Voyage of the Dreadnaught: Four Stella Madison Capers

Voyage of the
Dreadnaught

Four Stella Madison
Capers

Including:

SEA TRIALS

THE PUSHOVER PLOT

LOST IN THE WILDERNESS

THE LAST RESORT

Lilly Maytree

© 2014 by Lilly Maytree
All rights reserved

No part of this book may
be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without the written
permission of the publisher.

Published in the United States by
the

Wilderness School
Press

P.O. Box 19293 Thorne Bay, Alaska
99919

For information
contact:
[email protected]

Smashwords Edition

Contents

***

What Happened
First

SEA
TRIALS

THE PUSHOVER PLOT

LOST IN THE
WILDERNESS

THE LAST RESORT

A Word About The Stella Madison Capers

Our
Own Great Alaskan Adventure

About Lilly
Maytree

Other
Books by Lilly Maytree

What Happened First...

Stella Madison did not set
out to live a life of capers. Nobody does. But sooner, or later
everyone faces one of some kind, or another. The fact is, we all
run into troubles occasionally, no matter who we are. For Stella,
it happened when she was unexpectedly dumped out of a quiet
retirement and forced to go back to work just to make ends meet.
But having grown rusty on her people skills, and coming from a
different generation altogether, it was practically murder. Anyway,
that's what she was accused of when things were at their worst.
However, a true hero came to her rescue, and that changed
everything. It was also during that time she met Colonel Oliver P.
Henry (retired), who always believes the best of her.
(
Home Before Dark Caper
#1
)

After that, things changed
tremendously for the better. Stella took an apartment next to the
colonel, which was situated in an old Hollywood mansion, that had
seen better days, and been remodeled to accommodate multiple
dwellings. Such charm, and she absolutely loved it. Best of all, it
was affordable. The others who lived there were rather odd (in a
likable sort of way), and she was supremely happy. For a little
over two months.

At which point, there was
another run of trouble when owners of the place declared intentions
to sell, announced they would be coming by to take inventory, and
no one had ever informed them about the remodel. Worse yet, it was
discovered there was a thief in the house, who had been selling off
the more expensive "Golden Era" artifacts for some years. During
this time, Stella realizes she has changed a lot since her last
catastrophe, and makes a decision she would never even have
considered before. (
A Thief in the House
Caper #2
)

That's how it happened that Stella
Madison became committed (in more ways than one) to a rag-tag group
of misfits who decided to pool their resources and make a run for
an abandoned lodge in Alaska. Where it is rumored seniors do not
have to pay taxes, and it is possible to survive completely off the
land, even if they have no income, at all. At the very least, they
would fare better than each trying to fend for themselves. Times
being what they were.

The only real expense was
getting there. However, one of the group is acquainted with an old
captain-turned-inventor who lives out in the bay on a monstrosity
of a sailboat called the
Dreadnaught
. And while it hasn't
been out of the harbor in years, it does fall within their budget
to charter it. That is, if they skip the extra expense of a crew
and all sign on as hands. Even though Stella has never been out on
a boat in her life...

SEA TRIALS

Stella Madison Caper

#3

To all those wonderful people who have stood
by their friends during difficult times, and been brave enough to
step out into the unknown together.

“
The longer I live, the
more convincing proofs I see of this truth –

Benjamin Franklin

1

Stella Madison flinched when a cold splash
of spray hit her face, and she tightened her hold on the bouncing
rail. The motorboat was loaded to full capacity, with Colonel
Oliver P. Henry’s large bulk ensconced precisely in the middle for
better balance. She and her friend Millie (who had insisted on
wearing a bright orange life preserver) were at the very front,
practically hanging over the bow; Gerald and Lou in the last seat
behind the Colonel; while the Captain stood up in the stern with a
casual grip on the tiller and the outboard turned up to full
throttle. The Senator was riding like a king in a backpack-type
apparatus attached to his mother.

“E-gads!” Gerald complained as they bounced
off another ripple of chop and sped through the darkness. “I say –
is it necessary to go all out?”

“It is if we want to get out of this bay
before ten o’clock,” answered Captain Stewart, whose gray hair was
standing up all over like wild man’s, in the wind.

It was six thirty-seven in the morning. On a
Sunday.

