Enticing Temptation

Chapter 13

            As Cat lay on her bed in her cabin trying to rest but her mind kept wandering to the preceding hours as they’d prepare for their mission tonight. She was always nervous at this stage of her missions, always afraid that no matter how well she’d planned everything something would go wrong.

            Just about everyone slept in late this morning, awakening to a marvelous breakfast prepared by Phillippe. After breakfast they’d gone over the plan once more step by step just as they had the night before. Still pleased with their plan they adjourned to the deck for some fresh air. Later Cat cleaned and inspected her rifle with Myles watching her every move. She’d look up now and then to see a smile on her husband’s face, a smile put there by last night’s adventures in bed. Fanshaw, in the mean time, put together his bundles of dynamite and cut his fuses for the required lengths they would need.

            In the afternoon, they’d gone over their plans and timing one last time. Cat would climb the tree before the others went on to the back of the compound. Planned how she would aim her rifle at the kegs of gunpowder and fire at precisely ten minutes past three in the morning. She and Fanshaw had synchronized their pocket watches earlier and through out the day, kept checking to be sure they were still keeping the same time. Fanshaw knew exactly how long his fuses needed to be and when to light them before they exploded the dynamite, at precisely ten minutes past three.

            Cat would leave from the ship with Myles and Fanshaw, while three of Myles’s hand picked crew members would meet them at their rendezvous point coming from one of the local taverns near the docks. Quintin, Bruce and Bellman would be together at one of the local inns until time for them to make their way to the compound.

            Cat’s rife would be concealed inside a long narrow basket that was held across her back with a strap that came over her shoulder and crossed her chest in the front then down to her waist, stuffed with pieces of cloth to conceal its contents. Fanshaw’s bundles of dynamite concealed in a similar basket that he would carry. With the outfits and hats the other’s had purchased they would pass for Chinamen.

            Bruce, Bellman and Quintin would be the first group to arrive at the rendezvous, followed fifteen minutes later by Cat’s group with Myles’s men another fifteen minutes after them to be sure no one followed them from the ship.

            Earlier in the day Mr. Pruitt and Scotty left for Victoria Peak and returned after several hours to inform them the kegs of gunpowder were still in the same building when they observed the compound from the peak. Mr. Pruitt was chosen since he knew what the kegs looked like and the Chinese lettering on them.

            Cat said another prayer that the kegs of gunpowder would not moved from their present place of storage before their arrival in the early morning hours before dawn.

            The kegs of gunpowder were the reason she was climbing the tree before the others went to the back wall of the compound. If for some reason, the gunpowder kegs were not there, Fanshaw would have to place two bundles of dynamite at the front wall for her to create the diversions they needed. Myles would accompany her and she would let him know if they were there by dropping a stone she carried in a pouch around her waist to the ground near him.

            Cat would be up her tree, as Myles liked to say, for close to thirty minutes while Fanshaw set up his dynamite and fuses and the others took their concealed spots behind the compound. During that time, she would be keeping a watch over the compound with a smaller telescope she carried among her things. For her the hardest part, she knew, would be getting up the tree