An “Adonis
Five weeks had dissipated since the Royal Pear diamond incident. Adonis was traveling through Southwestern
Wisconsin from Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi River, and South into
Dubuque,
Meanwhile back in
Flurrie labored over the exact wording of
the ad for several hours before depositing it at the newspaper office:
RAILROAD
STOCKS & BONDS FOR
EXCELLENT
RETURN ON YOUR INVESTMENT!
INVEST NOT
ONLY IN YOUR FUTURE – BUT IN THE FUTURE OF
Flurrie
Peoples, Chief Financial Officer
Available 8:AM to 5:PM For Discussions
FREE
COLUMBIAN COFFEE & FRENCH PASTRIES!
Adonis Surrey, Esq.
- Railway Development Agency
12
Lighthouse Bluff,
During
Adonis absence, Flurrie also made very sure his Mondays remained free and open
for his appointment to sketch and paint his one and only model, the beautiful
Portia Plankowski. She was a domestic in
a local mansion, and Monday was her only day off from work in which she could
perform, for a fee, as an artist model for Flurrie. The first few Mondays his hand actually
trembled as he sketched her in his loft artist studio. They were alone, the scent of lilacs wafting
from her glistening brunette hair, her miniscule teasing grin as she posed, her
form fitting gingham dress… Yet, two
weeks later he fired her. She became
nauseatingly intrusive concerning his artistic technique as he began to paint
her in oils. She kept snipping and
bitching until at one point he picked up his palette knife and was quite ready
to remove her tongue. Instead he reached
in his smock, withdrew a twenty-dollar bill, tucked it into her hair, and
ordered her from his sight forever. She
feigned indignity. He swung open the
door of his loft and pointed to the stairway.
“Mademoiselle,” he said calmly, “I simply have no further use for your
services!”
He felt good, great, wonderful. He had just thrown a beautiful woman out of
his loft. He felt absolutely superior!
“Common household wench!” He
then went out to the Tavern In The Woods around the block, and remembered
little after that until he woke in his loft at six the next morning.
He made it
to the office by eight in the morning, and sat at his desk in the Grips of
Bacchus Revenge, attempting to run the daily course of business. Mercifully, only two people stopped in. He took both parties to the café about a half
block down the avenue, and plied them with coffee and pastries. Neither bought any stock.
At five in
the afternoon he began to close the office when a telegraph boy ran up the
stairs and into the office.
“Mr.
Flurrie Peoples?”
“Yes,” he
said, taking the telegram, and tipping the lad who immediately dashed out and
down the stairs. He opened the message:
Meet me in Prairie du Chien on Saturday
evening. The Milwaukee & Mississippi
Railroad will bring you out. I will be
waiting for you at the rail station.
Adonis
Flurrie
threw up his arms in joy, and did a joyous jig around his office. He did have
his appointment to do an oil painting of Gi Gi Wilcox, wife of the Green Bay
banker, in the morning, but that would only take a few days, and then he could
escape Milwaukee for whatever Adonis had lined up. “A job? Heist a priceless
necklace?” He smiled broadly. The very thought alone of doing something like that only a few months ago would have
sent paralyzing freight throughout his body, but now, with the experience of
two jobs behind him he was ready to do battle against the evil rich.
Gi Gi
Wilcox was her usual brash, aged, over bearing self. Her husband owned and operated the only bank
in Green Bay, and she was the daughter of a Chicago Stock Yards multi-millionaire. She brought her personal maid Prudence with
her, who wore her usual stern, prune faced expression.
Gi Gi
actually only posed for Flurrie for about an hour. “All the time I can allow you, Rosy Cheeks,”
she said, grasping his jaw with her thin fingered, wrinkled hand. “I’m still thinking about setting up a
gallery showing for you here in Milwaukee. When you finish my portrait,
personally deliver it to me in Green Bay.
Don’t make me wait too long. I’m
not known for my patience.” She then
reached over and kissed him squarely on the lips, laughed, and left.
Flurrie
stood senseless for a few seconds, and then returned to work on Gi Gi’s
portrait. A smile of wicked pleasure
slid across his lips.
At seven
Saturday morning Flurrie boarded the train to Prairie du Chien. The passenger car was somewhat crowded with
not only businessmen like himself, but also a gaggle of European emigrants just
off the East Coast schooner in the Milwaukee harbor. They all appeared wide-eyed with the
excitement of being in America, and probably with the thought of setting up
homesteads of their own.
