Always make a habit of two things: help, and do no harm. —Galen’s Anatomy

Chapter 25

Louis dropped the revolver with a thump.

“Fetch the weapon, Kam,” said the mysterious stranger.

Kam scrambled for the gun.

“Wind him up, Annie,” the man instructed.

Gentle Annie pulled a length of rope from the phaeton and tied it round and round King Louis until he was completely cocooned.

“Right then, are we comfy?”

“Silent Jack!” yelled Jenny. “What in the blue-sea hills are you doing here?”

From inside his chrysalis, Louis began to laugh uproariously.

“That wasn’t funny,” said Pandora.

“You had me for a moment, Mike. Thought you were some mythic beast that stumbled down from the Alps. But your eyes give you away. I know a fool when I see one.”

“Mike?” asked Jenny. “Don’t you mean Jack?”

“No,” replied Louis. “That walking mass of a woolly mammoth right there is my old friend Michael Magee. Doctor, prankster, sage.”

Jenny gawked in astonishment at the man known to her as Jack. Could it be possible that the twinkling irises behind those caterpillar eyebrows belonged to the legendary owner of the nugget?

“It’s a very good disguise,” said Pandora in an admiring way. “But I think you need to work on the accent.”

Magee winked.

“Why, my darling boy,” said Gentle Annie, charging forward and pressing ten pounds of matted beard to her bosom, “then you didn’t fall off a mountain!”

Doc Magee attempted to nod. “A little air, Annie!”

Gentle Annie released her prisoner.

“You were playing with fire with that neck trick,” said Annie. “You could’ve killed your best friend.”

“One,” said Doc Magee, “King Louis is not my best friend. Hasn’t been since he refused to let Jack into our lives.”

“Jack was a foreigner,” blasted Louis, “and I didn’t care for his horning in on my territory.”

“Two,” said Magee, ignoring the interruption, “I couldn’t have killed him with the grip I had. Not immediately, anyway. The worst I might do is make him faint.” He gave King Louis a look. “And wouldn’t that have been a tragedy.”

“Why didn’t you use your own gun? The one with the X?” asked Pandora.

Doc Magee opened his coat and pulled out the bone-handled revolver. “Well, I’ll tell you, Miss Quinn. I don’t fancy utilizing another person’s property. Besides,” said Magee, spinning the cylinder to show it was empty, “I took an oath to save souls. Whatever their merit.”

“You borrowed the revolver from Silent Jack,” said Jenny.

“Correct,” replied Magee.

“Then he’s still alive?”

“Certainly. He’s sitting pretty on his family’s farm in the old country right now. Growing medicines. I lent him money for the voyage home right after I dug up the nugget. He offered to linger awhile and protect me, but I told him I had another plan in mind.”

“Silent Jack is the one who put the nugget in the skull and shipped the skeleton to your office!” yelled Pandora.

Doc Magee smiled. You’ve heard of grins that go ear to ear? His went straight from temple to temple.

“That he did, Miss Quinn. Wrapped it tight as a baby and sent it to me with his best attempt at a Galen scrawl. I’m impressed you could read it.”

“And I was right!” shouted Jenny, hopping up and down. “You put together the hunt. You hid the clues in the office.”

“And the huts and the jail and the tailrace,” noted Doc Magee. “It didn’t take long—I asked Jack to deposit the rosewood box at the bank before he left. Then I snuck into town one night to plant the letter and fix up the bones. And tidy the mess those miners made of my books.”

“Why create a hunt in the first place?” asked Lok, adjusting his seat on the schoolmaster.

Doc Magee shrugged. “A pleasant way to pass the winter?” He stroked his beard. “Besides, I was getting tired of the Rush. When I found gold, I figured I’d waste it, resent it, or end up losing my life for it. None of those options seemed palatable.”

“So you went roaming instead,” said Jenny.

“Not very far,” said Magee. “I’ve been up at Troy for the past decade or so, with the trout and the game and my gardens. It’s pretty much a paradise, if you don’t mind talking to trees.”

“You must have burned the roses, too,” said Pandora.

“My, but you are sharp.” Doc Magee had lost his smile, but his voice had gained a note of respect. “Ever since your visit, Miss Quinn, I’ve been thinking about you and your friend. Two spheres of the same brain, I reckon. Yes, I set fire to the rose hips. I planted them; they were mine to destroy.”

“You were angry with the world,” said Jenny, more to herself than to the doctor.

“I was furious with it. So I decided to murder my old life and start anew.”

Jenny didn’t need to ask why. She could see the way of it—the first days of Doc Magee’s glee, pleased as punch with his practical joke, expecting someone to come to Troy, ready to evaluate the treasure hunters on the merits of their case. Then months of waiting and watching and thinking.

Thinking mostly on greed and stupidity and suspicion, Jenny figured. What was it Mrs. Quinn had said? Pandora couldn’t see past the nose on the end of her face? Thanks to their gold fever, the men of the Rush couldn’t see straight to begin with. They had glory made flesh all around them, and the only thing they cared about was ripping it—and one another—apart.

