Playing Chess with God BY VERNE R. ALBRIGHT

CHAPTER TWO: PROFESSOR VON DUISBURG'S DAUGHTER

As soon as Henning's ship reached Valparaiso, he started looking for someone going to California. Someone who'd bring him along and show him how to find gold. But he couldn't find anyone who took him—as young as he was—seriously. 

"When you're older and look in a mirror, you'll see your father looking back," his grandfather had once promised. Henning could hardly wait. His father had been dashing and dangerous. Everyone had paid attention to him.

 Sitting alone in a waterfront saloon, Henning was joined by five men. One climbed up on the table and addressed the other patrons in a booming voice.

"I'm Roberto Flores. Me and my friends," he gestured to the men around him, "are going to California. We need a man to do our chores. In return we'll show him how to pan gold." 

"Sounds like you need a sucker to do your dirty work," an onlooker heckled. 

"When he gets back from California with bags of gold," Flores said, "you'll wish you'd been that sucker." 

"What do you know about gold, let alone California?" the heckler challenged.

"I was in Minas Gerais, Brazil, during the big strike there."

"In that case why aren't you rich?"

"Because I got there too late, but this time you'll be the one making that mistake...if you ever work up the gumption to go." Flores got down from the table, moving with exaggerated care to mask his inebriation. He rapped a shin against a chair, then cursed, "Maldito sea."

"Is it true?" Henning asked the man sitting beside him. "Are you going to California?" 

"Why?"

"I might be interested in joining you," Henning replied.

"My name is Eduardo Vásquez." 

"I'm Henning Dietzel."

"Nice to meet you. I'll introduce my friends later if there's any point in it." 

Vásquez was over six feet with broad, level shoulders. Perhaps because Henning was taller yet, though little more than a boy, he pulled himself erect and threw back his shoulders. Studying Henning's threadbare clothes, he said, "It'll cost four hundred U.S. dollars for supplies and passage to California. Do you have that much?" 

"I can pay my way." 

"Your Spanish isn't bad. How's your English?" 

In English Henning answered, "It's passable." 

"What's your native tongue?" 

"Prussian." 

"If you can learn three languages, you can learn to pan gold. We'll teach you if you work for us without wages and make a deposit to guarantee you won't take off before putting in your time." 

"How long would I have to work for you?" 

"What do you suggest?" 

"Half-days for a month." 

"Negotiations seldom succeed if the opening bid is unreasonable," Vásquez growled. "Would you like to start again?" 

"Isn't it your turn now?" Henning asked. 

"Dawn to dusk for three months." 

"If I agree to that, the gold will be gone before I can gather any for myself." 

"Gather?" Flores snorted drunkenly. "Sounds like you expect it to be scattered on the ground where girls could frolic around on their tiptoes filling their aprons with it."