"Now, Miss Brie, don't get upset," Aubrey responded.

"I'm sure Joseph's experience, as has been mine, is with charlatans and fakirs. Since those people have no real abilities, we're a bit skeptical."

"I daresay Grimsby has seen evidence of powers on Mars, which is why he so readily accepts your claims."

"A traveling medicine wagon? I believe that's unique to the Colonies. I've heard of them, but we don't have anything like that in England. The closest I've seen is a gypsy wagon here on the mainland. Spain seems an odd locale for one, though. Especially since the writing was in English... sort of. 'Moonshine' is hardly English. A Colonial bastardization perhaps."

"In any case, no, I can't think of any tests or even questions for Senor Fidalgo that haven't already been answered. It is not like he is claiming to have been frozen. That claim comes from the people that found him, the constabulary and the doctors."

"Unless they are all suffering under the same delusion, then it should be accepted as a fact that Fidalgo was, indeed, frozen. The fact that he has no memory of the event also supports that, since his brain would not have functioned while he was frozen."

"The astounding part is that he recovered fully from being frozen. That should not have happened."

In reply to Aubrey St. Claire (msg # 569):

"Quite so, Aubrey, quite so." Joseph agrees with the educated Englishman, "I was raised to be a God-fearing, educated Gentleman, trained in the military and engineering arts.  I've seen the voodoo charlatans among the peo--" Joseph pauses with a grimace (OOC: he'd pronounced that last as "pay-oh..."), then continues, "Scaring the field workers on my Uncle's plantation with their so-called 'powers'.  It is all stuff and nonsense which only the weak-minded fall for."

"That is why I am so upset, Miss Brie!  Performing this nonsense for entertainment is one thing, but here?  For you to interfere with Mr. Aubrey's scientific investigation with it, just making up important information from broadcloth?  Miss Brie, I'm sorry if it offends, but as they say back in my homeland...well...that hound just don't hunt."

Grimsby responds, "As Mr. St. Clair suggests, I have seen some curious examples of mental power on Mars, especially among the Living Old Ones worshipped by the Cult  of the Worm.
    I have also had the honor of receiving of a reading by Miss O'Malley, and I believe it to be more than a mere entertainment. However, it seems to me that that question can be solved simply by devoting a little time for seeking this wagon she describes. As I remarked before, it should not be hard to find, and if we find it, that should satisfy Mr. Hunnisett that Miss O'Malley's talent is genuine. If Senor Fidalgo has no more to tell us, I for one would favor beginning the search for the wagon and its owner."

Brie grins at Grimsby "Yes, let us go see if we can find this wagon. That might answer some of questions and no one else has gotten a clue. So lets see if he is in town or has passed though here."

She looks at Aubrey "I am not upset, some people just find it hard to believe. I know what I can do." she says with a grin ignoring Joseph's outburst.

"Where do you propose to start looking for this wagon?" Aubrey responds.

"I suppose we could go out to where he was found, but I don't believe the wagon was there any more. If it had been, surely someone would have mentioned it."

"We might be able to find wagon tracks that show us which way it went, but once it entered the city, if that is, indeed, where it went, the tracks will have been obliterated by all the foot and horse and carriage traffic."

"We could ask of the constabulary. Surely something like that would have been noticed around town. But the writing could easily have been concealed by a canvas rolled down over it. That would have made it far less conspicuous."

"Another avenue of inquiry might be motivation. Was this an attack of opportunity? Was Fidalgo simply the first person to pass by at that time? Or did the attacker know Fidalgo would be on that path at that moment? Was Fidalgo specifically targeted for some reason? Did he meet some fanciful criteria of the attacker's specifications? Could he have been targeted by an enemy? Perhaps even an enemy that he isn't even aware of?"

He'd spoken as they filed out of the room. Although he thought the 'scene of the crime' would yield few if any clues, it did seem a reasonable place to start.

Brie looks at Aubrey "I would say we ask around town if it has come though here. A person like that does a show and tries to hock his wears. Another place might be to ask any coach drivers if they have seen it in their travels. I doubt the man and wagon are still at the scene of the crime." she says as she walks out.

Grimsby responds, "Since we are here in town, that seems the logical place to start. If the wagon really is used for selling medicines, it would be likely to have stopped here, and even if not, the Guarda who watch the roads are likely to have noticed it. I presume the hospital staff can direct us to the local Guarda post. We could also ask the coach drivers, as you say."

