Deceiving Appearances

The tree house was quiet. Too quiet. Marguerite Krux would have graciously welcomed a little noise, if it gave her any clue as to where Edward Malone had holed himself up. He had said he had some writing to do, but he wasn't at his desk.

"Malone?" she called tentatively, her voice carrying in the deep silence of the tree house.

After several seconds, a muffled, and rather annoyed voice, answered from beneath her feet. "What is it, Marguerite?"

Marguerite placed herself at the top of the stairs and yelled down in one of her sweetest voices. "I just thought I'd warn you that I'm having a bubble bath up here. Happy writing!"

"That should keep the choir boy downstairs," she muttered.

Marguerite smiled smugly to herself and made a bee-line for Challenger's laboratory. Finally she had the house to herself! Or mostly to herself and she had just dealt with Malone. Roxton, Veronica, and Challenger had left that morning to continue their unending search for the way off the plateau. Malone had been pardoned, unfortunately, from this outing as it was his turn to fix the water system, and it was badly in need of attention. Marguerite had had a little more trouble staying home, and she still didn't think her sore ankle routine had fooled Roxton. He was so damn suspicious of her all the time! Not that he didn't have his reasons. In fact, Marguerite was fairly pleased at how well she was able to manipulate the others, now if only she could do something about Lord John Roxton...

The inside of Professor George Challenger's laboratory would hardly of appeared impressive to any self-respecting English scientist back in London, but here in the middle of the prehistoric jungle it was a man-made wonder. All kinds of strange apparatuses hung from the bamboo walls, and the rough shelves were overflowing with hastily scribbled upon jars of colourful liquids. One whole wall was devoted entirely to a large chalkboard, which was suffocated with complicated formulas and a magnitude of exclamation points.

But Marguerite wasn't interested in any of these things, there was only one particular thing she was after. Immediately, her eyes were attracted to a rough box partially hidden beneath Challenger's worktable. Too easy, yet... She pulled the container out slowly, attempting to make as little noise as possible. It weighed a ton, and Marguerite was forced to drag it into the middle of the floor. Rolling up her sleeves, she opened the crate and peered inside. Just as she suspected, it was full of the stones the others were constantly hauling up here for the Professor. She dug hungrily into it, but her face quickly fell.

"Junk," she whispered sharply, "Figures they wouldn't make it that easy. I suppose it's a compliment."

Sighing, Marguerite dumped all the valueless rocks back into the crate and hid it back under the table. She straightened up and surveyed the rest of the room as she dusted off her hands.

"Now if I were the others, where would I hide them?" Marguerite knew only too well that the stones she was looking for weren't just out of sight, they were purposely hid. She had insisted that they were rightfully hers and honestly acquired, but Veronica asserted just as stubbornly that they belonged to a ridiculous little tribe that Marguerite had never even heard of. Valuable jewels that were left just lying about in a cave should be fair game to anyone who came along. What did it matter that Marguerite had heard about the sacred cave from the Zanga? As if that curse over the entrance was anything more than an empty threat, Marguerite thought with annoyance. Despite her protests, Roxton had restrained her while the others had wasted no time in removing them from her grasp. Veronica believed that out of sight meant out of mind, but when it came to Marguerite and precious gems, nothing could be more inaccurate.

"They've got to be here somewhere," she murmured.

The frustrated, but determined, heiress methodically searched the cluttered room. Every box, jar, and cranny was efficiently investigated but nothing of any value turned up. They just have to be in this room, Marguerite assured herself. They've been purposely trying to keep me out of here! What those five know about deceit I could stick in a gnat's ear, she mused.

Then her attention fell on one of Challenger's more recent experiments. It was a large opaque jar surrounded by charts and scribbled notes. Marguerite started to skip right over it but then she remembered that Challenger had never said what it was. Before he had left, he had gone on and on about not disturbing it to protect his fragile results but the long-winded visionary had never mentioned its purpose. Could the experiment just be a cover to keep Marguerite from finding the stones? Of course it was possible that Marguerite had simply tuned Challenger out, as she often did, while he had been explaining his newest endeavour but nothing ventured...

The jar made a shaking noise as she picked up, which Marguerite decided could easily be her newest expensive acquisitions calling to her. However, the jar's lid was stuck securely on, and Marguerite was forced to yank at with all the force she could muster. Suddenly, the lid popped off and Marguerite lost her balance. With all the gracefulness of a cat, the heiress was able to right herself before she fell but the jar's contents weren't so lucky. A dozen or so crystals, but definitely not of the valuable variety, came flying out of the jar and smashed on the hard wooden floor.

Marguerite stared at the destroyed whatever-it-was with a cringe and hastily returned the jar to its place on the worktable. She smoothed her hair away from her flushed face and reasoned, "Well, this just goes to show where little hiding games will get you."

Aware of the passage of time and beginning to feel terribly discouraged, Marguerite was about to give up when something caught her eye. In the far corner stood one of Challenger's older experiments, only it didn't look quite as old as it should have. There was no dust on it. If there was one thing that accumulated in great amounts in the lab, Marguerite was sure it was dust.

Smiling wickedly, she pushed the machine carefully out of the way. Behind it were a few empty boxes and one rather plain looking sack. Brimming with anticipation, Marguerite untied the bag's mouth. It was full of some sort of powder that looked like sand.

"Damn!" Marguerite cursed, she had been so sure it was in there. How could she not have found them? Challenger was terrible at hiding objects, and Malone and Veronica had little imagination when it came to such things. Roxton had never- Roxton! Suddenly an idea flashed through her head. Roxton hid his spare revolver in the dried corn, he said no one would ever find it there! Holding her breath, Marguerite reached deep into the sand and felt around. When her hand returned, a small bag was in her fist. It was full of colourful crystals that gleamed invitingly in the light.

