Slippery Finn - Escape Artist for Hire (Part II)

Diary entry. Finn Edwards.

Sunday June 28th, 1925

Watch duty! Jeez! Talk about a bad end to an even worse day.

I just knew that hardass Anderson was going to call on me. Had us all lined up like soldiers, so he did, whilst he walked up and down like a drill sergeant, barking out instructions.

"We’ve all got to do our shift, men.”

Strutting up and down, eyeing us all up, his eyes fell on the Aztec lady.

“… Ahem, and women.”

He carried on marching down the line, his gravelly voice addressing no one in particular.

“And that means someone's gotta keep watch tonight."

Leo's eyes roved over our sorry party, lined up like so many toy soldiers, searching out potential candidates for the evening's watch duty.

Well, we must've looked like what you might call an ‘unlikely’ assortment, that’s fer sure.

First up there was the Aztec dame. Probably not anyone’s first choice for a lookout seein’ as we’d only just met her. Not bad looking, mind, and nice enough to talk to, too, once you get into a conversation with her. As I'd found out earlier in the day, in fact…

"Come on kid,” Anderson grunted, shoving me unceremoniously towards the Aztec warrioress. “This is what we brought you along for. Use yer charms and find out where these goddam ruins are. Before we all get bitten into colanders by these godforsaken snakes."

Anderson was already walking with a limp where one of ‘em had got into his boot earlier. Nothin’ more than he deserved, way I sees it, given that the first thing he did upon arriving at base camp was run headlong into a snakes' nest.

No, stop. Slight correction of facts there – Anderson had charged into that nest, but damned if he didn’t push poor Ted Hughes the cop in ahead of him. Poor feller didn't stand a chance.

Matter of fact, I ‘spect a few of us wondered if Anderson had planned it that way, seeing as how Ted had been questioning Leo's methods throughout the entire journey. Asking and asking about Leo’s preparations. What kind of kit we had packed, what kinds of provisions we were takin', and so on. Old Ted had a point though – it's a strange sort of master plan that involves twenty yards of rope and no food.

Well, as it turned out, Anderson had packed some medicine to cure snake bites, but mighty interesting how he conveniently 'forgot' all about it whilst we all stood there watching poor Ted dying.

Anyhow, I made nice with the Aztec dame, jus’ like Anderson asked me to, and he was pleased as punch when she led us straight to the hidden ruins. That's my way, see? Always been good at using my talents to get me out of trouble.

Back to the line-up, and next to my Aztec friend stood Father Matteo.

Jeez, hell of a day he'd had, and no mistake. I could feel the Padre wilting under Leo's glare, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

Truth is, old Matteo’s been acting strange since the moment we got out here. Twitching and flinching. Muttering to no one in particular. Giggling to himself about how he’s going to “seal every token in the bag”, whatever the hell that means.

Well, after old Ted and Leo had gone charging off into the snakes, I decided I needed to get hold of the map Matteo had brought, before things turned south. Swapped it for a blank piece of paper from this here diary, in fact. The ol' bait and switch. Bit of a knack I've got for swapping things over without no one noticing.

Matteo looked fair crestfallen when he found it was missing, poor man. Caught him in his tent trying to draw up a new one, scratching away with a red pen. Weird, weird guy. Hell of a singer, though, with that guitar.

Well, you'd have thought Anderson would've been happy with me finding the ruins and lifting that map for him. But no sir, he jus’ carried on walking straight past the priest and stood right in front of me.

“Kid. You're on watch duty tonight."

Wonder if the Padre’ll come by and sing me a song to pass the time.