Chapter 10 lost steamboat
At the beginning of 1902, the work of sending Ben Snow to the downstream city of New Orleans was successfully completed, but he found himself unwilling to go back west.The weather was pleasant, and he made some good friends, including a riverboat gambler named Edie Abilene, who was a good card player and always had anecdotes to tell.It was Edie who coaxed him upriver to Vicksburg in the spring, when the threat of flooding had finally subsided.
"In exchange, tell me about you, Ben," Edie suggested one evening, over a drink in a cozy little café in Vicksburg's Riverside neighborhood. You tell a story, and you just sit there and listen."
Ben Snow just smiled, "I've lived forty-two years and never told my story, Edie. There's no reason to change now."
But Edie Abilene wasn't going to let him go. "A friend told me yesterday that you were a fast shooter with a reputation. I never knew you carried a gun with you."
"Those are just rumours. When I was young, there were rumors that I was Billy the Kid. It's hard to live with a reputation like that—but it's not easy to live up to it."
Edie narrowed his eyes, "Billy the Kid has been dead for twenty years."
"You know, I know, but a lot of old guys don't get the news. If he's alive, he's about my age."
"But you're a quick shooter?"
"It used to be, when I carried a gun. But that was in Texas, Mexican and Indian territory. On the Mississippi, I didn't have to."
Edie Abilene lifted his blue velvet overcoat to reveal a pocket Dellinger under his arm. "On the river, I always have. Some folks go crazy when they see they don't have the right cards sometimes. You know there's a steamboat called the Divide? It's docked a few miles downriver right now."
"I have seen."
"When it sailed upriver to St.Louis last year, I was on board and took a friendly gamble with three strangers. One of them lost badly, and when I got four jacks on his full house, he fired his gun. ...his name was Jerry Jones and he was fast. He shot right through my coat before I could get my gun out. I missed my first shot and hit a big mirror behind him and the glass shattered It knocked him down. I don't know what would have happened if he hadn't been suppressed like this."
Ben thinks back on the conversation, trying to remember how they talked about the shootout on the riverboat, but in the end he decides to let Edie do the talking. "When are you going to sail again?" he asked.
"I don't know. I guess when I need the money. Vicksburg's a nice town, but nothing exciting happens."
Just then, as if to prove him wrong, a fight broke out at the pier.There were three or four people, and Ben could only hear shouts and see figures moving in the dark.Suddenly, a person shouted "Help", but was interrupted by another scream. "Go see what's going on," Ben said.
Before they reached the pier, the figures dispersed, and the two fled in opposite directions.A man remains slumped on the edge of the pier. "He's been stabbed," Ben said. "Get help, Edie. I'm with him."
Ben tried to stop the blood gushing from the knife wound on the man's side as Edie ran away. "Can you hear me?" he asked, "Who stabbed you?"
But the man was speechless.Blood came out of his mouth, and he died soon after.By the time Edie called for help, it was too late.At this time, more and more people gathered from the bars on the river bank. "I know him," said a man, "it's Frank Beecher, a gambler—he travels on the 'Watershed'."
"It's him, that's right," Edie confirmed. "I've run into him a time or two in New Orleans."
No one shed tears for the dead gambler, not even Edie showed the slightest regret at his passing. "Aren't you afraid it will end up like this for you?" Ben asked him afterward.
"Ben, if you don't die this way, you'll die that way. But it's a chance for me. I might take the Divide to St. Louis again and see if I can make some money on the way."
"Why are you doing this?"
"There's a gambling public meeting these days that can't be missed. They're all going to St. Louis by rail--I'm afraid steamboats are going to be out. There's been a lot out of service, and they say in June there was a train from New York to In Chicago, a train named 'Twentieth Century Express' is about to start operating. The journey takes only 20 hours. And cars! Last month, a kind of 'American Automobile Association' was established to encourage people to travel by car. Trains and cars— —That's the future, Ben, not steamboats. But good ships like the Divide have a few more years to go, and I'll keep riding steamboats. Come with me?"
Ben shook his head, "I have no plans to go north."
But the next morning he accompanied Edie Abilene to the pier and watched him step onto a boarding step as the steamboat blew its horn and prepared to sail.Like most boats of this type, this one has thrusters at the stern to push the bow into shallow water and moor almost anywhere.About 180 feet long, with tall exhaust pipes belching black smoke, the Divide is imposing.Ben watched it leave the river bank and sail north.The ship was loaded with molasses and cotton, and there were fifty-five passengers and crew.It rounded a bend in the Mississippi River and disappeared from sight.
