The inferior vena cava is an oxymoron. This “hollow vein” is the largest in the body.

—Galen’s Anatomy

Chapter 11

If you ever take it into your head to visit Gentle Annie’s establishment on the second floor of Main Street, above the general store, I’d recommend a stop by the bathhouse first. You can’t spit in Annie’s rooms without winging a gilded mirror.

To tell you true, you can’t spit in Annie’s rooms at all. She’s covered the walls in a red, rippled silk, and she’s most particular about keeping it pretty. You’d better be sure to mind your spurs and boots as well. Her parlor is stacked with tippy wee tables and plush velvet sofas. It’s not a decorating style that I particularly care for, but the company more than makes up for the inconveniences.

Jenny and Louis were regular visitors to Annie’s, so the plaster cherubs on the ceiling held no surprises. Pandora, on the other hand, was shocked to her core. Mrs. Quinn’s idea of gracious living was a day without fleas. This kind of luxury, with doilies for saucers and silver for spoons, was akin to a trip to the moon.

“Well, now, Jenny,” said Annie, whirling her bonnet onto the hat shelf and pinching her cheeks, “let’s fetch you your box.”

Jenny squirmed. From the bank to the door, she’d been doing her best to push off King Louis. But Louis had stuck stronger than dried molasses. Her only hope now was to get the safe-deposit box away from his sight to search it in private. It was useless relying on Pandora for assistance in this task. Her best friend was fixed on tracing the roses in the carpet.

“Pandora, come help me with the fastenings. Louis, lay out the tea cakes.”

Pandora got to her feet and headed off with Gentle Annie into the next room. Jenny had a glimpse of brass and puffed eiderdown before the door swung to.

Without a word, King Louis walked over to Annie’s sideboard, took an array of apple cakes, and arranged them on top. Striking a match on his teeth, he lit the burner under the kettle and tossed the stub in a saucer. Then he sat down on a chair and stared at Jenny. Willing her eyelids to stay still, Jenny stared back.

“Here we are!” said Gentle Annie, barreling back into the room and laying the box with the X on a side table. “The Burns family treasures.” She patted her bottom. “It’s fortunate you thought of hiding the substitute box in my bustle, Jenny. It’s the one place large enough to hold such a thing.”

Jenny looked for the option to bolt, but King Louis was stationed between her and the exit.

“Well, aren’t you going to open it?” demanded Louis.

“Shush your mouth, Louis,” said Annie. “There are things of a private nature in there.”

“You’re not wrong,” said Louis, grinning. “Because that’s not her bank box.”

Jenny gulped. Pandora flinched.

“What are you talking about?” asked Annie.

“It belongs to Mike Magee.”

Gentle Annie crossed her arms over her substantial bosom. “And how do you know that?”

King Louis leaned his chair back, dug into his waistcoat pocket, and tossed a metal object into Jenny’s empty teacup. It ricocheted a few times around the side before coming to rest in the middle. “Because I was ordering mine at the exact same time he was ordering his.”

Jenny took her time looking down, predicting from the start what she’d see. And, sure enough, there it was.

A brass tag with the letters “IX.”

“Jenny? Pandora? Do you have something to tell us?” asked Gentle Annie.

The lie on Jenny’s tongue never got past her teeth.

“We think we’ve found Doc Magee’s missing gold nugget,” said Pandora. “The one he fetched up at Moonlight Creek.”

This was a gunpowder blast and no mistake. Gentle Annie’s eyes bloomed to the size of melons. King Louis’s chair returned to its four feet with a thump. Jenny glared at Pandora.

“We might as well tell them,” Pandora said to her friend. “Louis wasn’t going to let us leave the room with Magee’s box. And I want to see what’s inside.”

“That explains why you were nosing round his place of business,” said King Louis.

Jenny interrupted before Pandora had the chance to reveal anything more about the skeleton map and their journey and the clues.

“Yes. And we found something in the office that led us to the bank.”