It took
about seven hours for the train to roll around the gently sloping hills and
prairie land of Southern Wisconsin to reach its destination of Prairie du
Chien. The bright sunlight glimmered off
the vast fields of golden wheat and tall grasslands, interspersed with groves
of pine, oak and elm trees, all swaying in a steady warm breeze. It was Heavenly peaceful after the clamor of
Milwaukee, and Flurrie dozed off several times during the trip.
Adonis was
waiting for him on the railroad depot platform in Prairie du Chien. He wore a straw hat tipped to one side, a tan
stripped linen jacket, a white silk shirt opened at the neck, and white linen
trousers. He appeared somewhat
perturbed, and was holding a large bundle of something wrapped in brown store
paper and bound with twine.
“Here,
take this!” Flurrie retrieved the bundle
from Adonis. “It’s a sporting suit like
mine, for golfing. Hurry!”
“Golfing…”
Flurrie mumbled, as he followed Adonis into the train depot.
“We are
going to set up a golf field,” Adonis announced glancing up at the depot wall
clock. “You are going to have to get
dressed in the lav, and hurry! I have a cab waiting. It’s about a five-mile trip to Eagle’s Nest the Heinrick Van Dornick
mansion. A massive place located on a
bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. He is the area Business Banker, Real
Estate and Insurance Broker.”
Flurrie
actually chuckled as he rushed into the men’s toilet room. He wondered what type adventure Adonis had
lined up this time. He ripped the
wrapping from its contents and revealed a sporting suit not unlike Adonis wore
except the jacket had green stripes. It
was very cramped quarters, yet he managed to dress in about five minutes, and
rushed out to greet Adonis. “How do I
look?”
Adonis
furrowed his brow. “Like you just
dressed in a lav. Hurry.”
Flurrie
rushed behind Adonis, his business suit tucked under his arm with one of its
trouser legs dragging on the floor, and then into the dirt of the road as they
scurried for the coach.
Once
ensconced in the cab of the coach, and hurrying down the road, Adonis
smiled. “Sorry to rush you, old
chap. The invite came up at the last
moment. I’ve been trying to convince
Heinie to set up a golf field on his estate.
He sent me a note earlier today to be at his estate by four sharp. I’ve rented this coach and driver through
tomorrow.”
“I know
nothing of golf or a golf field…”
Adonis laughed, “It’s incredibly
simple. The secret is to lay out three
golf holes precisely 1,000 feet from one another in back-and-forth directions
on fairly level land. We make it appear
extremely difficult, taking several measurements, conversing back and forth as
to the length and width of the golf field, and most importantly
the precise
and I mean precise, depth of the guttie ball hole. In other words we put on a grand show for
them. I’ve also had a long, narrow cloth
carrying bag made up to carry a few bulger
clubs and several guttie balls for people to use that do not have equipment
as of yet.”
Flurrie
listened intently. “Is this a job, or a scouting party?”
Adonis
smiled in satisfaction. “Very keen of
you. Well done!” He tightly grasped Flurrie’s shoulder in a
show of pride. “We are invited for the
weekend. The estate will be crammed with
guests for his wife’s birthday celebration. We will be meeting the local
cognoscente from up and down the Mississippi River coastline. The Barons of Lead Mining, Wheat Farming,
Packet River Boats, Merchants, Politicians, it boggles the mind! And it appears when Heinrick Van Dornick
decides to have a social soiree; no one turns him down, not even if you are on
your deathbed. And we are going to
introduce them to the grand and manly game of golf, of course letting them know
we also sell railroading stocks and bonds.”
Adonis paused, with a mischievous tilt to his head. “Oh yes, and we will also make it our
business to get invites to their mansions.”
Flurrie
chuckled, “And I will sketch their wives and daughters…”
“And
sporting dogs! These people bird hunt a
great deal. Prairie chicken, grouse,
that sort of thing.”
Flurrie
nodded affirmatively, “And sporting dogs, and if I have time I may even draw
extensive room diagrams of their domiciles.”
They broke
into chuckles.
“Heinie”
Heindrick Van Dornick was a short, stout man, somewhere in his sixties. He smiled broadly as he greeted Adonis and
Flurrie in the foyer of his mansion. A
pair of English Pointer hunting dogs was at his side, and he was excitedly
waiving a finely finished stick in the air.
“Adonis, I had a bulger crafted. What do you think?”
Adonis
studied the golf club at great length, as if he were the world’s leading
authority on the subject. He then
sternly gazed into Heinie’s anxious eyes.
“My God, this is one of the finest crafted bulgers I have ever seen.”
