Brilliant Devices

chapter 13



The Firstwater Mine had its own landing field, of course, for the cargo ships and the Lady Lucy, a short distance from what appeared to be a town and the vast open pit that was the mine itself. As the Lass was moored to its mast by the ground crew, Alice saw that a dun-colored ship with no name, merely a string of letters a vk tal wand numbers on its fuselage, was already moored some distance away.

“No, you may not go to the edge and look down,” her ladyship informed Willie as they disembarked. “It is far too dangerous. That is why it is surrounded by a palisade.”

“Chin up, son.” The earl tossed the boy in the chilly air and then set him on his shoulders, where he clutched his father’s ears and giggled. “We shall tour the mine tomorrow, and you may come along. One day you will be running this empire. We must waste no time in making you familiar with it.”

A party of men approached in a vehicle that rumbled and hissed and emitted great clouds of steam.

“Same traveling mechanism as my locomotive tower,” Alice said in a low tone to Claire. “The continuous track is more stable than wheels when the river keeps washing out the road.”

“Let us hope they do not have that problem here. My goodness, it is cold. If this is what it is like in October, I shudder to think of January.”

The men disembarked and introductions were made all around. The driver of the enormous vehicle turned out to be Reginald Penhaven, the managing director of the mine, and his eyes were anxious as he turned his fur cap in both hands.

“You’ll have seen the smoke, then, your lordship?”

“I have,” Lord Dunsmuir said gravely. “It’s visible for fifty miles. What happened?”

“One of the diggers was sabotaged. It took three engines with hoses to put out the fire, and the digger is beyond repair. That leaves us with four, sir.”

“Four? We have—had—six, did we not?”

“We did, sir. You’ll recall we had the same kind of trouble a month ago, sir.”

“And you have apprehended the culprits?”

Penhaven’s hands tightened so much on his cap that it bent between them. “Despite best efforts at investigating, sir, and a doubled watch on the vehicle yard, we have not, sir. Though we have our suspicions.”

His lordship bent a long, thoughtful gaze upon him. To the man’s credit, he didn’t quail or look aside, but swallowed and kept his chin up and his return gaze level.

John Dunsmuir shook himself and seemed to come to a decision. “We will meet in the office in an hour.”

Count von Zeppelin stepped forward, and Alice realized that the other occupants of the vehicle had been nudging each other and murmuring among themselves since the great inventor had been introduced. “Once you have concluded your business, I should like to propose dinner on the Margrethe this evening,” he said. “I would be pleased if Herr Penhaven and his officers could join us, as well as your family, Dunsmuir, and the crew of the Stalwart Lass. Shall we say eight o’clock?”

“I would not hear of it, Count,” Lady Dunsmuir said. “The mess hall here is not ornate, but it will accommodate all of us and more. There is no need to put your crew to any trouble on our account.”

“It is no trouble, good lady, it is an honor,” he said gallantly. “I insist. I would like to join you on your tour tomorrow, and then the day following, I must lift and make my way back over the sea. I have been away from my home these four months, and the Baroness will be growing anxious. So you see, I must seize my opportunity to issue an invitation while I can.”

“You are very gracious,” she said. “We would be delighted to join you.”

Oh, no. Alice leaned over enough to murmur, “Claire, does that mean…?”

“Yes, I’m afraid so. Full evening dress. Isn’t it fortunate we packed your blue gown so carefully? It will not have had time to become crushed.”

Alice groaned. She’d had enough of formal occasions this week to last her for the rest of her life. “I’ll just go to the mess hall with the men. No one will miss me, and I need to find out if anyone’s seen my pa.”

“Indeed you shall not.” Claire gripped the sleeve of her flight jacket as if she thought Alice planned to cut and run that very moment. “Don’t you remember what the count said? He wishes to discuss your automatons more at dinner. I should think he, at least, would miss you. As would I.”

“Miss you?” Alice’s stomach dipped and steadied at Andrew’s voice behind them. “Are you going somewhere, Alice?”

“I was going to try,” she said with some asperity. “Th—thank you for your letter, Mr. Malvern. I accept your apology, though none was needed.”

