Blood Is Blood by Will Thomas

Author:Will Thomas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

A few hours later we were back in Craig’s Court. I was in the room where we kept bits of clothing and oddments, in case we needed to disguise ourselves. We were going to the East End to find Jack Hobson. Caleb Barker poured some flakes of tobacco into a rolling paper, ran his tongue along the edge, and twisted it. He stuffed it under one end of his mustache and lit the end with a vesta. He pondered it for a moment, removed a flake from his tongue, and then considered himself satisfied.

“Mr. Llewelyn, I can almost hear the gears clanking in your head. You’ve been silent since we returned, which is about as unnatural as feathers on a camel. I reckon you’ve either run out of things to do, in which case, I’ll be off, or you have something that doesn’t satisfy you and are trying to minimize the risk. Which is it?”

“The latter,” I admitted.

“Everything looks straightforward to me except the Hobson brothers. There are six of them, and probably more of the gang, as well.”

“It would take Scotland Yard to rush them all at once, and even then a few would escape. Neither of us can walk in and ask to join the gang, and above all we can’t mention your brother’s name. I don’t see a reasonable solution.”

Caleb was busy trying to blow one smoke ring through a larger one. He was not successful. Nettled, he looked at me.

“Perhaps there isn’t one. Just because you reason something doesn’t mean there is a solution. Look at cats. There’s no reasoning about cats. They serve practically no purpose, but they’re everywhere.”

I tried to take in the opinion but it only gave me a headache. “Do you have a point?”

“I do. You’re thinking too much. You’re stuffing your head with too many solutions and chances that won’t pan out. Let’s just go and see. We’re seasoned. We’ll figure out what to do when we get there.”

I looked at him and shook my head. “Your plan, then, is to have no plan at all. We walk into a pub or stable filled with gang members, most of them armed, and decide what to do on the spur of the moment. No planning, no consideration of the dangers.”

He frowned for a moment, then brightened. “Yep.”

“I suspect you cut a broad swath wherever you go and you’re not usually there to pick up the pieces afterward.”

“I’ve got too many things to do on this earth and too few hours to cram them into. What do you think?”

“I think your plan is the equivalent of jumping into a pool of water without knowing the depth.”

“Are you ready?”

“This evening would be best, after dinner, when things are happening there. Let me change into something appropriate for the East End and we’ll have a decent meal before visiting Hobson’s territory.”

“I’ll need a few drinks before we meet the Hobson brothers. You don’t want to go into this kind of thing cold sober.”

“Caleb,” I said.

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