Ben could only see wisps of black smoke rising above the trees to mark its course, and soon even that was lost in the morning sun.
The next morning, as Ben was sitting at a table outside the Vicksburg Café, watching longshoremen unload cargo from a southbound steamer called the Carrollton Lady, a tall slender Walking towards him was a slender woman in boots and a buckskin skirt with fringe. "You are Ben Snow," she said.
"It's here. Is there anything I can do for you?"
She pulled out another chair and sat down on her own. "My name is Stella Dunn. I want to hire you."
He'd heard the name before. "The Divide is yours."
"Yes, and some smaller riverboats and skiffs, and a few warehouses in New Orleans. My father owned the property until he died last year." He estimated her to be about thirty. , and guessed that if she smiled, she should be a very beautiful woman.Right now, she looks grim. "I want to hire you to get the Divide back."
"That's a piece of cake. She sailed from here about eight o'clock yesterday morning. By now, she should have reached Helena in northern Arkansas, by my estimate."
"You're wrong. The 'watershed' didn't even reach Greenwell."
"what?"
"It disappeared on the river. Missing, I want you to help me find it."
"A ship that big can't possibly disappear," argued Ben. "It must have hit something and sunk."
"In broad daylight? Fifty-five people on board?" She shook her head, dismissing the idea. "I spoke to the captain and navigator of the 'Carrollton Lady'. They just came down from Memphis, and they didn't Saw signs of my steamboat."
Ben shrugged. "They probably missed it at night. The river is wide."
"The 'Watershed' was supposed to pass Greenwell before dark, and the 'Beautiful Woman' passed Greenwell before dark. Also, they couldn't have missed it, it was clear last night with no fog at all .”
"What do the people of Greenwell say?"
"The 'Watershed' never came to port at all. I was in New Orleans, and they sent me a telegram, and I came over overnight. The captain of the 'Beautiful Woman' also insisted that he didn't see her on the river."
"I've sailed the Mississippi a lot, too," Ben told her. "Most of the banks north of here are covered with thick forests and just scattered farmland. There's nowhere to hide a steamboat. If there's no , that is sinking."
"I think it was stolen," Stella Dunn said with certainty, "by people who wanted to destroy me."
"Can you imagine who it is?"
"I inherited my father's shipping business, which upset a lot of people, including my stepbrother. If anything happened to the Watershed, I think he was to blame. That's why I needed to hire A quick shooter."
He retorted immediately, "I'm not—"
"Find the 'Watershed' and I'll pay you a thousand dollars in gold coins."
That was a lot of money, and in Ben's precarious financial situation, it was hard to turn down the job.With that much money, he could even buy a belt for the gun in the case.And, if the Divide was indeed missing, so was his friend Edie Abilene.He wants to find him.
"I'll look for it, but I can't guarantee anything. You need the police, not people like me."
"Police in Vicksburg aren't very interested, but the River Authority has sent a team to retrieve the wreckage."
"I don't believe it just sank with no survivors, no witnesses," Ben said. "The river has been calm for the last few days."
"I don't believe it either. That's why I decided that someone stole it. I have sent a telegram to all the ports upstream to ask for information. If it is true, as I expected, that it was done by river robbers, it will be very dangerous."
"I can take care of myself. Tell me about your stepbrother."
"Rowdy - Roderick Dane. He's the son of my father and his ex-wife, and he feels he should inherit the steamboat and all. He's five years older than me, but he still behaves like a child. Father and He disowned him and left him nothing in his will. Roddy was very upset and threatened me several times, both verbal and verbal. And there have been a few accidents."
"Accident?" Ben asked.
"A month ago, seven crew members of the Watershed died or were injured. One fell overboard in New Orleans and drowned. One was killed by a falling bale of cotton. One was killed by a runaway The wagon was hit badly. Two more were wounded in the bar fight."
"Probably I get it," said Ben. "You probably don't, but a gambler named Beecher was stabbed to death the night before, right here on the wharf."
"Another one? He's working on the Watershed!"
"That's what I heard. It seems that someone has trouble with this boat, and the victims are all related to this boat."
