“Could be awhile before we even get out of this harbor,” he said, then went above with Nathaniel to look for auguries of a breeze.

None. A gray sky arched over a still sea, the horizon invisible so that the islands eastward looked like greenish clouds hovering in space. The trees, the boats anchored in the harbor, the gulls roosting on a mud flat—the whole scene was as motionless as a painting. Half an hour passed. A golden shimmer appeared where the horizon was supposed to be, then a red sun pushed up, like the head of some fiery infant bulging out of the gray sea’s womb—water giving birth to its opposite element. Two hours went by, and still no wind came. The harbor could have been mistaken for a huge iron plate, if not for the rising fish that dimpled its surface. Another hour, and the boats began to swing on their rodes; the tide was turning, the tide Nathaniel had hoped to ride out to sea. Looking around for a ruffle on the water, he saw smoke coiling from a stovepipe on a—could it be called a ship? A hogged, shallow-draft, bargelike thing with a shanty on its deck and sides that looked as if they’d forgotten the last time they felt a paintbrush or scraper. Two crooked masts, the boom on the foremast yoked high up so it could swing over the shanty, and furled sails resembling heaps of soiled laundry completed the picture of a floating slum. It was moored to the same wharf where the brothers Kent had their lobster shack, and a big sign was hung over the gunwale amidships. Nathaniel read it through the binoculars—MERCHANDISE FOR THE ROLLING DEEP—BOOTS & SHOES REPAIRED & FOR SALE—NICHOLAS CUDLIP, COBBLER & PROP.—and remembered that he’d returned Tony Burton’s shoes yesterday.

Eliot remained aboard Double Eagle—“to guard against pirates,” he quipped—while Nathaniel rowed the tender to the trading schooner with Will and Drew.

Nicholas Cudlip was a stubby man with the quick, appraising eyes of a pawnbroker and small ears, from which so much hair sprouted it was a wonder he could hear anything softer than a gunshot. He said he was surprised, pleasantly so, to find business so early in the morning; surprised, truth to tell, to find any business at all.

“Was makin’ fer Stonin’ton when I got caught by thet fog las’ night,” he said. “Put in heah to wait it out. Didn’t reckon to make a sale heah ’mongst the folks of riches and leisure. C’mon aboard, and tell me what I kin do feryuh.”