Long after the others had returned to the house for dinner, Gwen huddled with Patrick, Liam, and Natalia in the boathouse. It was the only place they were guaranteed not to be overheard by the rest of the family.

“It’s nine o’clock here, which means it’s the crack of dawn in Siberia,” Natalia said. “We can contact him right now. Unless we can get his vote, there’s no point in trying to recruit Mrs. Carnegie to our side.”

“But you think we can really get his vote?” Gwen asked, a world of hope beginning to bloom inside.

Natalia snapped her watch shut. “I told you. He is completely insane, so we can’t take anything for granted, and negotiations with him usually drag on for hours. We’d better get moving.”

Gwen borrowed her grandfather’s wagon to drive the four of them to the tiny fishing village on the other end of the island. It was ten o’clock before they arrived at Smitty’s General Store, where the town’s only telegraph machine was located. Mr. Smitty lived above the shop and came downstairs to facilitate the message in exchange for a few dollars.

The store smelled of coffee and tobacco. There were a few shelves of canned food, some larger barrels of oats and flour, and a service counter with three stools and a soda fountain.

“Where is the message going?” Mr. Smitty asked as he pulled the cover from the telegraph machine. With his wire spectacles and shiny bald head, he looked too old to still be working, but Gwen was grateful for his ability to operate the telegraph.

“Khabarovsk, Siberia,” Natalia said.

Mr. Smitty’s eyes widened, and he scratched his head in confusion. “I don’t know the operating codes for a place like that.”

“I have them.” Natalia confidently rattled off a string of numbers. Apparently, she was in frequent enough contact with the count to have memorized the station. Gwen sat on a stool alongside Patrick and Liam as Natalia settled in beside Mr. Smitty on the other side of the counter.

“You’ll want to make yourselves comfortable,” Natalia said. “By the time Count Sokolov gets to the telegraph station, he likes to chat for a while before agreeing to do business. We’re in for a long night.”

Natalia dictated the first message to Mr. Smitty, requesting that the count be summoned to the train station office for a business transaction. Gwen purchased bottles of Coca-Cola for everyone, along with a sack of salted peanuts. While they awaited Count Sokolov’s return message, Natalia explained how she’d been working with Count Sokolov on the construction of the massive Trans-Siberian Railway. The bank supplied funding for their steel, coal, and food supplies, and the count was in charge of a railroad segment through rural Siberia, meaning he was lonely, isolated, and bored out of his mind.