"I want to study the old river map myself," she said. "I think you can come to me at the river authority office at four o'clock this afternoon."
"Okay. I can also use this time to go around by myself."
After she left the first smile, she got up and left. She was right, the smile really added a lot of color to her face.He watched her walk across the plank floors and up the path to town.Then he decides he should talk to the captain of the "Carrollton Lady," but first, he has to go back to the lodgings and get his gun.
Moored in the shadow of the cross-river highway bridge, the Pretty Woman looked like any other Mississippi steamboat except for two red stripes around her sides and upper part.Ben walked up one of the two steps and climbed the nearest flight of stairs to the upper pilothouse.One or two crew members glanced at him indifferently, but no one came forward to question him.
The captain of the "Carrollton Lady" is a white-haired man with a Mark Twain beard.His name was Thomas Burtes, and he was bending over the logbook when Ben found him.
"Is there anything I can do for you, sir?" He straightened up, closed his book, and asked, "If you want to book a flight to New Orleans, you'll have to—"
"Not about the route. I'm investigating the disappearance of the Watershed."
"It's impossible for a ship to disappear from the river without incident," said Captain Burtes, but he changed his words immediately. "But there was a ship, thirty years ago—the Iron Mountain. But then I still Didn't make it in."
"Tell me about it."
"Are you from the River Management Bureau?"
"I work for Master Stella Dunn. My name is Ben Snow. Tell me about the Iron Mountain."
"That was in June, 1872. It also set sail from this port and headed upstream, dragging several small barges loaded with cotton yarn behind it. Two hours later, another ship found the barge floating,' The Iron Mountain was nowhere to be found. It appeared that the rope connecting the barge to the riverboat had been deliberately cut. Other vessels were also searching, but no wreckage or survivors were found."
"A legend on the river," said Ben.
"Not a legend, sir. It's real."
"What do you know about the 'Watershed'?"
Captain Burtes held out his callused hand, "Knows everything. She and the Lady are sister ships, both belonged to the St. Louis Company until they sold the Divide to Dahn and the Lady to me The boss, a St. Louis businessman named Maxwell Greer."
"So these two ships are rivals?"
"No, it's not—we sail mostly to St. Louis, and the Divide is based in New Orleans. We meet occasionally on the river, but that's about it."
Ben thought for a moment, "If I rent a boat for a few hours, would you like to go upriver with me?"
"The River Authority has dispatched a search party."
"I know, but I want to see it for myself, and I need a guide too. I'll pay you."
Captain Burtes narrowed his eyes and looked at Ben for a while. "I'll send my lieutenant to go with you. He knows the river as well as I do. You can wait for him outside."
"Thank you. I appreciate it."
Ben idly leans against the outer wall of the pilothouse until a burly man with a beard on his face walks towards him. "My name is Roy Fox. The captain said you need a guide to go upriver."
"Yes. I'm looking for the 'Watershed'."
"Come with me. I know a place where we can hire a motorboat to Millikan Bay. Two hours each way."
Sailing on the wide waters of the Mississippi, Ben wondered what he was looking for.Steamboats did not leave their tracks like horses do in the sand, and they searched only a short stretch of the river below St. Louis.But he still had to investigate.Motorboats honked past the tree walls on both banks, and he listened to Roy Fox's tales of the river, the riverboat pilots, and unscrupulous land speculators.
"A man I knew had a plantation here a few miles from the river. It was so flat that one night he dug a ditch in the bank and changed the flow of the entire Mississippi River! The river turned west and flowed directly into his plantation, and the value of the land tripled."
"Is it possible?" Ben Fa asked.
"Of course it does. The river keeps changing direction, especially south of Cairo. Sometimes you look at a map and you can see how it tosses across borders. It changes direction, going west. Or to the east, downhill, and it makes deep horseshoe bends. When the river changes direction again, some of the bends are cut off, and we have a series of crescent-shaped lakes. Some It was even named Old River Lake.”
"You know the area well."
"I think so. Work here all my life."
As they approached Millikan Bay, they encountered several other search boats. Some people stretched long iron hooks into the bottom of the river to salvage, probably hoping to catch a chimney on the "watershed", but Ben watched for a while, they All that was fished out were dead tree trunks.
"Find any wreckage?" Ben asked a man on the nearest boat.
"Not even a shadow," replied the man. "We don't think it sank around here."
