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Croggon Beauregard Hainey ht that must be you," and he looked over her shoulder, past her head at the spot in the sky where the ship had been doing its terrible dance over the edge of the trees Maria glanced too and saw that the craft had settled, and she thought that its engines sounded calmer, or perhaps she was only too far away now to hear the frantic whine

"You found your ship," she whispered back

"But that thieving piratethe sa here? Take your ship andwhore is still breathing Goddaht the Rattler"

"And why didn’t you?"

He threw his hands up and said, "Because it’s heavy, wo with nothing but the diamond to tote"

"You carried it just fine in Kansas City"

"Across an open, flat field, sure," he said, and realizing he was on the verge of a very distracting argument, he said, "Point is, I don’t have it, and we could use it"

"We, Captain?"

"We, woman You want the diamond, and I want the bastard who boosted it Howdown and whipped out the other Colt "Twelve loaded And you?"

"Sauards at the door, plus a third inside--with Ossian Steen and your pirate Brink That leaves us nineteen shots to spare" But she was thinking the very thing he next said aloud

"We can down the two at the door easy as pie, but if the other three are holed up…" he indicated a pair of s "They could hold us off awhile And all I’ve got to back ht now"

"What are they doing?" she asked, looking again to the bulbous, curved doh their leaves, she could no longer see the spot on the hill where the craft had so recently struggled

"Long story," he told her, and then when it didn’t see to wrestle , and unhten her on how that had coe the subject, "I have an idea"

"So do I I’ll retreat, su off the face of the earth I’ve got a couple of Minnericht’s Liquid Fire Shells stashed on board that would do the trick in under a asped, "No! No, you can’t do that, not yet Please," she laid her fingers on his arm "Hear me out There’s a child in there, a boy nae by Steen You can’t just de first, and…and if it doesn’t work, then you can level the place with ree of sarcasenerous offer, Belle Boyd"

"Not particularly If what I’ve got in mind doesn’t work, I’ll be dead anyway, and I won’t e inside under some pretense, seize the boy, escape back to the sanatorium, destroy the infernalelse"

"You’re a real piece of work, you know that?"

"You’re not the first to say so"

He shook his head and put his hands on his hips, and said, "Fine Risk your own neck, if that’s how you want it I’ll cover you if I can, but if you take too long, I’ this patch of Kentucky into a fire pit that’ll burn until Jesus coave the outbuilding and its guards a hard glance, made a decision, and said to Hainey before she left, "Give "

He lifted an eyebrow "Only two er, it won’t work at all Trust me I move fast Do you have a watch?"

"Not on h" Maria shoved one of the Colts back under her shawl and held the other one in her hand, covered by the handbag She reached to the neckline of her dress and gave it a tug that started a revealing rip, and dropped her carpetbag at her feet

"What are you doing?" Hainey asked

"Getting my story in order" She took a deep breath She said, "Captain, start counting"

"Wait"

"What?" she asked

"Do me one favor Leave Brink for me Don’t shoot him unless you have to," he requested