About this story
Under the lazarette floor, packed in sand, lies half a million dollars in gold double eagles, and the gang waits for Cape Horn. You keep the captain's census, hold the poop through the night mutiny, and marry Margaret West at Puget Sound with Pike giving the bride. Forty-two chapters carry her from Baltimore to a marshal's dock in Seattle.
How it opens
A March morning left you waiting four frozen hours for the tug promised at nine.
WadaThe pilot's case arrived, sir, but nobody has explained why our pier changed.
Possum shivered beneath your coat while luggage accumulated around the hired cab.
Captain Nathaniel WestMy daughter delayed us for a piano, and I regret the inconvenience.
The instrument required repair because I decided only two days ago to sail.
Choose
The agents promised privacy, but they never discussed a captain's daughter.
A piano explains the delay better than silence did.