"Then what will happen to it?"
The man on the search boat shrugged. "Maybe it wasn't heading north, but heading south."
Shortly thereafter, Ben and Roy Fox turned the boat around and headed back.The steamboat went down the current, going faster, and they were back at the Vicksburg pier just after three o'clock. "Thank you for sailing with me," Ben said to Fox, handing him a few dollars in payment. "Send my thanks to your captain."
"We couldn't be of much help in finding the Divide."
"I think it's going to come up," Ben said, though he was a little unsure of himself.
At four o'clock, as arranged, he found Stella Dunn at the office of the River Authority.She was examining a wall map of the lower Mississippi's canals while conversing with a man in a fancy gray suit. "Oh, Ben, this is Ulysses Harris of the River Authority. We've been discussing things. Ben Snow, Mr. Harris."
Harris shook hands with Ben vigorously, and then cut straight to the point, "We have sent all the ships out to search, but there is no news yet. We have to accept the possibility that the 'Watershed' may never won't be found." He was tall, and Ben guessed he might have been born during the Civil War, named after General Grant.Then he should be around forty years old.
"I have an idea," said Stella Dunn, sliding a slender hand over the flipchart. "I've read a lot, and I remember a story by Conan Doyle. I think it was Published years ago in Seashore Magazine."
"What's that?" Ben asked.
"An English magazine. You must have heard the story of Sherlock Holmes!"
"I don't have that much time for reading. But tell me."
"The story of The Missing Train is not about Sherlock Holmes, but it's about a train that disappears between two stations. It's like the 'Watershed' disappearing between two ports."
"What the hell happened to that train in the story?" Harris asked.
"It was driven onto a side track into an abandoned deep coal mine."
Harris just smiled, "There are no coal mines by the river."
"No, but some sort of side-track tributary. Look at this map. See these arcs where the Mississippi used to flow?"
"A friend just told me about that," Ben said, "and he said it's a small lake now and it's disconnected from the river."
"It would be easy to dig a ditch for the Divide to go into one of the lakes," Stella said, "and then cover the ditch with branches."
"It's possible," Ulysses agreed, "I'll send some men on horseback to search both sides."
"Go now—today," Stella insisted, "I'm going to get the Divide back!"
Ben and she left the River Authority and suggested a dockside café for dinner.There was something about her that few women possessed that fascinated Ben, and he found himself wanting to stay in her company, and not just as an employee.
At supper he told her about his trip on the river, but she paid no attention. "You spent a day on the river and got nothing?"
"I wanted to learn about the river and see how the salvage operation was going."
"They couldn't find it. My enemies didn't sink the Divide."
"You still think it was your stepbrother who did it?"
"There is no one else."
His attention was drawn to the bar, where a slender man in black seemed to be watching them. "Do you know him?" Ben asked her.
"I've never seen him."
"Maybe he's just looking at pretty girls."
She chose to ignore his compliment and asked instead, "Did I show you the telegrams from the docks upriver?"
"No, I want to see."
She handed the form over, and he read it mechanically: No steamboat had passed in either direction, north or south, in the past twenty-four hours.No "watershed" was found.Signed Jenkins Greenwell, telegraphed this morning.
"He's our freight manager there," Stella said.
"Can you trust him?" Ben asked, his eyes wandering to the bar again.The slender man was still staring at them.
"He couldn't have lied like that. Fifty or a hundred people could have seen it go by, even at night."
"Excuse me, okay?" Ben said. "I want to see what that man is up to."
He stood up and strode across the wooden floor towards the bar.The man in black tried to avoid his sight. "I don't want trouble, sir."
"Then why are you staring at us? Who are you?"
"My name is Jaricho Jones."
"Jerach - you're the guy who shot my friend on the Watershed last year."
He didn't deny it. "Edie Abilene. I should have finished him that day, but I guess it doesn't matter now. He's fed the fish."
"You know the exact news?"
"That boat's sunk, and Abilene has sunk with it. You can't do this job, don't take her money."
"You work for her stepbrother, don't you?"
"So what if it is?"
"Did he sink the Watershed?"
"No, but it sank, and we don't feel bad about it. Besides, Abilene was buried with him."
Ben shoves the man, turns and walks away.This is a mistake he made. "He's got a gun!" Stella yelled across the room.
