Ambrose Nast

The name of the ship's captain was written as Van Delden, no first name noted.

Its origin?

Amsterdam.

What does this mean, no B.R.?

I asked Rankins, squinting the lamplight.

No boarding, he replied.

Likely it stayed offshore for some reason.

How does this relate to the ship that's come tonight?

I believe, I told him, it is the same ship.

That cannot be, Rankin said gently.

It's age.

I interrupted him to ask if he had his colt with him or at his house.

"'Luckily it was in the locked lower drawer of his office desk.

"'I told him to retrieve it.

"'We were going to Florence Morrow's, and we didn't have any time to spare.

"'The delaying gambit I had attempted with Captain Van Delden "'seemed in retrospect more and more dangerous with each passing moment.

"'Flustered and confused, but sensible enough to hold his tongue for the moment, "'Rankins locked the office behind us in silence.'

My worry was that his always logical, damnably rational mind might react poorly to a clumsy explanation of the terror that was growing inside me.

So poorly, in fact, that he might never regard me the same way again, and perhaps even impede me.

As we began walking the road towards Florence's house under the full moon, I asked Rankins what he remembered of a certain extravagant legend he was likely told in his youth.