Just when they thought they could no longer stand it, Nate and Gustavo appeared at the door. Gustavo was carrying a shotgun and a backpack as well as one of the tents they had used before their arrival. He shuffled down to the dock and greeted the girls all in such a commotion of thought and feeling that he had to busy himself with the chore of bailing out the dugout that had been stored beneath the dock to avoid a welling up of emotion he did not want the girls to see. He loaded his gear into the the canoe and greeted the girls weakly: "Senoritas..."
"Que le vaya bien," said Dory.
Nina stuck out her hand instinctually and he grabbed it, nearly falling into the water despite his acrobatic sense of balance. He let her go and chuckled half-heartedly.
"Hasta Luego," he waved.
The girls waved back but no one smiled.
He sat down and began to paddle across the lake. In the middle of the lake he stopped to comb his hair.
They could feel the dock shake as Nate arrived. He was jubilant.
"Well," he said, "Gustavo hates Benecio even more than I thought."
"Where's he going ?" asked Dory.
"He's going to paddle down the yacu, the stream, we came in on and camp out out til Benecio comes back."
"Is he going to kill him ?" Dory asked, frightened.
"Not if he doesn't have to," said Nate, "I know ,I know that sounds crude, but the idea is to scare the living crap out of him. To take him to the settlement of the Basque Separtist Priests who he knows and dump him their without transport. Meanwhile you all. Meaning you, and you, are going to help me get whatever we can out of this mine before he figures out what to do. Whats he going to do at the settlement? Tell the priest that he has a fortune in emeralds and someone is trying to overthrow him? Who can he trust to share in this business with him? First the ugly part of overthrowing us- and if they will overthrow us why won't they over throw him- As greedy as he is he'll never find anyone to help him. I know of only one guy that he has mentioned, a stone buyer from the Chivor mine in Columbia, his compadre, who he thought he would lay off the stones on- a certain quantity a month- like a fence ,so no one would get suspicious about a flood of emeralds into the market and Chivor is privately owned ... he had some subterfuge planned which he never clearly explained to me that we could pass these stones off as chivor stones because some of them have this special wagon wheel design in the stone that only comes from chivor- not a wagon wheel... its the wheel they use to press the juice out of sugar cane to make pure rum..its called a trapiche, a trapiche emerald...here" he pulled a perfect emerald that was quite enormous out of his pocket, "you see its like a star pattern six points radiate out like spokes because of dark carbon impurities and look at the transparency and fire of this baby...It hasn't even been cut yet.
Anyway the way I figure it, If we keep our wits about us with Fernando to help us we've got a good long time before Benecio figures out what to do. Maybe even a month."
And then what will he do?" asked Dory.
"I don't know but we'll all be rich and long gone and while the old fellow will pout a little,it will be hard going,but there might be plenty left for him and whoever he chooses to trust."
"But he looks like a man who will take his...venganza."Said Dory Unable to come up with the word in English.
His revenge? He has to catch us first.""I don't like this man."
"You have no choice now. If at some point a new direction becomes availble for you and Nina that is safer or more desirable, by all means I will encourage you to take it. I'm cutting you and Nina in for a sixteenth part"
"So you are going to make us slaves?"
"Very rich slaves. Probably higher than you can count. You and Nina get a sixteenth share as does Fernando. Gustavo gets 4/16th and I get 9/16ths and out of my 9/16ths comes 1/16 for dolores. I say it that way because I am going to manage the money for her because among other things Benecio did not teach her is any concept of money.
Youll be able to do whatever you want with the money. Give it away if that turns you on!"
"No, I have a use for it," said Dory Dreamily
"There that wasn't so difficult."
"I am not so very strong,"said Dory.
"What?"
"I said I am not so very strong."
"Iheard you the first time. Believe me a good part of this will be like picking strawberries."
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