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"George, if you’re there, it’s Caleb Jaxon I’e room with upholstered furniture and curtains on the s The homeyness of it surprised hie had been married once The roo, the other for sleeping A kitchen table; a couch and chairs with lace doilies on the headrests; a cast-iron bed with a sagging mattress; an ornately carved wardrobe of a type that usually stayed within a faenerations All seean to notice certain things A dining chair had been knocked over; books and other objects--a kitchen pot, a ball of yarn, a lantern--were tossed about the floor; a large, free-standing lass cracked in concentric circles, like a reflective spider’s web

As he ical reek of old voe’s chamber pot sat on the floor near the headboard; that here the s from Blankets were bunched at the foot of the mattress as if kicked aside by a restless sleeper On the bedside table lay George’s gun, a long-barreled 357 revolver Caleb opened the cylinder and pushed the ejection rod Six cartridges fell into his palm; one had been fired He turned around and swept the pistol over the rooun and stepped toward the fractured le bullet hole

Soe had obviously been ill, but there was more to it A robbery? But the lockbox hadn’t been touched And the bullet hole was strange A stray shot, perhaps, though soe had shot his own reflection

In the alley, he filled his jugs from the tank and loaded the; he uess and left the bills under the counter with a note: "Nobody here, door unlocked Took fifteen gallons of kerosene If the h, I’ll be back in a week and can pay you then Sincerely, Caleb Jaxon"

On the way out of town, he stopped at the town office to report what he’d found At least someone should fix the door of the mercantile and lock the place up until they knehat had happened to George But nobody was there, either

--

Dusk was settling dohen he returned to the house He unloaded the kerosene, put the horses in the paddock, and entered the house Pi in her journal

Did you get what you needed?

He nodded Strange how Kate was now the silent one The wo

Hoas town?

Caleb hesitated, then signed: Very quiet

They ate corn cakes for supper, played a few hands of go-to, and went to bed Piht, but Caleb slept badly; he barely slept at all All night his mind seemed to skip over the surface of sleep like a stone upon water, never quite breaking the skin As dawn approached, he gave up trying and crept froround wassky Birds were singing everywhere, but this wouldn’t last; to the south, where the weather ca clouds roiled at the horizon So: a spring storuessed he had ave hi of kerosene froe of the woods

He didn’t knohat he was seeing It siht But no

The one

40

0600 hours: Michael Fisher, Boss of the Trade, stood on the quay to watch the ht coht between tides, were absolutelysince he’d slept? He was not soon souely lethal, as if he were burning hione, that would be the end of hied froue intention he couldn’t recall; the moment he’d hit fresh air, the plan had fled froe of the wharf and found hi how so rabbed hold of you and in the blink of an eye there you were, with sore knees and a sour stonized, wondering how all of it had happened If that was really your life

The Bergensfjord was nearly ready Propulsion, hydraulics, navigation Electronics, stabilizers, hel They’d stripped the ship to the siensfjord was basically a floating gas tank But a lot had been left to chance For instance: Would she actually float? Co; reality was another And if she did, could her hull, cobbled together froed steel, a million screws and rivets and patch welds, withstand a journey of such duration? Did they have enough fuel? What about the weather, especially when they atte he could find about the waters he intended to cross The neas not good Legendary storms, crosscurrents of such violence that they could snap your rudder off, waves of towering dimensions that could downflood you in a second