Summer arrived, bringing heat so intense that even time had to slow down. Everyone moved at a slower pace than usual. Even the wind seemed unable to blow properly. The river would lie gleaming and still until late morning when, at last, a sea breeze would stir the stuffy air.
The Chief and I got temporary work at a woodyard in Xabregas. Working with their big steam saw, we spent day after day turning logs into planks until the foreman eventually told us we were no longer needed. Instead of taking all our pay in cash, the Chief asked for part of it to be paid in the form of oak planks, and they agreed to that. This meant that we acquired some first-class timber at a really good price.
We used the planks to build a new ship’s boat for the Hudson Queen. It had two pairs of oars and a small lug sail, and we named her A Rainha do Tejo—“Queen of the Tagus”.
Ana and Signor Fidardo joined us for the boat’s launch, 106 but only Ana was prepared to accompany us on the maiden voyage: I’ve noticed before that Signor Fidardo is not one for boats. Ana, however, seemed to really enjoy our little voyage around the harbour. A couple of days later she and the Chief made another trip and this time Ana took the rudder while the Chief gave directions and tended the sail. They made many more outings in the ship’s boat and by the end of the summer Ana Molina could sail.
A thunderstorm at the end of September was the first sign that autumn was approaching. That’s when Signor Fidardo discovered rain pouring into the attic of his house. The tiles on the roof were ancient and needed to be replaced.
“The workmen in this city are rogues, every one of them,” he muttered despondently. “I’ll be ruined.”
The moment the Chief heard that Signor Fidardo was worried he suggested that this was a job for him and me. I agreed. Signor Fidardo, on the other hand, hesitated: it was clear that he wasn’t confident that the Chief and I knew how to renovate a roof. Eventually, though, he gave in and ordered a load of roof tiles.
It took me and the Chief a week’s work with a block and tackle to strip off the old tiles and another week to replace them 107 with the new. Everything went well until Signor Fidardo wanted to pay us for our work. The Chief refused to accept any money, but Signor Fidardo wasn’t prepared to go along with that.
“I insist you let me pay what I owe you,” he said.
“You already have done,” the Chief told him with a smile. “A hundred times over, at the very least. If it wasn’t for you and Ana I would still be in jail. And Sally Jones might not even have survived! So be sensible now and let us do you this little favour!”
Signor Fidardo took the Chief’s hand.
“Well, we’ll leave it at that,” he mumbled, “for now. But that’s not the last you’ll hear of this matter, Koskela. I’ll come up with some way of repaying you!”
They have a lot in common, the Chief and Signor Fidardo. Both of them are stubborn and neither of them likes to be in anyone’s debt.
Early one evening a few weeks later, when the Chief and I had just got back from a temporary job in the general cargo harbour, there was a knock on the galley door. It was Ana. She seemed rather excited and wanted us to accompany her at once to the house on Rua de São Tomé.
“Has something happened?” the Chief asked in a worried voice. 108
“Yes, it certainly has,” Ana said, “but Luigi will have to tell you himself.”
“Signor Fidardo hasn’t been taken ill, has he?”
“No, no, not at all,” Ana said impatiently. “Just come with me…”
It was already starting to grow dark by the time we arrived. The window blinds in the workshop had been pulled down for the night. Ana knocked on the door.
“Who’s there?” We heard Signor Fidardo’s voice on the other side of the door.
“It’s us,” Ana said.
The Chief and I looked at one another in confusion. Signor Fidardo never stayed in his workshop after six o’clock in the evening. He was a very precise man when it came to routine.
The lock clicked and the door opened.
“Come in, my friends,” Signor Fidardo said. “So pleased you could come… Shut the door and lock it behind you. We don’t want to be disturbed.”
It was dark in the workshop. The only lamp that was lit was the one above Signor Fidardo’s workbench and it cast a cone of light down on the Hudson Queen’s ship’s wheel, which had spent the last year or more standing on the floor by my workbench.
I looked at Signor Fidardo, a question in my eyes. 109
“I know you were intending to renovate the wheel yourself,” he said. “And you’d do an excellent job without any help from me. But you repaired my roof and I wanted to do something to repay you. So this morning the ship’s wheel came to mind. It’s been standing there for some considerable time and I decided to spruce it up for you.”
The Chief and I stared at the wheel. We were confused. Signor Fidardo didn’t appear to have done very much to it and it seemed to be in the same sorry state as before.
Signor Fidardo read our thoughts.
“No, no,” he said. “As you can see, I hadn’t even got started on renovating it. The first thing I had to do was to unscrew all the brass inlays in order to get at the wood properly. And that’s when I discovered something remarkable… Tell me first, do you know of anything special about this wheel? Anything different about it?”
“Different?” the Chief said. “How do you mean?”
Signor Fidardo and Ana nodded to one another.
“Show them now, Luigi,” she said.
Signor Fidardo picked up a small chisel and leant over the wheel. He carefully eased the blade of the chisel under the brass plate that covered the centre of the wheel. The screws had already been removed so that when he levered the chisel upwards the brass plate came with it. He lifted it and put it to one side. 110
For a short time all four of us stood there looking at what had been hidden under the brass plate.
“What the devil?…” the Chief said quietly.
The central body of the wheel had been hollowed out to create a hiding place about six inches long. It contained a package wrapped in coarse, waxed sailcloth.
“Luigi showed it to me this morning,” Ana explained. “But we haven’t opened the package to see what’s in it. We thought that you two should be the first to do it. And now I’m on the point of bursting with curiosity…”
The Chief looked at me.
“You do it,” he said.
I stepped forward and eased the package out of its hiding place in the ship’s wheel. The sailcloth had been stitched with tarred hemp twine and the seams coated with liquid beeswax to make it all completely waterproof. Signor Fidardo handed me a sharp knife and I carefully cut one stitch at a time until it was possible to open the package.
The sailcloth contained an old, worn and patched bag made of chamois leather. I untied the knot, opened the bag and emptied its contents onto the workbench. Both Ana and Signor Fidardo gasped.
The pearls in the necklace that now lay before us seemed to gleam with a pale and mysterious inner light.