She paused and waited for the response. King Louis was petting his goatee. Gentle Annie was playing an invisible melody on the tabletop. The kettle started to scream. Gentle Annie rose without speaking and quenched the flame in the burner. With an ease born of practice, she poured boiling water over the tea leaves and into the pot. “It will need a few minutes to steep,” she said, placing the porcelain in front of them.

“So?” asked Jenny. “Are you going to let me open the box?”

“Well,” said Louis, “legally speaking, it’s not yours.”

“Why do you care?” countered Pandora. “You already told us that the law and you have never been bosom companions. And Mum says you’re the trickiest gambler in the territory.”

“You got me there,” said Louis. He began twirling the ring on his pinkie finger.

“Louis, we haven’t heard from Mike for years,” said Annie. “He could be dead.”

“Could be,” said Louis. “Or hiding. We don’t know for sure.”

“No,” said Annie, tapping her fork on her cup. “We don’t know for sure.”

“Oh, for the love of Peter and Paul!” yelled Jenny, her temper finally finding its voice. “Can’t we talk about it after?”

Louis rapped the table. “Who’s got the key?”

Pandora knelt down, unlaced her shoe, lifted up the inner sole, and pulled out her prize.

“Ah,” said Annie, smiling. “Clever girl.”

Jenny was too ginned up to notice the compliment. Snatching the key from her best friend’s hand, she shoved it into the lock. The lid sprang away.

The first thing she saw was another box. A wooden one with a curved lid, the grain laced with red and the sides composed of triangular panels. It was resting on what appeared to be a bed of wilted petals. She caught it up and laid it down on the table. A faint scent of roses floated through the room.

“It is a chest!” said Jenny. “And it’s heavy.”

“Gold is weighty stuff,” said Gentle Annie. “That’s how you can pan for it. It sinks to the bottom of gravel and silt.”

“That’s some fancy-looking wood,” noted Louis. “Tropical, I’d bet.”

Willing herself to keep from cackling, Jenny cracked open the chest and peered inside. “Holy troves!” Laughing maniacally, she grabbed hold of the nugget, vaulted the table, and began springing from chair to sofa and back again. “I’m rich, I’m rich, I’m rich!”

“Jenny Burns, sit down! You’re grinding dirt into my velvet!”

But Jenny was not to be sat. She’d forgotten Pandora, and Annie, and the bend in the road that led to home. She was gripped in the fever that was the bane of this country’s existence.

She might have been jumping all day if Louis hadn’t started laughing along with her. And that’s when she knew something was awfully awry. Louis only laughed like that when the occasion was to his advantage.

“What?” asked Jenny, leaping off her perch.

“You do realize you’re holding iron pyrite.”

“What’s that?”

Louis grinned. “Fool’s gold.”

Jenny was of a mind to weep. She was of a mind to wail. She was of a mind to chuck herself through the window and let the devil take the dismount. But instead she sat down on her chair and clamped her mouth shut. Beside her, Pandora gave a miserable moan.

“What is it?” asked Gentle Annie.

Pandora raised her right hand toward Jenny. “Remember how the second pillar on the Sleeping Girl was leaning over the first?”

“Yes.”

“I thought it was for luck—crossing fingers.” Pandora crossed her middle finger over her index finger to form a narrow X. “But it’s also for backing out on a promise.”

Gentle Annie sighed and poured herself a cup of tea. “I think we’d best hear the whole story. From the beginning.”

The last thing Jenny felt like doing was explaining herself to Louis. On the other hand, she’d run out of options. She could almost hear that fool piece of iron pyrite blowing raspberries at her.

“We discovered a map—” started Jenny.

“A diagram of a skeleton,” interrupted Pandora. “And we realized the bones on the map were pointing to rocks and places in the mountains. So we went to Doc Magee and Silent Jack’s hut, where we found a shovel and a humorous song that led to the end of the Sleeping Girl. That’s where we dug up the key with the X on it and another clue. It pointed to the gold nugget being in bank box number ten.”

Disregarding any talk with her mother or Hapless, this was probably the most sustained bit of speech that Pandora had ever had in the presence of adults. Jenny put it down to Gentle Annie’s winning ways, but you never can tell. Perhaps Pandora was beginning to realize that in order to make your voice heard, you need to exercise it.

