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 No. 222 
 
 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 In Defiance of the King. 
 
 A Romance of the American Revolution. 
 By C. C. HOTCHK1SS. 
 
 nmo. Cloth, $1.00 ; paper, 50 cents. 
 
 " The story is a. strong one, a thrilling one. It 
 causes the true American to flush with excitement, to 
 devour chapter after chapter until the eyes smart ; and 
 it fairly smokes with patriotism." New York Mail 
 and Express. 
 
 " Mr. Hotchkiss has etched in burning words a 
 story of British cruelty, Yankee bravery, and true love 
 that thrills from beginning to end with the spirit of the 
 Revolution. . . . Though he is often deliberate, he 
 rushes along breathlessly when the occasion demands. 
 His whole story is so absorbing that you will sit up far 
 into the night to finish it. You lay it aside with the 
 feeling that you have seen a gloriously true picture of 
 the Revolution." Boston Herald. 
 
 " The heart beats quickly, and we feel ourselves 
 taking a part in the exciting scenes described. . . . 
 Altogether the book is an addition to American litera 
 ture." Chicago Evening Post. 
 
 " A book to appeal to Americans as a vivid picture 
 of Revolutionary scenes, while the love story which is 
 interwoven will be found a singularly charming idyl." 
 Philadelphia Press. 
 
 " One of the most readable stories of the year. . . . 
 As a love romance it is charming, while it is filled with 
 thrilling adventure and deeds of patriotic daring." 
 Boston Daily Advertiser. 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.
 
 A COLONIAL 
 FREE-LANCE 
 
 BY 
 
 CHAUNCEY C. HOTCHKISS 
 
 AUTHOR OF IN DEFIANCE OF THE KING 
 
 NEW YORK 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 1897
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1897, 
 BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
 
 TO 
 
 DR. CHARLES T. PARKER, 
 
 OF NEW YORK, 
 
 WHOSE COMPANIONSHIP WHILE ON A CRUISE TO THE EAST 
 
 WILL BE AN ABIDING MEMORY WITH THE AUTHOR, 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED. 
 
 178213*?
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. " TWIXT THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA" . . 1 
 
 II. ALIAS CAPTAIN LOUNSBURY 14 
 
 III. A VOLUNTARY PRISONER 23 
 
 IV. NEW YORK IN 1778 32 
 
 V. A TRIANGULAR QUARREL 43 
 
 VI. A FAIR PROSPECT 50 
 
 VII. A SINGED PATRIOT 58 
 
 VIII. THE HINT OF THE EARTHQUAKE .... 64 
 
 IX. GENERAL SIR HENRY CLINTON .... 74 
 
 X. THE HEROISM OF GERTRUDE KING .... 86 
 
 XL THE DOVE TAVERN 97 
 
 XII. A FIGHTING QUAKER 110 
 
 XIII. A HOUSE OF REFUGE 121 
 
 XIV. THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS 133 
 
 XV. THE FOG 137 
 
 XVI. THE CABIN OF THE PHANTOM 148 
 
 XVII. THE PASSAGE OF THE BAY 158 
 
 XVIII. PURSUED 169 
 
 XIX. THE CAPTURE OF THE SCHOONER . . . .179 
 
 XX. THE SHELL OF THE DINGY 191 
 
 XXL DE PROFUNDIS 199 
 
 XXII. FROM UNDER THE SQUARE-SAIL YARD . . . 210 
 
 XXIII. IN THE HEART OF THE STORM 222 
 
 vii
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAOK 
 
 XXIV. A SMALL TRAGEDY ...... 232 
 
 XXV. A RESPITE ........ 244 
 
 XXVI. McCARY UNCOVERED ...... 255 
 
 XXVII. WHAT HAPPENED ON GAY HEAD .... 265 
 
 XXVIII. THE DAY OF DAYS ....... 274 
 
 XXIX. A BIT OP HISTORY ....... 283 
 
 XXX. THE ATTACK ........ 293 
 
 XXXI. To THE BITTER END ...... 301 
 
 XXXIL CONCLUSION , 310
 
 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 " TWIXT THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA." 
 
