Free IGMS Issue 2 by IGMS Page B

such a hurry, Mr. Smith!" shouted Jim Bowie. "Two strong men is better than one on a job like this!" And then he, too, was leaping -- a fair job of it, too, considering he must be at least ten years older than Alvin and a good twenty years older than Arthur Stuart. But when he landed, there was no sprawl about it, and Alvin wondered what this man's knack was. He had supposed it was killing, but maybe the killing was just a sideline. The man fair to flew.
    So there they were, each of them at a set of oars while Arthur Stuart sat in the stern and kept his eye peeled.
    "How far are they?" he kept asking.
    "The current might of took them farther out," said Alvin. "But they're there."
    And when Arthur started looking downright skeptical, Alvin fixed him with such a glare that Arthur Stuart finally got it. "I think I see 'em," he said, giving Alvin's lie a boost.
    "You ain't trying to cross this whole river and get us kilt by Reds," said Jim Bowie.
    "No sir," said Alvin. "Got no such plan. I saw those boys, plain as day, and I don't want their death on my conscience."
    "Well where are they now?"
    Of course Alvin knew, and he was rowing toward them as best he could. Trouble was that Jim Bowie didn't know where they were, and he was rowing too, only not quite in the same direction as Alvin. And seeing as how both of them had their backs to where the raft was, Alvin couldn't even pretend to see them. He could only try to row stronger than Bowie in the direction he wanted to go.
    Until Arthur Stuart rolled his eyes and said, "Would you two just stop pretending that anybody believes anybody, and row in the right direction?"
    Bowie laughed. Alvin sighed.
    "You didn't see nothin'," said Bowie. "Cause I was watching you looking out into the fog."
    "Which is why you came along."
    "Had to find out what you wanted to do with this boat."
    "I want to rescue two lads on a flatboat that's spinning out of control on the current."
    "You mean that's
true
?"
    Alvin nodded, and Bowie laughed again. "Well I'm jiggered."
    "That's between you and your jig," said Alvin. "More downstream, please."
    "So what's your knack, man?" said Bowie. "Seeing through fog?"
    "Looks like, don't it?"
    "I think not," said Bowie. "I think there's a lot more to you than meets the eye."
    Arthur Stuart looked Alvin's massive blacksmith's body up and down. "Is that
possible
?"
    "And you're no slave," said Bowie.
    There was no laugh when he said
that
. That was dangerous for any man to know.
    "Am so," said Arthur Stuart.
    "No slave would answer back like that, you poor fool," said Bowie. "You got such a mouth on you, there's no way you ever had a taste of the lash."
    "Oh, it's a
good
idea for you to come with me on this trip," said Alvin.
    "Don't worry," said Bowie. "I got secrets of my own. I can keep yours."
    Can
-- but will you? "Not much of a secret," said Alvin. "I'll just have to take him back north and come down later on another steamboat."
    "Your arms and shoulders tell me you really are a smith," said Bowie. "But. Ain't no smith alive can look at a knife in its sheath and say it used to be a file."
    "I'm good at what I do," said Alvin.
    "Alvin Smith. You really ought to start traveling under another name."
    "Why?"
    "You're the smith what killed a couple of Finders a few years back."
    "Finders who murdered my wife's mother."
    "Oh, no jury would convict you," said Bowie. "No more than I got convicted for
my
killing. Looks to me like we got a lot in common."
    "Less than you might think."
    "Same Alvin Smith who absconded from his master with a particular item."
    "A lie," said Alvin. "And he knows it."
    "Oh, I'm sure it is. But so the story goes."
    "You can't believe these tales."
    "Oh, I know," said Bowie. "You aren't slacking off on your rowing, are you?"
    "I'm not sure I want to overtake that raft while we're still having this conversation."
    "I was just telling you, in my own quiet way, that I think I know what you got in that sack of yours. Some powerful knack you got,