"Now, now, gentleman..." Catherine says soothingly when Grimsby and Joseph disagreed. "Really? I never imagined!" she says when Grimsby indicated he had seen powers of the mind on Mars.
"I can't think of a man like Fidalgo having enemies. Much less ones that would use a device that didn't harm him at all, in the end."

"Oh good, another chance to meet new people" Catherine adds sunnily.

In reply to Catherine Harston (msg # 576):

Grimsby comments, "You have a very good point, my dear ward. The unfortunate Fidalgo does not seem the sort to provoke a serious enmity. Perhaps, if he was the victim of a strange weapon, the weapon was only tested in a relatively harmless way on him before being used more seriously on someone else. If so, it may become urgent to find the wielder of the weapon before it is used on another victim with more dangerous intent."

"I daresay, Grimsby, that might be your Colonial Office training that got you there first, but I think I would have gotten there shortly," Aubrey responds.

"That was very perspicacious of you, Miss Catherine. So, Grimsby... your ward isn't just a pretty face! That was a very astute observation. Everything we know about the incident would seem to support that."

"I might add that it probably means that this Dr. Solar... if that's even his real name... is merely using the wagon as cover, so he might not need to be actively peddling his wares."

"Could he have snuck into town? It was early in the morning."

Brie looks at Aubrey "I know people like this from my travels as an interpreter. They make a grand entrance and sneak out when their stuff doesn't work. So we just need to ask around to see if he has been here. I would think if he tested something on a local, he would do it on the way out of town, not going in"

Grimsby remarked, "It seems there are two possibilities --either "Doctor Solar" did play his medicine peddlar role and made a grand entrance, or he slipped secretly into town. It should be easy enough to learn if he made a grand entrance here. If he did, it will make tracing him much easier"

Catherine smiled shyly. "Oh, thank you mister Aubrey" she said happily. She wasn't quite used to feeling useful.
"If Doctor Solar was secretly testing this device, I shouldn't think he'd draw attention to himself. That'd rather endanger his purpose" she argued.

"Well, I will go to see the grenadiers to see if they have seen anything." she will head off to see if she can find them.

In reply to Brie O'Malley (msg # 582):

"Miss Brie, please wait a moment." Joseph speaks up, "Look, I may not agree to the reality of this so-called wagon, but I do know Lawmen.  And it doesn't matter which side of the Atlantic, Lawmen simply do not like civilians poking their noses into police investigations.  More so if the civilians doing the poking are foreigners."

"Now, look everyone, I'm not saying we don't go to the local Garda and ask if this silly wagon has been seen in town, what I'm saying is that we shouldn't start by bothering the Garda--they will be of two minds about our investigation..."

"Either they shall resent our interference; wrongly concluding that we 'Foreigners' do not think them capable of performing this investigation satisfactorily, or they have already dismissed this case, and may fear that our investigations could reflect badly upon them."

"On yet another hand, there is also the very likely possibility that the local Lawmen have decided that none of this is worth their time, that it's all some kind of hoax, and no matter what, it's something they don't want to get involved with.  So if crazy Foreigners want to go mucking about out in the goat fields, so be it."

"So all I'm suggesting, fellows, is that before we go bothering the Garda, we go out to the site where this happened and see if we can confirm if there really was a wagon off the side of the road, and maybe which way it went, after Signor Fidalgo was flash frozen."

In reply to Joseph Rudyard Hunnisett (msg # 583):

Grimsby commented, "I would note that while Mr. Hunnisett may be correct in thinking that lawmen in general dislike the intervention of foreigners, I am, after all, an accredited agent of the British Crown, and Spain has had much reason to be grateful to Britain. Wellington fought brilliantly to free Spain from Napoleon; then the young Queen Isabella II owed her salvation from the Carlists largely to British aid, and later her son, the much-loved King Alfonso XII who died a few years ago, was a student at Sandhurst and actually issued his proclamation claiming the throne while he was there."

"I would expect any officials in the government nominally headed by his child son to be friendly to a British representative. Americans may be less popular, given that many of them have supported Cuban rebels, but I should think I could make inquiries of the Guarda without mentioning my companions' nationality."

"Meanwhile, there are other inquiries that could be pursued --Mr. Hunnisett could look for traces of the wagon where Senor Fildalgo reported it, and others might ask around to see if "Doctor Solar" made a public entrance here. We might all meet again afterwards and share such information as we have gathered."