 I THANK God I am no coward, else that which I am 
 about to write would be unwritten for loss of subject 
 matter. ISTor do I make a boast of my bravery, seeing it 
 is a thing born in a man and not of his own making. 
 For, as it ill becomes a woman to take to herself the 
 credit of her beauty (for the reason that it is fashioned 
 by a power not her own), so would it appear vainglori 
 ous in me to laud myself for not playing the part of a 
 child when necessity demanded the action of a man. 
 And, furthermore, if in the following I seem to make 
 much of my quickness of brain and power of arm, let me 
 here disclaim all unjust pride in the matter, for my 
 size and strength are things I owe to a cause higher 
 than myself, and as for my wits, why, they are but 
 those God gave me, and they worked as he saw fit to have 
 them. 
 
 As for bravery, I take it to be as much a part of a 
 man as the fashion of his nose or set of his chin by 
 no means a thing for which he can claim self-merit 
 (though I know the world holds a different opinion), 
 and is but little more than sound nerves soundly strung, 
 having nothing to do with rectitude of purpose. For
 
 2 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 the world has witnessed the righteous trembling in fear 
 of the consequence of a righteous act, while the hard 
 ened villain ascends the scaffold with a smile of set de 
 termination to die without a tremor. 
 
 These things I say in self-justification for what fol 
 lows. I have known fear, but, thank God! not the 
 fear that paralyzes action. In a measure I felt it when 
 I first openly lifted my voice against the King, and, 
 later, the very day on which my story opens. 
 
 We were then somewhere northward of the Dela 
 ware capes, with as fair a sea under and about us and 
 as fair though hot a sky above us as ever fell to my 
 lot to see. I say we, meaning the schooner Phantom, 
 short-handed with two blacks and a mate, and myself, 
 Donald Thorndyke, master, bound from Norfolk to New 
 London with a cargo of scrap lead to be turned into 
 bullets, and five hundred pounds in good British gold 
 secretly built into the bulkhead of the cabin. This lat 
 ter, with the schooner, being the sole property I pos 
 sessed, were further protected by a double set of clear 
 ance papers, the false especially forged by my own 
 hands to deceive such of the ships of his gracious Maj 
 esty George III as by chance might be encountered be 
 twixt the two ports. 
 
 And there was no small chance of such an encounter, 
 as one may well know by glancing at the history of the 
 United Colonies in the year of grace 1778. 
 
 I had been held long in Norfolk for the lack of a 
 mate with a knowledge of navigation, being myself by 
 no means a blue-water sailor, only dodging about the 
 coast in years past on the laudable mission of besting 
 the King s customs a practice which had been winked 
 at by the authorities up to the time of the breaking out 
 of hostilities. And this profession injured neither credit 
 nor character, for such were the unjust commercial laws 
 with which Parliament had compassed us that the term
 
 "TWIXT THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA." 3 
 
 of " smuggler " bore no opprobrium in those days. 
 More was it a title of virtue in the mind of each good 
 colonist, and to this trade was I bred by my father, 
 who stood to be as stanch and God-fearing a man and 
 one above a mean act as ever listened to a parson or 
 issued orders from a quarter-deck. Until two years 
 agone he had been my compass, rudder, mainstay, and 
 entire trust, but the coast fever of the tropics had cut 
 him down, and no more would I meet his brig fresh 
 from Jamaica somewhere off shore, and fill up with con 
 traband goods to be distributed as my judgment saw 
 fit. No more would he greet my mother and sister in 
 the long, low kitchen hard by the heights of Gay Head 
 and talk of our getting to be forehanded. No more 
 would I hear him in the " captain s room " of the " An 
 chor Watch " Tavern, damn his glorious Majesty for 
 being a pig-headed Dutchman with a ring in his nose, 
 or deliver a tirade in good set terms against Bute, 
 North, Germain, and the rest, who were leading him to 
 the loss of his American colonies. That was all in the 
 past. Now I was ripe for my voyage and home. 
 
 But it was by no means an easy matter to come by 
 a navigator of any sort at that time. The war had 
 absorbed such talent long since, and traders were at a 
 discount, owing to the risk with no chance for prize 
 money. So it was with great satisfaction that at last I 
 met with one, John Lounsbury, a man I had slightly 
 known in Westchester before the war was well on. He 
 being set to get East, was willing to act as mate on my 
 own terms; and, though I knew him to be of shady 
 character, and with morals to be spoken about behind 
 one s hand, I was glad enough to get him, especially 
 as he seemed so loud against the King, and, when he 
 knew what was under my hatches, so well pleased to be 
 able to pilot a load of metal on its first trip toward the 
 vitals of his Majesty s hirelings.
 
