Fevre Dream Page 0,58

Toby, "we wants to talk to you, private, if we kin."

Marsh waved them in. "What's this about, Toby?" he asked, closing the door.

"We's kind of spokesmen," said the cook. "You knowed me a long time, Cap'n, you knows I wouldn't lie to you."

"Course I do," said Marsh.

"I wouldn't run off neither. You done give me my freedom and all, jest fer cookin' fer you. But some of them other niggers, the stokers and sech, they won't lissen to Jeb and me here 'bout what a fine man you is. They's scared, and likely to run off. The boy at supper tonight, he heard you and Cap'n York a-talkin' about goin' down to this Cypress place, and now all the niggers is talkin'."

"What?" Marsh said. "You never been down here before, neither of you. What's Cypress Landing to you?"

"Nuthin' a-tall," Jeb said. "But some of these other niggers heard of it. There's stories 'bout this place, Cap'n. Bad stories. All the niggers run off from that place, cause of things went on there. Terrible things, Cap'n, jest terrible."

"We come to ask you not to go on down there, Cap'n," Toby said. "You know I never ast you for nuthin' before."

"No cook and no barber are goin' to tell me where to take my steamboat," Abner Marsh said sternly. But then he looked at Toby's face, and softened. "Ain't nothin' goin' to happen," he promised, "but if you two want to wait here in New Orleans, you go ahead. Won't need no cookin' or no barberin' on a short run like this."

Toby looked grateful, but said, "The stokers, though..."

"Them I need."

"They ain't goin' to stay, Cap'n, I tell you."

"I reckon Hairy Mike will have a thing or two to say about that."

Jeb shook his head. "Them niggers is scared o' Hairy Mike sure 'nough, but they's more scared of this place you're fixin' to take us. They'll run off, sure as anythin'."

Marsh swore. "Damn fools," he said. "Well, we can't get up steam without no stokers. But it was Joshua wanted to make this trip, not me. Give me a few moments to dress, boys, and well hunt up Cap'n York and speak to him about this."

The two black men exchanged looks, but said nothing.

Joshua York was not alone. When Marsh strode up to the door of the captain's cabin, he heard his partner's voice, loud and rhythmic, from within. Marsh hesitated, then groaned when he realized that Joshua was reading poetry. Aloud, even. He hammered at the door with his stick, and York broke off his reading and told them to come in.

Joshua sat calmly with a book in his lap, a long pale finger marking his place, a glass of wine on the table beside him. Valerie was in the other chair. She looked up at Marsh and quickly away; she had been avoiding him since that night on the texas, and Marsh found it easy to ignore her. "Tell him, Toby." he said.

Toby seemed to have far more difficulty finding words than he had with Marsh, but he finally got it all out. When he was done he stood with his eyes downcast, twisting his old battered hat in his hands.

Joshua York wore a grim look. "What do the men fear?" he asked in a polite, cold tone.

"Gettin 'et, suh."

"Give them my word that I will protect them."

Toby shook his head. "Cap'n York, no disrespeck, but them niggers is 'fraid of you, too, 'specially now that you want us to go down there."

"They think you's one of them," Jeb put in. "You and you friends, lurin' us down there to the others, like it were. Them stories say those folks there don't come out by day, and you's the same, Cap'n, jest the same. Course, me and Toby knows better, but not them others."

"Tell 'em we'll double their wages for the time on the bayou," Marsh said.

Toby didn't look up, but shook his head. "They don't care 'bout no money. They's goin' to run off."

Abner Marsh swore. "Joshua, if neither money nor Hairy Mike can get 'em to do it, they ain't a-goin' to do it. We'll have to discharge 'em all and get us some new stokers and roustas and such, but that'll take us sometime."

Valerie leaned forward and laid her hand on Joshua York's arm. "Please, Joshua," she said quietly. "Listen to them. This is a sign. We were not meant to go. Take us back to St. Louis. You've promised to show me St. Louis."

"I shall,"