St. Eustatius cooked under the hot summer sun, the bricks and white walls flickered in the heat, small lizards stepped onto the stone paths leading to the governors mansion and promptly dropped dead from heat stroke. To further aggravate the situation for the islanders it was exceptionally humid as well. It was on days like these that Mephisto sought out the comfort of the secret catacombs under the mansion, where the air was cool and there were fewer dead lizards. He had created a small space for himself in a large chamber, which presumably lay somewhere between the catacombs entrance in the outlying hills and the mansion. In this space he had a few books, maps, a large chair, and a rope leading to a bell which when pulled would notify someone in the mansion that he needed assistance. To light the space, rather than depend on candles Mephisto had consented to allow the scholar Chris to attempt to fashion a series of mirrors that would bring outside light in, provided they were angled correctly. The scheme had worked after a fashion, though it was extremely complicated and prone to random failure when a bat or bird would fly into one of the mirrors and knock it off center.
It was here that Mephisto sat in his chair, sipping tea and reading a book of poetry he had received from Orpheus a short while after the wedding. It was alright, he thought, though terribly morose, and still very whiny. He pondered how Eurydice must have felt to have him back, no doubt she preferred he remain at the bottom of the sea. Sitting languidly in his chair he read the book, though with little focus being paid to the page, his mind was wandering as the words flicked by. He found it easier to day dream this way, to him sitting in a chair and simply letting the mind wander was a hard feat, no, he needed an object of attention that he could neglect with his little mental adventures. When Penelope returned from her trip to England she had assured him that they would depart immediately again for someplace out of the way, as they had both been bitten by the bug of adventure and could hardly spend two days in a single spot without seeking something new. Mephisto flipped a page, carefully balancing his mind so that he wouldn't think too hard about the words, or how many pages he had eyeballed without absorbing any of it. He thought of how he could quickly call the crew back from whatever they were doing in town and they could set out for the jungles of Brazil, or go to the far side of the continent and climb the mountains in Peru searching for lost things, and on the way, to keep the crew happy, they could capture Spanish ships. Yes all of this would be nice he thought, he had let his mind wander now so far from its original place that he had only barely noticed a slight ringing. It was this ringing that now snapped him back to 'reality'. Glancing up he saw his 'bell' was ringing fiercely, meaning someone in the mansion needed his immediate attention. In one swift motion he was up from his seat, his arms akimbo, his right hand snatching the poetry book he had just launched into the air. He laid it quickly down on his chair and yanked the chord next to his bell to let the person on the far end know he was on his way. Before completely exiting the chamber he snatched up his ornate pistol and pulled back the hammer, one could never be sure when a visitor was an old opponent out for revenge.
"I wonder who this could be?" Mephisto mumbled to himself scrambling up the sloping stone steps, the heat become more and more palpable the closer he got to the exit. He saw the light ahead, emanating from the open door leading into Penelope's former bed chamber. He could see figures in the brightly lit room, gesturing at each other wildly, Mephisto pursed his lips and lowered the pistol a little closing in on the exit. Bursting from the shadowy hole Mephisto could now clearly see who his desperate visitors were, to his left Brandon, the world class chef, his brow heavy with sweat, and to his right Tony the scholar, who appeared equally damp.
"We need your help!" They both exclaimed raising their hands in the air.
"With what? What's wrong? Pirates, Spanish? Are there ghosts? Giants? Giant Spanish ghost pirates? I heard they might exist...maybe." Mephisto searched his memory for any reference previously made to such an oddity, he knew there had to be some time it had come up and it,
"Chris has gone missing!" Tony pointed out the door.
" Really, he never goes anywhere, at least not without one of you two."
"I know, since I talked them into moving back to St. Eustatius from Port Royale we've been inseparable! But now Poof!" Brandon swung his arms wide depicting the bodily disappearance of his friend.
"Hmm, well, what happened? When did you know he was missing?" Mephisto gestured for the two men to take seat on the bed, if for no other reason than they seemed about to faint.
"Why this morning it finally settled in to us that he might have disappeared." Tony said, cocking an eyebrow at Mephisto. "He disappears every once in a while, but usually gets lonesome and shows back up in less than a day, well it's been a full three days and no sign! He just walked out the front door of the shack and never said a word...now, now we just don't know."
"He coulda been eaten by jaguars! Or snakes, you know how tiny he is, he's like a appetizer for jungle animals." Brandon clenched his fist for emphasis.
"Well, there must be somewhere he went, one doesn't simply vanish into this air. Think, both of you, where would he wander off to, especially for any length of time, and without telling you where or why he was going?" Mephisto grabbed a stool and positioned in front of the chef and scholar.
"There's no place on the island I can think of, anytime he wants to go do something he takes one of us, and he's got no other friends here except you, but since you're here he mustn't have come to see you. Besides, what's he want to talk to you for? It's not like you guys have a hell of a lot in common!" Brandon sighed and scratched his head, Mephisto frowned a little, he always thought he was a very good friend and would make a great person to visit.