Heinie beamed with delight as Adonis handed the bulger to Flurrie. “This is
my assistant Flurrie. He is a respected
authority on the game of golf back East, and in Canada.”
Heinie
happily shook Flurrie’s hand. “Great having you chaps here. Put some life in the place. Gets damn boring at times, especially between
hunts. Mind if we get busy right off
setting up the golf field? A few of the
boys are just behind my stables there,” he said, nodding his head, “anxiously
waiting to help out. May I ask what the
long bag is you are carrying…a rifle?”
“No,
no. This is a golf container bag. I’ve brought along three bulger clubs and a
supply of guttie balls for the gents to use.” Adonis put his arm over Heinie’s
shoulder. “Let the games begin!”
They
hurriedly made their way to the rear of the mansion. The pair of English Pointers excitedly
followed them. Heinie broke into
delighted laughter. “By God, I haven’t
felt this excited since I made my first million dollars!”
Three
middle-aged gentlemen were sizing up the ground, motioning to each other as to
how the golf field should be laid out, and all three disagreeing with each
other. “No, no, chaps! My wife said we
have to build it behind the stables,
out of sight of the house.”
Adonis and
Flurrie were quickly introduced to Johnathan Withers, flour mills; Mikhal
Sebastian, Mississippi packet boats; and, Pierre Carpentier, distiller. The trio appeared to be in their late fifties
or early sixties, and all were meticulously attired in business suits.
“First,
gentlemen,” Adonis announced, “Please remove your suit coats, ties, and do roll
up your sleeves. We have men’s work to do! Men only!”
“Aye, aye,
aye,” they all barked like a pack of wild timber wolves. The Pair of English Pointers joined in the
chorus. “Men only!!!” They then broke into laughter, removing their
suit coats, hanging them on two fence posts, and rolling up their sleeves.
“First,
gentlemen, your golf field will require a plot of land, a little more than a
thousand feet long, about 500 feet wide, and certainly as level as
possible.”
“Make it an acre!” Heinie insisted. “Not all of these mongrels will be able to
hit the ball as straight as me!” They
howled as a pack once more, breaking into guffaws.
“Flurrie
and I will measure out the plot of land using a length of golf silk string which is exactly, and I mean exactly, one thousand
feet in length, we will then fold the piece of golf silk string in half and
that will be our width. We will then dig
three holes into the earth. Hole One
exactly a thousand feet from where we are now standing, Hole Two, the return
hole, one thousand feet back to where we are now standing, and Hole Three a
thousand feet back out again.”
“Wait!
Heinie ordered. “Wouldn’t it be more
efficient and easier on our tired old legs to do the reverse? That way the two far holes will be where we
stand and the middle hole will be out in the golf field.”
Adonis
pondered the suggestion, rubbing his chin.
“May I have a moment with Flurrie, gentlemen? He is the expert on such matters.” Adonis took Flurrie aside. “Shake your head in doubt. Ponder it.
Stare at the proposed area for the golf field before us. Look over at Heinie with stern fortitude, and
then shake your head yes.”
Flurrie
acted out the stage instructions of Adonis as a Shakespearian actor might
savoring the words of the Bard, and then as the finale he stared inquisitively
at Heinie, took a dramatic pause, and then indicated his agreement with a very
slight nod of his head.
Heinie
positively beamed with pride. “Let’s get
busy! How can we help?’
“While
Flurrie and I are taking the measurements, we wonder if you gentlemen would
care to level the grass in this area, perhaps by walking on it or stamping your
feet. It will make for an easier flow of
the ball when it hits the ground.”
“Most
certainly!” Heinie acknowledged. “Come,
lads, let’s get busy.”
As Adonis
and Flurrie spent a meticulous, and needless, half hour measuring out the golf
field, they also watched the four Barons of Frontier Society, dragging their feet
on the grass to smooth it out, and also by stamping their feet up and
down. They then began to grunt; laugh,
and strange guttural noises flowed from their voice boxes “Whoo, whoo, whoooo,”
as they worked their feet. The pair of
English Pointers began howling in confusion.
Suddenly
Heinie’s wife appeared with a rifle. Two
members of the stable crew soon followed with three barking and yelping English
pointers. She lifted her hand for her crew to stand fast. “I thought it was a pack of prairie chickens booming as they do in the mating
season.”
The two
stable men grinned, gazing at their esteemed employee and his fancy guests
doing a stomp dance on the grass, and one servant quickly said, “We don’t see
nothing, m’am.”
“Damn
idiots,” she groaned, returning to the house, wearing a slight grin of
delight. “I guess they are playing that
golf game.”
