identify objects, all a-glitter with precious stones.
Dore ran for the door so fast that she might have shot off the top floor like a cannonball if she hadn't caught herself. Pam had never seen her friend move like that, but then chalked it up to her years surviving in the rough following Gerbald in and out of battles. Dore was certainly full of surprises, but then these days surprises had become the norm.
Shortly a huffing, puffing Dore arrived with an amused Gerbald hurrying after. His ever-present goofy hat was knocked from his head by the low door casing as Dore literally pushed him through. Before he could bend down to retrieve the hat, he froze in place, seeing Pam holding a double palm-full of treasure. His eyes widened and he just stood there staring while Dore picked up his hat, long the object of her scorn, taking care to scrunch and twist its seemingly indestructible mustard yellow felt between her strong hands with great disdain. Failing to make much of a dent, she stood on her tip-toes and plopped it back onto his head where it looked no worse for the attempted wear and tear. 'There, he is speechless! If only we had one of those video cameras to record the moment for ages to come.'
Pam smiled to see a bit of the feisty old Dore back in play.
Gerbald straightened the much-abused and well-loved hat over his salt-and-pepper hair, taking a moment to digest what he was seeing. With a regal sweep of her arm, Pam escorted him to the closet, which he crawled into with easy grace. He pushed the box to gauge its considerable weight and was able to move it a quarter of an inch. Then he scratched his chin and grinned.
Pam grinned back at him. 'I think this must have belonged to that fat, old pirate captain. The writing on it looks more like that swirly Arabic script than Chinese characters. This wasn't the first ship he'd captured, I'll bet. We are probably looking at years of plunder here. I guess you really can't take it with you.'
Dore, who had managed to compose herself, quoted scripture in her old familiar Christian soldier's tones: 'Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death. The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked. Proverbs 10:2-3.'
Gerbald nodded politely in agreement with his pious wife, buying some always useful good will with the gesture, then turned to Pam. 'Pam, when your luck changes it really changes. What do you intend to do with all this?'
'I've decided already,' Pam said, while letting a handful of gleaming coins slowly fall back into the chest with a musical tinkling. 'We should divide it equally among everybody on this ship.'
Dore nodded in staunch approval.
'That is the right thing to do, my Pam!' Dore told her. 'We are all in this together. Shall I summon the bosun now?'
'Allow me to tell him,' Gerbald cut in. 'After all, I missed out on the thrill of first discovery. I would very much like to see our good friend's face when he hears of this windfall. I will tell only him for now. We can divide it all up and then pass it out to the men before tonight's party. I'll bet they will be over the moon.'
'Tonight's party?' Pam asked. She saw Dore deliver what must have been a painful blow to the small of her husband's back.
'Oops,' Gerbald said in English with a long-suffering sigh.
'Spiller of the beans!' Dore growled at him, also in English. After many years together they used English and German interchangeably, and sometimes mixed the two together in one sentence, despite their best efforts not to. Pam mused that this habit was evolving into a creole some were calling 'Amideutch.' Dore continued in German, which would always be the most comfortable for her, 'It matters not. We have all had enough of surprises by now anyway. We have earned a bit of fun after our many troubles and so tonight is for celebration!' she said expansively, her face alight with pleasure.
'Who are you and what have you done with Dore?' Pam said but Dore didn't seem to hear. She was now pushing her husband toward the door. 'Go now, oaf. We must make ourselves presentable. Now that our Pam is a captain, she can't go about dressed in these rags! Out with you!'
Gerbald didn't resist. This time he was careful to duck and keep his hat on.
'Maybe you can buy a new hat now,' Pam called after him. It never hurt to hope.
'What? Waste such riches on everyday items? No, I shall use my share of the riches to do something truly wonderful. I shall buy my own television set.'
'Not until I have a decent house you won't, foolish man. If the Lord has seen fit to gift us with riches, we must use them wisely!' Jumping, Dore took a swipe at the much-hated hat, but Gerbald was too fast. Her hand flew through thin air as Gerbald disappeared from sight, launching himself out the door and dropping from sight in a blur. No crash or injured call for help came, so Dore and Pam, now giggling like schoolgirls again, began rummaging through the room's many drawers and cabinets, laying out exotic garments on the bed and divans as they went.
Chapter Thirty-Two: Counting their Blessings
Soon after, the bosun was brought in to view their unexpected bounty. He let out a long whistle as he squatted in front of the brimming chest. 'I've sailed the seas since I was ten years old,' he said, 'and never have I seen this kind of wealth. I will be able to buy some land and retire with such a bounty. Truly, your generosity is great to share it, Captain. We would never ask it of you.' His eyes glistened moistly.
'You've earned it, my friend,' Pam told him. 'You all have. Let's count it out, the four of us, and the lojtnant as witness, equal shares for all.' The bosun nodded, but Pam still had some idea that she would somehow end up with more. The men of the sea had ways of doing things, and she knew the captain traditionally got a larger share of the booty, a much larger share. She intended to protest, of course, but wheels were already turning. Pam had projects lined up for years to come, and now she had that most critical of all resources: funding. One thing was certain, the first thing she would do with her share of the take was to make damn sure her colony succeeded, which went hand in hand with saving the dodo.
When the lojtnant arrived, he expressed much the same sentiments as the bosun had, but Pam told him to just accept what was coming to him and be happy. He smiled and replied, 'As you wish, Captain,' obviously as glad to get his hands on such a large chunk of change as they all were.
Together, Gerbald and the lojtnant managed to drag the chest out of its closet and bring it over to the large table Dore had cleared of Oriental knickknacks for the purpose.
'Okay, here's what I think we ought to do,' Pam said, after considering the situation for a few minutes. 'Let's start with the coins. We will group them by types first and then the ones that don't match any others we can group by material and weight.' She reached into the chest to scoop up a double handful of coins which she piled onto the table's surface.
'Here, these two are the same, they look like copper and they have square holes in the middle. Chinese, maybe. I bet they're not worth much.' She pushed them off into their own area. The next coin she held up to the light, and made a long whistle. 'If this isn't a gold doubloon, I'll eat Gerbald's hat. I always think of the Spaniards hanging out in the Caribbean, but I guess I remember reading something about the Philippines as I was getting ready for this trip. Let's hope there's more of these.'
It turned out they weren't able to recognize most of the coins, but the bosun had an old sailor's eye for metals and was able to make what Pam thought were pretty good guesses about the value of each. Gerbald, as an ex-soldier, had also seen his share of coin and did his best to help the bosun make identifications. They sorted the coins into gold, silver and other less identifiable metals or blends of metals. Piles sprung up around the table as they worked. Pam could scarcely believed they were engaged in such a project. Once they finished with the coins they turned their attention to the loose precious stones.
'Could this be a ruby, Pam?' Dore held up a red gem the size of her thumb.
'Well, maybe. I really don't know much about this stuff.' As it turned out, no one else in the group did, either. 'Where the hell is a jeweler when you need one?' she muttered. They ended up grouping the gems into pretty little mounds by color. Overall, the coins were quite a bit more numerous, but they still ended up with a respectable amount of possibly precious stones.
Next came the jewelry. The lojtnant carefully handed Pam a fanciful gold tiara encrusted with what must