 4 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 And thus it was that on the 18th of June, 1778, we 
 were, as I said, a little northward of the Delaware capes, 
 with a small wind due east and on the starboard bow, 
 and the land a low, blue cloud over the schooner s taff- 
 rail. 
 
 It was smothering hot in the cabin, where I had but 
 just finished fisting up the log. The clock had barely 
 gone three when Lounsbury hailed me from the deck 
 in a fashion not to be borne, being neither respectful 
 nor seamanlike, and at variance with his usual custom. 
 
 "Below there! Thorndyke! Lay up here!" 
 
 Now, I make no profession of being a patient man, 
 especially in the face of injustice or bold disobedience; 
 and, as disrespect on my own quarter-deck has a savor 
 of each, I was not far behind his words when I stepped 
 out of the companionway. 
 
 A negro was at the wheel, and the mate was striding 
 the weather side of the deck with a spyglass under his 
 arm, a pipe in his teeth, and a very easy, self-satisfied 
 set to his countenance. 
 
 He was a short, burly man, bearing a heavy, bronzed 
 face, and having a smile the meaning of which might 
 be anything. His light blue eyes were always half 
 closed, in a manner to be called a squint in another man, 
 but his actions had been bluff, good-natured, and open, 
 and the fellow had hitherto always shown a sense of 
 respectful humor in our intercourse. 
 
 As I strode up to him, I marked him slew his little 
 eyes around to take me in from their corners, but he 
 made no move to face or give me particular notice. I 
 guessed then that something untoward was in the wind, 
 and took the shortest way to arrive at the bottom of it. 
 
 " Mr. Lounsbury, I d have you find it convenient 
 to address me as captain on my own vessel, and bear 
 yourself with decent respect in so doing." 
 
 For an answer he turned his back to me, and spat
 
 "TWIXT THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA." 5 
 
 over the rail, then facing about again, burst into a loud 
 laugh. I looked at him as though he had suddenly been 
 bereft of wit, at which he sobered down, and then 
 broke out with a scowl: 
 
 " Faith, tis a fine farce finely played." 
 
 " What the devil has come to you? " I vociferated. 
 
 " Well, we ll belay all an drop the curtain," he 
 continued, setting his back against the rail and jerking 
 his thumb over his shoulder. " Ye may be captain, but 
 twill soon be captain o nothing d ye see? savin , of 
 course, ye come to tarms with Jack Lounsbury. Do 
 ye mark that, an that, an that ? " he went on easily, 
 turning and pointing to three sails that were well up 
 on the horizon. 
 
 Then something of the matter came to me at once. 
 That they were British ships I well knew, for the French 
 were not yet due to arrive, and American privateers 
 moved not in flocks. In wonder at my mate s actions 
 and words, I had not marked this rising danger, but at 
 a glance saw that escape by flight was useless, as the 
 oncoming vessels were spread out from east to south 
 and rapidly sailing down on a fresh wind, which they 
 were evidently bringing with them. To pass through 
 them unnoticed was unhoped for; to be chased was to 
 proclaim my character. 
 
 Lounsbury was no coward, I knew; but that he was 
 a traitor to me, or mad, I had small doubt. His manner 
 and words heated my temper, but now that I must have 
 recourse to deception, I let him bide the while, and 
 turned attention toward getting out of the danger bear 
 ing down from windward. Putting a curb on my tem 
 per, I said: 
 
 " You will get up the British ensign and -hold the 
 course. We will clear them yet." And with this I 
 turned toward the companion. 
 