“Phewwww,” Louis whistled through his teeth. “That sure as heck sounds like one of Mike Magee’s larks. But I’m surprised about the ending. He usually kept his promises.”

“Someone else could be involved,” noted Gentle Annie.

“Yes, that’s what I was thinking!” said Jenny, recalling her earlier guess. “See, one of my ideas is that a killer in Eden knocked off Magee and found the nugget. He could have figured out the clues about the hut and bank box, took the gold, and substituted iron pyrite. Or he might even have made up the hunt himself!”

The words were no sooner out of her mouth than she realized to whom she was speaking. Louis was one of her chief suspects. He was close with Doc Magee, he was cleverer than sin, and his pursuit of wealth knew no bounds. You don’t go and tell a potential murderer that you’ve discovered his cool and cunning plan. It’s an invitation to getting your throat cut.

Fortunately, King Louis didn’t seem to believe he was capable of slaughtering his best friend. And he looked much more intrigued than amused by the fool’s gold.

“Sounds like a pie-in-the-sky theory to me. Despite your antics today, I can’t believe Polk missed someone lugging a great big rock out of the vault. Annie, can you peg anyone in the past ten years who’s gotten rich unexpectedly?”

“Just you and me,” said Annie. “And I can account for all the men at the poker games who made it so.”

“Which brings us back to the notion that it was Mike Magee who planted the pyrite,” noted Louis.

“But why would he go to the trouble to create a fake treasure hunt?” asked Jenny.

“Darned if I can figure,” said Annie. “One last laugh?”

“That’ll be it,” said King Louis. “I’ll lay you ten to one Mike cashed in that nugget as soon as he fished it up. He’s probably lounging in a hammock somewhere in the South Seas.”

“And nobody talked about a man exchanging the biggest piece of gold in the territory for money? I don’t believe that,” said Pandora, sticking out her tongue.

“Well, bully for you,” retorted Louis.

“I wish Magee was here now,” said Jenny, gripping the iron pyrite so hard that blood leached from her fingertips. “I’d show him what I think of jokers.”

Gentle Annie laughed. “Even you, Miss Burns, with your fiery ways, would have a hard time losing your temper.” She smiled at a secret memory and sipped at her tea. “Do you remember the first time I saw the both of you, Louis?”

King Louis chuckled. “Sure as the corn grows.”

“I was just come to Eden,” said Gentle Annie to Jenny, “and didn’t know my top from my tail. Someone told me that the miners were celebrating the end of snow with a dance over at Mackenzie’s barn.”

“Keep in mind there were very few females round these parts in the early days,” said Louis. “So we had to make our own entertainment.”

“He means that men were dancing with men,” interrupted Gentle Annie. “And pretty poorly, too.”

“Except for our Mike!” laughed Louis, slamming his fist on the table and making the cutlery quiver. “That man could waltz with a polka and still have breath for the gallop. Everybody wanted to be his partner.”

“He was jigging a mazurka on the top of two beer barrels when I met him,” said Gentle Annie. “And juggling potatoes.”

Jenny had seen enough of Eden’s parties to picture it. The kick of the hay dust and the wheeze of the harmonica and one hundred beards twirling in unison. In spite of her fury at being tricked, she was beginning to develop a liking for Mike Magee.

“Louis told us about being dunked in the river and given a coronation,” noted Jenny.

“That’s right!” Annie smiled. “I’d forgotten that! Do you remember, Louis? Mike was also the one responsible for turning poor old Victor Jones into ‘Soapy.’”

“Sure I do. The Crooked Man range is one of his babies.”

“And the Wise Women,” added Annie. “I reckon he must have given a title to half the places in the territory.” She sighed. “Lord, I do miss him.”

With the sigh came a thought. Jenny wondered if the love Annie lost in the Rush might have been Doc Magee. That was probably the reason she liked having children to visit and Louis to joke with. It must have been very hard to picture the promise of a life and a family, and then have it taken away.

