VOYAGERS! - The Voyager Chronicles
A RAY OF HOPE - BOOK 5
(Sequel to The True Spirit of Christmas)
By DA Daugherty (VoyagersFan)
June 2008 (Revised 09/2009)
Previous disclaimers apply

Chapter 9 – THE END OF AN ERA

It was early morning in London. The sun had begun to inch its way past the horizon, using its powerful force to drive away the mists of the waters. In the distance, Big Ben was counting off the sixth hour as the people of the area began to awaken. Hope Mansion was once again abuzz with activity as the servants went about their duties. Lord Francis had risen early from his well-deserved rest, to get a jumpstart on the very busy day which was ahead of him. After bathing and getting dressed, he made his way downstairs to the dining room where he sat and enjoyed his usual morning paper and coffee.

Out of nowhere, Bogg and Jeff suddenly appeared at the massive front gates of the estate. Cold, wet and tired from their previous excursion, little by little, they tottered up the walkway to the front door.

"Ready, kid?" Bogg asked.

"Yea, I'm ready. I've been ready." Jeff agreed. "Ready for some dry clothes, a warm room and breakfast fit for a king."

"Well, if a king's feast is what you want…Wait a minute." Bogg said as he retrieved his omni and opened the lid. "We can just as easily have breakfast with Henry the Eighth."

"Oh no. I really don't think so!" Jeff exclaimed as he reached over and slammed the lid on the omni. "What's with you and this urge to have a reunion with the Bloody King?"

Bogg with what little strength he could muster up laughed uncontrollably at his partner's response to his teasing.

"What?" Jeff asked. "What's so funny?"

"You!" Bogg replied as he gasped for breath.

"Me?"

"Yea. The look on your face…" Bogg said as he tried to regain his composure. "was priceless."

"Very funny, Bogg." Jeff said now aggravated somewhat. "Go ahead, yuck it up!"

"C'mon, let's get inside." Bogg urged as he reached up and rang the bell.

Moments later, the door opened and one of Lord Francis' servants greeted the two.

"Good morning, sir." The servant replied. "What brings you here this… Why it's Mr. Bogg and his son Jeff. Please do come in."

Bogg and Jeff walked inside and stood as the servant closed the door behind them.

Before they could take another step, Giles came up and greeted them.

"Mr. Bogg, Jeff… It's good to see you again." Giles said as he shook Bogg's hand. "Lord Francis has been extremely worried about the two of you."

"We're ok, Giles." Bogg explained. "Just battered, bruised and extremely wet."

"I can see that." Giles exclaimed. "Come; let's get you out of those wet clothes.

The two Voyagers followed Giles as he escorted them upstairs to their room.

"Gentlemen." Giles said. "The clothing you were wearing when you arrived has been cleaned and pressed. If you would, please change out of those wet garments before you catch cold."

"Thank you Giles." Bogg said.

"While you attend to yourselves, I will inform Lord Francis of your arrival. Oh, by the way, breakfast will be served shortly in the dining room. I trust the two of you are quite famished."

"You said it Giles." Jeff replied. "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse."

"Son, that problem will be taken care of shortly." Giles said as he grinned and closed the door behind him.

"Bogg, did you see that?" Jeff exclaimed.

"Yea, I saw it, but I can't believe it." Bogg said. "Giles actually smiled."

While Bogg and Jeff changed into their dry clothing, Giles went downstairs to the dining room.

"Lord Francis." Giles called to his master.

"Yes, what is it, Giles?"

"There will be two additional guests having breakfast with you this morning." Giles explained somewhat vaguely.

Lord Francis put down his paper and looked up at his assistant.

"Two additional guests?" He asked. "I don't recall us having any guests."

"Well, you do now!" Bogg said as he walked through the dining room door.

"Mr. Bogg!" Lord Francis cried out as he pushed back his chair and rose to greet the Voyager.

"I've been ever so worried." Lord Francis exclaimed as he shook Bogg's hand.

Jeff quietly emerged from behind his partner.

"And Jeff!" Lord Francis exclaimed. "It's good to see you too."

"It's good to be back, sir." Jeff said.

"We were wondering what happened to the two of you. It's been days now."

"Sir, we completed our mission." Bogg said as he dug around in his pocket and pulled out the large blue diamond. "And I believe this little jewel belongs to you."

"I hope it's not the fake one." Lord Francis said with a chuckle as he took the stone from him.

"No sir, it's the real thing." Bogg assured. "The fake one is in a million pieces at Malone's hideout."

