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Austin held the door open for Song Lee, then got in the car beside her The driver, who said his name was Elwood, shoehorned his body into the driver’s seat, the wagon’s springs groaning and its chassis listing to that side As Elwood pulled away from the curb, a black Chevrolet Silverado pickup that had been parked several car lengths behind the station wagon followed it across the causeway and into Kolonia, a town of about six thousand whose ramshackle Main Street had a frontier air about it Elwood turned off Main into a residential neighborhood and stopped in front of a neat yellow house trimmed in white

The Silverado passed the Pontiac wagon and pulled up a short distance ahead where the driver could watch in his rearview mirror as Austin and Lee went up to the front door Austin rang the bell and heard sohtly built hties answered the door

Jeremiah Whittles first smiled at Lee Then his eyes turned to Austin and widened in surprise

“Is that Kurt Austin of NUMA? My God, I don’t believe it! How long has it been?”

“Too long, Whit How are you?”

“Older, but not necessarily wiser What brings you to my beautiful island, Kurt?”

“So Dr Lee here around She’s interested in Nan Madol, and I couldn’t think of anyone uide”

“Make that best-known foruide,” Whittles said “C’mon in”

With his pink-skinned pate, thin aquiline nose, kindly yet inquisitive blue eyes behind wire-rihtly stooped shoulders, Whittles resembled a friendly buzzard

“I heard you had retired,” Austin said

“My brain was still full of all the facts, like an old stew kettle, but the spine was stiffening up, and I couldn’t turn my head without some difficulty, which I need to do to point out features on the tours Had to swivel at the waist like a wooden soldier Then uide, so I thought it best to call it quits”

Whittles led the way through rooms filled with Micronesian folk art There were ures on every wall and in every corner He settled his visitors on a screened-in porch and scuttled off to get them some cold bottled water

In his travels around the world, Austin had seen clones of Whittles, peripatetic Englishuides to faotten te local celebrities in the process

Austin hada tour of Nan Madol, and the depth and breadth of his historical and cultural knowledge had iator aboard a merchant ship that had stopped at Pohnpei and been entranced by its beauty and history Retiring early fros, he moved to the island and led a monklike existence centered on the ruins Nan Madol became not only his livelihood but his whole life

Whittles came back with the water, settled in a chair, and asked Lee what she knew about Nan Madol