“Gentlemen, excellent piece of work!” Adonis announced. “Flurrie and I have dug the holes to the
precise depth issued by the Golfing Standards Commission of Boston. Now let the games begin. I’ve brought six guttie balls and three bulger
clubs. I suggest for the first round
that we do not participate in wagering, best we practice our game first and
perfect our techniques.”
“Bully,
bully,” Heinie agreed, showing off his handcrafted club to the members, who
immediately wanted one crafted for themselves.
Adonis
coolly, and with an air of superiority over the subject, gave a group lesson on
the precise method with which to hold the bulger club, and to place the guttie
ball on a small mound of earth, and then the fine art of striking the guttie
ball with a smooth half circle swing for maximum distance. The gentlemen joined in with varying degrees
of success, cursing at the difficulty of the golf stance and swinging
positions. “Feel like I am twisting into
a damn pretzel!” Heinie grunted.
Flurrie,
the supreme golf expert from Boston and Canada, and the pair of English
Pointers spent the duration of the session shagging wayward balls.
After the
practice session ended, Heinie proudly gave Adonis and Flurrie a tour of the
main rooms of his mansion. He lingered
in his massive library, filled with beautifully bound multicolored leather
volumes, and as he moved to the mantel of the huge fireplace he stumbled on
something. “Damned Prairie Chicken! I have one dried and stuffed every so often
so my Pointers can have something to play with in the house; otherwise they
chew on the furniture.”
The most
intriguing room of the mansion turned out to be the large ice locker in the
basement. It was metal lined, and Heinie
explained he had river ice stored there in the winter months, and because the
locker was so deep in the ground at least a portion of the ice often lasted
throughout the summer months.
Heinie
held the birthday party for his wife Blossom at eight that night in their
ballroom on the third floor of the mansion.
They had a lavish Frontier Style Supper of assorted wines, roasted field
turkey, creamed potatoes and carrots, melt in your mouth biscuits with home
churned butter, coffee, and all the liquor you could consume. Heinie then gave his beloved wife Blossom a
diamond and ruby necklace to match the tiara he had given her the previous
year. He proudly announced the necklace
was the Embrace purchased from the
Countess of Corsica, who was overthrown by the peasants on her estates, and it
was worth $150,000.
After
dinner, Adonis and Flurrie set off into different directions to make their
rounds of the rare gathering of everyone
who is someone in the Prairie du Chien and surrounds social register.
Adonis found chatting with Mikhal Sebastian, owner of
the Mississippi Packet Boat Transfer Company, to be the most productive. After two rather large brandies Mikhal became
quite chatty, actually giving very in depth information of many of the
guests. The background he gave on their
host Heinie Van Dornick was particularly earthy. “He is a sly, devious devil. At one time or the other he has bettered all
of us in a business deal or two through cut throat tactics, no honor
whatsoever, and actually causing the suicide of two very fine businessmen who
were forced into bankruptcy. We tolerate him because he is the Lord of at least
this section of the Mississippi River Valley, but we, to a man, despise and
totally distrust him.”
Adonis
then continued making the rounds of the guests, chatting with anybody and
everybody including the serving staff, and compiled quite a notebook of useful
information. As the evening wore on, and
most of the party goers were becoming dazed in alcohol, Adonis cautiously made
his way out of the ballroom and down the grand staircase to the library. He
quickly opened the library door.
Feigning intoxication, he moved into the dimly lit massive room. He quickly scanned the walls for likely
resting places for a wall safe. A rather
large painting of an eagle perched on the edge of a bluff, overlooking a river,
appeared promising. But then he noticed
a smaller painting of a prairie grouse with its pinnae ruffled, a bit further
down the same wall. It appeared to be
hanging just a wee bit crooked. He
hurried to it, stumbling on the English Pointers stuffed prairie chicken on the
floor, lifted the painting, and voila the
safe! He removed a few skeleton keys
from his vest pocket and tried them in the keyhole of the safe. The second key worked. He reached into the rectangular black hole
and found several bundles of land deeds, cash, and an ebony box. He anxiously lifted the lid of the box, and
smiled in ecstatic delight as he found a very large ruby and a large enough
sapphire glistening up at him. He then
heard someone in the hallway and quickly replaced the ebony box into the safe,
locked the iron door, and replaced the painting. As he made his way back to the library door,
the doorknob slowly turned. In quick
thought he opened the fly on his trouser front and proceeded to water a large
fern plant.
“Sir, sir,
the men’s facility is at the end of the hallway.” He turned about to see an elderly houseman
shaking his head in wonder.