Just as Stella began to wonder what in the
world she had let herself in for, Stuart cut the motor to
half-power and they spent the next ten minutes weaving in and out
around the dark shapes and shadows of other boats anchored across
the bay. The sky was still black as night. While her hurried
breakfast of donuts and coffee was beginning to churn with a mind
of its own, a great ominous wall gradually emerged out of the
darkness. The Captain turned the little craft smartly, and cut the
motor. He tossed a line over a cleat as they drifted up against a
floating wooden platform, and then jumped out to run forward and
secure the bow.

“Here we are, mates!” he crowed. “Go easy –
one at a time, now – it’s too early to have to fish anybody out of
the water!”

Stella climbed out and stepped gingerly onto
the rocking platform with a distinct sense of vertigo and nothing
to hang on to. Just as she began to sink to her knees to keep from
falling, she felt Captain Stuart’s strong grasp under her arm and
he propelled her forward to a dangling metal stairway. It stretched
diagonally up against the wall – who cared where it went – as long
as it took her away from here. She clutched the cold wet rail and
began to climb. If she had tried to wait for the Colonel, she fully
believed she would have vomited.

There was a light on at the top and she
recognized Millie’s carpenter friend, Mason, as he reached out to
help her step up and over onto the deck. At least she thought it
was a deck. What it looked like was some narrow alleyway in the
industrial section of the city, along with a row of metal doorways
with round windows, that disappeared somewhere outside the feeble
circle of light over the stairs.

“Top o’the morning, Stella!” Mason said with
a contrived accent and obvious excitement for the occasion.

“Oh, Mase! You better help Lou – I don’t
know how she’s going to cart that baby of hers all the way up
here!”

“She’s in better shape than any of us, old
girl. But don’t worry, she’s used to it. We come out here every
Fourth of July to watch the fireworks. Last time she was pregnant,
so this time she’ll think it’s a breeze. Here comes Mil.”

Millie handed over a large picnic basket,
packed to the brim, while she maneuvered out of her orange life
preserver. “Hi, Mase – been up all night?”

“Well, it happens I have, and I could sure
use a –“

“Come on, Stella!” Her friend beamed as if
the excitement were infectious. “I’ll show you the galley – you’ll
just love it!”

The
Dreadnaught
was a monstrous old
schooner nearly eighty feet long that looked as if it had been
around since the early days of sail. Over the years it had by turns
been used to carry cargo, transport passengers, and had even done a
stint in the fishing trade. Though it still sported an entire set
of working canvas, it had once run on steam, but—somewhere down the
line—been converted over to diesel. To Stella, it looked like some
ancient but perpetual work in progress. But Millie was right about
the galley.

It boasted a magnificent iron cook-stove
that was plumbed for propane (but could also burn wood), a huge
wooden table carved out of genuine Philippine mahogany set between
large comfortable settees that (even though faded and
grease-stained) had once been covered in an expensive burgundy
plush. Above it hung a fancy brass lantern that swung gently back
and forth to the barely perceptible rocking of the sea beneath
them. Plenty of counter space. Two deep stainless steel sinks that
were every cook’s dream…and the cupboards! Stella was sure such
storage could never be found in a kitchen on land.

As if that weren’t enough, there was a
walk-in pantry the size of a small room just for laying in food
supplies. According to Millie. At the moment, Stuart was using it
as a paint locker.

“I’m going to take this cabin, here,” Millie
dragged her – still gawking – through a shuttered wooden door with
an adorable brass knob that was just to the left of the stove.
“Cook’s quarters. What do you think?”

It was at that moment
Stella was bitten with the same infectious excitement she had seen
in all the others. Why it was another trip back in time!
Like
Casablanca
and the
Orient Express
all rolled into one. An exotic little stateroom
with mahogany woodwork all around; a bed off in one corner that
sported (though faded and dusty) a palm-print spread; and a round
brass porthole that opened right up over the sea. Stella could tell
because she caught a waft of the moist salt air coming
through.

“There’s even enough room to set up my
favorite rocker.” Millie pointed to an area near the porthole, as
she refastened her thick auburn hair back up into the clip the long
strands had sprung loose from. “I can’t wait to get all my things
in.”