Around eight in the evening, Monsieur Simone Chevrolet, the owner of the French opera team who had been invited by Luis to attend this year’s carnival, came down to the tavern. He was accompanied by those beautiful ladies who came to the island with him. A suppressed noise of passion was heard all across the floor. Those who were with their wives, were careful not show such ungentlemanly interest in those ladies while the sailors who were present, could hardly hold themselves in one piece. Everyone kept waiting for the first opportunity to show the ladies the courtesy of offering a drink. With two of his beauties, Simone sat on the stools next to Luis while the rest occupied two tables in front of the bar. Those lucky single men who never had the bad luck to be chained up by the matrimonial vows, immediately focused their attention upon those beauties who had taken seats a few feet away from Simone. Like a swarm of honey bees in search of nectar, they surrounded the ladies, making gestures and exchanging pleasantry. When Edgar and his two associates moved in, the sailors went back to their stools and chairs.
Mayor Jean had already been introduced to Simone, so the conversation began without any kind of unease. Simone congratulated Mayor Jean for decorating the town in such a lavish manner, and then, went on describing to him the thrills of his journey. During this conversation, Simone noticed Mayor Jean looking at one of his companions from time to time. Subsequently, he smiled at the Mayor and said, “Monsieur Jean, forgive me for not introducing my companions to you.” He turned to the lady and took her hand and said, “This is Eva, my lead singer. She sings while I play the violin. She has been with me, ever since I began my career as a musician. Oh she is such a wonderful companion. Perhaps Monsieur Jean would like to enjoy her sweet company.” After saying this, Simone removed Luis from his seat and placed Eva in that vacant seat.
Mayor Jean blushed for a second, but very quickly he recomposed himself before his guests. He took the lady’s hand in his own, while gently kissing it to express his admiration. Everyone smiled at them when Simone made Luis sit on the stool where Eva had been sitting. Unexpectedly, there came the noise of clamor from the other end of the tavern. A drunken Spanish sailor had been asking for the company of one of the ladies, but the lady wasn’t interested in the little sailor. When she refused, the obstinate little sailor wouldn’t budge. He kept insisting for her hand. Another man standing nearby, saw this and intervened, resulting in a brawl. The little Spanish man kept saying that he wanted to pay the lady for her company, so he didn’t understand why the lady wouldn’t go out with him. At this point, the lady changed her mind and took pity at the little Spanish man. The name of the little Spanish man was Faustino. The lady took Faustino’s hand and together, they strolled out of the tavern. A few minutes later, Faustino ran back to the tavern in tears, claiming that he had been robbed by the beautiful bandit. The crowd burst out in laughter while the man who had earlier intervened, threw him out of the tavern.
With his brass telescope in his hand, Sheldon went to the bedroom window facing the sea. The bedrooms of his mansion were all on the second floor, so he had an unobstructed view of the sea. The previous night, James, his stable master informed him that a vessel for carrying the next batch of horses across the Atlantic, had arrived. Sheldon had his own galley for transporting the horses from the coast to the vessel. Sheldon woke up from sleep, only a few minutes earlier. The thought came to him the moment he had opened his eyes. He didn’t wait after washing up, went straight to the window with his telescope, to have a view of the vessel. At a distance, he couldn’t see it clearly with his naked eyes. When he held the telescope before him, he saw the name of the vessel, Matilda, written on the stern of it. It was a pinnace with two masts on it as well. Usually this type of vessels didn’t have sails, but this one had the option. On the portside of it, there were eight oars. Therefore, he assumed altogether the vessel had sixteen oars. For a pinnace, it was quite large. He had been told that it could carry at least fifty horses along with their rations. Suddenly, he saw another vessel, far away, over the horizon. It looked like a galleon. Within a few minutes the vessel disappeared from his view. Then he turned his telescope towards the beach. His galley was already there. He could see James with his men loading the horses onto the galley. The sea was unusually calm and with a cloudless February sky, loading the horses did not pose any hassle. On this journey, James would go with the horses to complete the transaction, once the vessel reached its destination. He was not only Sheldon’s stable master, but also his trusted business representative. Sheldon and his wife Martha maintained the books of his business enterprise. James’ associates took care of the daily routines at the stable, in his absence.
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Sheldon put his telescope in its container and then, went downstairs to the dining hall for his breakfast. He found his family already waiting for him at the table. Usually, Sheldon would wake them up from their beds. Today the children did not follow that tradition and for a very good reason. They were going to visit the French Town with Sheldon. They would buy grocery and other supplies for the month, such as flour, cooking oil, salt, sugar etc. Whenever Sheldon travelled with his family, he used a special coach he had purchased from London. With a black body and brass edges, it was an elegant piece of transport. The coach had a pretty big metal box attached to its rear for carrying luggage or goods. One of the hands from the stable would sit at the front with the halter, while Sheldon would ride with his family inside the covered coach. For such a trip, one particular stallion and a mare were always put aside from the rest.
The road which was usually used to travel to the town, passed along the northern edge of the Black Mountain where it abruptly ended, right before reaching the sea, leaving a narrow stretch of land wide enough to be used as a road. Most people used this route to travel from the western tip to the eastern part of the island. However, there was another route around the southern edge of the mountain. The route was narrower. So narrow along the edge of the mountain that two carriages could not cross each other, coming from the opposite directions. Hence, most travelers avoided this route. Though narrow, but actually this route passed through the most scenic part of the island, having thick forest and lush vegetation all around it. The two streams of the island originated from this section of the mountain. One flowed over the gentle slope of the eastern side of the mountain towards the town, while the other dropped almost five hundred feet from the mountain like a waterfall and then flowed across Sheldon’s ranch before merging with the sea along the western coast of the island. These two streams ran throughout the year, never drying up completely, providing fresh water to all the inhabitants of the island. After the mountain, on the eastern side of the island, there were nothing but wheat fields and a few barley fields. The only distillery on the island was on this southern route, halfway from the mountain to the town.
Couple of times, Martha wanted to see the distillery, but Sheldon never got the opportunity to show it to her. On their way to the town when the road split into two, instead of turning left, the coach turned to right and headed for the southern route because Sheldon had earlier instructed the driver to take that route. Martha looked at her husband with surprise in her eyes when Sheldon smiled back and said, “You wanted to see the distillery, didn’t you?”
“I almost forgot. It was couple of weeks ago. Do you ever forget what I want?”
“Try not to. You’ll be surprised to see the size of it. It’s pretty big, but the entire plant is run by only a few hands.”
“How many workers are employed over there?”
“Twenty, and most of them do the crushing and extracting the juice from the sugarcanes. The process of fermentation, filtration and storing them in barrels, are all done by only three people.”
“Who owns it?”
“The Bronson Brothers. They live in the house adjacent to the tavern. They are originally from Wales.”
“Don’t they have families living with them?”
“Edward J Bronson, the elder one, lives with his family. Maverick, his younger brother, is still an eligible bachelor. I don’t think he has any intention to marry as he spends most of his time in the tavern, drinking hard liquor and gambling.”
“Most obnoxious way of living, isn’t it?”
“Of course, now don’t go into the tavern, lecturing him about the benefits of the temperance movement. He has a very nasty temper and in every sense, he’s just a beast. Usually, reason is the last thing people like him would want to hear from anyone.”