Part 23 (2/2)
”It's nice, is vot I tink. A heart is nice. A kidney, not so nice.”
”What I want is something unique, something extravagant.”
”You vant a Faberge egg.”
”Something like, yes. What do you have along the lines of a Faberge egg?”
”Hearts.”
”Yes. Of course. Let's have a look at these hearts.”
”Hearts ve got.” The jeweler bent forward, slid open a panel at the rear of the counter, and brought up a tray. He set it atop the counter. ”All sizes.”
Oscar studied the lockets. He said, ”None of them speak to me.”
The jeweler shrugged. ”You vant it to talk, ve can't do business.”
”What's that over there?”
”Vot?”
”Behind you there, on the shelf.”
”Dis? Dis is a brooch. Nice, a very nice piece, but a locket it's not.”
”May I see it?”
He handed the brooch to Oscar. ”Dot's Indian. The Zuni tribe. From Arizona. A very nice piece. Vun of a kind.”
”Expensive, in other words.”
”Dot I could let you haff for eighty-five dollars.”
”These Zunis of yours. Do they by any chance own Arizona?”
”Look at dot inlay vork. A lot of craft goes into making a piece like dot.”
”Into selling it, as well.”
The jeweler shrugged. ”Ve could go back to hearts.”
”Do you have something attractive to present it in?”
”I got a box.”
”Metal? Lined with velvet?”
”Cardboard. Lined with cardboard.”
”The jeweler who died. It was a natural death?”
”Something he ate, I heard.”
”Not a bullet, then?”
”Who vould eat a bullet?”
”Indeed. Do you have a box in, say, violet?”
”In white, I got vun.”
”Fine. Done.”
”You vant ribbon, I got ribbon. Red.”
Oscar smiled. ”A ribbon then, by all means.”
Although the train to Manitou Springs and Leadville wouldn't be leaving for another hour and a half, the platform was crowded with people. There were cowboys in long canvas dusters, miners in canvas capes, businessmen in suits and topcoats, entire families in homespun and gingham. Children, giddy with candy and antic.i.p.ation, scampered up and down the steps, scurried along the planking, dipped and disappeared behind adult legs. Vendors hawked popcorn and roasted peanuts. The sunlight slanting below the wooden canopy was thin but clear, and the air seemed festive, expectant, pulsing with possibilities.
How thoughtful it was of the universe, once again, to mirror Oscar's mood.
He strolled down the platform. People were drifting in and out of the carriages, smiling and laughing, chattering at each other through cheeks plump with peanuts.
Oscar saw that the carriages were smaller-lower and shorter and more narrow-than those with which he was familiar. But they were exquisitely built and beautifully painted, the bodies a rich emerald green, the trim around the windows a bright cheerful crimson. If any vehicles could ferry pilgrims to the promised land in comfort and style, these could. A pity that poor Moses hadn't been able to hire a railroad train.
He found Henry at the baggage carriage, being harangued by a fat man in an ill-fitting pair of gray overalls beneath an opened gray wool coat.
Oscar asked Henry, ”What seems to be the trouble?”
Henry's expression was, as always, noncommittal, but his face was a bit drawn today and his dark skin glistened with a thin sheen of perspiration. Perhaps he had picked up a chill yesterday, when the two of them had plunged through the torrent.
”It's your coat, Mistuh Oscar,” Henry said. ”The gennaman says it got to go inside the trunk.”
”Sorry, friend,” said the fat man, who seemed neither particularly sorry nor particularly friendly. His face was closed and k.n.o.bby, like a fist. ”I already tole the n.i.g.g.e.r here. All items of clothing gotta go inside the luggage. That's the rules.”
”But the coat is still damp,” Oscar explained. ”It got soaked yesterday. If it's packed away, it'll become horribly wrinkled.”
”Tough luck, but that's the rules.”
Oscar turned to Henry. ”Well, then, bring it along to the carriage.”
”Uh-uh,” said the man. ”No good. No coat rack in the carriages.”
Oscar told him, ”We'll lay it over one of the seats.”
”Only paying pa.s.sengers allowed in the seats.” The man was clearly beginning to warm to the exchange. Each refusal was an additional token of his power and further proof of his skill at debate.
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