“Sorry,
old chap,” Adonis slurred, “a dire emergency, I assure you.” He then removed a twenty-dollar bill from his
suit coat pocket and handed it to the houseman.
“Shhh, let’s keep this our secret,” he said, wavering on his feet. “Too much brandy.”
“Yes,
sir,” the houseman grinned, looking down at the twenty dollar bill in the palm
of his hand. “Please follow me and I
will show you to the men’s facility.”
Returning
to the ballroom, Adonis moved directly to Flurrie who was jotting something
down on a folded piece of paper.
“Flurrie, old chap! Enjoying
yourself?”
Flurrie’s
face beamed in absolute glee. “Adonis,
I’ve collected subscriptions for over $3,000 in railroad stock, and I have
appointments during the next week to visit several of the gentlemen at their
business establishments to further explain our services, and very likely sell
even more stock.”
“Splendid,
old friend, but calm down,” Adonis whispered.
“Don’t let them see you quite so jovial.
After all, we are professionals.”
“Of course,
professionals,” Flurrie agreed, in partial intoxication. “How did you do?”
“I sold no
stock, but gathered a veritable plethora of inside information on just about
everyone here. Let’s exchange notes on
our ride back to the city.”
Adonis and
Flurrie bade their farewell to Heinie, “A wonderful party, Heinie,” Adonis said
with great joy. “And your wife looks
absolutely ravishing. And that
necklace…. it’s incredible!”
Heinie shook
hands with Adonis and Flurrie. “You are
fine lads. You are always welcome here
at Eagle’s Nest.” He then paused in thought. “What say we play some more golf this next
week? Wednesday will be good for me. My wife is visiting relatives for a few weeks
so we can have the house and grounds to ourselves. I’ll send a coach for you. And I will be practicing on my new golf field
every day, so come prepared to lose!”
Flurrie
and Adonis broke into polite laughter as they moved to the grand staircase. “We will be leaving for Dubuque on Saturday
next,” Adonis called out.
Heinie
waived them off, rushing back to his wife’s birthday party.
On the
drive back to the city in their rented coach, they exchanged notes of the
evening. It had been very rewarding, and
they agreed Heinie’s library safe containing the ruby
and sapphire would be their next job.
They met
at breakfast the next morning in the hotel dining room to plan the heist. “We’ll be there to play golf with Heinie, but
one of us will have to find an excuse to slip away, enter the mansion, then
enter the library, then open the safe and remove the sapphire and ruby, and
then emerge again to continue playing golf.
Nothing to it, old chum.”
“Mmmm,”
Flurrie mused, stroking his chin. “Why
don’t I send Heinie a note today explaining that I am an animal lover and an
artist, and I would find great pleasure in sketching his two magnificent
English Pointer hunting dogs whilst he plays golf with you.”
Adonis
grinned playfully. “I’m listening. Please continue….”
“I will
suggest that I sketch his dogs in the library as they rest on the hearth of the
fireplace by his wing back leather upholstered reading chair. That way the beautiful pair of Pointers would
be sitting and staring up at his empty chair with respect and love showing in
their glistening eyes, wondering why their master had left them alone.”
“Flurrie….
magnificent! Do go on!”
“Left
alone with the dogs I will open the safe and take the gems. No one will be the wiser.”
“Your plot
is excellent up to that point,” Adonis mused, “but you need an escape contingency. An emergency exit if things should go wrong.”
“Well,
what could go wrong? I’ll be there and
hide the gems in…. my art supplies. What
say?”
“Fair….
but we need more,” Adonis mused, and then his devious mind lit his eyes with
the pleasure of an answer. “The dog’s
stuffed prairie chicken! How
simple. Place the gems in the dog’s
prairie chicken. Cut a small hole in a
concealed part of the prairie chicken’s feathers and push the gems inside its
carcass.”
Flurrie
shook his head negatively. “Makes no
sense. Then what do I do, just walk out
with the chicken under my arm?”
“Simply
explain to Heinie that you would like the stuffed chicken…let’s say…for your
collection of wildlife taxidermy that you keep in Canada. It would be payment for sketching his dogs.”
“Hmph,”
Flurrie grunted. “Yes. Sounds flawless.”
“No job is
ever flawless, Flurrie. You must
constantly operate on the raw edge of the task at hand. Don’t relax until it is over, and even then
be cautious for at least a month or so and only then after you have sold your
loot to your middle-man.” He paused,
grasping Flurrie’s shoulder and shaking it.
