BooksBarbecue
Back The Nest
Chapters (82)
  1. Cover
  2. Copyright page
  3. Introduction by Will Errickson
  4. Acknowledgements
  5. TREMORS
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. SUSPICIONS
  13. 1
  14. 2
  15. 3
  16. 4
  17. 5
  18. DREAD
  19. 1
  20. 2
  21. 3
  22. 4
  23. 5
  24. 6
  25. WITNESS
  26. 1
  27. 2
  28. 3
  29. ALERT
  30. 1
  31. 2
  32. 3
  33. 4
  34. 5
  35. ENCOUNTER
  36. 1
  37. 2
  38. 3
  39. 4
  40. 5
  41. 6
  42. HAVOC
  43. 1
  44. 2
  45. 3
  46. 4
  47. 5
  48. 6
  49. SEARCH
  50. 1
  51. 2
  52. 3
  53. 4
  54. 5
  55. CLASH
  56. 1
  57. 2
  58. 3
  59. 4
  60. 5
  61. 6
  62. 7
  63. COUNTERATTACK
  64. 1
  65. 2
  66. 3
  67. 4
  68. 5
  69. 6
  70. 7
  71. VICTORY
  72. 1
  73. 2
  74. 3
  75. 4
  76. 5
  77. 6
  78. 7
  79. 8
  80. 9
  81. EPILOGUE
  82. About the Author

Stephen Scott’s face set into a gelid frown. This should not be happening to Yarkie, he thought angrily. These were good people, good families. The men worked hard, on the water, or making sails, building boats, caulking, rigging, fishing. Honest men. There was pride here, the pride of self-­sufficiency. The island had to bring in things like furniture and hardware and building supplies, but mostly they made and grew what they needed. No one here was soft, and no one too dependent.

Despite the grimness of Elias Johnson’s report, Stephen Scott could not help but smile as his mind went back to a family story of a great-­great-­grandfather who was a whaling captain. It seemed that old Ezekial returned from a two-­year voyage with one seaman lost to a sickness. At the inquiry, Ezekial produced the drug cabinet with which a ship’s master practiced medicine on board. The chest contained numbered bottles, along with a list of symptoms to be treated. Ezekial was asked by the officials, “Didn’t you give this sailor the prescribed bottle?” The captain explained, “I did, indeed. But I was all out of Bottle 13, so I gave the man some of Bottle 6 and some of Bottle 7.”

It was still the Scott family’s best tale.

How the generations change, and yet persist, the fat man thought as he looked across the room at Elizabeth Carr. Elias’ granddaughter was another of the self-­reliant ones, a girl without airs. Tall, and a looker, her skin like fresh cream, and her brown hair with strawberry glints in it that set off her friendly gray eyes. Bad-­worried now.

Not wanting to accept the threat Elias Johnson was describing, Stephen Scott focused on a mental picture of his store instead. No rats could upset Yarkie’s solid foundations! “Scott & Sons” sold every kind of gear for boating, fishing, building, what-­have-­you. Half-­closing his eyes, Scott could visualize his stocks of oilskins, netcorks, cleats, clam rakes, waders, diving equipment of every type. In what had been a sail loft above, there were trap floats of every color, piled up anchors and tubs, coils of rope, lines for trawling, pails for bait, traps and weirpoles, straps and tackle. To make the strongest hand-­sewn sails, he even supplied the traditional three-­sided needles.

But Stephen Scott’s wandering thoughts could not keep Elias Johnson’s message at bay for long. Yarkie was in trouble! If Yarkie was in trouble, he was in trouble. The marina had taken most of his capital. If people and money didn’t start coming in, he would lose everything. There had always been rats at the waterfront, but nothing like what he was hearing now.

The fat man shook his head, took a sighing breath, and finally opened his ears to the captain’s words. Johnson was talking directly at Dr. Peter Hubbard.