Psi no more… (Emmie Reese Mysteries, Story #3) Read online

  Fanny felt no such restraint. She took out her prize and began reading aloud. I protested, of course, but she went on. She had just finished the tragic and quite indecent tale of a young lady of Tring who had positioned herself too close to a fire and injured a particularly sensitive part of her anatomy when we arrived at our destination. The look on the cabman’s face suggested he had overheard Fanny’s recitation, and the wink he sent our way more or less confirmed it.

  “What an insolent man,” Fanny said as we walked away.

  Though we were but a quarter of an hour late, the auction was nearly completed. I inquired of one of the men running the affair as to the status of the wood-blocks.

  “Oh, the man with the missing toe bought them. Already carted them off.”

  “How much did he pay for them?” I asked.

  “Six bits.”

  I was sick with frustration. I would have been happy for Fanny to pay a hundred times that amount. I decided the thing to do was to find the man with the missing toe and simply buy the blocks from him. But all anyone knew of the man was that he was some sort of seaman, and was missing a toe. This was my second mystery (the first, if you’ve already forgotten, being the true identity of the Marchioness of Karpolov).

  “Does he walk with a limp?” I asked, casting about for some small clue.

  “No, not as I noticed.”

  “Then how do you know he’s missing a toe?”

  “Cuz he said so. First time we met. Brings it up all the time.”

  It seemed absurd he would know the seaman was missing a toe but not his name, or where he hailed from. But he then offered some hope.

  “He’s been coming to all the auctions last few weeks. You come by Monday—we’re doing a bankruptcy over on Leonard Street. I’ll wager he’ll be there.”

  “Will you be auctioning more printing blocks?”

  “No, just furniture.”

  “What sort of things does this man buy?”

  “Anything made out of hardwood.”

  “To do what with it?”

  “Burn it, I imagine.”

  “Burn it? Why would he pay money just to burn it?”

  “For heat. There’s a strike at the coal fields. Don’t you read the newspapers?”

  I nearly fainted. My only hope was that the nine-toed seaman had sufficient fuel reserves—exclusive of the wood-blocks—for the next two days. To make use of the time, and to occupy my mind, I decided to begin work on the content of Psi. I had several little pieces already written, but all were adventure stories, and I worried the issue might seem too homogeneous. Then I remembered my friend Elizabeth’s letter from Bangkok. She had taken a position as governess for a Siamese official’s two daughters a few months before. In her letter, she described the city and its inhabitants in some detail. I thought it might prove alluring to have a “Letter from Bangkok” in each issue.

  Oddly, the letter was decidedly uninspired. I say oddly because Elizabeth could be a very engaging correspondent, and all who knew her esteemed her keen wit. Or, more truthfully, esteemed it and feared it in equal measure. For to be her target left an indelible mark. Yet the letter before me was written in the dry monotone of a school book. I resolved to liven it up some and went off to the Astor Library to do some research of my own. And that gave birth to the third mystery. You see, I did find just such a book as I was looking for: Siam, the Land of the White Elephant, by George Bacon. And as I read the chapter on Bangkok, a feeling the French call déjà vu came over me—I had read this all before. I paged through Elizabeth’s letter, and there was no question—she had merely copied passages from this very same book. Now, if she were in Bangkok, why would she need to use such a source? She wouldn’t, of course. Yet the letter was written in her hand, and had been mailed from Bangkok. As I closed the book and rose from the table, a second sensation of déjà vu came over me. This one of an aromatic nature. When I had last seen Elizabeth, that previous December, she had taken to wearing a very expensive French perfume. I suppose there were plenty of well-to-do women in New York who might likewise partake of it, but what were the odds that one of this select group would be in the Astor Library consulting Mr. Bacon’s book? Long indeed.

  Despite the deficiencies of Elizabeth’s faux missive, I was determined that the “Letter from Bangkok” would remain a regular feature of Psi. It sounded so wonderfully exotic. But rather than plagiarize the book, I would take advantage of the freedom allowed me by my friend’s deceitfulness and leave the details to my imagination. Signing the column in her name, of course. I was happily immersed in this task until it was time to attend the auction on Monday morning.

