Fevre Dream Page 0,30

a brand new upper-Mississippi steamer, and the Northwestern Line said she was faster than any boat that had plied those waters yet. Coming downriver was the Grey Eagle, which the Northern Light was going to have to take to live up to her brag. There was the Northerner, and the crude, powerful stern-wheeler St. Joe, and the Die Vernon II, and the Natchez.

Marsh looked at each of them in turn, at the intricate devices suspended between their chimneys, at their fancy jigsaw carpentry and their bright paint, at their hissing, billowing steam, at the power in their wheels. And then he looked at his own boat, the Fevre Dream, all white and blue and silver, and it seemed to him that her steam rose higher than any of the others, and her whistle had a sweeter, clearer tone, and her paint was cleaner and her wheels more for-mid-a-bul, and she stood taller than all but three or four of the other boats, and she was longer than just about any of them. "Well take 'em all," he said to himself, and he went on down to his lady.

Chapter Seven

Aboard the Steamer FEVRE DREAM, Mississippi River, July 1857

ABNER Marsh cut a wedge of cheddar from the wheel on the table, positioned it carefully atop what remained of his apple pie, and forked them both up with a quick motion of his big red hand. He belched, wiped his mouth with his napkin and shook a few crumbs from his beard, and sat back with a smile on his face.

"Good pie?" asked Joshua York, smiling at Marsh over a brandy snifter.

"Toby don't bake no other kind," Marsh replied. "You should of tried a piece." He pushed away from the table and stood up. "Well, drink up, Joshua. It's time."

"Time?"

"You wanted to learn the river, didn't you? You ain't goin' to learn it settin' to table, I'll tell you that much."

York finished his brandy, and they went up to the pilot house together. Karl Framm was on duty. He was lounging on the couch, smoke curling up from his pipe, while his cub-a tall youth with lank blonde hair hanging down to his collar-worked as steersman. "Cap'n Marsh," Framm said, nodding. "And you must be the mysterious Cap'n York. Pleased to meet you. Never been on a steamer with two captains before." He grinned, a wide lopsided grin that flashed a gold tooth. "This boat got almost as many captains as I got wives. Of course, it stands to reason. Why, this boat got more boilers and more mirrors and more silver than any boat I ever seen, so it ought to have more captains too, I figure." The lanky pilot leaned forward and knocked some ashes from his pipe into the belly of the big iron stove. It was cold and dark, the night being hot and thick. "What can I do for you gentlemen?" Framm asked.

"Learn us the river," said Marsh.

Framm's eyebrows rose. "Learn you the river? I got myself a cub here. Ain't that right, Jody?"

"Sure is, Mister Framm."

Framm smiled and shrugged. "Now, I'm learnin' Jody here, and it's all been arranged, I'm to get six hundred dollars from the first wages he gets after he's been licensed and taken into the association. I'm only doin' it so cheap cause I know his family. Can't say I know your families, though, can't say that a-tall."

Joshua York undid the buttons on his dark gray vest. He was wearing a money belt. He brought out a twenty-dollar gold piece, and placed it on top of the stove, the gold gleaming softly against the black iron. "Twenty," said York. He set another gold piece atop it. "Forty," he said. Then a third. "Sixty." When the count reached three hundred York buttoned up his vest. "I'm afraid that is all I have on me, Mister Framm, but I assure you I am not without funds. Let us agree to seven hundred dollars for yourself, and an equal amount for Mister Albright, if the two of you will instruct me in the rudiments of piloting, and refresh Captain Marsh here so he can steer his own boat. Payable immediately, not from future wages. What say you?

Framm was real cool about it, Marsh thought. He sucked on his pipe thoughtfully for a moment, like he was considering the offer, and finally reached out and took the stack of gold coins. "Can't speak for Mister Albright, but for myself, I was always fond of the color