Raise the Titanic

    "Did you use your boat for a base camp?"

    "For the next twelve days. I made two, sometimes three field trips a day on cross-country skis, prospecting before returning for a hot meal and a good night's rest in a warm-"

    "Up to now, you had seen no one?"

    "I kept well clear of the Kelva missile station and the Kama security post. I saw no sign of the Russians until the final day of the mission."

    "How were you discovered?"

    "A Russian soldier on patrol his dog must have crossed my trail and picked up my scent. Small wonder. I hadn't bathed in almost three weeks."

    Seagram dropped a smile. Do

    "I couldn't cover the whole island on cross-country skis, so I concentrated on the promising areas that had been pinpointed by the satellite computer printouts." He stared at the ceiling. "The north island; the outer continuation of the Ural and Yugorski mountain chains, a few rolling plains, plateaus, and mountains-most of which are under a permanent ice sheet. Violent winds much of the time. The chill factor is murderous. I found no vegetation other than some rock lichen. If there were any warm-blooded animals, they kept to themselves."

    "Let's stick to the prospecting," Do

    "Just laying the groundwork." Koplin shot Do

    "Of course," Seagram said. He pulled his chair strategically between the bed and Do

    "Thank you." Koplin shifted his body. "Geographically, the island is quite interesting. A description of the faulting and uplifting of rocks that were once sediments formed under an ancient sea could fill several textbooks. Mineralogically, the magmatic paragenesis is barren."

    "Would you mind translating that?"

    Koplin gri

    "Fascinating," Do

    "You are singularly perceptive, Mr. Do

    "But how did you find traces of byzanium?" Seagram asked.

    "On the thirteenth day, I was poking around the north slope of Bednaya Mountain and ran onto a waste dump."'

    "Waste dump?"

    "A pile of rocks that had been removed during the excavation of a mine shaft. This particular dump happened to have minute traces of byzanium ore."

    The expressions on his interrogators' faces suddenly went sober.

    "The shaft entrance was cu

    "One minute, Sid." Seagram touched Koplin's arm. "Are you saying the entrance to this mine was purposely concealed?"

    "An old Spanish trick. The opening was filled until it was even with the natural slope of the hill."

    "Wouldn't the waste dump have been on a direct line from the entrance?" Do

    "Under normal circumstances, yes. But in this case they were spaced over a hundred yards apart, separated by a gradual arc that ran around the mountain's slope to the west."

    "But you did discover the entrance?" Do

    "The rails and ties for the ore cars had been removed and the track bed covered over, but I managed to trace its outline by moving off about fifteen hundred yards and studying the mountain's slope through binoculars. What you couldn't see when you were standing on top of it became quite clear from that distance. The exact location of the mine was then easy to determine."

    "Who would go to all that trouble to hide an abandoned mine in the Arctic?" Seagram asked no one in particular. "There's no method or logic to it."

    "You're only half right, Gene," Koplin said. "The logic, I fear, remains an enigma; but the method was brilliantly executed by professionals-Coloradans." The word came slowly, almost reverently. "They were the men who excavated the Bednaya Mountain mine. The muckers, the blasters, the jiggers, the drillers, the Cornishmen, the Irishmen, Germans, and Swedes. Not Russians, but men who emigrated to the United States and became the legendary hard-rock miners of the Colorado Rockies. How they came to be on the icy slopes of Bednaya Mountain is anybody's guess, but these were the men who came and mined the byzanium and then vanished into the obscurity of the Arctic."

    The sterile blankness of total incomprehension flooded Seagram's face. He turned to Do

    " `Crazy'?" Koplin echoed. "Maybe, but no less true."

    "You seem pretty confident," Do

    "Granted. I lost the tangible proof during my pursuit by the security guard; you have only my word on it, but why doubt it? As a scientist, I only report facts, and I have no devious motive behind a lie. So, if I were you, gentlemen, I would simply accept my word as genuine."

    "As I said, it's your game." Seagram smiled faintly.

    "You mentioned tangible evidence." Do

    "After I penetrated the mine shaft-the loose rock came away in my hands, and I had only to scoop out a three-foot tu

    "Could you say whether it looked as if someone left in a hurry?"

    "Not at all. Everything was in its place. The bunks in a side chamber were made, the kitchen was cleared up, all the utensils were still on the shelves. Even the mules used to haul the ore cars had been taken to the working chamber and efficiently shot; their skulls each had a neat round hole in its center. No, I'd say the departure was very methodical.

    "You have not yet explained your conclusion as to the Coloradans' identity," Do

    "I'm coming to it now." Koplin fluffed a pillow and turned gingerly on his side. "The indications were all there, of course. The heavier equipment still bore the manufacturers' trademarks. The ore cars had been built by the Guthrie and Sons Foundry of Pueblo, Colorado; the drilling equipment came from the Thor Forge and Ironworks of Denver; and the small tools showed the names of the various blacksmiths who had forged them. Most had come from Central City and Idaho Springs, both mining towns in Colorado."

    Seagram leaned back in his chair. "The Russians could have purchased the equipment in Colorado and then shipped it to the island."