Lord Francis held up the jewel and gazed at its beauty as its facets reflected the light. "It's quite unbelievable you know."

"What's that sir?" Jeff asked.

"This little beauty has been in my family now for generations. This is a sad day for me. This afternoon will mark the end of an era. That is, when the jewel will leave my hands for the final time." Lord Francis explained with a sullen tone. "But let's not dwell on that event. I want to hear more about this Malone character."

"First, though, let's be seated." Lord Francis urged. "Breakfast will be served shortly, and then I would like to hear the details of what happened."

Bogg, Jeff and Lord Francis quickly sat down, just in the nick of time. Seconds later, two servants dressed in starched white uniforms pushed in a large serving cart filled with steaming food. The aroma was now more than Jeff could handle.

"Wow, Bogg, smell that." Jeff exclaimed. "I don't think I've ever smelled anything that was so powerful. I can't wait to dig into it."

Bogg and Lord Francis laughed. "Sir, I don't believe Jeff is very hungry at the moment. So I guess that will leave all the more for us, don't you think?"

Lord Francis looked over at Bogg and played along with his teasing. "Mr. Bogg, I agree. I don't believe your young friend over there would even want a wafer. But that's ok. Like you said, that will leave bigger portions for the two of us."

"Now wait a minute!" Jeff chimed in. "I never said anything about not being hungry. On the contrary, I'm starved. I could eat everything on that cart."

"Ok, OK, we get the point, kid. You can eat, but, please, do control yourself!" Bogg exclaimed as he and Lord Francis started laughing.

"Funny, Bogg." Jeff replied.

As the servants placed their cups of tea and plates of food on the table, Lord Francis began to quiz the two Voyagers about their mission.

"Gentlemen, tell me more about this mission of yours." Lord Francis insisted.

Bogg put down his fork for a moment and started to tell the story.

"Sir, it's pretty cut and dry, but it goes like this. When we left here, we went to Doyle's hideout at the old tobacco warehouse, where he and an associate of his named Sam met us. Of course, before the meeting began, we had to be roughed up a bit by Doyle's thugs."

Lord Francis sat there, eating his breakfast, intrigued by the story thus far.

"Once we were inside, Doyle introduced us to Sam. Then we were blindfolded and escorted quite a distance away to the hideout of this guy named Malone. He was the guy who stole the diamond from you."

"Interesting…" Lord Francis replied.

"You said it. After entering Malone's hideout, Sam and Doyle removed our blindfolds. We discovered we were in a long, richly decorated hallway, which resembled a museum. There were all sorts of paintings, statues and rare antiques everywhere."

"So this guy, Malone is a collector of fine art?" Lord Francis asked.

"Yes." Bogg acknowledged. "And not only that, but rare jewels as well. Ok, where was I… Oh yes… They escorted us down to the end of the hallway, where we entered large door, actually the door was a rather large framed oil painting."

"That's clever…Hiding a door behind a huge painting. I'll have to remember that the next time I need to build a secret passage." Lord Francis said with a chuckle.

"Anyway, we went inside and met Malone. I explained to him why we were there."

"What did you say to them, Mr. Bogg?"

"Well, our story was… the kid and I worked for this guy named Giles."

"That's original." Lord Francis said as he looked over to his assistant. "Giles, I never knew you were a member of the criminal element."

"Sir, this is the first I've heard of it also." Giles explained.

"Mr. Bogg, please continue." Lord Francis asked.

"As I said, the kid and I supposedly worked for this guy named Giles. I explained that he found out the jewel had been stolen and he had sent us to acquire it for him. At first, they did not know our boss, Giles, but when I told them, he was better known as The Boss, all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place."

"You told them you two worked for The Boss?", Lord Francis asked in amazement. "He's the most wanted criminal in the whole of London. No one has ever been able to apprehend him. Besides that, anyone who gets in his way ends up in the Thames with a new pair of cement overshoes."

Lord Francis paused a moment to take a sip of tea.

"Where did you get the idea to tell them you worked for The Boss?"

"I just reached into my hat and pulled out that alias." Bogg said innocently. "Little did I know there was actually a real criminal with that name in this area."

"You were just lucky." Lord Francis said.

"Yea, I said the same thing to him, after we escaped." Jeff said.

"After I told them we worked for The Boss, they were more than happy to listen to my offer."

"How did you get your hands on the diamond?" Lord Francis asked.

