The innkeeper believed me enough not to want to call my bluff. "All right. They was here. Like you said. I get a lot of people through in the summer, so I wouldn't have noticed except like you say, the girl was deaf and the guy was a hard case. She come in in the morning, like she traveled all night. On a wagon. He come in the evening, walking. They stayed off in the corner. They left next morning." He looked at my coin. "Paid in that same funny coin, come to think."

"Yeah."

"Come from a long way off, eh?"

"Yeah. Where'd they go?"

"South. Down the road. Questions I heard the guy ask, I figure they was headed for Chimney.''

I raised an eyebrow. I'd never heard of any place called Chimney.

"Down the coast. Past Shaker. Take the Needle Road out of Shaker. The Tagline Road from Needle. Somewhere south of Tagline there's a crossroad where you head west. Chimney is on the Salada Peninsula. I don't know where for sure. Only what I heared from travelers."

"Uhm. Long hike. How far, you think?"

"See. Two hundred twenty-four miles to Shaker. Round two hundred more to Needle. Tagline is about one eighty on from Needle, I think. Or maybe it's two eighty. I don't rightly recollect. That crossroad must be another hundred down from Tagline, then out to Chimney. Don't know how far that would be. Least another hundred. Maybe two, three. Seen a map oncet, that a fellow showed me. Peninsula sticks way out like a thumb."

Silent joined us. He produced a scrap of paper and a tiny, steel-tipped pen. He had the innkeeper run through it again. He drew a crude map that he adjusted as the fat man said it did or did not resemble the map he had seen. Silent kept juggling a column of figures. He came up with an estimate in excess of nine hundred miles from Meadenvil. He knocked off the last digit, then wrote the word days and a plus sign. I nodded.

"Probably a four-month trip at least," I said. "Longer if they spend much time resting up in any of those cities."

Silent drew a straight line from Meadenvil to the tip of the Salada Peninsula, wrote, est. 600 mi. a. 6 knots = 100 hrs.

"Yeah," I said. "Yeah. That's why the ship never left. Had to give him a head start. Think we'll have a talk with the crew tomorrow. Thanks, innkeeper." I pushed the coin over. "Anything odd happened around here lately?"

A weak smiled stretched his lips. "Not till today."

"Right. No. I mean like neighbors disappearing, or what-not."

He shook his head. "Nope. Less you count Moleskin. Hain't seen him in a while. But that don't make no never-mind."

"Moleskin?"

"Hunter. Works the forest over east. Mainly for furs and hides, but brings me game when he needs salt or something. He don't come around regular, but I reckon he's overdue. Usually comes in come fall, to get staples for the winter. Thought it was him when your friend come through the door.''