The grey eyes widened, and all the mouths opened once more.
“You are talking of my nearest and dearest friend,” said the grey voice, softly.
From across the room Billy Belay tried to make a sign for Amos to be quiet, but the grey man turned around, and the finger Billy had put to his lips went quickly into his mouth as if he were picking his teeth.
“Friendship is a rare thing these days,” said Amos. “What sort of help do you and your friend need?”
“The question is: would you be willing to give it?” said the grey man.
“And the answer is: if it is worth my while,” said Amos, who really could think very quickly.
“Would it be worth all the pearls you could put in your pockets, all the gold you could carry in one hand, all the diamonds you could lift in the other, and all the emeralds you could haul up from a well in a brass kettle?”
“That is not much for true friendship,” said Amos.
“If you saw a man living through the happiest moment of his life, would it be worth it then?”
“Perhaps it would,” Amos admitted.
“Then you’ll help my friend and me?”
“For all the pearls I can put in my pockets, all the gold I can carry in one hand, all the diamonds I can lift in the other, all the emeralds I can haul up from a well in a brass kettle, and a chance to see a man living through the happiest moment of his life—I’ll help you!”
Billy Belay put his head down on the table and began to cry. Hidalga buried her face in her hands, and all the other people in the tavern turned away and began to look rather grey themselves.
“Then come with me,” said the grey man, and the rough sailors with cutlasses rose about him and hoisted the trunk to their grimy shoulders —Onvbpmf came from the trunk—and the grey man flung out his cape, grabbed Amos by the hand, and ran out into the street.
In the sky the clouds swirled and bumped each other, trying to upset the rain.
Halfway down the cobbled street the grey man cried, “Halt!”
Everyone halted and put the trunk down on the sidewalk.
The grey man went over and picked up a tangerine-colored alley cat that had been searching for fish heads in a garbage pail. “Open the trunk,” he said. One of the sailors took an iron key from his belt and opened the lock on the top of the trunk. The grey man took out his thin sword of grey steel and pried up the lid ever so slightly. Then he tossed the cat inside.
Immediately he let the lid drop, and the sailor with the iron key locked the lock on the top. From inside came the mew of a cat that ended with a deep, depressing Elmblmpf.
“I think,” said Amos, who after all thought quickly and was quick to tell what he thought, “that everything is not quite right in there.”
“Be quiet and help me,” said the thin grey man, “or I shall put you in the trunk with my nearest and dearest.”
For a moment Amos was just a little afraid.
TWO
Then they were on a ship, and all the boards were grey from having gone so long without paint. The grey man took Amos into his cabin, and they sat down on opposite sides of a table.
“Now,” said the grey man, “here is a map.”
“Where did you get it?” asked Amos.
“I stole it from my worse and worst enemy.”
“What is it a map of?” Amos asked. He knew you should ask as many questions as possible when there were so many things you didn’t know.
“It is a map of many places and many treasures, and I need someone to help me find them.”
“Are these treasures the pearls and gold and diamonds and emeralds you told me about?”
“Nonsense,” said the grey man. “I have more emeralds and diamonds and gold and pearls than I know what to do with,” and he opened a closet door.
Amos stood blinking as jewels by the thousands fell out on the floor, glittering and gleaming, red, green, and yellow.
“Help me push them back in the closet,” said the grey man. “They’re so bright that if I look at them too long, I get a headache.”
So they pushed the jewels back and leaned against the closet door till it closed.
Then they returned to the map.
“Then what are the treasures?” Amos asked, full of curiosity.
“The treasure is happiness, for me and my nearest and dearest friend.”
“How do you intend to find it?”
“In a mirror,” said the grey man. “In three mirrors, or rather, one mirror broken in three pieces.”
“A broken mirror is bad luck,” said Amos. “Who broke it?”
“A wizard so great and so old and so terrible that you and I need never worry about him.”
“Does this map tell where the pieces are hidden?”
“Exactly,” said the grey man. “Look, we are here.”
“How can you tell?”
“The map says so,” said the grey man. And sure enough, in large letters one corner of the map was marked HERE.
“Perhaps somewhere nearer than you think, up this one, and two leagues short of over there, the pieces are hidden.”
“Your greatest happiness will be to look into this mirror?”
“It will be the greatest happiness of myself and of my nearest and dearest friend.”
“Very well,” said Amos. “When do we start?”
“When the dawn is foggy and the sun is hidden and the air is grey as grey can be.”
“Very well,” said Amos a second time. “Until then, I shall walk around and explore your ship.”
“It will be tomorrow at four o’clock in the morning,” said the grey man. “So don’t stay up too late.”
“Very well,” said Amos a third time.
As Amos was about to leave, the grey man picked up a ruby that had fallen from the closet and not been put back. On the side of the trunk that now sat in the corner was a small triangular door that Amos had not seen. The grey man pulled it open, tossed in the ruby, and slammed it quickly: Orghmflbfe.
THREE
Outside, the clouds hung so low the top of the ship’s tallest mast threatened to prick one open. The wind tossed about in Amos’s red hair and scurried in and out of his rags. Sitting on the railing of the ship, a sailor was splicing a rope.
“Good evening,” said Amos. “I’m exploring the ship, and I have very little time. I have to be up at four o’clock in the morning. So can you tell me what I must be sure to avoid because it would be so silly and uninteresting that I would learn nothing from it?”