Free Temple of the Jaguar God by Zach Neal Page B

very good question.
     
    ***
     
    “ What an extraordinary tale.” They were back in
school.
    The
nights were getting longer, dull, drab routine was settling in, and
his good friend and colleague Richard Hamble was
astounded.
    Possibly
even unbelieving. Jeremy had been sort of holding him off, and at
the same time savouring his knowledge, perhaps even his new powers.
They’d finally gotten together in Hamble’s digs, his room-mate
temporarily off in the study hall.
    “ Yes. The funny thing is, that it’s already sort of fading into
history.”
    “ Would you ever go back?”
    Jeremy
laughed.
    “ I go back next summer. By then, they should have quite the
camp set up, with shacks for the workmen, a proper cookhouse, maybe
even a bathhouse, everything they need to properly survey and
excavate a major archaeological discovery.”
    Mister
O’Dell’s and Mister Smith’s bodies had been recovered, receiving a
far more Christian burial than that provided for Mister Syrmes.
With no known next of kin, they would get small, plain white
headstones in the local cemetery and that was about it. The whole
thing had cost about twenty pounds, at least according to Uncle
Harry.
    Hamble
had cut their obituaries out of the Times and proudly presented
them to Jeremy.
    “ I find it hard to believe that your uncle would be fool enough
to hire Mister Day.”
    Jeremy
shrugged, reaching for a macaroon, mug of cold milk all ready for
the dipping.
    “ Yes. Well, he wasn’t such a bad chap. He really is qualified,
and he was on the spot. There are not too many educated Englishmen
around, and it’s possible that they understand each other a little
better now. Gerald…seemed pretty grateful and he knows he’s sort of
on probation. He’s learned one hell of a lesson, when you think
about it.” As Jeremy had as well, many lessons, some of which would
never be forgotten.
    Some of
which might take a while to sink in, as he put it…
    “ I refuse to believe that your uncle has taken up with this
O’Dell woman. And what are they going to put in this alleged book
that he’s writing?”
    Jeremy
grinned, and then sighed.
    “ Melody is a very beautiful woman. She’s smart, she’s tough,
and she’s also very independent minded.”
    “ Yes. But how can he ever trust her?”
    “ I don’t know, Hamble. Maybe he’ll have her watching Gerald.
And he’ll have Gerald watching her. The gold’s been returned to the
museum, and he got a pretty big reward. He was smart enough to get
them to sign an agreement before ever leaving London. Harry ain’t
exactly stupid, when you get right down to it. That money’s sitting
in the bank, so they have to play pretty straight with him. But
there is such a thing as love, and I have this insane idea that
they might actually make a pretty good marriage out of
it.”
    “ Marriage?” Hamble shook his head. “Unbelievable.”
    “ Yes. Incidentally, if you’re looking for something to do next
summer, you might just want to consider coming out. It’s only a
couple of months, really. A chance to travel. You can shoot and
everything, right, you’re a big strong boy, and there’s going to
have to be guards. Otherwise all kinds of poachers and grave
robbers will be in there…” There was some safety in sheer numbers.
“You might have to do a little work, of course.”
    Lots and
lots of guns.
    “ And what about the bloody cat—Ozzie, or whatever?”
    “ Ah, yes. Mister Day has promised to look after her—it’s a
girl, actually. The thing comes and goes, that’s for sure. But
there’s no way I could ever bring it home.” It was probably the
wrong thing to do and he couldn’t see how it could ever work
out.
    Certainly, back home in Norfolk, there was no real place for
it.
    It was a
sad admission, but probably true.
    Hamble
sat there, mouth open, eyes unfocused.
    Then he
came around, rather quickly, intelligent brown eyes noting again,
his tanned and rather daunting friend. Jeremy had filled out,