About this story
A masked stranger, Seadrift, invites Alida aboard the Water-Witch by moonlight and offers to show its papers if you come without armed men. Aboard, you find a deck built to hide its crew, while Alida recognizes stolen fabric among the goods on display, then a signal gun sends everyone running as the brig makes for open water.
How it opens
The royal cruiser Coquette entered New York waters under Captain Ludlow's command.
Master TrysailThe morning gun answered from Staten Island; an unidentified sail remains inside the lower bay.
Your duty opposes contraband while private hope draws you toward Lust in Rust.
Myndert Van BeveroutA naval captain courts my niece while searching honest merchants for unlawful cloth.
Myndert Van BeveroutI defend colonial commerce and know nothing of the sail your cruiser failed to name.
My uncle distrusts every monopoly except the ones that enlarge his own account.