  Fanny and I arrived well in advance of the proceedings. No seamen—with or without the full complement of toes—were about, but the wares included a great deal of flammable material and I saw that as a hopeful sign. Then, just before the bidding got underway, he appeared. A man of about forty, though perhaps younger if he’d had a trying time at sea. He wore a beard and a blue seaman’s cap. He looked about some, but after the first few items went for many times his modest bids, became disheartened. Apparently these tables and dressers were too fine to be affordable as fuel.

  A little while later he left for the street and we followed. I had decided that rather than approach him immediately, we would dog him stealthily and thus learn the location of his lair. That way, if he refused to sell us the wood-blocks we might still acquire them through other means. He went to Park Row, crossed the bridge in a street car, and then switched to the Fifth Avenue L. We managed to make the same train, just two cars behind him. At Ninth Street, he got off the train and walked east. Again, we followed, and were soon crossing the bridge over the Gowanus. There we came upon a throng of spectators looking down at the canal. Fanny wanted to stop, but I was unwavering in my quest.

  “They said there’s a body down there, Emmie,” Fanny said wistfully as I hurried her along.

  I looked back over my shoulder and sighed. “Probably just someone who fell in by accident,” I told her.

  The nine-toed seaman went to the east a block or two, then south several more. Then he entered a saloon, and not one of the class that sports a family entrance. It was some time before he came out again, and the only way I could keep Fanny amused was to have her read to me from the book she’d confiscated. She read a Limerick—“Nursery Rhymes,” the book called them—that centered on the Marquis of Landsdowne. A mere braggart, and not at all like the Marquis of Karpolov, who used his gifts selflessly.

  At last the seaman emerged. It would have been easy enough to approach him then, but I surmised we must be nearing his domicile. Again he walked east, and then south. We were in a neighborhood that was completely foreign to me, full of rough buildings and rougher-looking people. Eventually, we came upon the warehouses and docks that line Brooklyn’s waterfront, and then to a little inlet. The shore here was pure mud, and sinking into it were the rusting and rotting hulks of several old boats. The seaman approached one of these, perhaps the most decrepit-looking of the lot. It was an old sailing vessel lying on its side. He entered a door fashioned from scavenged boards he’d placed over a hole in what would have been the deck if the boat were properly oriented. We followed as far as the door, but then froze. After a few moments, I overcame my apprehension and knocked.

  III

  The door opened and the man with the missing toe poked out his head.

  “So you came all the way, did you? I thought I lost you a ways back.”

  “You knew we were following you?” I asked.

  “Well, I didn’t think you lived out this way. What’s it you want?”

  “Do you remember purchasing seventeen boxes of printing blocks at an auction on West Street?”

  “I most certainly do—they were well received,” he said. “But no sense standing there in the mud. Come on in and sit yourselves down.”

  I followed him in and, rather than be left outside alone, Fanny joined me. As you might guess, it was a decidedly o
dd room. Larger than I expected, and not nearly as dark. He had placed windows over various openings along the curved ceiling which acted as skylights. He had us sit down at his table while he started a fire in an iron stove. Then he went about lighting a number of lamps. With the additional light, one could see he had made himself a very comfortable home. To overcome the curvature of the boat’s hull, he had built little stepped tiers. The floors of these were covered with old, but still attractive, Persian rugs. The furniture was likewise old, but all cherry, and all of a matching patina. The end of one tier was the kitchen and the other end the dining room, where we sat. Above that was a tier devoted to his extensive library. Shelves covered the walls, with additional books stacked on the floor. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a personal collection of such dimension.

  “Coffee, or perhaps tea, ladies?”

  “Coffee would be lovely,” I told him.

  “You wouldn’t happen to have any brandy?” Fanny asked. “My feet are damp and I’m afraid I’ll catch a chill.”

