Mystery House:
It was after dark before the last ferry from Cuttings Wharf arrived at the San Francisco docks. Since Bessie and the passengers took up so much weight, Sigmund had to pay three times the going rate to bribe their way onto the craft.
Helena had never seen the approach to San Francisco at night. The fog had just begun to roll in, so visibility was still out to a couple of miles, but it gave the gas lights and the few electric lights a halo that made the city look magical. The music from the Barbary Coast and the dance halls along the waterfront drifted over the water, blending with each other, creating a strange rhythmic beat of the player piano as it pounded out different rag marches.
All the beauty and mystery of the city was lost once the crew had Bessie unloaded, and th