Lizzie tugged on the skirt of the canvas coat he had bought in Edmonton to replace the one lost in the Texican Territory. “Are you in love with our Alice?”

“Lizzie!” Claire pulled her away. “That is none of your business.”

“But we just—”

“Never mind, Lizzie,” Alice said, and extended a hand. “I wonder if you’d come along with me to the cargo ship? Jake, too. I want a word with the watch, and it seems like this is my only chance.”

“I’ll escort you,” Andrew said promptly.

“No, thank you, Mr. Malvern,” she said as steadily as she could. Her heart was jumping in her chest like a fish on a line, but the fact that the very word escort set her teeth on edge went a long way to settling that down. “My navigator will come with me. I don’t want too large a party. Makes it hard to ask questions.”

“I’m good at ferreting out things,” Lizzie said happily. “Maggie’s coming too, ent she?”

Alice couldn’t imagine the two of them being separated for any reason. “If she likes.”

Lady Dunsmuir looked over her shoulder. “Claire, are you coming with us?”

“I shall catch you up, Davina, in just a moment.” She leaned over and whispered something to Mr. Malvern that made him straighten and put a cautioning hand on her arm. With a shake of the head, she said, “Maggie, would you come with me, please?”

Maggie hesitated between Claire and Alice, clearly torn. “But Lizzie’s going wiv Alice.”

“Because Alice needs her. And I need you.” She raised her eyebrows in a way that caused understanding to dawn on Maggie’s face.

Some wordless communication occurred between the twins, and before you could say Jack Robinson, Maggie was tripping off with Claire and Andrew, meek as a lamb.

Lizzie looked positively gleeful as she trotted alongside Alice and Jake.

“What just happened there, young lady?” Alice asked her, only half joking. “Do you have some kind of mental telegraph that lets you talk without words?”

“No, ’course not. Wot’s a telegraph?”

“It’s a device for messages,” Jake informed her. Then he said to Alice, “T’Lady wants Maggie for some scoutin’, same as I expect you do for Liz.”

“I do not,” Alice protested. “I just thought she could come along as some—some cover, you might say. Men tend not to suspect women and children, and I figured they might be freer with their conversation, that’s all.”

“So why am I going?”

They were nearly to the cargo ship, and the watch appeared to have figured out they were about to have company.

“Because you are my crew,” she said simply. “And I need a good hand on the ground as well as in the air.”

Jake could not have looked more pleased if she had told him he was going to get his own ship.

“Hallo, the ship!” she called, taking Lizzie’s hand in a sisterly fashion. “Captain Alice Chalmers of the Stalwart Lass, and navigator, at your service.”

“Bob Grundage, botswain of cargo ship one-oh-seven, at yours,” the man guarding the gangway responded. “This here’s my friend Joe Stanton, and that there is his brother Alan. And who’s this, might I ask?”

Lizzie gave him a sunny smile. “I’m Lizzie.”

“Well, Lizzie, you and your captain are a darned sight politer—not to mention prettier—than some folks I could name. What’s your business here?”

“We came with the Dunsmuirs’ party,” Alice said, releasing Lizzie’s hand. The little girl drifted away, looking up at the cargo ship’s plain canvas fuselage with something akin to awe, as if she’d never seen such a magnificent one. “But my purpose here is a little more personal. You boys been flying the cargo ships long?”

“Long enough,” Bob said, lighting a cigarillo. {/fops loIts acrid smoke smelled familiar. Ned Mose had smoked the same kind during his rare moments of leisure. “If you’re looking for a job for your young man there, you’re out of luck. Ships’re crewed out of Edmonton.”

“Good to know,” Alice said easily. “Matter of fact, I’m looking for a man and wondered if you might have seen him. About your age, with one blind eye. Was a mechanic—a pretty talented one, if my information is right. Ring a bell?”

Bob glanced at Joe, then released a cloud of smoke and shook his head. “Nope.”

“Might not be recent. Maybe a year ago or more?”

Again the glance and the shake of the head. “Nope. Sorry.”

Alice saw Jake frown and crane his neck, looking for Lizzie, who had managed to drift out of sight.

Alan hawked and spat on the gravel. “We’re expecting a convoy any day now, to start taking the miners’ families out before the snow flies. You might have better luck then if you’re still around.”

