companies. She’s the first diamond recovery vessel designed expressly for the job.”
“What’s different about her?”
“Nearly everything. Her hose is operated off a gantry on the foredeck, it goes out through a well pierced through her hull.”
“What kind of hose?”
“Eighteen-inch armoured woven steel with rubber liner.
We can get it down to a hundred fathoms, and it has a compensating section in it to stop it plunging with the wave action of the hull.”
“Eighteen inches is pretty big. How will you build up vacuum?”
“That’s the point, Hugo. We don’t suck - we blow! We evacuate water from the hose by purging it with compressed air, the inrush of water into the opening of the hose sucks in the gravel.”
“Hey, that’s neat. So the deeper you work the more effective it will be.”
“Right
“What about the actual recovery? Are you going to have the usual screening, ball mill, and grease table arrangement?”
“That’s what killed the other companies - trying to separate by the old methods. No. We’ve got a cyclone to start with.”
“Cyclone?”
“You know a cream separator?”
“Yeah.”
“Same principle. just spin the gravel in a circular tank and float off everything with a specific gravity of less than 2.5. Take what is left, dry it, spread it on a conveyor belt and run it under an X-ray machine which pinpoints every single diamond. As you know, diamonds fluoresce under X.
rays and they show up crisply. The X-ray machine reports the diamond to the central computer. Johnny’s voice and whole attitude was charged with enthusiasm which was impossible for his listeners to resist. Tracey was carried along with him, watching his eyes and his mouth as he talked, smiling when he smiled, her lips following his faithfully.
This is the cyclone room,” Benedict van der Byl explained as, with a hand on her elbow, he helped Ruby Lance down off the last rung of the ladder. “I explained to you how it worked.”
“Yes.” Ruby nodded, and looked around the room with interest. The roughly riveted and grey painted plating of Kingfisher’s hull formed a square metal box, in the centre of which stood the cyclone. It was also painted battleship grey, a ten-foot-high cone-shaped circular tower.
“The gravel is blown in through here.” Benedict indicated the eighteen-inch pipe which entered the cyclone room through the forward bulkhead, then connected to the bottom of the cyclone. “Up it goes.”
Benedict flung his hand upwards. “And round it goes.” He made a stirring motion.
“The heavy stuff is thrown off and led away through that.” A
smaller pipe emerged from the shoulder of the cyclone and disappeared through the farther bulkhead. “While the lighter stuff shoots out through the top and is sprayed overboard again.”
“I understand. Now, where is the weak spot?“Ruby asked.
“Come.” Benedict led her across the room, picking their way among the litter left by the workmen who still swarmed through Kingfisher.
They reached a steel door in the bulkhead.
“Watch your head.” They ducked into a long passageway with doors at both ends. On their right hand was an enclosed tunnel that ran the length of the room.
“This is the conveyor room,” Benedict explained. “The concentrated gravels fall through a hot air draught from an electric furnace to dry them. They are gathered on a conveyor belt, concealed in that tunnel, and carried through into the X-ray room.” “This is where you will fit it?” Ruby asked.
“Yes. In the conveyor tunnel. It will mean moving that inspection hatch back twelve feet to give us the space.” Ruby nodded.
“The man who will do the work - can you trust him? “Yes. He has worked for me before.” Benedict did not add that the same man had designed the electronic equipment for the balloons used by the Ring, and had flown out from Japan to convert the ASDic equipment on Wild Goose.
“All right.” Ruby seemed satisfied. More and more she was becoming the driving force in the alliance, bolstering Benedict’s resolution when he showed timidity or when he tried to evade the actions which must, in time, lead to a confrontation with Johnny Lance.
“Let’s see the X-ray room.” It was a tiny cupboard-like compartment. The floor, roof and all four walls were clad with thick sheet lead. Suspended from the roof was the X-ray machine, and under it a circular table the surface of which was covered with a honeycombpatterned stainless steel sheet.
“The concentrated gravel spills on to the table, and the table revolves under the X-ray machine which fluoresces each diamond and the computer picks it up and reports its size and exact position on the table. The computer then commands one of those - ” Benedict pointed to a forest of hard plastic tubes, each attached to a metal arm, to swing out over the table exactly above the diamond and suck it up. The computer selects the correct diameter of tube for the size of the diamond - and, after the tube has obeyed the computer, the table passes under a second X-ray machine which confirms that the diamond has been collected. If, by chance, the tube fails to suck up the stone, then the computer automatically sends the table on another circuit. If, however, the diamond is safely gathered then the waste material is scraped from the table and it swings round to pick up more gravel from the cyclone room - and repeat the whole process. The system is 100 percent effective.
Every single diamond is recovered by it. Even stones as small as sugar grains.” “Where is the computer?“Ruby asked.
“There.” Benedict pointed through the small leaded glass window which overlooked the X-ray table. Beyond it was another small compartment. Ruby flattened her nose against the glass, and peered in.
The computer occupied most of the room, a huge glossy enamelled cabinet not unlike a refrigerator despite the switches and dials.
Benedict peered in beside her.
The computer runs the entire operation. It controls the flow of compressed air into the dredger pipe, it regulates the cyclone, runs the X-ray machine and the table, it weighs and counts the diamonds recovered before depositing them in a safe, and it even navigates the
Kingfisher and reports to the bridge her exact position over the sea bed, it checks the lubrication and temperature of the engines and power plant and on request will make -complete and immediate report of the whole or any part of the operation.” Ruby was still peering into the computer room.
“What happens to the diamonds once they have been picked off the revolving table?” she asked.
“They are sucked through an electronic scale which weighs each stone, then they are carried through into the computer room and deposited in that safe.” Benedict pointed out the steel door set in the bulkhead. “The safe has a time and combination lock. So the system works without a diamond being touched by human hand.”
“Let’s go and talk to the Italian peasant,” suggested Ruby, and as she turned from the window Benedict slipped his arm about her shoulders and hugged her possessively.
“Not now,” snapped Ruby irritably, shrugging off his arm, and she led the way out of the X-ray compartment, passing the locked door of the computer control room opposite the door to the conveyor room. She was impressed with the ingenuity of the system - but the fact that it had been constructed by Johnny Lance made her angry.
Her loyalties had changed completely, going to the highest bidder.
sergio Caporetti felt a small twinge of pity when he looked at Ruby
Lance. So thin, and with a backside like a boy. She would be little comfort to a man on a cold night. Sergio worked the cheroot from one corner of his mouth to other, anointing the stub with saliva in the process. Also she was cold-blooded, he decided. Sergio had a very sensitive intuition when it came to judging the temperature of a woman’s passion. Cold like a snake, he decided, his pity giving way to revulsion. He repressed a small shudder as he watched her settle on to the day couch in his cabin, and cross her long golden legs precisely.
just like a snake, she would eat a man as though he were a little hopping frog. Sergio had admiration for Johnny Lance, but - he decided - not even he would be safe with a woman like this.
“You like my ship?” he asked, an attempt at friendliness.
