Cairo Jim on the Trail to ChaCha Muchos: An Epic Tale of Rhythm (The Cairo Jim Chronicles Book 1) by Geoffrey McSkimming

Author:Geoffrey McSkimming [McSkimming, Geoffrey]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2016-06-24T14:00:00+00:00

A curious camp

MENDOZA HAD NOT HAD TIME to scratch himself. The Bone-von Mostetot-del Tempo expedition was now in the cloudforest and the tireless porter had spent all the afternoon clearing a large circle of jungle and then erecting Bone’s ornate tent-pavilion and Dolores’s smaller but still flashy tentette. After this he had walked for seven kilometres until he found fresh water, and then had carted it back to the campsite.

He poured some of the water into a large dish and took it to the massive camel who sat chewing in a corner of the clearing. ‘Here you are, my amiga,’ he puffed, setting the dish in front of her. He ruffed up the patch of twisty hair that sprouted between her ears, and crouched before her. ‘Ah, I am so glad Señor von Mostetot allowed you to stay with us after the ploughing was done. But I had to plead with him, si?’

The silent beast blinked her long-lashed eyes and rolled her head in a circle.

‘Do you know, I think he was planning to leave you out in the desert all by yourself. He is a strange man, that one. The way he and the bird smell. Prunes, I think. And those clothes he wears. They are so…so…’ He frowned.

‘Quaaooo?’ she snorted.

‘Exactly!’ Mendoza said happily. ‘The very word I was looking for.’ He curled his upper lip, bared his teeth, and snorted loudly. The camel smiled and brought her head close to his neck. He snorted again, even more loudly, then giggled in a snortish sort of way.

‘Mendoza!’ came an impatient shout.

‘Ah,’ he whispered, ‘it is Miss del Tempo. She wants her water and I have been dilly-dallying. Now I am in for it.’ He stood, stretched his legs, and bent close to her ear. ‘But I have no worries, her bark is much worse than her bite. I should know. Adios for now.’

‘Quaaooo.’

‘Hold onto your alpacas, señorita,’ he called, ‘I have it here. Fresh and cold just for you.’

‘Well don’t hang about like a stunned tarantula. Bring it in!’

‘Si, Miss del Tempo.’ He lifted the door-flap and lurched in with the bucket, spilling a great deal of the water on the ground.

‘And be careful! You’ll leave me with nothing to remove my daytime make-up.’

‘Sorry, señorita.’

‘You have never been good with water as a rule.’ Dolores del Tempo was sitting before a hefty wooden make-up case, which was resting on one of her smaller travelling trunks. This case had two doors at the side, both with mirrors on them, and a hinged, mirrored flap at the top. All three mirrored surfaces were opened wide, and in the centre were three long shelves packed chock full of lipsticks, eyebrow pencils, rouges, false eyelashes, powders, puffs and sponges.

Mendoza poured some water into a bowl between Dolores and the mirrors.

‘Gracias, señor,’ Dolores said. She ran her fingers through her slicked-back hair, and pulled a face as though half of her was about to cry and the other half was about to explode.

‘What is the matter, Miss del Tempo?’

‘Look at my hair, Mendoza.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.