Ben turned, gun already in hand, firing at the same time as Jones' dellinger, sideways as before.The slender man cried out in pain, and Ben lost his balance and fell to the ground.He was about to get up when the bartender said, "You've been shot, sir. Your back is bleeding."
Ben hesitated.He felt no pain, which is how gunshot wounds always start.At this moment, Stella bent down, checked him, and said, "No, it's just paint. He's fine, the bullet missed."
"Glad to hear that," said Ben, standing up.The bartender joined others tending to Jones' bleeding hand.
"How did you do that?" she asked, as she walked away. "I heard you were a sharpshooter, but you shot his Delinger without taking aim."
"It's not as hard as it looks," he explained. "When it's too late to aim, you shoot where your eyes are looking. When I turn around, I see his hand holding the gun, and it hits him in one shot." of."
By this time, they had already reached the street. "It's unbelievable. Why did he shoot you?"
"Because your stepbrother wanted to stop me from investigating—that's the most likely reason."
"Should we just hang around and wait for the police? After all, you shot someone."
"I'm not used to the rules in the East," Ben admitted. "In the West, you shoot a guy and you have to leave. His friends may come to seek revenge."
The sun had begun to sink into the shadow of a line of trees in the western sky, and they strolled together, and Ben felt the tension of the gunfight have left him.He had lived far from the frontier in the West, and the months in New Orleans had dulled his reflexes and stiffened his muscles.Perhaps, after forty years old, he began to feel that time is not forgiving.
Suddenly, in the afterglow of the setting sun, a tall figure walked out of an alley and approached them.His sudden appearance makes Ben reach for his gun.Stella recognized the person and gasped in surprise.
"Roddy! What are you doing here?"
In the fading light, Ben saw the figure clearly.Roddy Dunn was a bony man with a smooth childlike face and an air of innocence. "I've come to see you," he explained. "As soon as I heard that the Divide was missing, I thought you might need help. I didn't expect one of my men to be wounded by a gunman you hired."
"This is Ben Snow," Stella said, "Ben is helping me find the 'Watershed', he is not hiring gunmen!"
"Find the boat for you? Here? Why don't you look for it on the river?"
"I've searched on the river, Mr. Dahn, but I think that's where the Divide can be found. Knowing who planned the plot will reveal the whereabouts of the ship."
"Why did you shoot my man?"
"Jerach Jones? He drew the gun first. People shouldn't do that around here. Luckily for him, I only shot him in the hand."
They were interrupted by a steamboat whistle coming from the pier. "It's the 'Watershed'!" said Stella.
Her stepbrother shook his head. "Just 'Carrollton Lady,' ready to sail south. They'll be in New Orleans by noon tomorrow."
"That's full steam ahead," Ben said. "Twenty-four hours upstream."
"The current will help."
Something is bothering Ben. "Will Ulysses Harris still be in the River Authority office?" he asked Stella.
"I don't know, it's getting late."
"I'll be back." He dropped a promise and strode away.
As he had feared, the office of the River Authority was locked, so he hurried to the nearby telegraph office.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" the salesman asked.
"I want to send a wire to St. Louis and wait for a call back."
"Of course. But it'll take a while. Maybe one day we'll have that wonderful long-distance call East. Then you can talk to St. Louis."
Ben scribbled the message, "Send this to the River Authority, or the dock man, or whoever might be working at this time of night."
The man read the brief question Ben wrote, "I can answer that."
"Never mind—post it."
"It's your money anyway." The salesman shook his head and turned to the teletypewriter.
Ben walked out the door just as the Carrollton Lady blew her final whistle and pulled away from the pier.
He stood dumbfounded, looking at his reflection in the glass window of the telegraph office.
Go south instead of north.Paint instead of blood.
He ran toward the pier, toward the motorboat they'd rented that morning.Ulysses Harris stands on the edge of the pier with a man wearing a sheriff's badge. "Follow me!" Ben yelled, "We've got to catch 'Carrollton Lady'!"
Harris frowned. "You mean the 'Beautiful Woman' sank—"
"No," Ben urged them to run to the launch, "The Beauty didn't sink the Divide—it was the Divide!"
When Roy Fox appeared behind the "Lady's" rail with a shotgun, Ben shot him in the shoulder.With only one shot, they boarded the deck and seized command of the ship.Captain Burtes stood sadly in the pilothouse, offering no resistance.
