{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/5244",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 5244,
    "subject": "\"Good-bye Old Buddy\" -- a murder mystery in Pirate Freedom",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2008-11-27T14:20:12+00:00",
    "last": "2008-11-27T14:20:12+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<492EAC9C.50807@gmail.com>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dave Tallman",
        "address": "davetallman at msn.com"
      },
      "date": "2008-11-27T14:20:12+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) \"Good-bye Old Buddy\" -- a murder mystery in Pirate Freedom",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "The discovery of the body of Valentin and his dog Francine in the cave \non Hispaniola (p. 204-205) leaves the reader with a mystery. Who killed \nValentin?\n\n   1. Suicide is suggested, but with the musket Valentin at last had\n      hope for a better life. He would have had to kill his dog, too.\n   2. It had to be someone who knew about the cave. Chris told nobody else.\n   3. It could not be a random buccaneer who stumbled on the place,\n      because he would have taken the musket.\n   4. It was probably not Lesage, because the death was by a quick shot\n      to the head rather than beating Valentin to death (p. 85).\n\nThis murder has the fingerprints of a time-traveler all over it. The \nkiller has to be Chris2, aka Ignacio. This is one of the worst of his \nkillings, because the man saved his life when he first arrived in \nHispaniola. Ignacio knew that Valentin would come to the cave and he was \nthere waiting for him with the musket. He converted his own generous \ngift into a deadly trap. When Chris says \"If you had asked me then, I \nwould have said Valentin would be joining us in a few days... Now I wish \nhe had\" (p. 92), he reveals his guilt and regret.\n\nWhy did he do this? I believe the answer is to enlist the help of \nLesage. Ignacio needed Lesage for various important actions, and he had \na reward for him in each case based on his future knowledge.\n\n   1. Help get Chris voted in as captain of the /Windward/, and get his\n      gun for him (p. 64). His reward: Lesage ends up as captain of the\n      /Windward/.\n   2. Using the '\"Windward'', transport Ignacio around Hispaniola so\n      that he can kill Gagne by a simultaneous shot from hiding when\n      Chris duels him (p. 90). (That shot was too lucky for the\n      inexperienced Chris). His reward: the life of Valentin. Ignacio\n      probably did it himself to spare Valentin a cruel death.\n   3. Put out a reward for Valentin much later (p. 204), to throw Chris1\n      off track. Lesage knew he would never have to pay it. His reward:\n      a lead to capture a three-masted ship (probably the wounded Santa\n      Lucia) (p. 197).\n   4. Get to Rio Hato and betray Bram Burt, so that Chris and Novia will\n      end up in Veracruz with the treasure maps. Ignacio probably didn't\n      suggest the betrayal himself (since he thought about avenging it),\n      but he gave Lesage the information to be in the right place at the\n      right time. The big hole in Lesage's story (p. 302) was that he\n      knew about Portobello. If he learned about it through Harker, then\n      Harker would have come with him (p. 228). But Lesage showed up\n      without Harker.\n\nThese actions show the moral degradation of Ignacio is complete -- he's \na monster. Chris didn't start out that way. It took great moral courage \nto say \"I won't take part\" (p. 78) when he knew being marooned was an \nalmost certain death-sentence (p. 61). He was corrupted by his desire \nfor Novia and for a life of \"pirate freedom.\""
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}