Grantville Gazette 37

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 surely be blue sapphires. Pam placed it on her head and grinned.

"Look, I'm Wonder Woman! Now we just need to find the bullet-proof bracelets!" Gerbald, a dedicated student of American pop culture, laughed. Dore just rolled her eyes to signify "How much of such foolishness must I endure?" while the Swedes wore the painful smile of wanting to show approval for a joke they just didn't get. Pam tried to explain Wonder Woman and the concept of a super-hero to them in Swedish. She was getting pretty good at the language, but would need a lot more time to really become fluent. Finally, after several long minutes of word searching and gesturing, the bosun and the lojtnant both nodded with the satisfaction of understanding.

"We see now," the lojtnant said, "This is just like the sagas from the old days! This woman is as strong as Thor, she can fly like a bird and she has enchanted accoutrements to aid her in battle. It's obvious! Wonder Woman was one of your gods before you Americans became Christians! It's just as in our Norselands where the stories of the old gods still survive in the tales we tell children!" The bosun agreed heartily while Pam just smiled and gave up.

"Close enough," she said, and remembered to take the tiara she was still wearing off, feeling like an idiot for having it on throughout her lengthy explanation. She held it in her hands for a moment, admiring its sparkling beauty. "Hey, I know someone who we should give this to. Princess Kristina! Look, it's even in the Swedish colors, blue and gold." The Swedes clapped their hands at this suggestion. A generous percentage of the treasure, in the form of jewelry, was put aside to donate to the princess's crown jewels, a gift from her admirers. A pang of sadness came to Pam as she thought of poor old Fritjof, and how much he would have approved of such a gesture. Even so, Pam didn't give everything to her patron. There was a certain pearl necklace that called to her in a siren song, and she claimed it without apology. "I heard there's a party tonight and a girl has got to have something to wear!"

It took another hour to divide all the shares out of the various piles. As Pam had expected, the Swedes insisted that she take a larger portion. Since it was hard to gauge the value of the gems, she took a lion's share of those, figuring that some might be worthless, while others might be worth more than the entire find. She would have to wait until she found a qualified jeweler to find out, and that would likely be a while. Despite her many protests, she ended up with a larger pile of loot than the rest.

"Look, I know you mean well, fellows, but really, I want everybody to have an equal share."

The bosun listened to her patiently, but his answer was always the same: "You are the captain, you get more. It's tradition."

Finally, Pam conceded. "Fine, but I want you all to know I'm going to use most of my take to help make this colony work. I really don't need this much money for myself. I'm already pretty well off."

This was met with warm smiles from her companions, which made her feel better about it. Smiling back, she dropped her take back into the chest, locked it, and put the key in her pocket.

The bosun summoned the men. One by one, they filed past the table receiving their share, their eyes bugging at the size of the unexpected windfall. Apparently sailors of the day were not very well paid. The shares weren't really that big; it hadn't been that large a box. Even so, each seemed overjoyed, and thanked her profusely before making way for the next.

When the task was all finished, Pam shooed everyone out of her cabin and fell down on the bed, very much ready for an afternoon nap.

It is better to give than receive but it's lot of work, too.