“What say? I believe we have it
reasoned out! And this time we did it
half each. I’m very proud of you. From now on we will cut the share of the
profits from our work exactly in half.”
“In half!”
Flurrie exclaimed in disbelief, “Incredible!
I’ll finally be wealthy! I can
return home a wealthy man.”
Adonis
nodded his head in agreement. “It’s wise
to contemplate the future. I’m actually
on the look out to marry one of the richest widows I meet. Preferably an elderly widow, and settle down to running the estate, or perhaps
the family business. Even I will have to
retire someday.”
“You
definitely are qualified to run a business.
I on the other hand am more of a dreamer. It’s the artist in me I guess.”
“Well, you
could travel, perhaps to Europe, or any where in the world to sketch and
explore….” Adonis arose from the breakfast table. “Send your note right off to Heinie
explaining you will sketch his beautiful pointers on the hearth in his library,
rather that play golf with us. I’m sure there
will be no problem there. Tell him to
send his coach for us on Wednesday morning.
It can pick us up here at the hotel at about nine or so. I have to run now. Oh, wait,” he then said, reaching into his
vest pocket. “Here is the skeleton key
for that make of safe. Guard it with
your life!”
Flurrie
felt as if he were finally getting on some sort of even keel with Adonis. Up to now he had been a puppy dog obediently
following his master’s shoe heels where ever they led, but no longer. He was now contributing solid information and
ideas to their ventures. He
congratulated himself.
They
arrived at Heinie’s mansion at about ten Wednesday morning. Heinie was his usual jovial self, practicing
golf shots on the front acreage of his estate, his pair of English Pointer
hunting dogs chasing the guttie balls.
‘Welcome,
lads. Ready to do battle? I’m getting quite good at this!”
“So we
noticed,” Adonis congratulated him. “We
were watching you as we pulled into the driveway. Your form and swing are quite excellent!”
“I’m going
to beat you bloody, gentlemen!” Heinie exclaimed in total confidence. “Perhaps you should leave now, and spare
yourself of certain embarrassment.”
Adonis
broke in laughter, “I accept your challenge.
How about one hundred dollars per cup, made in three continuous shots.”
“Love it,
love it, love it! Let’s get to my golf
field out back.”
“One
point, Heinie! A treat for you. Flurrie said he would very much enjoy
sketching your two magnificent English Pointers today, rather than play
golf. He is a very accomplished
artist. And it would be our present to
you for being such a wonderful host.”
Heinie’s
eyes lit with delight. “Yes, I received
his note,” he then reached down to his dogs at his side, rubbing each one
behind their ears
“They are
beautiful pedigrees,” Flurrie said. “It
will be a real treat for me to sketch them.
I do have a request though; I would like to sketch them in your
library. They will be lying on the
hearth of the fireplace. They will be
staring up at your empty wing back chair, their woeful eyes awash in confusion,
wondering why their beloved Master wasn’t there.”
“Oh,
please do. Thank you very much.” He then shouted, “Henry!” and his houseman
hurried from the front entrance doorway of the mansion.
“Follow
Flurrie’s orders to the letter. He gets
anything he wishes!” Heinie then gazed
up at Adonis with a cocky, challenging expression. “Get your stacks of hundreds out,
friend. Why not just hand them to me and
save yourself the embarrassment of total annihilation?”
“Let’ see,
with the money I win from you today I think I’ll buy myself a diamond watch
fob. Yes, I can see it dangling from my
vest pocket now,” Adonis said calmly, following Heinie to the golf field behind
the stables. “Maybe get a new gold watch
also.”
“Dream on,
I’ll bash your brains in!”
Flurrie
instructed Henry, the houseman, as to the fact he would be sketching the dogs
on the hearth in the library. Henry
leashed the pair of dogs and obediently led the parade into the mansion and to
the library. “Would you like the dogs to
be tethered to the fireplace so they don’t wander, or just left alone?”
“Please do
tether them. Wonderful idea. I’m wondering if I may have a large cool
glass of water. Perhaps with some ice?”
Henry
nodded. “I will have to go to the ice
room in the basement. It will take a few
minutes,” he said, attaching the dog’s leashes to large iron rings dangling
from either side of the fireplace.
“Do take
your time,” Flurrie said, opening his sketchpad. “Please close the library door.” He then began outlining the pair of English
Pointers on his pad. They were staring
up at him, their heads tilted in confusion.