  “I do indeed, madam. I do indeed.”

  He fetched a bottle and three brandy glasses of fine cut glass. Then we joined him in a toast to our mutual health.

  “We greatly appreciate your hospitality, Mr…?” I began.

  “Captain George Ingalls, at your service.”

  “Were you captain of this ship?” Fanny asked.

  “No, alas. I am a landlubber. My title is an honorific, bestowed upon me by my fellows in Coxey’s Army.”

  “So it wasn’t a shark that bit your toe off?”

  “No, indeed not. I lost it while leading my men on a raid of the Baltimore & Ohio’s yard at Cumberland, Maryland.”

  “Why were you attacking Maryland?” she asked. “Was this the Civil War?”

  “No, this was back in ’94. Ours was an army of the unemployed, on its way to Washington to seek relief.”

  “Then why were you attacking Maryland?” she persisted.

  “We were not attacking Maryland per se, but rather a boxcar we had reason to believe was carrying a consignment of canned beans, which happened to be located in Maryland at the very same moment we were. You see, my company had missed the rendezvous with the main body of the army, arriving as we did some eight weeks late. That was on account of the rampant lethargy that ran in our ranks. And by then our rations had long since given out. So I thought by launching an attack on that boxcar full of beans, I could kill two birds with one stone. There’s no better antidote for lethargy than the sting of battle. Or so I reasoned.”

  “Did you get any?”

  “Beans or relief?”

  “Either.”

  “No, ma’am. My men faltered in the heat of battle, I’m ashamed to say. And, to add insult to injury, or perhaps it should be the other way around, I had failed to realize that the boxcar was in motion. I never got closer to Washington than the Cumberland hospital. The sad truth is that all I have to show for the campaign is my missing toe. I wear it as a badge of honor.”

  “You wear this severed toe?” I asked.

  “I was speaking figuratively, ma’am. What became of the toe itself is a mystery to me.”

  “I see. Well, as I was saying, we greatly appreciate your hospitality, Captain Ingalls. But we come on a pressing matter.”

  “Yes. The print blocks. Whatever do you want them for?”

  “Well, to print, of course. We are endeavoring to launch a publication….”

  “Might I have another glass of brandy?” Fanny interjected.

  “Yes, of course.” The captain refilled her glass and from that moment made sure it was never empty long.

  “We are endeavoring to launch a publication,” I continued. “And those print blocks would be most helpful. We would like to purchase them from you. At a reasonable profit, of course.”

  “A reasonable profit?” he asked.

  “Oh, it doesn’t need to be terribly reasonable,” I said.

  “Reasonable or not, I’m afraid I no longer have them in my possession.”

  “Then who does?”

  “Well, if there are any left, the canal boatmen.”

  “The canal boatmen?”

  “There’s a whole little city of them, laid up in the Erie Basin for the winter. And with the coal strike on, they’d nothing to burn in their stoves. So I’ve been providing them what I can.”

  “That’s very admirable of you….”

  “Nothing admirable about it, just business.”

  “Isn’t it possible some remain unburnt? It’s only been two days.”

  “Oh, very possible. But I sold them dockside there, and I really don’t know which boats they went to.”

  “You mean they live on the boats?” Fanny asked.

  “It’s their only home. The whole family travels up and down the canal. Then in winter, when it closes, they come down the Hudson and tie up here. It’s the only time the kiddies get to go to school.”

  “How many boats are there?” I asked.

  “Oh, maybe a hundred. Maybe more.”

  “Would you be willing to visit them and ask about the blocks?”

  “No, I’d feel sort of queer about that. I mean, not having anything to replace them with. And I have my studies to attend to.” He waved a hand towards his books.

  “I see. Well, can you direct us to the Erie Basin?”

  “Oh, it’s just around the corner.”

  He took out a pencil and found a scrap of paper, then drew a little map for me.

  “Well, thank you again. Shall we be going, Fanny?”

  “Fanny? What a beautiful name,” the captain asserted.

