Peter Haloran had arrived in South Africa in 1948 and, through a lucky encounter with Tom Sanford, boat builder, was quickly in charge of the boatyard Also in those early days there had been another encounter with a man called Walker, a drinking member of the local yacht club, and he had spun a strange tale about a partisian attack on a secret German convoy he took part in during the war It had been carrying the wealth and papers of the defeated Italian Government