Flurrie’s eyes scanned the walls until he found the painting of the
prairie grouse with its pinnea ruffled as described by Adonis. He removed the painting, hurriedly retrieved
the key to the safe his watch fob, opened the safe, found the ebony box and
removed the sapphire and ruby. He then
replaced everything, picked up the stuffed prairie chicken and poked a hole
into its backside with his sketching pencil, and pushed the two gems inside the
bird. He then continued to sketch the
dogs.
About two
hours passed before Adonis and Henie joined Flurrie in the library. They were totally enlivened from their
invigorating
game of golf, laughing boisterously, slapping each
other on the back.
“This gentleman totally faked me out!” Adonis
announced. “He beat me eight games out
of ten. He started out by shamming me as
if he couldn’t play, and then…BOOM…he leveled me!”
“Never
trust a Dutchman!” Heinie howled with
joy. His pair of English Pointers was
tugging at their tethered leashes, wanting to join their master and the fun,
and Flurrie quickly released their leashes from the fireplace iron loops.
“I’ve
finished two sketches,” Flurrie said, handing them to Heinie. “Your magnificent duo were excellent models,
very well behaved.”
Heinie
anxiously viewed the sketches.
“Wonderful, wonderful work!” He
shook Flurrie’s hand with a vise like grip.
“You are indeed a very gifted artist!
Thank you so very much. I’ll have
them framed and placed here in the library.
My lads and I spend our evenings in here.”
Adonis
gazed over Heinie’s shoulder at the sketches.
“Selling railroad stock keeps Flurrie in beans and bacon, but this is
his true calling. I plan to arrange a
showing for him in Milwaukee very soon.”
“The
expression in the eyes of my lads as they stare at my empty wing backed chair
is very touching.” He paused, quite
swept by emotion. “How much do I owe
you, Flurrie?”
“They are
my gift, sir, for your excellent hospitality,” Flurrie answered, almost
embarrassed at Heinie’s genuine show of emotion.
“Does the
empty chair indicate I have passed on?”
“Or, you
just might be on a business trip,” Flurrie shrugged his shoulders. “It could have different meanings to whoever
views it.” He then reached down and
picked up the stuffed prairie chicken, handling it very gently. “I actually do have a favor to ask. This beautiful prairie chicken. I collect stuffed wild animals and birds. I would love to have this for my collection
back in Canada.”
“Fine! Certainly! I had it stuffed for my boys here, something
to play with,” he said, nodding down to his English Pointers, “but they rarely
touch it. I’ll have Henry clean it up
for you. Get the dog slobber off of it.”
“Not
necessary!” Flurrie accentuated. “I….”
“Nonsense,
my boy,” Heinie said, handing the prairie chicken to Henry. “Tend to it, and do it gently. I don’t want to see one feather missing!”
Yes, sir,”
Henry obeyed, lowering his head in apparent fear, holding the stuffed bird as
if it were alive.
“Thanks
very much,” Flurrie said in joy. “It
will make a wonderful addition to my collection.”
“Say,
listen, why don’t you lads stay the night?
My wife is out of town; we can have some supper, maybe sit out on the
veranda and exchange tales of our adventures through life.”
“Excellent!” Adonis said, putting his arm over Heinie’s shoulder. “Maybe also exchange a few bawdy tales.”
Heinie let
out a deep guttural laugh. “We’ll sup at
seven then. You lads are welcome to walk
around the grounds if you wish, visit the stables, have a read in the library,
do as you please. I have a few contracts
to go over, it’s never ending, but we will meet on the veranda at seven.” He then called out, “Henry!” who came running
from his waiting place at the front entrance of the mansion. “Show the gentlemen to the guest bedroom, and
they have carte blanche. Tend to them.”
Adonis and
Flurrie bathed and dressed for supper; deeply worried that old Henry might find
the gems whilst bathing the bird.
Wondering if they should immediately take off for points North or South,
or Canada, or coolly wait it out.
Flurrie
decided to try and relax in the library.
He was delighted to find a wonderful, over sized portfolio Indigenous Birds of the East Coastline. It contained fifty vibrant watercolors of
aviary splendor.
Adonis
spent his time in the kitchen conversing with the family cook, a jolly elderly
lady who enjoyed flirting with the dashing Adonis who extracted info from her
regarding the Mississippi Valley gentry she had worked for in the past.
A little
before seven they gathered on the veranda and had a simple meal of vegetable
beef soup, sliced ham with honey, sour dough bread, and coffee. “Men’s food!” Heinie announced. “Fills your belly with glue to keep you
healthy, and if you spill some on yourself, all the better! No women to criticize!”
