I Went Down (NaNoWriMo Read-Along)

12 Dapper Jack

Dapper Jack leaned over the railing and watched a little riverboat cast off from the dock. He held one of the expensive, silver wrapped cigarettes in his fingertips and it was almost gone. His cigarette case was nearly empty.

He took a last drag and flicked the butt over the edge. The glowing end fell like a tiny meteor and extinguished itself in the water that lapped ceaselessly at the sides of the Princess Carylla, Jimmy Primrose’s floating casino.

It was a fine idea, to have a casino in a boat. It was a world unto itself, where Jimmy could set the rules and neither the police nor Baccarat’s men could easily drop in to say anything different. On the otherhand, it was surrounded by water and the floor tended to tilt—ever so slightly—beneath your feet as the traffic of the port moved ponderously around it.

Jimmy’s breeding was pure Pelago and the sludgy scent of the harbor refreshed him. The motion of the boat, to him, was as gentle as a mother’s hand on the cradle. He enjoyed sleeping on the Princess Carylla, and after Baccarat’s attack on the Hotel di Ferello he had decided that the safest place for him to spend his sleeping hours was right here, anchored at the center of the port, right in the very mouth of Delta Mouth, where he would see or hear anyone coming to disturb him.

Jack hated it. Sleeping on any boat, large or small, made him nervous. It wasn’t the possibility of stormy weather tossing them about, or any fear of drowning. It was the terrible thought that he might wake up with nothing around but the open ocean, and the Plain of Angiers somewhere too far away to swim, or even to see. So after a few restless hours in the linen sheets, he’d gotten up again and come out to the upper deck to make sure the anchors hadn’t come unmoored.

The Princess Carylla had some four decks above board and from his vantage point the scows and dinghies that scuttled around the busy port were as small as water bugs. A long and narrow rowboat with half a dozen oarsmen was dashing from one end of the harbor basin to the other, with long oars moving like the legs of a skittering spider.

Dapper Jack finished another cigarette and opened his cigarette case. There was only cigarette left. He shut it again with a snap and went back inside.

Jimmy was sitting with some of the other men—Pelagoans mainly—at a table laid for breakfast.

“Still watching for land, Jackdaw?” he asked. A few of the Pels sniggered while Howser, the only Plainsman at the table, gave Jack a sympathetic look.

“I was thinking about the plan for the railroad,” Jack said.

Jimmy perked up immediately. “Have we gotten everything out to your outlaw kin that they need?”

“The trucks went out on the Ornette road last night. If they don’t blow themselves up jouncing over the potholes, then they’ll be in place in a few days.”

Jimmy speared a bite-sized smoked fish on his fork and held it aloft. “I wish I could see Baccarat’s face when he sees his precious railroad tracks disappear before his very eyes.”

“It’s not certain that Baccarat will be there, but now that it’s in motion, we have to move fast before he gets wind that anything is planned.” He looked at the various dishes on the table and decided not take anything. “But we could head inland and see the explosion,” he added. Anything would be better than another sleepless night on the Princess Carylla. Even accompanying a whole troop of Pels onto the Plain. “It’s not too late to arrange it.”

Jimmy swallowed the fish and speared another. He was safe in his floating fortress, but the prospect of seeing his enemy suffer was obviously tempting. “How would we go?”

“We wouldn’t catch the trucks,” Jack said, extemporizing. “And I don’t see much point in taking the train north.” Howser snorted. “So I expect it will be best for us to take a second truck and then hire horses when we reach the Plain.”

“If you go overland,” said one of the Pelagoans, “then Baccarat might suspect something. Better to go up the coast a ways and then take one of the spur roads back to the Plain.”

Except for the fact that it involved an extended time on board a boat, this was a very reasonable suggestion. Jimmy  nodded approvingly. “Darvin could get us a small boat. Couldn’t you?” He looked at Darvin, who had just put a whole hard-boiled egg into his mouth. He flapped his hands for a moment as he struggled to swallow it, drawing attention to his bare throat. If Jack were to slit his throat right at that moment, he would die with hardly a sound able to escape his lips around the rubbery white egg.

Finally his throat muscles convulsed and Darvin was able to speak. “I know a snug little sloop that would do the trick. The captain runs up and down the coast regularly, between here and the sanitoriums at Rafe. No one would say boo if he left with a few passengers later today.”

“Can we get horses at Rafe?” Jimmy asked.

“We can,” Dapper Jack replied. “We can’t have too large a party though, or someone will take notice.”

“There will be four,” Jimmy said. He pointed. “You, Howser, Reinhold, and myself.” Reinhold was one of the Pelagoans who had been amused by Dapper Jack’s discomfort on the ship. It would be entertaining to see how comfortable he felt when astride a horse for several full days of riding. The word that had filtered back from Merritt and his small band of outlaws was that they would target a remote canyon, where the railroad would be far from any repair crews. It was a spur off the main line, but an important one, for it led to a copper mine. Copper was currently in high demand as the new wires were laid along the roads and byways of Delta Mouth, bringing electric light to buildings that had been lit by smoky lamps for many generations.

“Then I will arrange for four horses, if Darvin will arrange for the boat.” Dapper Jack looked over the table. It was spread with many fine dishes, nearly all of them Pelagoan favorites. Smoked fish, hard crackers that bore little resemblance to bread, pickled olives. His stomach grumbled but he was about to get off the Princess Carylla. He would find a better breakfast on shore. He looked at Darvin. “I’ll go over to shore on the tender now and call up to Rafe.”

The Pelagoan grumbled a little, but he stood up from the table and came along.

Jack jumped down from the lower deck of the Princess Carylla into the tender. The stocky crewmen who would row him and Darvin to shore did not bother to help him. This was either because they viewed him as competent on the boat, or because they were afraid of him. Perhaps both. The Pelagoans working along the docks knew well that Dapper Jack carried his knives in the service of Jimmy Primrose, and he had cause to remind them of it on a regular basis.

Darvin sat down on the bench next to him and they watched in silence as the two sailors pulled the oars with powerful arms, speeding them across the water towards the dock. As they drew away, the bulk of the Princess Carylla came into the view. Four decks with white and red painted railings. Dawn was beginning to streak the sky behind the ship, but the lanterns that hung in rows on each deck were still lit and the Princess Carylla shone with golden light. It looked like a glamorous, wonderful place. Dapper Jack turned eagerly as the bow of the boat touched the docks and bounded ashore. No amount of electric light would ever match the gilded hues of the Plains on a late summer afternoon.

It was irrational to be so excited about leaving Delta Mouth for a trip that might well turn out to be a disaster—the explosives might never reach their destination, Merritt’s outlaws might be captured before they could carry out more destruction, Baccarat might skip his scheduled visit to the copper mine, the Plainsmen might grow frustrated with the presence of Jimmy Primorose and Reinhold in their midst. Still, the image of a horse carrying him over the golden plain burned brightly in Dapper Jack’s mind and propelled him forward.