Joe waved the smoke away as it drifted in front of his face. “What’s your business with him?”

“He’s my pa, I think.” Alice gave the same story she’d given Mike, which might or might not be true, depending on how events played out. “If you hear of him, maybe you could let them know at the mine, and they’ll get word to me.”

“Chummy with the Dunsmuirs, are you?” Bob asked. “Ain’t many can say that.”

“I’m chummy with friends of theirs,” Alice said cautiously. “Can’t have too many friends up in these parts, I’d think.”

“You’re right there.” Bob tossed his cigarillo to the gravel and ground it out with the heel of his boot. “Well, it’s back to work for us.”

Alice could take a hint as well as the next person. “Nice talking to you.”

She moved off, and Jake followed her, his hands in his pants pockets, cool as you please. “Where is she?” Alice murmured out of the side of her mouth.

“Behind a bunch of crates near the gangway. Any minute now …”

They got halfway across the field between the cargo ship and Lady Lucy when they heard a shout. Turning, they saw Alan leading Lizzie by the hand as if she were four years old and they were learning to cross the street.

“Captain Chalmers, looks like you forgot something,” he called.

“Sorry, Alice,” Lizzie said in a breathless voice about five years younger than her normal one. “That ship is just so big I couldn’t resist seeing if it were as grand inside.”

“Lizzie, you rascal.” Alice shot an apologetic look at Alan. “I appreciate this, sir. She loves the airships. I can’t keep her out of them.”

He laughed and handed Lizzie over. “She reminds me of my granddaughters back home {izedth="2em">. Their mother can’t take ’em into the big houses with the laundry, without them running upstairs to see how the rich folks live.”

Alice laughed, as if she could see it. “You sound like a Texican man. What part? I’m from down Resolution way, myself.”

“Santa Fe is where I hang my—” He was cut off by a yell from his companions. “Nice talkin’ to you. Good-bye, Lizzie. Stay out of trouble, you hear?” He jogged back the way he had come.

“Alice, they—”

“Not yet, Lizzie. Wait until we’re back on the Lass, if you please.”

She hustled them aboard and made sure the gondola hatch was good and shut.

“What’s the matter, Alice?” Lizzie wanted to know. “You’re awf’ly pale.”

Alice chewed the inside of her cheek. “Maybe I’m making a river out of a raindrop. Maybe it’s nothing that don’t happen all the time up here. But I’d sure like to know what Texican men are doing aboard a ship this far north in the Canadas.”

“I’ll tell you wot they’re doin’,” Lizzie said. “They’re tellin’ you fibs.”

Alice nodded at her to go on.

“Soon’s you were out o’ earshot the fat one said to that Bob, ‘Better send word someone’s askin’ about ’im’ and Bob says ‘Maybe she’s kin, maybe she’s not’ and then the one ’oo brought me over, ’e says, ‘We don’t owe them dadburned toffs nothing but a distraction’ and then they saw me sneaking up the gangway an’ that were that. Wot’s dadburned?”

Alice felt her stomach go cold, and goosebumps broke out on her arms.

“Summat you don’t need to say,” Jake informed her. “Sounds to me like they’re talking about someone ’oo’s actually ’ere. They know a man wi’ one blind eye.”

“It does, don’t it?” Alice said slowly. “But send word to who? Him or someone else? Why make such a secret of telling me where he is? And what kind of distraction?”

“And ’ere’s summat,” Lizzie said, digging in her pocket and removing a small piece of brass. “Look wot I found behind them crates, dadburn it.”

Jake cuffed her, but there was no energy in it. He took the object and frowned. “This ’ere’s a bullet casing. Not a bitsy engine casing like wot got shot at the count, but look.” He held the object up to the light from the gondola’s viewing windows. “M.A.M.W.”

“It must be an arms manufacturer, like Colt or Sharps,” Alice said. “But it doesn’t prove anything. Those bullets could be sold all over the territory.”

“P’raps.” Jake pocketed the casing. “T’Lady ought to know anyhow.”

Alice nodded slowly. “And I’d give a lot to know what the ‘toffs’ {e /font>

“Just wait,” Jake told her. “Our Maggie won’t let us down.”