woods. Shortly afterwards the sleigh came down. Kapitan Stelben was driving it, and two bodies lay across one of the seats. A few minutes later firing broke out at the bottom of the
slittovia
. When everything was quiet, I went out on to the sleigh track. But someone was coming up, pulling himself up by the cable. He passed quite close to me and I saw that it was the Kapitan again.

I then made my way down through the woods. At the bottom I found the Korporal, who had gone with the Kapitan to see his officer, lying on his face. The snow was red under his head. He had a bayonet wound in the throat. A little farther on there were more bodies. One had been garrotted. The other two had been killed by bullets. One was the Kapitan's personal servant and the other the man who had driven the sleigh.

I was very frightened at the sight of these dead bodies and at the memory of what had happened at the top of the
slittovia
. I was afraid my story would not be believed. I bound up my wound, which I discovered to be only slight, and had the good fortune to obtain a lift in a truck going down into Italy. This took me to Trieste and from there I managed to obtain passage in a
caique
bound for Corfu. Later, in civilian clothes, I took passage in a schooner for Salonika, where I had been stationed in 1941 and knew people who might help me.

I hereby swear that the above is a true record of what occurred. This is the first statement I have ever made concerning the events described and at no time have I ever mentioned the matter to any one in whole or in part.

Signed: H
ANS
H
OLTZ
.

At Salonika,

9 - 10 - 45.

When we had finished reading the statement, Engles carefully folded the sheet of paper and handed it back to Keramikos. ‘It's strange to see it all written down,' he said. ‘I was convinced that that was roughly what had happened. But I couldn't prove it. Stelben's statement was that, shortly after passing the Tre Croci Hotel, they were forced to a stop because a lorry was drawn up across the road. His men mutinied and joined the men from the lorry. He and his servant, joined by the guard from the
slittovia
, attempted to prevent them getting at the gold. There was a fight. The
slittovia
guard and his servant were killed. He was bound and taken up to the top of the
slittovia
. He managed to free himself eventually and at seven-thirty in the morning he staggered into the Tre Croci Hotel. That was the statement he made to the Commandant of the anti-aircraft unit at Tre Croci. Later he went on with the remaining nineteen cases of gold to Innsbruck, where he made a similar statement to the
Gestapo
.'

‘Yes, I heard about the statement,' Keramikos said. ‘One of my people had seen it. Did the
Gestapo
arrest him?'

‘No. Things were a bit chaotic at the time and he was urgently required in Italy to deal with the threatened Communist risings in the big towns. I interrogated him, you know, when he was first arrested. I could never shake him from that statement. Its weakness was, of course, that they would never have troubled to take him up to the top of the
slittovia
.' Engles looked at Keramikos with a puzzled frown. ‘Just why did you show me Holtz's statement?' he asked.

‘Ah—you are thinking that it tells you where the gold is hidden, eh?'

‘By the time he had killed those men up here and taken the bodies down to the bottom and then climbed all the way back, it could not have been earlier than, say, four o'clock. He reported to the Commandant at the Tre Croci Hotel at seven-thirty. That gives him barely three hours in which to bury the five remaining bodies and twenty-one cases of gold. He wouldn't have had time to move those boxes to another hiding place.'

Keramikos shrugged his shoulders. ‘Perhaps you are right,' he said.

‘Then why did you show me the statement?'

‘Because, my friend, it only tells you where the gold was. It does not tell you where it is now. Don't forget that Stelben owned this place for a short time. And he had two Germans working for him up here. They were here for over two weeks before they were arrested.'

‘Were they alone here?'

‘Yes. Aldo and his wife and Anna were given a month's holiday.'

‘Strange that the two Germans should have been killed in that riot at the Regina Coeli.'

Keramikos smiled. ‘Yes,' he said. ‘Very convenient, eh—for someone. But who?'

At that moment Carla interrupted us. ‘You have secrets that you talk together so quietly—yes?'

‘No secrets from you, Carla,' Engles replied. ‘We were just wondering what your little Heinrich did with the bodies of the five German soldiers he buried up here.'

‘What do you mean?'

‘Don't pretend that you know nothing about it. Where did he put them—and the gold?'

‘How should I know?' She was tense and her fingers were tearing at a button on her scarlet suit.

‘Weren't you here when he had those two Germans working for him?' Engles asked.

‘No. I was in Venice.'

‘He did not trust you, eh?' Keramikos said with a sly smile.

She made no answer.

Engles turned to Valdini, who had moved quietly over to join us. ‘And where were you?' he asked.

‘I also was in Venice,' Valdini replied. He was watching Carla and there was an ugly little grin on his face.

‘You were in Cortina.' Carla's voice sounded startled.

‘No,' he said, still with that evil grin. ‘I was in Venice.'

‘But I told you to go to Cortina. You said you were at Cortina.' She was very agitated.

‘I was in Venice,' he repeated, and his eyes watched her coldly, like a snake.

‘Ah,' said Keramikos. ‘You were told to keep an eye on Stelben and his two friends. Yet you remained in Venice. I wonder why.'

‘There was no need to go to Cortina. The two Germans were friends of Mayne's. They were looking after her interests—and Mayne's.'

I heard Mayne miss a note, and I glanced towards the piano. He was watching us and, as I looked at him, he stopped playing and got up. The others had not noticed. They were watching Valdini. And the little Sicilian was watching Carla.

‘So you stayed in Venice?' Keramikos said. ‘Why in Venice?'

‘I wished to keep an eye on Mayne,' Valdini replied slowly.

‘You were spying on me,' Carla snarled in Italian. ‘Why were you spying on me?'

The corners of his eyes crinkled and his neat little figure was swelled out. He was enjoying himself. ‘You think you can make the fool of me,' he said to her in English. His tone was violent. ‘You think I have no pride. Once you were glad to say,
Si, si, Signor Valdini
. That was when I owned you and fifty gairls like you. And when I permitted you to call me Stefan—how you were overcome with delight! I did not mind Stelben and all those others. That was business. But this is different. I do not trust you now.'

‘You say Mayne was in Venice,' Engles said. ‘What was he doing there?'

‘Making love to Carla,' Valdini replied, and his lips were drawn back from his discoloured teeth in an expression of disgust.

Carla hit him then. She hit him with the back of her hand, and the big diamond ring blazed a trail of blood across his cheek.

But he caught her wrist and, with a quick stoop of his body, threw her over his shoulder. Her head hit the bar rail with a sickening thud. He rushed over to where she lay groaning and began to hack at her ribs with the pointed toe of his shoe. ‘You leave me for a dirty little English deserter who does not care for anything but the gold,' he screamed at her in Italian. He was beside himself with rage, literally crying with anger. ‘Why didn't you trust me? I would have found it for you. But now—'