Chapter 46

The lady, wanting to get away before her presence was discovered, left the Black Lion with a wish of “God bless you all.”

She gave a fat envelope to Clara.

Father John stayed on.

All of us in the taproom scratched our heads. That is, all except Caddy. He still hurt too much to be able to lift a hand to his head.

“Well,” Dickens said, “that certainly places the onus on some of us. For myself, I am willing to help in any way I can, but my forte is writing. I’m not good at physical things.”

Forster said, “Don’t worry about the physical things, Charles. I’m sure we will find someone to care for that part of the operation.”

Blathers asked, “Does ya has some idea about how we’s ta go about gettin’ these fellers? If’n ya does, I fer one would be glad ta hear it.”

Forster was the planner and organizer of most of the successful enterprises he and Dickens enjoyed. “I think the first step is to identify our resources.”

“What resources?” I asked. “We haven’t any resources.”

“We would if’n we had that gig and Pincher,” Blathers said.

“Oh! I forgot to tell you, Blathers. Pincher got shot during the attack on the Superintendent.”

“Them bastards shot Pincher? I’ll kills them wi’ me bare hands, I will.” Blathers’ ire added to the ruddiness of his complexion.

“Now, don’t get upset,” I went on. “It was only a flesh wound. The animal is in the good care of the Superintendent’s hostler. He’ll be fine.”

“In my way o’ thinkin’, there‘s no excuse fer shootin’ a poor animal. These is the worst of rascals.”

Barbary added, “I agree wi’ Blathers. The poor horses always get the worst of them kinds of fracases.”

Forster regained control of the discussion. “Indeed, it seems you all have a reason for exacting revenge on these people, but just being angry won’t get any results. Again, I think we need to begin to consider how we should proceed. And before you go off on a discussion of how to treat horses, let me tell you what our resources are.”

We all sat quietly, listening to Forster.

“First and foremost, we have a group of individuals with a variety of talents. We should plan how to best use them. For example, Dickens wouldn’t be much help in any physical conflict. If a fight broke out one would find him a liability instead of an asset. On the other hand, Blathers and Duff have experience in the ways of using force. You see, we need to plan a way to make sure we get the most out of the abilities of each of us.”

Blathers said, “I sees the plan will be fer yas all ta sit here and sip brandy while me and Duff is out in the street gettin’ all beat up.”

Dickens said, “I think Forster is correct. I would be more likely to get injured out there than either of you. Although I’ll admit, it sounds like there is a good chance someone else is going to get killed.”