The Indian also told them that the river dolphins were shapeshifters, who delighted in seducing humans of the opposite sex. Worse, if the object of their attention was married, they could imitate the appearance of the spouse. Leading, he told the Ashanti, to conversations along the lines of, “Again? Didn’t you get enough this afternoon? What do you mean this afternoon, I was out fishing all day!”
The Ashanti agreed that for the next few nights, until they were well away from the river junction, no one, man or woman, should be left alone.
Gustavus
Heinrich Bender heaved another bag of provisions into the canoe. Last one, he thought with relief. Now where’s Erasmus? The sun’s only a couple of handwidths above the horizon.
But the person who next greeted him was someone other than Erasmus. Someone quite unwelcome, in fact.
“Where’s the party?” asked the dock guard, Nikolaus.
Heinrich made a vague wave in the general direction of Fort Lincoln. “Just a private party in New Carthage.” That was the local name for the Africans’ market town, at the confluence of the Suriname and Commewijne rivers, and it was of course Maurício’s fault. At least he had failed to convince the colonists to call it Carthago Nova.
Erasmus ran up. “I bought us another shovel, and—” Erasmus suddenly noticed Nikolaus.
“Going to do the shovel dance at the party, huh, Erasmus?” said Nikolaus.
“None of your goddamn business, Nikolaus!”
“Oh really, Erasmus. You’ve been here less than a year, didn’t even fight the Imbangala, and you think you can tell me what questions I can ask. Well, I’m the Dock Guard”—his voice capitalized the words—“and I think you’re behaving suspiciously. I can ask all the questions I please.”
“Take it easy, Nikolaus,” said Heinrich. “I came here on the first ship, so I have seniority over you.”
“So you do, but I need to know that you aren’t off to bury a body somewhere. In fact—”
He blew a whistle. “I have called for reinforcements.”
Two more guards arrived, seeming pleased by the break in routine.
“Okay, let’s see what’s in the canoe,” Nikolaus ordered. Heinrich and Erasmus slowly laid the contents out.
“Two pans? You can’t share a pan?”
“It’s, it’s a hygiene thing,” Heinrich explained. Nikolaus’ sniff suggested that he was unimpressed by this explanation.
The solar disk was touching the ocean by the time they were told, “You’re free to go.”
Heinrich and Erasmus tossed their goods into the canoe, without worrying about being neat about it, and pushed off.
“I told you sneaking away was a dumb idea,” Heinrich whispered to Erasmus.
* * *
Nikolaus had been on duty the day that Kojo, Coqui and Tetube had returned, too. As he tried to fall asleep that night, he wondered again why Coqui and Tetube would have brought an African miner from the Gold Coast with them.
The next day, Nikolaus went looking for Kojo. And told him that the regulations of the colony required that all gold discoveries, including their amount and location, be reported to a duly appointed officer of the law, such as—he preened slightly—himself.
Kojo sighed, and made the report. “I expected this,” he admitted.
“Oh?”
“Under Ashanti law, all gold mining must be reported to the king. How much must I pay the governor?”
“Uh . . . I’m not sure,” Nikolaus back-pedaled. “What’s the royal cut back home?”
“One-third.”
“That sounds reasonable, but I will have to ask the governor. Be patient, and I’ll let you know.”
“Take your time,” urged Kojo. “There’s no rush.”
* * *
“This paddling is more work than mining was,” Erasmus complained. “I wish we could use a sail.” The wind was then blowing from the east, and would have made eastward progress impossible even with a sail far more sophisticated than that of their canoe.
Heinrich snorted. “So do I, Erasmus, so do I. But be thankful that we are paddling against the puny current of the Cottica, not the great ocean current off the coast of Suriname.” The Cottica was a tributary of the Commewijne. In one of the monthly lectures that she gave for the entertainment and edification of the colonists, Maria had mentioned that according to up-time encyclopedias, in the flood season, you could cross over from the Cottica to a tributary of the Marowijne, and follow that down to the latter. Which was a good thing, because the entrance of the Marowijne was pretty dangerous. Not just because of the Caribs, but also because of rocks and odd currents.