And Magee had sat alone in the palm of creation. Year after year of seeing the sunrise and watching the sweet grass grow? Jenny was surprised he hadn’t torched the whole of Eden.

There was one person in this conversation who had not yet contributed. That was forgivable—he was wedged under a twelve-year-old.

“Who gets the gold?” wailed the schoolmaster, rearing his head like a tortoise. “In case you are not aware, Dr. Magee, I was instrumental in the process of detection. Those girls wouldn’t be here without me.”

“The nugget,” said Doc Magee firmly, “is mine. And I’d defy a court of law to say different.”

Jenny had to repeat her thoughts of the last hour to stop from choking. Money never matters, until it does.

“After watching the ladies argue with each other at Troy, I was quite willing to write to Mr. Polk and instruct him to ship the skeleton back to Jack,” continued Magee. “Only, I’ve been musing on something that Miss Quinn said to me up in the back blocks about understanding. So I’d like to ask her now—what would she do with the nugget?”

As you’re aware, Pandora was apt to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

“I’d give it to Jenny,” said Pandora, “so she can stay in her mountains.”

“And I’d give half of it to Pandora,” said Jenny, “so she can care for herself and go to school. And give the other half to Kam, for Little Eden.”

“And I’d give it right back to them both,” said Kam, “because best friends should be together.”

“And I wouldn’t care,” added Lok. “Because money doesn’t change anything. People do.”

“And I’d say you’re all more tedious than a weary nag and a railing wife!” yelped the schoolmaster.

Doc Magee smiled again. “Strong answers from the younger generation; I might argue a point with the elder. If those are your decisions, I have a proposition. We split the nugget three ways. Miss Burns gets half, Miss Quinn gets half, and the Lums get half.”

“You can’t have three halves,” said Pandora.

“Three parts, then,” said Magee, acknowledging the correction. “An equilateral split.”

The schoolmaster whimpered.

“No, Mr. Grimsby, I haven’t forgotten you.” Doc Magee gave the sole of the schoolmaster’s boot a nudge. “But I’ve seen enough scars from switches to loathe your length and breadth. What do you say, friends? Shall we turn him over to my mates in the constabulary? I know one or two who owe me a favor.”

Hapless raised a tentative hand.

“Yes, Mr. Burns?” asked Magee in surprise.

“I’m not much for thinking,” said Hapless, pawing forlornly at his scalp, “but I hear tell that the territory is sending a bunch of convicts to bushwhack trails to new goldfields in the Arctic. Maybe a schoolmaster would like to help them learn their lessons. Most of them can’t read their ABCs.”

If Jenny hadn’t known better, she could have sworn her father was grinning.

“Hoist with my own petard,” muttered Mr. Grimsby.

“That sounds like a peach of an idea, Mr. Burns,” said Doc Magee. “I’ll make the arrangements when we get back.”

“But what about Louis?” asked Kam.

For a man wound up like a bobbin, King Louis appeared unseasonably cocky. “Don’t worry, Mike. I’ll be booking passage on the same ship as Mr. Grimsby. Business is bad as it is. A new Rush means new blood, and pickings will be ripe. Will you come with me, sweet Annie? We’d make a crackerjack team.”

“Not on your Nellie,” retorted Gentle Annie.

“And what’s to stop me from binding you to hard labor?” challenged Doc Magee.

King Louis winked. “Friendship.”

Mike Magee frowned.

“You know, Louis, twelve years ago I might have been willing to grant you that favor. But the girls here have taught me something about the truth of one’s actions.” Magee directed those strange gray-greenstone eyes toward Jenny. “I was wrong to give up on trying,” he said. “I should have stayed in Eden and cared for her spirits. Nothing is gained by ignoring the problems of existing.”

He turned his attention back to the ghosts of the past.

“We failed them, Louis. We were supposed to protect the earth for the next generation, and we ruined it.” King Louis opened his mouth to speak, and Magee cut him off. “Nope, you don’t get to spit any more of your venom. You’re heading for prison and I’m going to work with the children on reviving Eden. For everyone in it.” Magee raised an ominous finger. “Squeak one more word and I’ll make sure the judge doubles your sentence.”

Jenny was pleased to observe that King Louis was looking dazed and disquieted. And obediently silent.

Pandora coughed.

“Right,” said Doc Magee. “Who wants to crack open my skull?”

I was pondering the virtues of leaving the story there; only, Jenny insists there are a few more things you should know. I asked if she’d prefer to write the last words herself, but she said no—she was a hardworking farmer and I was an idle doctor, and the whole point of this tale was to keep me busy in my dotage. In the years since we first met at Troy, Jenny hasn’t lost her winning ways. So I’m going to do my best to phrase the ending as she would like.

For example, holding a gleaming hunk of gold is as magical as you might expect. Jenny could almost forgive a man for craving it. But after you’ve tossed it around for a while, the nugget becomes a rock, the glow becomes a glimmer, and the clean cutting wind reminds you of home. There was sheep dung and sunshine and grass and good earth in that wind, and she was eager to return to Eden.

She was an older Jenny, and a wiser one. Her mountains might be laced with fevered dreams and petty greed; but they were also bursting with beauty and sorrow. Let men dribble their drivel and snigger their hatred. They were no match for the sky or those who were willing to dance with it.