Adonis
politely grinned, nibbling on the food as if he were being administered
poison. Flurrie boldly asked for seconds
to Heinie’s delight. Heinie then passed
around cigars and they lit up, drank brandy, and discussed politics, the
failing economy, the possibility of a Civil War between the Northern States and
the Southern States, and then Adonis spoke of the proposed building of a
Transcontinental Railroad from the Mississippi River to California, about two
thousand miles in all, and a portion of it through the treacherous Rocky
Mountains. He spoke of land grants to be
offered by the United States Government, and other incentives to get the
majestic undertaking underway.
“I
understand President Lincoln is about ready to sign the railroad bill,” Heinie
added.
“Yes, and
obviously this is a bully time to purchase stocks and bonds from the two
railroads planning to start the venture.”
“You mean adventure,” Heinie interrupted with a
grin.
“Quite
so,” Adonis acknowledged, shaking his head in agreement. “But there are endless fortunes to be gained,
and almost overnight.”
“I have
been watching this with keen interest,” Heinie admitted, “as have the boys.
Keep in touch with me. I’ll see
to it that we invest through your agency when the time is right.”
“We are
following it very closely, with contacts both on this side and in California,”
Adonis assured Heinie.
Henry the
houseman then appeared, proudly holding the stuffed prairie chicken. “Did you
ruin it?” Heinie abruptly asked.
“No, sir,
it turned out real good,” Henry said excitedly.
“Well,
give it to Flurrie there. Let him pass
judgment.”
Flurrie
anxiously retrieved the prairie chicken from Henry, gave it a quick look over,
and smiled broadly. “Excellent! It’s magnificent!”
“Good
show!” Heine then yawned. “Time for these old bones to go to bed.”
“Likewise,” Adonis said smiling.
Adonis and
Flurrie were silent as they slowly made their way to their bedroom. They quietly closed the door, and then broke
into a collective fit of anxiety as Flurrie began to probe about the back end
of the prairie chicken. His eyes then
danced in delight, “Yes. Yes, I can feel
two solid lumps near the rump!” he exclaimed.
“Say
nothing more of the bird,” Adonis warned in a quiet voice, pointing to the
bedroom door. “There could be an ear
against the door.”
They were
in bed by ten thirty and received a much-needed quiet night’s sleep, breathing
in the pure air of the countryside wafting in from the open French doors of the
bedroom balcony.
About six
the next morning Adonis and Flurrie were awakened by a soft, but persistent
tapping at their bedroom door. Flurrie
arose, still dazed in sleep, and opened the door to be greeted by Henry the
houseman, Heinie, and a Sheriff!
“Sorry to
disturb you lads,” Heinie said, his appearance in complete disarray, “but it
appears there has been a robbery in the house.
No one is questioning your ethics,
but the Sheriff deems it necessary to search the entire mansion and everyone in
it.”
The
Sheriff nodded his head. “Sorry to
bother you gents. This is standard
procedure.”
“Sheriff,
remember these are my personal friends,” Heinie accentuated, letting him know
whose territory he was invading.
Adonis and
Flurrie sat on their respective beds, still half asleep, watching the Sheriff
methodically search inside the dresser drawers, inspect their over night bags,
and then their suit coats hanging in the closet. He next reached down and opened the top of a
small canvas bag.
“It is
certain death to reach inside of there,” Adonis quipped. Flurrie smiled.
The
Sheriff reached in the bag and pulled out soiled underwear and socks.
In spite
of all the grief and confusion Heinie was going through, he also chuckled. “Are you about finished?”
The
Sheriff then approached their trousers carefully laid on the backs of
chairs. He dug his hands in the pockets
and came up empty. He then moved to
Flurrie’s vest, which was also over the back of a chair and removed a watch fob
dangling from its pocket. Flurrie felt
himself tighten in near panic as he realized the safe’s skeleton key was also
attached to his watch fob.
“What’s
this?” the Sheriff asked, holding up the silver pocket watch with the key
dangling next to it. “What is this key
for?”
Adonis
glanced over at the key, immediately realizing its identity. He also felt abject fear, a rare emotion for
him.
“It’s the
key for our agency safe back in Milwaukee,” Flurrie quickly responded.
The
Sheriff investigated the key once more, curiously rubbing his fingers over it,
and then placed the watch fob on top of the dresser, just in front of the newly
groomed prairie chicken. “Thank you,
gents, “he said, tipping his straw hat.
“Now I
suppose you wish to search my bedroom?” Heinie asked as sarcastically as
possible.
The
Sheriff grinned, looking back at Adonis and Flurrie still seated on the edges
of their beds. “Wonderful idea,” he
shouted back, winking at the relieved twosome.
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