Read No Less Than the Journey for Free Online

out.
    ‘True,’ Aaron agreed, ‘So we need to avoid shooting if it’s at all possible. Having said that, if it looks as though there’s no other way, then I expect you to shoot – and shoot to kill, same as I will. But if all goes according to plan Pilot Stavros will edge the boat inshore slowly enough to draw the pirates out of hiding. That way we should get ’em all. Right now we need to hide ourselves so that Ira’s men don’t see us when they come into the pilot house. I’ll squeeze myself into that cupboard over there….’
    He pointed to a low cupboard that faced the door, adding, ‘It’ll give me a good view of anyone coming in. You get beneath that table, behind the door.’
    Wes realized he was being put in what would possibly be the safest place in the pilot house if shooting erupted, but he accepted that was the way it needed to be. Aaron was far more experienced in this sort of situation.
    Aaron pointed to a lantern hanging from a hook in a corner of the pilot house. Despite the already dim light it cast, he said to the pilot, ‘I’m going to turn that down as much as possible. It will help keep us hidden.’
    By the time dawn was bringing a faint rose-coloured light to the eastern horizon, Wes had developed cramp in his right leg, the result of crouching for so long in his hiding-place. He was about to say something to Aaron when he heard the scraping of feet on the ladder that led to the pilot-house from the deck outside.
    His discomfiture forgotten immediately, Wes drew back the hammer on his Colt, the action sounding excessively loud in the confines of the pilot-house and he felt that his heart rate must have doubled.
    It seemed an age before the pilot house door was thrown open and two of the men Wes had seen with Ira burst in. Both had guns in their hands and the first man pointed his gun at the pilot and said, calmly, ‘Don’t mind us, mister. Just carry on with what you’re paid to do and you’ll live to tell your grandchildren how you were pilot of the Missouri Belle when she was taken over by river pirates.’
    The pilot had gone rigid with fear when the two men broke into the pilot house. Now, in a strangled voice, he asked, ‘What’s happening? What are you going to do?’
    ‘That needn’t trouble you. Just carry on and do what you always do. Take the boat in to the plantation landing up aheadand berth your boat nose in, no matter what you see there.’
    ‘Then what?’ the pilot asked, nervously.
    ‘That needn’t concern you,’ the river pirate, said, ‘Do as you’re told and in a couple of hours time you’ll be taking your boat upriver again, light of a little money – and perhaps a couple of casino girls, but otherwise nothing will have changed …’
    ‘… I don’t think so, friend. Drop that gun right where you stand. Just so much as a twitch and you’re dead!’
    At Aaron’s words the man who had been talking to the pilot looked startled, but for a moment it seemed he might ignore the Marshal’s command.
    Aaron was a split moment away from shooting him when, from the other side of the pilot-house, Wes said, ‘You heard him. Drop your guns – both of you – or you’re dead.’
    The realization that two men had guns trained on them was enough. Two handguns dropped to the deck at almost the same moment.’
    ‘Now why did you have to say that, Wes?’ Aaron sounded disappointed, ‘I’d have preferred two dead river pirates, but I guess this will have to do.’
    Emerging from his hiding-place, Aaron spoke to the two river pirates, ‘Both of you put your hands in the air and move closer together – over there, by the window.’
    As both men shuffled across the pilot-house to follow Aaron’s orders, Wes scrambled from his hiding place beneath the table, wondering what the marshal intended to do. He was not kept in suspense for long.
    Aaron walked up behind the two men and without warning raised his handgun and brought it crashing down on the side of one of