And so she led the way. With the two bandits trussed tight in the phaeton, and Hapless and me taking it slow with the horses, most of the party was able to walk out in front. Pandora had requested it.

“How can we be sure King Louis and Mr. Grimsby will be leaving town?” asked Kam.

“Mike has always been tight with the law,” said Annie, dreamily twirling her follow-me-lad curls. “And he’s good at arranging things.”

“Do you love him?” demanded Pandora.

Gentle Annie smiled. “Don’t know if I could find most of him at the moment. But when he’s had a wash . . .”

“You didn’t answer the question.”

Annie patted her comfortable posterior. “Now more than ever. I don’t care if he’s been away for ten years or two hundred, I’ll always have room in my heart for his shenanigans.”

“Well, that makes no sense,” said Pandora.

“You’re right,” answered Annie, “because love doesn’t make sense. Some loves bloom and wither in a day; some put down roots to the core of the earth. I’ve known love that with a little tending might have grown to an oak, but it died at the sapling. Others simply run wild and free. It’s always a surprise.”

“Then how do you know if a love will survive?” asked Kam. Jenny did her best to keep an eye on the horizon.

“Stay patient,” said Annie, smuggling a smile to me. “And keep weeding your garden.”

Walking along with the group, Jenny was beginning to appreciate that this was the kind of love she felt for her dad. No matter the season, it would always require endless patience and fertilizing and care. It was quite unlike the love she felt for her mum—that was a plant that grew fierce of its own accord.

But you know, and I know, that there was another love in our Jenny Girl, one that went deeper and stronger than any she’d care to acknowledge. Hit it with a hurricane or fire it to the ground, and it would always grow back better than before. Jenny knew it, too, and she decided it was high time she did something about it.

She turned to her friend. “I just want to say I love you.”

“Okay,” said Pandora.

Jenny nodded. It was enough for the moment. She snuck a look at Kam. The rest of it, she told herself, would come when it might.

“Lok, you’ve been very quiet,” noted Annie. “What’s the first thing you’ll be doing with your riches?”

“Not sure,” said Lok. “Sleeping more, I hope.”

“You’ll be helping me plant trees,” said Kam. “Now that the soil has some wet to it, we’ll have to squeeze as much work in as we can before the snows.”

“I’ll help!” said Jenny. “After I get some of the stuff done at our place.”

“What place?” asked Lok.

“I’m going to buy Old Randolph Scott’s station up on Reed’s Terrace. You’re welcome to stay with us. I’ve bagged the room in the turret and Pandora gets the room off the orchard, but there will be plenty of corners left over. I’m thinking we’ll start with fifty sheep and see how we go from there. I don’t want to worry Dad overmuch.” Jenny paused. In her haste to leap mountains, she had forgotten to consult her partner. “Is that okay with you, Pandora?”

“I don’t mind,” said Pandora. “As long as we’re not close enough to hear each other snore.”

“And what will you do about school, Miss Burns?” teased Annie.

“Oh, I doubt I’ll be needed at school.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that. I heard Mike talking about plugging the gap until they can find a new teacher. He’ll be taking a muster every morning.”

Shivers and quivers, thought Jenny. Just when you think you’ve got life sorted . . .

“Once I finish studying, I’m going to open a private detective office,” said Pandora.

“Come again?” asked Gentle Annie.

“Like Mr. Grimsby was talking about when we were in Gam Saan. Private detectives solve puzzles and capture outlaws. I’m going to be one of those.”

“Pandora,” inserted Jenny gently, “there won’t be many folks who need a girl to catch jailbirds.”

“Yes, there will.”

“Why?” asked Jenny.

“Because I’m a lion. Phwarrr,” roared Pandora.

“Sorry, you’re a what?”

“It’s a joke!” Pandora waited for the reactions. Kam smiled. Lok attempted a chuckle. Gentle Annie seemed bewildered.

“You said jailbird,” insisted Pandora.

“Yes,” said Jenny.

“So cats like to catch birds.”

“Yes.”

“And the lion is the biggest cat in the world.” Pandora looked from face to face, then crossed her arms. “Ah, to heck with you all.”

At that, her best friend nearly cracked her ribs with laughter. “Pandora,” said Jenny, snorting back her tears of joy, “that’s the best darn joke I’ve heard in my entire life.”

“Good,” said Pandora.

“You know what I always say, Miss Quinn,” I interrupted from my perch on the phaeton. “As soon as you’ve made a thought, laugh at it.”

We were coming to the end of the ridge, where the road curved north toward Eden and the river. From her spot on the rise, Jenny told me she could see the whole of the valley in front of her: Lake Snow, the Arrow, the top of her Cathedral tree, and the face of the Sleeping Girl. A wide-open world in the trust of a kid. She would guard it with her life.

“There’s one last thing I want to know . . . ,” began Pandora as I brought the horses alongside her.

“How can I enlighten you?” I asked.

“If you’re here and Jack is alive . . .”

Pandora paused.

“Yes?” I prodded.

“Whose head did we just crack open?”

“Well, now, where do I begin?”