Voyage of the Dreadnaught: Four Stella Madison Capers Read Online Free PDF Page B

Especially after discovering what their
individual prospects would be, should they all have to fend for
themselves separately. All of them agreed they were more than
capable of pooling their resources and living the same way they had
here at the Villa, somewhere else. But Alaska!
    To some place Mason had acquired in a card
game, sight unseen.
    Why, the only reason Stella wasn’t quaking
in her own boots, right now, was because it would be a grand
adventure just getting there. Sort of an extended honeymoon. And if
things turned out too badly, she and the Colonel still had enough
money to rent something small to get by on. But the others didn’t.
And considering how attached they had all become she hadn’t thought
twice about not pitching in.
    The truth was, pitching in for this little
misfit family was beginning to change her life. It had brought her
out of some of her own thin places, and she had no desire to go
back to those, again. She couldn’t go back! Which was why she
wanted to have a private talk with Millie, in case she really was
thinking of desertion. They had to stick together!
    If they didn’t, the whole thing could turn
into a disaster, and nobody would succeed.
    She was thinking of all these things as she
headed down to the wine cellar (whether by premonition, or it was
simply the last place she had seen Millie), and threw back the
latch on the door. Even though it was impossible to accidently lock
oneself inside, and her friend could only have latched it if she
had come out.
    Which was exactly how Stella discovered an
unconscious Millie, draped over a row of plastic bins, as if
someone had conked her on the head. Something that proved false, as
did a heart attack. In the end, it seemed the heavy door had
somehow closed on its own, and –after realizing her cell phone
wouldn’t work in a place that could have doubled as a fallout
shelter in case of World War III—she proceeded to console herself
in the emergency liquor supply while waiting to be rescued.
    Something that could happen to anybody,
especially if they were claustrophobic.
    Still, with one problem after another faced
and solved by the increasingly brave band of adventurers, they did
actually manage to sail out of the protected southern California
bay, three days later.
    It was a glorious spring day, the sea was
calm, and the Dreadnaught behaved beautifully. So
beautifully that the trip seemed charmed. So, it was no wonder,
after ten days of worry-free voyaging (they even did several stints
of night-traveling because the moon and stars were bright and
spectacular), and only brief stops in San Francisco and Portland,
they finally ended up anchored off Vancouver, Canada, to show their
passports and wait for a border inspection to proceed north.
    Captain Stuart did everything by the book.
In fact, he had made this run several times in his working days (on
more modern vessels, but the course was the same), and left his
little group of passengers to rest and relax on board while he
collected all their passports and set out to take care of business.
All of which went through without a hitch. Even during the long,
and thorough, inspection. After that, a few hours of sight-seeing
and the purchase of a few last-minute items, and they were soon on
their way, again.
    It was a very long way to Alaska.
    However, the coast of British Columbia is a
wild one, with long stretches of wilderness places, and weather
that can change as fast as one’s feelings. There were a few
mornings they woke up enveloped by a thick fog (that Stuart
referred to as a “pea souper”), and had to wait until it lifted to
continue their journey. Something that had little effect on the
happy group. Whether it was because of the marvelous sea air, or
the fact they had enough supplies on board to get by for an entire
year if they had to, no one knew.
    Because, not only were they all getting
along splendidly, they had become quite comfortable (and
proficient) in their respective “sea