Ben finds Edie Abilene in the steamboat rec room, stacking cards by himself.Edie smiled and said hello. "Hi, Ben," he said, "you've come to my rescue."
"What makes you think you'll get away with such a crazy plot as yours?" Ben said.
"It's not crazy at all. Even though the steamboat industry is going downhill, this boat is going to be worth a fortune. If we can get to New Orleans, we can dress her up so no one will recognize her. I also got some paperwork proving she was a stern paddle steamer named 'Oklawawa' from Silver Spring, FL. Without much trouble, I had a boat of my own , and no one was harmed."
"No one was harmed? What about the string of accidents you caused to get rid of the chief crew so that your own men could come aboard instead? You killed Frank Beecher so you could get aboard at the last minute, In his place, isn't it?"
Edie Abilene shrugged. "Didn't mean to kill him, Ben. It was an accident. What can I say?" He looked up, looking out the window. "We're turning around."
"Return to Vicksburg under the authorization of the Mississippi River Authority. You will be charged there and in New Orleans."
Edie looked a little sad, "Is it too late to negotiate terms, Ben?"
"Too late, Edie."
"How did you find out? What's wrong with us?"
"The 'Watershed' may have sunk, or may have sailed into some hidden tributary, but neither possibility is supported by evidence. Nothing remains, and that is your first mistake. From Greenville The telegram came saying that no steamer had passed in either direction for nearly twenty-four hours. But the Carrollton Lady should have sailed south from St. Louis. In this way, not only did the Divide not pass Greenville from the south, The 'Beautiful Woman' didn't sail there from the north either. The answer is obvious isn't it? I remembered something and knew the truth.
"The two ships are sister ships, which means they are almost identical in size and appearance. When Stella Darn heard the whistle of the 'Girl', she thought it was the 'Watershed'. Also, before I got into fights with people and someone thought I was bleeding on my back - but it was just paint. Afterwards, I stared at the shadow on the window and tried to remember how that red paint got on my back. Then I thought about the The two red lines on the side and upper part of the 'Beautiful Woman'. I remember leaning against the outer wall of the pilothouse. Those two lines were freshly painted, as was the name of the ship, to change the look of the ship. The ship In the river, you can't paint the whole side of the boat, but when the boat is upstream, you can. You have another captain, first mate, and other crew members pretending to be passengers on the boat beforehand, and they occupy the entire ship. After the ship, sail back downstream as the 'Carrollton Lady'. Tell me, what happened to the rest of the crew and passengers—those who were not part of your plot?"
Edith thought for a while before answering.He said, "They're tied up, gagged, and chained down. We thought about letting them go after a while. If they don't—" He hesitated, "we plan to dump them in the swamp outside New Orleans inside."
"Alive or dead?"
He looked up at Ben, "Does this matter now?"
"I don't think it matters. You've been hiding below decks, so no one will recognize you. But I want to know why you're here—it's an adventure."
"Every boat stops at Vicksburg. If we didn't stop, it would raise suspicion. Fox was supposed to drop some wrecks upriver so it looked like we were sunk, but he forgot. He It's a madman," he paused again, and then asked, "how did you know I was there, Ben?"
"When I think of the accidents and fights that were done to get rid of the crew and put others in their place, I know it—and I think of you as one of those substitutes, a gambler on the Watershed."
"You should come too, Ben. I'll share your share."
Not long after, they approached the pier, and Ben saw Stella Dunn waiting.He stepped off the steps first, and she greeted him with a yellow telegram. "What does that mean? It's for you. It says 'Carrollton Lady' is being repaired in St. Louis Harbor. Isn't that—?"
"This is your 'Watershed', Stella, which was taken by a gang of clever river robbers and painted with two red lines so that it might be mistaken for the 'Beautiful Woman.' Suspicious, I wired St. Louis, but I didn't wait for a call back. They're going to New Orleans to get the ship remade and sailing under a new name."
"My captain—"
"He was imprisoned below deck, along with dozens of passengers and crew. They have been released and the sheriff has arrested the river robbers."
"Not only do I want to pay you, but I want to thank you, Ben. You helped me find the Divide."
And I've lost a friend, Ben thought.He caught a glimpse of Edie Abilene and the others being led off the boat.He was about to wave, but changed his mind.
Notes:
Notes: