In the end they had to order another round so that everyone could sample it.
After they’d settled the check, using up all of Jak and the Armorer’s bonus and then some, they staggered out, well stuffed, onto the quay, blinking in the bright afternoon sunshine.
“That was a meal and a half,” Ryan said. “Reckon I’ve put back every ounce I lost during my time with Paddy.”
Jak leaned on an old iron fence that protected the edge of the dock, his red eyes scanning the port. He turned his head, the gentle breeze tugging at his mane of snowy hair, and froze suddenly, staring across the river.
Ryan caught the movement. “What?” he asked.
“Flash of reflected light. Sun off glass. Round tower at top big house. Don’t all look! Watching us.”
Ryan glanced sideways, seeing the jagged spear of silver from the room. It flickered and vanished, showing that the glass had moved.
“We saw someone watching from there earlier. Just before you arrived, lover. Remember, Doc?”
“Indeed, yes. We thought we could make out a figureor twoup there.”
“Room’s empty now,” Krysty said. “Whoever it was up there’s gone.”
Ryan sniffed. “Wonder who in Twin Forks is interested in us? And why?”
J.B. turned away. “Most likely it’s just some lonely old lady with nothing better to do. Forget it. I could use a kind of lie-in for an hour, to get over that meal. Anyone else coming back to the rooming house for a spell?”
Ryan nodded. “Why not.” He watched as one of the stern-wheelers approached them from the north, its steam whistle blowing, calliope tooting out a merry polka. “Wouldn’t mind a trip on one of those beauties,” he said.
WITH SURPRISING AGILITY for such an enormously fat man, Gert Wolfram descended the spiral staircase from the tower room, the Magus picking his way delicately after him.
“I have lost count of the number of times that our paths have crossed,” Wolfram said.
The Magus laughed, a thin, humorless, metallic sound that echoed up the staircase. “And now this will be the last.”
Chapter Ten
“Jack’s almost gone,” J.B. said, sitting on the end of the bed shared by Ryan and Krysty.
“Guess we have to work out what we’re going to do next.” Ryan rubbed sleep from his eye. “Slept so rad-blasted well last night. Best night for an age.”
“We staying or moving?” Krysty asked, the sheet pulled up to her shoulders, covering her nakedness.
“Only been in the ville a day,” Ryan yawned. “Like to look around for a day or so.”
“Take a trip on one of the stern-wheelers, like you said? I heard the biggest and wildest of them, the Golden Eagle , is due in tomorrow. Day to turn around. She goes back up the Sippi the next dawning.” Krysty ran her fingers through her hair, producing electrical sparks. “Goes up as far as Crosstown, Wisconsin. Way north.”
“Near the Lakes?” Ryan scratched his chin, feeling the heavy stubble. “Got to shave,” he muttered.
“How about the boat?”
He looked at Krysty. “Yeah. Why not? But we’ll need plenty of jack for that.”
Jak knocked on the door and stuck his head into the room. “Don’t forget Dolores wants us in noon. Meeting merchants in ville. What call it? Convention. That’s name. From all over. Coming to saloon lunch and girls. Reckons they could get out hand.”
Ryan sucked at his teeth thoughtfully. “Gang of merchants in town. Trouble in saloon. Bound to be jack-heavy, fat bastards like that.”
J.B. grinned, pushing back the brim of his fedora. “You thinking what I’m thinking, bro?”
“Could just be.”
Krysty sighed. “Stealing!”
Ryan patted her on the arm. “Be a real hot pipe, as Dean would say. These guys come in with their swollen bellies and loaded wallets. Leave their little wives behind while they get drunk or drugged and lay every gaudy slut they can find. Sort of people it’ll be a pleasure to relieve of some of their surplus jack.”
He turned to J.B. “I’ll come and meet this Dolores and recce out the saloon. Noon, you said, Jak?”
“Yeah. She said that had to be tactful. Not like usually with riverboat crew and trappers.”