 Now, whether he feared I was about to arm myself,
 
 6 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 and preferred to take me as I stood (which was more 
 than most men dare attempt),, or whether his plans 
 were ripe for action, I know not; but he interposed his 
 square figure betwixt me and the door, and with a 
 mighty patronizing air spake thus: 
 
 " Faith, captain, I had no call to harrow ye, seeing 
 the game is in my own two hands; but list a bit, an 
 we may yet be comrades again. No matter how I know, 
 but I do know ye look to cozen yonder ships by false 
 papers, seeing tis impossible to dodge them, as they 
 have the weather gauge of ye an ye are in the bight 
 of the land. Now what use might be yer papers should 
 I see fit to damn ye as a rebel with a cargo of rebel lead 
 consigned to rebels? About as much sarvice as a rabbit s 
 tail to a cow in flytime. Ye be a man o sense an have 
 little liking, I take it, for a taste o either Cunningham * 
 or one o the prison hulks, an ye can escape them both 
 if my standing by ye will help, by just handing over 
 the bit o gold ye have snugged away below." 
 
 The shock of this demand with the knowledge of 
 what might lay in store for me caused me to lose thought 
 of all else save how the fellow had gotten so familiar 
 with my private affairs, and to this day I have never 
 entirely fathomed it. And it was here I was clutched 
 by fear of the danger bearing down on me, for my best- 
 laid plans were rendered valueless by the scoundrel I 
 had too easily taken on trust. I can not account for 
 his insight, save that he had probed my locker when I 
 was absent (this fact being plain enough), and had in 
 some mysterious way come at the fact that I possessed 
 treasure which, by search, he had discovered hidden 
 somewhere beyond his reach. Be this as it may, I saw 
 that my secret was no longer mine alone. 
 
 It is very possible my emotion showed in my face, 
 
 * The British provost marshal at New York.
 
 "TWIXT THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA." 7 
 
 and he, mightily astray in guessing my temper, doubt 
 less thought I was completely in his power. And, in 
 fact, for the moment I might have confessed as much 
 had I given thought to it. Before I could gather words 
 to frame an answer, he continued, though with a lowered 
 voice: 
 
 " Tis five hundred pounds to the penny, I fancy; 
 if more, ye can keep the rest. Did ye play Jack Louns- 
 bury for a suckling? I started this voyage on your 
 tarms, but we ll finish on mine. Have ye slept since 
 the war began that ye knew not the color o Lounsbury 
 o Rye? Come, now, speak out! " 
 
 " Then ye looked to fall in with yonder ships, did 
 ye, ye scoundrel?" said I, while I gathered myself to 
 gether. 
 
 " Ay, two o them. The one to east is a flight o 
 luck." 
 
 " What are they? " 
 
 "The tail o Howe s fleet from Philadelphia. Ye 
 may swear that Clinton has evacuated the place an is 
 marching across Jersey for New York. So it was to 
 be. Am I plain enough? They be bound for the same 
 place, an , d n it, man, shall we go with them or no? 
 Speak out!" 
 
 " Does any one know of my private matters save 
 yourself? " I asked, as I knitted my strength to fulfill 
 the purpose I had arrived at. 
 
 " None o that, now! I see yer game! What I know, 
 I know! An ye think if I am made way with, all s safe." 
 With this he backed a pace, and, drawing a pistol from 
 his pocket, presented it full at me. " Now," he con 
 tinued, with a devilish look in his half -closed eyes, " ye 
 are my prisoner an I captain; an as for the matter o 
 that, I have been all along." 
 
 I had guessed the man was armed. Knowing me, 
 he would hardly have had the daring to thus speak to
 
 8 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 my face without means of defense. Of his possible 
 backing by the crew, I had given no thought (which 
 came near making an end of me), but my wrath was 
 boundless, and, as his firearm came nearly within reach, 
 I quickly stretched out my left hand and struck up the 
 weapon, then with an oath I made a step forward and 
 planted my right fist in his face. The blow fell far 
 too short to bring him down, only knocking his pipe 
 from his mouth; but, as if surprised, his little eyes 
 opened wide as he turned under its force, and again 
 with all my power I struck him fairly beneath his left 
 ear. 
 
 Though it may be unbecoming in me to chronicle 
 my own strength, the blow was a fearful one. It lifted 
 his clean off his feet; the pistol and spyglass went 
 spinning into the larboard scupper, where he followed 
 them, falling with a crash, the blood spurting from his 
 ears, nose, and mouth. I had little doubt that I had 
 killed him, and as little care, but with a natural instinct 
 I followed and bent over him. 
 
