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The whiskey began to warm him, and his thoughts drifted to the cheerful faces of Tobias and Marbles on the dock. Kids like that could help him keep a pulse on the town. He remembered how the French military forces often enlisted the help of local children to notice shifts in supply lines, or find hidden paths through forests. His eyelids grew heavy as he remembered how Marbles bartered with him at the dock. As he drifted into sleep, he drifted down the dock in his mind. He was walking down Front Street and entered the hardware store, where he could smell a delicate rosewater scent. * * * * * When Jake awoke the next morning, he checked to see if the small boat had returned, but there was nothing docked behind Lowell’s. He checked his …show more content…

“I hope so.” Sam chuckled softly. “We mighta done better if’n we’d taken the boat instead. This road follow the Newport River. The mill’s on the Russell’s Creek.” Jake nodded as he recalled the chart he’d studied the night before. Coastal folks often used the waterways as a highway system, particularly when the roads were nearly washed out like this one. By the time Sam pulled the wagon pulled off the road several miles later, Jake’s boots and trousers were covered with mud. Sam directed the mule down a path until the woods opened to a field with several warehouses, sheds and piles of wood curing in the open air. Behind the warehouses, Jake could see a small cove with several boats tied to a dock. No saws were working so early in the morning, but when they drove up, several dogs barked out their arrival. A thin man with graying temples walked toward them. His rumpled clothes and hair indicated he had slept in one of the sheds. “Mornin’, Mr. George,” said Sam, touching the brim of his straw hat. “Hey Sam, Mr. Buddy’ll be back at dinner time.” “I’m picking up Mr. Lowell’s Bill of Sale. And we need some planking for a new boat,” he said, nodding at Jake. “He want to build a skiff.” “Need about 150 square feet of premium juniper. Nothing knotted,” said Jake. Within twenty minutes, the three men had loaded the wood, and Sam and Jake began the slow journey back to town. “Have

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