  “Do you think so?” his mark asked coyly.

  “Yes, it’s easily approachable, yet poetically suggestive.”

  Fanny just giggled.

  “Perhaps Fanny could remain here, and then you might pick her up on your return?” the captain suggested.

  I saw no point in debating the matter, and so agreed I would come back for her after making inquiries of the canal boatmen. The captain helpfully provided me with a canvas sack in which to carry any blocks I could acquire and I went on my way.

  The Erie Basin is a sort of harbor enclosed by a long wharf and a breakwater. And as the captain said, a good part of it was taken up by canal boats tied one to another in a great mass. To get to them, I needed to go out along the wharf. And this was occupied by a variety of boat builders, warehouses, and saloons. As you might imagine, it wasn’t a pleasant walk for an unescorted woman. But I was determined to see this through.

  I was skeptical when the captain told me there were a hundred canal boats moored here, but it was no exaggeration. I started at one corner and worked my way along, switching back at the next row. It was wash day, and a great deal of careful maneuvering was required to navigate through the brightly colored laundry which was strung the length of nearly every boat. The denizens were generally friendly, and I encountered quite a number who had bought blocks from the captain. But only a few remained unconsumed. These I was able to procure for two or four bits apiece. I was so excited at my success in finding any that I paid little attention to their subject matter.

  Several women invited me to their cabins while they checked for the blocks and I was greatly impressed by their ingenuity. The cabin, no larger than the bedroom Harry and I shared, was the family’s kitchen, dining room, and bedroom. One woman told me that she, her husband, and her five children occupied theirs. But even she found room for a few potted plants. And there was always some sort of art up on the walls, mostly yellowed illustrations from newspapers and magazines. The children I met on the boats all shared their parents’ colorful language. Profanity came easily to them, but so did geniality.

  I rounded the last turn and had just a half dozen boats left to visit when I came to Mrs. Stanton’s. Not only had she bought some of the blocks, she told me, but there was still one remaining. We went down where she had mounted the block above a bunk. It told the sad tale of a procuress tempting young
girls into her web of immorality. In one scene, the fur-bedecked lady offers the ragged girls coins. Then above we see their future—a scene of gay abandon in the company of men and wine. She told me she had bought it to illustrate a lesson for her daughter. Realizing the value she placed on it, I made her an offer of five dollars. She was shocked at this, and I believe it made her suspicious that the block had some hidden quality that rendered it particularly valuable. She insisted I have lunch with her while she thought over the matter. I was famished and tired, and so accepted her kind offer.

  During the meal she told me a great deal about herself. She was a widow and, quite unusually, captain of her own vessel. Her two children, who were attending school at the time, were her sole crew.

  “It must be terribly difficult, running your own boat.”

  “Well, I have to hire drivers for the mules once we reach Troy.”

  “What sort of things do you haul?”

  “Lumber, mostly, from Whitehall and Champlain, up that way.” Then she lowered her voice. “But sometimes I have more interesting cargoes. I do some work for these Chinese gentlemen.”

  I took that to mean she was smuggling items brought over the Canadian border, and only one item came to mind.

  “Opium?” I whispered.

  “Oh, no, dear. Not opium!” She laughed at the thought.

  “Then what?”

  “Chinamen!”

  “Oh, I see. Because they can’t come here properly.”

  “That’s right. They’ve been excluded. Very unfair, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, it does seem rather arbitrary.”

  I was very glad to have met Mrs. Stanton, for I expected a story based on her life would one day find its place in Psi—with the names changed, of course. By the time we’d finished eating, she no longer seemed suspicious of my motives vis-à-vis the wood-block and accepted my offer. I imagine this development was due more to her having revealed her smuggling activity than to any argument on my part. It’s an odd trait of human nature that we instinctively trust those we’ve first made privy to our secrets—when it should be the other way around. As I bade her farewell, she admitted her plan for moral guidance had back-fired. Her daughter asked where she could find this nice woman who would pay her to have a good time.