“Not that I know of. He made the lecture circuit for years under the guidance of a P. T. Barnum type, a promoter named Strater, and they sold pamphlets at the shows, so maybe that was more lucrative than a book would have been. There must have been a great deal written about Caleb. You could dig into old newspaper files, for a start.”

Rachael excused herself to answer the doorbell and came back a moment later.

“The electrician is here. We could talk later, if you don’t mind waiting.”

“We’re on a tight schedule,” Gamay said. “Do you have any suggestions on how we might find out more about Caleb Nye?”

“You could start in our basement. We have a section of the diorama Nye used in his presentations. He gave it to a library, but they ran out of room and shipped it over here. We didn’t have room for it, either. Perhaps I can show it to you when I’m not so busy.

“In the meantime, there is the New Bedford Whaling Museum. And the various local historical societies. But since you’re short on time, there is one other avenue, although I hesitate to suggest it.”

“We’re grasping at straws,” Paul said. “Give it a try.”

“Well, then,” she said with a shrug, “you might want to talk to Harvey Brimmer. He deals in antique documents from a shop near the Seamen’s Bethel on Johnny Cake Hill. He unearths some amazing old documents from time to time.”

“Why do you hesitate to recommend Mr. Brimmer?” Paul asked.

“Harvey has a reputation for collecting upfront fees, then not locating the documents he was hired to find. There have been rumors of forgeries and dealing in stolen documents, but either the rumors are false or he’s too slick to get caught. I believe the latter.”

“Thank you for the warning,” Paul said. “We’ll watch ourselves if we talk to Mr. Brimmer.”

“Please don’t tell Harvey I mentioned him. He would take that as a license to use the Dobbs name in an advertisement.”

The Trouts gave Rachael a sizable contribution to put in the museum’s donation box. On the way out, she stopped in front of a print that showed a huge textile mill complex.

“That’s the Dobbs mill. The captain became even wealthier when he invested in the textile business. He was apparently robust and would have lived a long life if he hadn’t been killed when a loom fell on him. Good luck with your research,” she said in parting, then scurried off to meet with the electrician.

“Wasn’t Brimmer the guy Song Lee contacted when she was looking for the logbook?” Paul asked.

“I’m sure that was his name,” Gamay said. “Maybe we’ll have more success than she did.”