Bogg, wanting to take another bite of food, paused for a moment and asked his partner to continue the story.

"Kid, why don't you tell him that part." Bogg asked.

"Sure, ok." Jeff replied.

"Sir, this was absolutely the best performance I have ever seen in my life. Bogg spoke to these thugs in their own language much like a real criminal. He persuaded them to let him examine the diamond and that's when the real excitement began."

"You see…Malone went over and got the diamond from his safe and handed it to Bogg here. Bogg took the jewel, held it up to the light and examined it closely. Now here comes the good part. He took the diamond over to a nearby window, switched it with the fake one and began to test its authenticity by attempting to scratch the pane of glass."

"Wow, Mr. Bogg!" Lord Francis exclaimed. "How did you know that a real diamond will scratch glass?"

"It was just something I learned in school." Bogg replied non-chalantly.

Jeff continued with the story. "Bogg tried several times to scratch the window with the fake diamond and then announced to Malone that it was a fake. Malone insisted it was not a fake and grabbed the diamond out of Bogg's hand and tried to scratch the window himself. After several tries, he could not scratch the window. Bogg then walked over, spouting that this whole thing was a setup and Malone was trying to sell him a fake. Malone continued to insist that it wasn't a fake, so Bogg grabbed the diamond from his hands and slammed it to the floor, where it broke into a million pieces."

"Then what happened?" Lord Francis asked, curiously.

"Uhh…umm." Jeff stuttered as he attempted to come up with a believable story for their escape.

Bogg, seeing his partner was in somewhat of a pickle, chimed in.

"After the diamond broke into a million pieces, Malone ordered his thugs to apprehend us, but we managed to escape, unharmed." Bogg said.

"What took you so long to get back here?" Lord Francis asked.

"Sir, we discovered that Malone and Doyle had thugs everywhere and at every turn. It took us this long to safely get passed all of his henchmen without getting caught. We even had to go so far as to swim part of the way up the Thames. That's why we arrived soaked to the bone this morning."

"Gentlemen, what an interesting adventure." Lord Francis said. "I'm just happy that it's over, my diamond is back and the two of you are unharmed. What can I ever do to repay the two of you for your efforts?"

"Sir, consider the debt paid in full." Bogg said. "You have provided us with food and shelter over the past few days and that is payment enough.

Bogg and Jeff continued to chow down on the feast prepared for them and to enjoy the company of their host. After some time had passed, the two, now stuffed from all they had eaten, rose slowly from the table.

"Lord Francis. As I said earlier, we have definitely appreciated your gracious hospitality over these past few days. We wish we could stay longer, but we must now be on our way." Bogg explained.

"What, leaving so soon?" Lord Francis asked. "Why don't you stay a while and rest, especially after all you've been through."

"Thank you sir, but unfortunately, we have other commitments." Bogg said.

"That's too bad." Lord Francis replied, disappointedly. "Will you be passing this way again?"

"Possibly." Bogg said. "But with our jobs, it's hard to tell."

"Well, if you're ever in the area, please, stop and let us extend our gracious hospitality to the two of you again." Lord Francis said.

"Thank you for the offer, sir. We will." Bogg replied.

"Kid, looks like our job here is finished, so I guess it's time for us to be going." Bogg said as he winked at Jeff.

Lord Francis escorted the two Voyagers as they made their way from the dining room to the front entrance. He opened the door and the two stepped out onto the porch.

"Again, thank you sir for all you've done." Bogg said.

"No, Mr. Bogg, Jeff, thank you both." Lord Francis replied. "If it wasn't for you two, I don't know what I would have done."

"Goodbye sir!" Bogg said.

"Goodbye and a safe journey to you both."

Lord Francis stood at the door and watched as the two Voyagers continued down the walkway and out onto the street. After a few moments, they disappeared into the distance.

Once they were well away from the mansion, Bogg and Jeff stopped in the street.

"Kid, I believe we have some unfinished business in Aspen." Bogg said, attempting to hold back a smile.

"What, skiing?" Jeff said sternly. "Remember, Dr. Rogers said no skiing for a while."

"I wasn't talking about skiing, kiddo." Bogg said as he retrieved his omni and began to set the controls.

"If not skiing, then… Oh no! Not the snow bunnies? I don't think so!" Jeff said as he snatched the omni from his partner's hand and took off running down the street. "I really don't so!"

"Jeff-rey, come back here with my omni, right now!" Bogg shouted and then sprinted off after him.

------- THE END -------