"If the party prefers to stay together, we could all examine all three possibilities, beginning, I should think, with asking if Dr. Solar was seen in this town, since we are right here, and if the answer is yes, it will at least confirm the information Miss O'Malley obtained about the "doctor."
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:01, Mon 10 Sept 2018.

"Quite valid points, Grimsby," Aubrey agrees.

"As Miss Brie has already gone off to ask the Garda, I was about to hurry after her, but if you are going, too, no doubt you will take your ward with you."

"So, that leaves the rest of us to ask the locals and investigate the site."

"So, me, Joseph, and Miss Felicity," he adds, as the other American joins them.

"Seems appropriate if we are going to look for tracks."

In reply to Aubrey St. Claire (msg # 585):

Frowning, Joseph adjusted his hat, "Right, then." he says, "You three ask about town, then, we'll head to the north end of town--Senor Javier Fidalgo said he'd been on a dirt road, north of town, near a white rock.  We shall all perform our investigations and then meet back at the hotel in two hours to go over our findings during dinner. Agreed?  Let's go."

"Would they do that?" Catherine asked innocently when Joseph said the police wouldn't like it if they asked questions. The police were there to help. Then again, this was a strange country to her, and she trusted Commander Hunnisett.
She smiled proudly behind her veil when Grimsby talked about the things Britain had done in Spain. It was nice to belong to the strongest country in the world.

She waved cheerily to Joseph and Aubrey. "Best of luck to you both! See you soon!" she said, her cheerful voice totally at odds with her mourning dress.

"Where shall we begin, cousin?" she began, then realized "Catching miss O'Malley, I suppose!" She tried to hurry after Brie without appearing to hurry; haste was unseemly in a young lady.

Grimsby replied to Joseph, "Very well, we meet in two hours at the hotel. Meanwhile, my ward and I will join Miss O'Malley as quickly as we can." He steps off briskly after Brie, though he does not go so fast as to force Catherine to run in an unladylike manner.

Brie will ask about for where the Garda station is unless she sees one of its members.

"So, what did I miss?" Felicity asked as she, Joseph and Aubrey headed off.

After the others explain it to her, she adds:

"He was really frozen solid? But, it wasn't like any other 'frozen' we know. It might have been telling if we could have gotten a sample of the ice to see what its actually composition was."

"Oh. Did it melt? Or did it just sublimate? It's one of those odd properties of ice. In can go from a solid to a gas without having to melt first. It depends on the temperature, humidity and air pressure."

"I'm not trying to show off; just giving a running commentary. Sometimes, talking things over will prompt new ideas."

"Did they ever determine what Fidalgo's internal temperature was? Was he frozen all the way through, or was he just encased in this ice?"

In reply to Felicity Van Horn (msg # 590):

Grimsby remarked, "You ask some very good questions, Miss Van Horn. Unfortunately, we did not think to ask them at the hospital, so I am afraid we cannot answer them authoritatively. I will say my impression was that the unfortunate Fidalgo was actually frozen through, not just encased in ice, and that the ice vanished by meeting, not sublimation, but I am not certain on those points. Someone at the hospital almost certainly took his temperature, but we did not think to ask for that information."

>>>>> Brie, Catherine and Grimsby

The three of you head back into the main part of city and begin making inquiries of the locals you meet... about the traveling medicine show, anyone named Dr. Solar, or the wagon (even if they couldn't read what was on it). Unfortunately, you don't find any one that has seen anything.

You eventually make it to the local police station and make similar inquiries there, but the result is the same. No one has seen the show, doctor or wagon.


>>>>> Aubrey, Felicity and Joseph

You three head out to the edge of the city where Senor Fidalgo was found frozen. It's not hard to find, as a marker flag was placed at the location. At the exact spot, there is little to find as it appears as if many people have visited the site. You do find the wagon tracks of the wagon that was used to take the frozen block of ice to the hospital.

After a few minutes of searching the area, you do find additional wagon tracks in an area that matches the area where Brie said Fidalgo saw Dr. Solar's wagon. That confirms that there was a wagon there and that Fidalgo really did see it.

Brie looks at Catherine and Grimsby "OK, so this means he didn't come into town and no one seems to have heard about him. The only other place we might try is a bar or tavern that caters to travelers. What do you both think?"