“Orders from Beelzebub, and it’s nigh a half hour by now since this fella came across the bridge. I’m sauntering home, friends with everybody, I am—”
“What fellow?”
Charon scratched his grisly thatch. “Come to think of it, I never see ’im afore this. I’m standing back there, looking down at my old skiff and wondering about my job, when this fella comes up. ‘This is for you, Charon,’ he says, and held out your official incombusterible letterhead with the cross-bones and dripping blood—”
“Yeah, yeah. What does this stranger look like? What’s his name? Who signed the paper?”
“Beelzebub signed it. I guess I know the John Henry of your Number Two devil even if I am a dumb ferryman.” Perhaps sensing he had blundered, Charon almost wept. “This paper appoints me head bridge-tender from now to the end of eternity, and, bein’ worried about my job, I hopped right to it. You’re the first—”
“Which way did he go? What’s he look like?”
Charon almost said “Thataway,” as he shook his head and pointed a trembling finger to the distant shore. “Lemme see. He wore neat clothes about like mine, and he zoomed off like the upper crust shades do when in a hurry—which ain’t often. He has mean little eyes, sort of pale blue, is built wide and short, and talks American good as I do. Now’t I think of it, he had an impederiment in his speech, and he smelt like a bed of sweet peas.”
“Very good, indeed.” Scanning the paper, Nick smiled as he recognized a forgery of the Beelzebub signature. He drew out his pen which writes under fire as well as water, and scribbled “Nick,” then put the document into the eager hands. “This gives you the job forever—or till I revoke the appointment.”
“Boydy-dumb-deals!” Charon shouted. “Boss, you oughta hear about my adventures in Redland. I had a real gabfest with the new Premier, Andrei Broncov, and his Minister of Culture, Vichy Volonsky.”
Nick grinned sardonically. “I heard a little about the most recent changes in the Kremlin. Are my old sidekicks well? And are they having any particular trouble since liquidating the old gang?”