Give the men a chance

Brenan was more than a little surprised. The two young men were clearly fairly well off gentlemen, not the type to sign on as deck hands, under normal circumstances Brenan would have politely said no without a thought, but shorthanded as he was, he gave the boys a careful evaluation.

"You don't look like seamen lads." Brenan started "No offense" he added quickly as he could see the two brothers start to make their appeals. "I don't need any officers, and I doubt that you mean you want to join my crew as deck hands." James spoke first:

"Well we are not entirely useless. I am a skilled cartographer and Julien here can handle his blade better than anyone else I know." Brenan took in the ink stained fingers on James hands and the thick forearms of his brother. He hesitated for a split second and Julien continued the brothers argument.

"But Captain, we want to learn about sailing, and we know we have to start from the bottom and work our way up." James nodded in agreement "We have been called many things captain, but no one has ever called us slackers. My brother and I aren't your typical gentleman, Gramps wouldn't have stood for it." Brenan smiled slightly, the boys knew exactly what his concerns were. He wondered how many other ship captains had already turned them down for these exact reasons.

"Does your family know what you two are about, and do you have anyone local that can vouch for you?" The two brothers shared a hopeful glance. Brenan wasn't sure how the brothers would feel about his first chosen mission, but decided to wait a little before announcing that he was a smuggler. Holding your cards close to your chest was something that came easily to Brenan and he saw no real reason to start changing his habits now just because he liked the two men.

"Have you ever heard of David Lester? He's a ship builder here in Freeport." If the lads had been card players there is no way they could have missed his slight start of surprise, but it appeared that they missed the minute widening of his eyes and the slight pause in his breathing pattern.

"I've heard of him." Acknowledged Brenan smoothly "He can vouch for you?"

"Yes Sir!" both the men exclaimed a little too loudly for an establishment like the "Hammer". Good decided Brenan, he could also ask Davy how he thought the two brothers would take to a smuggling mission. On the other hand, maybe not. More than once Davy had made his feelings about Walter Ambrose known, he wouldn't be enthusiastic about this smuggling mission either if for no other reason than it relied on a blood eel like Ambrose.

"OK then, let’s go have a chat with him and see what he has to say about the two of you." Brenan's gut told him the two were on the up and up, but if they were lying to him he'd know soon enough. Brenan had wanted to stop by and thank Davy for the supplies he'd dropped off anyway, but as he guessed the brothers climbed readily to their feet and Julien left a few coins on the table before heading for the door.

As the three walked across town, Brenan learnt that their grandfather had sailed with Davy years ago and had even invested in the shipyard when Davy had first bought it. It took a few more careful questions but he was also able to establish that their parents were dead, and that their grandmother did at least know of their plans even if she was not enthusiastic about them putting out to see on 'a wild goose chase.'

Brenan was a pretty good judge of character; by the time they arrived at Davy's offices he was pretty sure that the boys were being honest with him, but that that they had not shared the whole story with him. Fair enough, Brenan decided, if anything his opinion of the men climbed because of their good sense. At the offices they learnt that Davy had already headed for home and they walked the additional four blocks from the shipyard to Davy’s comfortable but modest house. The men opened the white picket gate with confidence and walked eagerly up the brick path through the garden to knock on the heavy wooden door of the two story house.