Fevre Dream Page 0,89

Abner Marsh would be alone, or almost alone, just him and Joshua in a room full of them, the night folks. Marsh did not count Joshua York with the others. He was different, somehow. And Joshua said that everything would go well, Joshua had his drink, Joshua was full of fine sounding words and dreams. But Abner Marsh had his misgivings.

The Fevre Dream was quiet, almost deserted. Joshua had sent almost everyone ashore; the dinner tonight would be as private as he could make it. That wasn't the way Abner Marsh would have liked it, but there was no arguing with Joshua when he got a notion in his head. In the main cabin, the table was already set. The lamps had not been lighted yet, and the smoke and steam and building storm outside had all conspired to make the illumination that poured through the skylights dim and somber and tired. It seemed to Marsh as if twilight had already come to the saloon, and to his steamer. The carpets looked almost black, the mirrors were full of shadows. Behind the long black marble bar, a man was cleaning glasses, but even he was indistinct somehow, faded. Marsh nodded to him nonetheless, and made his way to the kitchen, aft of the wheelhouse. Behind the kitchen doors he found activity; a couple of Toby's kitchen boys were stirring big copper pots or pan-frying chicken, while the waiters lounged around and joked with each other. Marsh could smell pies baking in the huge ovens. It made his mouth water, but he pushed past, resolute. He found Toby in the starboard galley, surrounded on all sides by stacks of cages full of chickens and pigeons and here and there some robins and ducks and such. The birds were making a terrible racket. Toby looked up when Marsh entered. The cook had been killing chickens. Three headless birds were piled up by his elbows, and a fourth was on the block in front of him, struggling fitfully. Toby had the cleaver in hand. "Why, Cap'n Marsh," he said, smiling. He brought the cleaver down smartly, with a solid thunk. Blood spurted, and the headless chicken thrashed crazily when Toby released it. His hard black hands were drenched with blood. He wiped them on his apron. "What kin I do fer you?" he asked.

"I just wanted to tell you, tonight, when dinner's done, I want you off the boat," Marsh said. "You serve us up good and proper, and then you get. And take your kitchen boys and them waiters with you. You understand, do you? You hear what I'm sayin'?"

"I surely do, Cap'n," Toby said with a grin. "I surely do. Goin' to have a lil' party, is you?"

"Never you mind about that," Marsh said. "Just see that you get ashore when you're done workin'." He turned to go, stern-faced. But something made him turn back. "Toby," he said.

"Yessuh?"

"You know I never held much with slavery, even if I never done much against it neither. I would of, but those damned abolitionists were such Bible-thumpers. Only I been thinkin', and it seems to me maybe they was right after all. You can't just go... usin' another kind of people, like they wasn't people at all. Know what I mean? Got to end, sooner or later. Better if it ends peaceful, but it's got to end even if it has to be with fire and blood, you see? Maybe that's what them abolitionists been sayin' all along. You try to be reasonable, that's only right, but if it don't work, you got to be ready. Some things is just wrong. They got to be ended."

Toby was looking at him queerly, still absent-mindedly wiping his hands across the front of his apron, back and forth, back and forth. "Cap'n," he said softly, "you is talkin' abolition. This here is slave country, Cap'n. You could git kilt fo' sech talk."

"Maybe I could, Toby, but right is right, that's what I say."

"You done good by ol' Toby, Cap'n Marsh, givin' me my freedom and all so's I could cook fo' you. That you did."

Abner Marsh nodded. "Toby," he said, "why don't you go fetch me a knife from the kitchen. Don't say nothing about it, you hear? Just go fetch me a good sharp knife. It ought to be able to slide down into my boot, I think. Can you get me a knife?"

"Yessuh, Cap'n Marsh," said Toby. His eyes narrowed just a little in his