“And that you have,” said Jake, looking at me coldly. “So please watch out.”

“Barbarous little thing,” I said. It was very heavy. A nugget of destructiveness. I spun the cylinder. Six bullets. It had a curious smell.

“Both the guns are thirty-eights,” said the man, with a slight note of disdain. “Those are man-stoppers.” He showed me a small cardboard box. “You’ll have plenty of ammunition available to you for whatever it is that you are going to do on this boat.”

“Don’t worry, Jake,” said David firmly. “Things will probably go without a hitch. And I thank you for your usual efficiency. Now, go have a pleasant evening on the island. And I shall see you at the Centaur Café before noon.”

The fellow gave me a deep suspicious look, then nodded, gathered up the guns and the little box of bullets, put them back in his canvas bag, and offered his hand again to me and then to David, and out he went.

I waited until the door had closed.

“I think he dislikes me,” I said. “Blames me for involving you in some sort of sordid crime.”

David gave a short little laugh. “I’ve been in far more compromising situations than this one,” he said. “And if I worried about what our investigators thought of us, I would have retired a long time ago. What do we know now from this information?”

“Well, he’s feeding on the old women. Probably stealing from them also. And he’s mailing home what he steals in packages too small to arouse suspicion. What he does with the larger loot we’ll never know. Probably throws it into the ocean. I suspect there’s more than one post box number. But that’s no concern of ours.”

“Correct. Now lock the door. It’s time for a little concentrated witchcraft. We’ll have a nice supper later on. I have to teach you to veil your thoughts. Jake could read you too easily. And so can I. The Body Thief will pick up your presence when he’s still two hundred miles out to sea.”

“Well, I did it through an act of will when I was Lestat,” I said. “I haven’t the faintest idea how to do it now.”

“Same way. We’re going to practice. Until I can’t read a single image or random word from you. Then we’ll get to the out-of-body travel.” He looked at his watch, which reminded me of James suddenly, in that little kitchen. “Slip that bolt. I don’t want any maid blundering in here later on.”

I obeyed. Then I sat on the bed opposite David, who had assumed a very relaxed yet commanding attitude, rolling up the stiff starched cuffs of his shirt, which revealed the dark fleece of his arms. There was also quite a bit of dark hair on his chest, bubbling up through the open collar of the shirt. Only a little gray mixed in with it, like the gray that sparkled here and there in his heavy shaven beard. I found it quite impossible to believe he was a man of seventy-four.