King Louis uncorked a small bottle and tipped some of the liquid into his tea. “I blame Jack. We were all fine and dandy until Mike’s twit of a partner went and ruined our good times.”

“Louis, you know how I feel about medicinals.”

“Keep your garters on, Annie; it’s just vanilla.” He waved the bottle under her nostrils. If Jenny noticed that the bottle near Annie’s nose wasn’t the same as the one being deposited in Louis’s pocket, then she wasn’t going to waste her time on it.

“I don’t know why you took against Silent Jack,” said Gentle Annie. “He seemed pleasant enough.”

“Shifty,” said King Louis. “Like those Lum brothers.”

“Louis!” exclaimed Annie. “Kam and Lok are as honest as can be!”

“Rubbish. Look how they stick to themselves, don’t bother to learn good English, pick over the remains of other men’s diggings. I’m willing to tolerate a variety of folks, but a man has to draw the line somewhere. My father always said you can’t trust an Oriental, and I believe him.”

Though Louis’s loathsome creed was typical of the era, and worse besides, there’s a reason Jenny asked me to repeat it. Folks who follow the twists and turns of character might find it a point of interest that our heroine stayed silent. Jenny wanted to leap up and tell Louis he was plumb ignorant of everything to do with Kam and Lok’s history and their family and their country. She wanted to scream that his statement was as ludicrous as saying you couldn’t trust a European. She wanted to scrub every hateful racial slur from common speech.

But she knew that to speak out now would mean putting herself in the line of fire. So instead of rising from her chair and smiting King Louis with her wrath, she merely gnawed on her lip and stared at her reflection in the mirror. For a girl who prided herself on loyalty to her friends, it was not an edifying spectacle.

“Enough!” said Gentle Annie, whacking the round of her spoon hard over Louis’s knuckles. “Say one more word against the Lum brothers and you can find another nest to feather. Their father was from away; I’m from away; you’re from away. In fact, the only people who have a right to claim a patch of Eden are the two girls in front of us. At least they’ve got the blood of the land in their veins.”

“Silent Jack must have been from away, too,” piped Pandora. “Where was he born?”

Her scalp crackling with sparks, Gentle Annie rubbed her powder-gray wig from side to side.

“You know, that’s a funny thing. I don’t remember. He spoke so little that it was hard to get a noun out of him. He had a growl, that I recall, and a habit of pronouncing his w’s like v’s. Further than that I wouldn’t like to say.”

“Do you know where he lives now?”

“Oh, I see,” said Gentle Annie, bustling out of her seat to refill the teapot. “You’re thinking that Silent Jack may know more about the iron pyrite. I guess it’s possible.”

“But I don’t fancy your chances of getting anything out of him,” said King Louis. “He’s liable to eat you for dinner.”

Gentle Annie caught Louis by the tip of his goatee and yanked it hard.

“Louis, stop frightening the children.” She turned to Pandora. “As far as I know, Jack’s been roaming the territory since the Rush ended. Turned into a bit of a wandering hermit. You can ask around, but you’ll have a hard time pinning him down.”

Abrupt as an adder, Pandora tucked the wooden chest under her left armpit, stood up, and thrust her right arm toward Annie’s stomach. “Thanks.”

Realizing, slightly late, that Pandora was attempting to shake hands, Annie smiled and touched her fingers to Pandora’s.

“Don’t mention it.” She paused. “Truly, I mean don’t mention it to anyone.”

Pandora pulled away and punched her fingers into the folds of her dress.

“We won’t. And I want to keep the chest with me.”

Gentle Annie nodded. “You’re welcome to it. We can always put it back in the bank if the need arises.”

“What are you going to do now?” asked Louis. He might have been curious; he might have been making idle conversation while he calculated the future of wool prices. In the haze of Annie’s red parlor, it was difficult to say.

“Nothing,” said Jenny. “We’re going to do nothing.”

King Louis leaned back in his chair and sugared his next cup of tea. “Fair enough. But mark my words, kiddywinks. You’re begging for trouble with Silent Jack.”