"Oh John, you're so predictable." Only her wide grin stifled her self-satisfied laughter.

---

Malone winced as he incorrectly spelled an easy word. He scribbled it out, grimly adding it to the numerous blotches of ink that already littered his page.

"It's no use," he announced to the empty room. "I just can't concentrate."

And of course he knew the source of his distraction. Marguerite.

"What is she doing up there?" he had muttered countless times, as he heard a scraping or thumping noise. It was far too much noise for a mere bubble bath. The numerous things she could be doing haunted the back of his thoughts. His journals were on the top floor in the study, and he knew how she loved meddling in them. The upper level also housed some of the other explorers' bedrooms, which held their personal things. Not to mention the countless things that belonged to Veronica up there.

Finally, Malone could sit still no longer and he headed up the stairs. At first he gave little thought to the noise he was making but halfway up he thought better of it. If Marguerite was doing something wrong, and she probably was, then it was better if he caught her in the act. Marguerite was not what you'd call a poor liar. Besides, if she really was just bathing, then it was probably better if she never knew he had come up at all.

Malone made his way silently up the stairs and then rested soundlessly at the top. Hiding behind the wall, he watched as Marguerite came out of her bedroom, humming contentedly to herself, and disappeared into Challenger's laboratory. She didn't look the least bit wet and she certainly wasn't naked.

Still doing his best to be silent, Malone followed Marguerite to the Professor's workshop, and he paused in the doorway. Her back was to him, and she was in the process of moving one of Challenger's machines. He recognized the area immediately, she was trying to find the stones he and the others had hidden from her!

Malone leaned nonchalantly against the doorframe and said matter-a-factly, "I don't think Challenger would appreciate you bathing around his equipment, Marguerite."

She spun around so fast that he actually thought he might have given her a heart attack. Instead, her face slipped so quickly from guilty surprise to faint irritation, that Malone wasn't sure if the former expression had been there at all.

"You practically scared me to death!" Marguerite was such a domineering presence with her haughty expression and arms crossed over her chest, that Malone had to remind himself that she was in the wrong.

"Well maybe if you weren't snooping-"

"Snooping?" Marguerite rolled her eyes. "Really, Malone, what do you think could possibly be of any interest to me in here?" Before he could answer, she cut in again. "I heard a noise in here that's all. I just came to investigate."

It was Malone's turn to roll his eyes. "Oh, please. I know exactly what you were doing. You were looking for the Lanadu stones, which I might add we are returning to their cave."

Marguerite brushed past him into the common room. "Those trinkets?" she asked with a slight hint of disbelief, "You can stop worrying Malone. They're hardly worth my time." Her statement was followed by a bit of an arrogant laugh, which made Malone feel down right foolish.

Malone grumbled to himself as he worked on returning Challenger's machine to its original position.

"You can say what you like Marguerite. Everyone knows you'd sell us all down the river for less then those 'trinkets'."

Marguerite returned to the doorway her eyes aflame. "And what exactly were you doing pussy-footing around up here Malone? I distinctly remember telling you that I was going to have a bath." She shook her head, her smile knowing. "Tsk, Tsk, Neddy. What would Veronica think?"

Marguerite realized too late that this was one of those rare times when she was pushing Malone just a little too far. She was momentarily taken back as Malone's face turned red and he swivelled around to face her.

"Don't you-" Unfortunately, Malone never had a chance to finish his statement. As he turned to face Marguerite, his arm caught on the machine and it came crashing to the floor. At the same time, it lit up and something inside it began to whir.

"Malone! What have you done!"

"What have I done? If you hadn't-" Malone shook his head in frustration. "Just help me get it up."

Before the pair could even get a grip on the apparatus, the light grew brighter and something inside it began swirling out of control. A bright glowing light appeared in both Malone and Marguerite's chests and the latter let out a shriek.

"Malone!"

The glowing orbs jumped from their chests and they sagged to the floor knowing nothing but darkness.

---

When Malone opened his eyes, he was surprised to see the ceiling staring back at him. He always slept on his side. It was an odd reflection, but then again an odd thing had happened and it suddenly all came rushing back to him.

"Marguerite?" Malone asked.

At least he thought he had asked it, his voice didn't sound quite right. Almost as if it didn't belong to him at all. So he tried again.

"Marguerite, are you okay?"

There was definitely something wrong, his voice was a couple of shades too high and it had a different pitch to it. Still, he did recognize it.

Feeling dazed and more than a little confused, he pulled himself up onto his haunches and surveyed the lab. He was looking for Marguerite, only what he found was Malone. Malone? His mind screamed the word.

Panic consumed him and Malone crawled slowly and shakily over to himself. Not knowing what to do, he turned his twin over and jumped as it gave a little groan. Then it spoke in a voice Malone had never heard outside his own head.

"What happened?" it asked groggily.

As soon as the words had left his counterpart's lips, its eyes jumped open and it pushed away from Malone in fear and panic. Its hands went to its throat and it gaped at him in disbelief.

"You're me! But that's imposs- What's wrong with my voice!" Malone's look-alike cried frantically in panic.

The room was beginning to spin, and Malone was feeling a little nauseous. If the other Malone thought he was himself, then who was he? The dizzy feeling increased and Malone's mind switched to a safer topic.

"Where's Marguerite?" Malone thought aloud.

Apparently, the other Malone had been wondering a similar thought.

"Where's Malone?" the twin asked in unison.

"What?" They asked each other at the same time.

More confused then ever now, Malone jumped up and ran for the hand mirror that he knew Marguerite kept in her room. He was beginning to get a sinking suspicion that...

He reached the mirror and gazed at his reflection. Only it wasn't the one he was expecting. Marguerite's astonished face was staring back at him.

To Be Continued...