The hunter sat up bruised and muddy. "I'm going to feel that tomorrow," Brick thought. He gathered the rare antiquities that fell from the pack, but did not notice on the back of his strap hung the pirate captain's clutched boney fist.

It was morning in New York. In the offices of a large museum the treasure seeker waited. Someone with a pile of paperwork hurried by and handed him an envelope. He opened it and looked unpleased but not surprised. As Weston began to leave another person approached to say his presence was requested in the office of Ms. Travers, the museum founder's daughter. The man looked agitated. He had not seen Mia for years, since he and her father had an argument about the museum.

The treasure hunter entered Mia Travers' office. She was not there yet and he observed some of her father's belongings inside a glass case. There were books, telescopes, artifacts from around the world, and the doctor's cigars. Mia's certificates and pictures were displayed on the wall. He studied the images of the beautiful woman at different times in her life; graduations, expeditions, ceremonies, but in all he noticed an empty space next to her.