Will brought them up and spread them in sequence on the cabin top, holding their curl down with his hands while Talmadge, squinting through his bottle-thick glasses, laid out a course from the mouth of the Savannah River to the mouth of the St. John’s, just south of the Florida line. He had oystered, crabbed, fished, and duck-hunted all along that coast, he declared. There were some channels clearly marked, while with others it was navigatin’ by guess and by God. Tides mighty tricky and mighty strong, but if they timed the ebbs and floods correctly, they could ride the currents southward even in a dead calm. The whole trip shouldn’t take more than three, four days.

“Running on the outside, and with a fair wind, we could do it in two,” Will said.

“Go right ahead!” Talmadge said, stiffening as though he’d been insulted. “It’s a free country, ain’t it? Y’all can go any way you please, but if you don’t get that fair wind, it won’t be my fault.”

“I didn’t mean any criticism, Mr. Talmadge,” Will said. “The point is, this boat is too big to run in those canals. If we need to tack, we won’t have room.”

“With this here inland way, if it comes to a gale, you’ll be safe, if it comes to no wind atall, you’ll have tide to carry you where you’re goin’. This here’s a favor I’m doin’, it’s the benefit of my knowledge.”

At that moment, Trajan bolted up the companion and onto the deck with a hen carcass in his jaws. Snake-quick, the boy’s hand darted, snatched the cat by the tail, relieved Trajan of the carcass, and put it in his bloodstained game pouch.

“Them bones make a good soup,” he said.

Drew picked up the distraught Trajan and stroked his head.

“I suppose they do,” he said angrily. “But you didn’t have to hurt my cat.”

“Aw, I dint hurt him none.” The boy’s narrow eyes narrowed further. “I onest caught a catfish with a cat. Done snatched a kitten, figgerin’ hit takes a cat to ketch one up. Stuck a big ole hook in that kitty and tossed hit in the river, and right enough, big ole catfish come up and swallered hit. Now that’s what I call hurtin’ a cat.”

The man and the boy were beginning to make Nathaniel nervous. Thanking them for their generosity, he said he hoped they enjoyed their dinner and that he and his shipmates were pleased to have made their acquaintance, but now they had work to do and plans to make. After considering this diplomatic request to leave, the man said, “Let’s go,” and the two climbed into their skiff.