Brothers in Arms Ch. 07

"I only hope that, whoever they are, they are too interested in getting away fast to, er, uh, use her for themselves."

"Sheet this is our fau't, our responsibility, Sean," Preston said. "We are 'posed to be protectin' her an' everyone at Mike's."

"Well, we can't work all day every day, and we are still trying to hire people. Don't beat yourself up too hard, let's just see what can be done now."

"Well, whoever they are, they won't take the river, Mike said. They be too conspicuous on a boat, so they must be traveling on horseback. They have probably a good hour head start, but Cassie is probably fighting them, inhibiting them some. I can probably do nothing. Even with all my fat, I am still a Negro, and could be caught, killed and no one would care, just another nigger. You guys will have to go. And you'll have to go right away. Our guys would not want to be on the Kentucky, Tennessee side of the river, too many Union soldiers, but on the Missouri side they could travel unhampered. That's the side they'll be on. They probably also don't suspect that they will be followed, so that would be an advantage."

"Okay, okay, Sean said. "Hold on. First thing we want to talk to this Josiah, then I want to talk to the bartender over at the Cairo Inn, see if he noticed anyone who could be our guys, or heard anything suspicious, then I want to ask around a few other people. See if we can find out anything before we just jump out there. Preston, you get us some stuff together for travel. Go over to the general store wake Mr, Hampton if you have to, give him a half eagle, then pack us up a couple of packs."

"Mike, we are gonna need some ready cash for the trip, for hiring horses and stuff. Go to the Depot and get together everyone you can. Someone might have heard or seen something. Then I am going to want to see the place where they took her and the place where Josiah saw them on their horses. Let's do it all quickly and meet at the depot in one hour. Mike. Can you get a message to the riverboat captain that he will have two more passengers who will pay well to travel as fast as possible?"

"The riverboat Endeavor is docked and ready to leave in about half an hour. I figure you could take the boat down river about a hundred miles, figure out where our guys are going and wait for them to show up. After that it would be up to you, They could probably go about 100 miles before having to stop, but at night in the dark it would be very dangerous. Even the, horses would be good for only about 100 miles a day, then they'd have to rest or have fresh horses. On the river, you could get ahead of them and work back. Of course that would leave Cassie in their hands for several days. Your only other alternative would be to try to find out where they are camped out for the night."