Sailing through the islands that led to Risør, where Ellefsen lived, I saw two hundred houses packed together under a high rock just beyond a horseshoe bay, with only planks to walk between them. It looked like a place “bastilled” by nature, shut out from all that opens the understanding and expands the heart. I found there a hotbed of secrets and shady business among its inhabitants that almost frightened me, a sordid love of money. Men smoked pipes and made deals. Their breath, hair, clothes, and couches reeked of it. If this was the place that birthed Ellefsen and his family, I held out little hope for a resolution, and an answer to the mystery of the silver ship.

“I wish none of this had ever happened,” he said, when he sat across from me in the drawing room of the inn where I was staying. Peder Ellefsen wasn’t threatening at all, but diminutive and humble, the way I remembered him, same dimpled smile and soft voice. He looked uncomfortable dressed as a gentleman instead of a sea captain, with the same tossed mop of hair. His whole look begged my sympathy, but I didn’t intend to soften.

“We aren’t here about wishes, are we, Mr. Ellefsen?”

“I know what you think I did, Mrs. Imlay,” he said, almost rushing to get it out. “But you’ve got no proof.”

“I know that now. We seek restitution, that’s all. If your mother was willing to bail you out for half what the silver was worth, why not settle with us?”

“My mother will refuse, as a matter of principle. She’s a very strong woman.”

“I’m a strong woman too. I believe in what’s right, and fair.”

He clapped his hand on his knee, surprising us both. “What’s right and fair about it?” he said. “The plan failed, but I’m the one left holding the bag.”

My jaw clenched. “Was there another plan?” I asked. “Different from the instructions I gave you?”

He looked out the window toward the bay, kneading his cap in his hand. I could feel his wanting the whole business done with.

“No one believes me anyway,” he said.

“Then why did you agree to meet with me?”

He locked his blue eyes on mine. “I thought you might … understand.”

“What is it you’d have me understand, Ellefsen?”

He ran his fingers through his hair. It seemed he was thinking how best to say it. Both of us steering around rocks lurking beneath the surface.

“I liked Imlay right off. His big view of things, grand schemes. No limits, not like here. Every man making his own way in the world. I believed in him.” A reluctant smile formed on his lips. “It impressed me that he knew Daniel Boone.”