Chapter 11

After the sun went down and after having a quick dinner, Heath joined up with the men of Plan B at a local saloon, playing cards but being ready to be called on. Nick mounted up and headed with Stone for the place where men were already watching Stone's boat. They were careful to be sure they left in darkness, so no one would see them or follow them.

What neither of them knew was that Jackson and Burns had been watching them. They were satisfied when Heath went into the saloon, but then they saw Nick and Stone riding out of town, in the direction of where they had left the boat. In the direction they wanted to go now.

"Maybe we ought to put it off," Burns said quietly. "The wind's working against us, and them heading out that way – it smells."

"It smells, the two of them riding out that way together," Jackson agreed, "but we gotta get that boat down to San Francisco by tomorrow night or Omer's gonna drop us. Besides, we know they're out there, and they don't know who we are and they don't know we're watching them. If it's the boat they're after, we can sneak up on it without them seeing us and get it out. Maybe the wind ain't in our favor, but the dark is."

"Maybe we need to wait a few hours."

"No, let's go now. If they're going out there, it'll take them a while to get set and that will give us time to get to the boat before they're ready."

Burns sighed. "You got a lot of faith in us going."

Jackson smiled. "I've done real well by us so far, haven't I?"

Burns shrugged.

XXXXXX

At about that time, Marty lent Jarrod a spare pistol, and the two of them made their way down to the beach where Marty kept his boat. It was only a simple row boat he used to fish from. It had only one set of oars. "Is that gonna make it out into the bay if we need it to?" Jarrod asked when he saw it.

"Don't worry, I can row like crazy," Marty said, "and they won't be too far out into the bay at this point. We're too close to the mouth of the river they're anchored in."

"You've gotten to know this place pretty well," Jarrod said.

Jarrod could hardly see him in the dark, but he did see his shadow nod. "I like it here, Jarrod. I like the life I've put together. I love my wife and I love being out of the interest of the newspapers."

Jarrod lit a cigar and offered Marty one, but Marty declined. "How did you come to work yourself out of the mess you were in?" Jarrod asked. "How did you get this life you like?"

"Part work, part luck," Marty said. "While I was in prison, I could see the men coming and going and coming back, and I decided that once I was out, I was staying out. I had a cellmate from Vallejo here. He's still in, as far as I know, serving 20 years for armed robbery. He wasn't a bad sort – just desperate for money. He didn't know how to handle it once he got it, so he was always desperate for it. He told me about Vallejo. He told me about Alice's father. When I was pardoned, I knew I couldn't stay in San Francisco, and I decided to come here."

"You haven't faced temptation to steal again?"

"No, never. Not that we couldn't use some money, but I don't have the need for it I used to have. It was like liquor – I'd get it and I'd just need more. A sick need. That's how I ended up stealing when the opportunity presented itself. When I got here – when I didn't have the sick need as bad as I used to – I fell in with Alice and her father and I lost the need for the money completely. Lost the need for the liquor too. Life was just a lot simpler here, and when I fell in love – have you ever been in love, Jarrod?"

"Alice asked me the same thing," Jarrod asked. "I thought I was once but it didn't work out. I've never been in love the way the two of you are. I'd like to be someday, but other things have gotten in the way."

"I trust one of them isn't money."

"No. You know I come from a wealthy family and I make my own living quite nicely. And yes, I do drink but seldom to excess. Cigars here are my biggest vice. No, the other things that have gotten in the way are my career and my family obligations. My father was killed and that left me in charge of all the businesses and helping raise my brother and sister who were still children when he died. I'm still sorting all that out."

"Well," Marty said, "don't cut love out of your life. One thing I've learned is that it can anchor everything else in your soul. It can make everything else make sense."

Jarrod took in what Marty was saying, and he took in how the man had changed his life and how happy he was. What was possible in life is what Bob Marty had found. It was what Jarrod knew he was looking for, even if other obligations had gotten him sidetracked. Putting Marty's story together with his own experience looking more inward when he was blind and unable to look outward, even sitting out here ready to tackle pirates and take whatever came, his own soul was sorting itself out, like it was supposed to do when this was planned to be a holiday. "I'll remember that," Jarrod said.

XXXXXX

Nick and Stone arrived where they had been directed, to find two men waiting on the shore of the river, where they could see Stone's boat, backlit by the faraway light from Vallejo, but hidden in the trees. The area was pretty heavily wooded, and the watchers there now had their horses hitched nearby, also hidden in the trees. Nick and Stone hitched up beside them –

To be greeted by the two watchers, guns drawn. "Just stop right there," one of them said.

Nick and Stone could only see shadows, backlit by Vallejo's lights like the boat was, but they could see the guns. They raised their arms. "We're your relief," Stone said. "I'm Jack Stone – this my boat. This fellow is Nick Barkley. We have a pass from the sheriff in Vallejo."

"Let's see it," the other man with a gun said.

Stone began to reach inside his jacket.

"Slowly," the first man said.

Stone obliged, drawing out the piece of paper and handing it over.

The second man held it up and lit a match so that it had at least a little light on it. Stone and Nick saw a man of middle age, rough-faced, unshaven.

The man could read the pass well enough to see it was what Stone said it was. "It's your boat, huh?" he said as he handed the paper back to Stone and waved out the match.

"How is it?" Stone asked, taking the pass and pocketing it.

"Been quiet – " the second man said.

But Nick suddenly saw something. "Hey, it's moving!"

They ran for it, but it was too late. Jackson and Burns had gotten aboard while Nick, Stone and the watchers were occupied and unmoored the boat. It was already drifting out of range of the guns the watchers still had drawn.

Jackson and Burns were watching, smiling, as Jackson raised the sails.

"Damn!" Stone said.

Nick said to the watchers, "You have fresh horses. Get moving fast to the sheriff. He has other men to send out but you have to move faster than this boat's moving."

The watchers quickly holstered their guns, fetched their horses and took off.

Nick and Stone watched Stone's boat drift away into the darkness. "They're not lighting a light," Nick said.

"Not yet," Stone said, "but they will soon if they want to see the bars and little islands they have to avoid as they leave the river and get into the bay."

"Maybe they don't know we have a Plan B."

"I hope they don't," Stone said. "Let's watch as long as we can, see if they strike up that light, then we'll head back to town. The best we can do now is try to keep some track of them as they head south so we can tell the sheriff, maybe beat them to Vallejo. Help out Plan B, and maybe Plan C if it comes to that."

Nick was becoming a little downhearted.

Stone could tell that even in the dark. He said, "I will get my boat back. Believe that."

Nick said, "Worried a little for my brothers, that's all. I'll be here on land, but they'll be out there in the drink before long."

Stone suddenly said, "There, look, they got a light up."

"Let's go," Nick said, and the two of them hurried for their horses.