"So you think he left the island, and kept his destination secret? Where in the Caribbean would he go to, any ideas?" Mephisto thumbed the handle of his pistol and noticed it was still cocked, carefully he pulled the trigger and holding the little flint arm lowered the hammer, he didn't want to have to retrieve any more people from the underworld unless he absolutely had to.
"The Caribbean sucks, there is nothing here anyone would want to visit. All there is here is Spaniards, mosquitoes, pirates, blistering heat, jungles and gold. Waitaminute." Brandon turned to Tony, who opened his eyes wide as well. the two friends blinked in disbelief, had they solved the puzzle? "Chris went to El Dorado!"
"What?" Mephisto narrowed his eyes a little, glancing at the two now extremely animated men.
"Of course, when we stumbled on it all that time ago, we almost had to leave him he was so attached to that gold statue! He's got terrible gold fever. Maybe he's been secretly plotting this all along, he was just waiting, waiting for us to drop our guard, then whoomf! He runs off to the golden city!" Tony shrugged, he was certain now Chris was doomed. "He's probably on a little boat, headed for Panama, then he'll wander into the jungle hoping to retrace our steps back to the city."
"You think he would do something so completely irresponsible and insane?"
"Have you met him? Gold fever aside he's the poster child for stupid plans!" Brandon rose to his feet, "We've got to go to Panama and see if we can catch up with him! There is no way my friends going to get kileld in a jungle, unless I'm the one killin' him...out of love. i added that last bit so you guys wouldn't think I killed him or something." Brandon bounced a little on the bed looking from Mephisto to Tony, abruptly he raised his fists.
"Of course not, I don't have any reason to believe you would kill Chris Mr. Frazier." Mephisto rose from the stool and turned for the door, "Come on, lets head for the docks and see if we can get a ship to take us to Panama." Mephsito gestured for his two cohorts to follow.
"You aren't going to gather the crew?" Tony asked inquisitively.
"No, we'll keep this private, the crew would want at least some kind of prize, besides the city of gold mind you. Just getting there they'd want to attack something, so I think it best we travel in secret." Mephisto walked briskly towards the front door of the governors mansion, his shoes clicking down the flight of stairs, his hand extended to grab his coat, which hung neatly on a hook by the large door.
The three men arrived at the docks via carriage, not without undue adulation at the fact that they didn't have to walk the three miles in the sweltering warmth. Stepping from the carriage Mephisto snapped the door shut and asked the driver to return to the mansion, and to leave word with Governor Logan that he would be back in no time at all.
"Now then, lets see if we can find someone to take us to Panama." Mephisto led the way onto the wooden piers, his eyes skipping from ship to ship, noting which ones appeared to be leaving, and which had only just arrived. Amongst these he noted a small sloop, in need of careening, making ready to leave port, the name on the stern read Unicorn. Mephisto skipped ahead a little, noting an older man barking orders to the three visible crewman, the mans face was extremely care worn and weathered, burnt into leather by many days like this. "Excuse me!" Mephisto gave a shout the man glanced over his shoulder and eyeballed the three men.
"We're leavin'! No need to further tax us on the account of our departure, we have had full enough thank ye very much" He coughed at them, backing steadily towards the gang plank.
"No, we aren't with the Port Authority, we're looking to charter a ship." Mephisto explained waving his hands, his long legs kicked into rigid attention upon reaching the squat old man.
"Really?! You want us to take ye somewhere?" The old man beamed.
"Yes, we were actually hoping to go to Panama, Nombre De Dios to be more exact."
"No problem! Climb aboard, we'll leave at once." The old man began guiding Mephisto by the arm to the gang plank then turned and began quickly undoing the ropes keeping the Unicorn moored.
Once out to sea Mephisto settled in comfortably at the bow of the small ship, Brandon and Tony on the deck playing cards, while the old captain smoked a pipe contentedly.
"Ye truly are a blessing sir." The old man smiled, scanning the horizon, "Before ye came along we had been stuck in port for two weeks, nobody wants to hire us because they're afraid we'll fall ta pieces due to the rot in the hull."
"Oh, it's no problem, my old ship was full of holes for quite some time," Mephisto thought back to the Incognito and its mostly wrecked upper decks, "I simply needed this done quickly and without complaint, we have a friend to rescue." Mephisto looked out to the South West, pondering where in route Chris was.
"Well, don't ya worry, if yer in need of a trip back we'll probably be right where ye left us. My names Scrubrush by the way, Arthur Scrubrush."
"Ahh, very good, you can call me Mephisto, everyone else does, my associates are Mr. Frazier and Mr. Wilson." Mephisto turned to his friends who looked up and waved.
"Nobody but him calls us that, I'm Brandon and this is Tony, if you need help in the kitchen ask me, if you need help teaching your men how to read ask him." Brandon pointed to Tony who coughed a little.
"Actually I'm a history and government scholar, you know, 1066, Magna Carta and all that." Tony smiled then turned back to his game.
"I see, well glad to have ya aboard all the same." Arthur said, dumping the burned up contents of his pipe out over the sea. Mephisto carefully pulled himself onto the bowsprit and lightly made his way over the moldy safety net stretching out on his back to watch the sky turn from blue, to gold, red and finally the deep purples and black of night. It was good to be off the island he thought, if only for a little while.
end part 1
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