 At that instant the fresh wind from the south struck 
 us. Possibly we had lain in a calm for a space while 
 the breeze veered from the east, but of that I have no 
 knowledge, only, as we presented a full beam to the 
 blast, it lurched us to larboard, and caused me to 
 straighten myself to get a balance. 
 
 It was well I did, and I have since looked upon that 
 gust as an interposition of the Almighty to save me 
 from the knife of an assassin, for as I shifted myself I 
 caught a glimpse of the bare feet of a negro making 
 toward me. He was on me in a breath. I saw the glit 
 ter of his knife, and wheeled in time to catch the de 
 scending blade in my left arm just above the elbow. 
 With a mighty wrench I twisted about, breaking the 
 steel in my flesh, and, catching the fellow by the throat, 
 held him for one instant, then, lifting him, flung him
 
 "TWIXT THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA." 9 
 
 clean over the rail into the sea. From first to last he 
 uttered no sound, and if ever he came to the surface I 
 saw him not. 
 
 In the maddened fury possessing me my wound felt 
 no more than the prick of a needle, though I found 
 the steel was through and through the flesh. Plucking 
 it out, I ran forward with the determination of taking 
 the status of the remaining hand, but I could not find 
 him at first, for both galley and forecastle were bare 
 of everything human. As I came up from the latter, I 
 saw him astride the starboard spreader of the foremast 
 with a pistol in his hand. I doubt not that he would 
 have shot at me as I passed under him on my way for 
 ward, only that the helm being relieved of pressure, the 
 vessel had gone into the wind, and the violent motion 
 of the headsails and tremor of the mast under the 
 thunderous thrashing of the foresail, made an aim im 
 possible. His attitude and the pistol told the story 
 of the part he was expected to play in the mutiny which 
 had probably been hatched before leaving Norfolk. 
 But the cowardly cur had either skulked at the last 
 moment or I had been too rapid for him, and he had 
 swarmed up the shrounds to be out of reach, and there 
 sat looking down at me. I passed no words with him, 
 but, running back on the larboard side, fetched my 
 rifle from the cabin, and, standing by the break of the 
 poop, drew a bead on him and commanded him to drop 
 his pistol and come down. At first he demurred, then 
 whimpered, and, finally dropping the pistol, swung him 
 self to the halyards, down which he slid to the deck, 
 where, falling to his knees, he began begging for his 
 life, his black face turned to a sickly green through 
 abject terror. 
 
 The blood I was losing from my arm (and it was a 
 sight) took it from my head, and my temper was a trifle 
 less murderous by the time the fellow had come within 
 2
 
 10 A COLONIAL FEEE-LANCE. 
 
 my power. I had traded on his ignorance, as, had he 
 but known my gun was uncharged, matters might have 
 taken a different complexion. Sternly ordering him 
 below, I drew the slide over the hatch, and then, feeling 
 my life was safe from him, fetched a deep breath and 
 took a look about me. 
 
 The ships were in fair sight by this, the one east 
 ward doubtless a troop ship bound for Xew York with 
 re-enforcements for Sir Henry Clinton, who had already 
 begun his call for help, and kept it up through his ad 
 ministration. The ship to the west looked to be a man- 
 of-war, judging by her size and rig, but twas the third 
 that caused me the most uneasiness a fine, large 
 schooner coming down before the wind, and now about 
 four miles away. 
 
 That the Phantom was her object I nowise doubted. 
 To pass myself as a royalist bound from Savannah to 
 Xew York with lead for his Majesty (that being the 
 gist of my forged papers) would hardly do in the face 
 of one dead man lying in the scuppers and a single 
 black hand driven below. But I saw nothing else to 
 be done, for to have my true colors known would be 
 to lose liberty and property at once. To fight was im 
 possible; to run, as far out of the question. 
 
 Be the upshot what it might, my arm demanded 
 my first attention, and I passed into the cabin, where 
 I made a shift to stop the flow of blood, bind it up, and 
 get it into a sling. Owing to the twist of the knife, 
 twas an ugly gash, though, fortunately, no artery was 
 severed, and in the end it served me a good turn in 
 stead of being a source of great trouble. 
 
 My next step was to get my papers into proper shape 
 by destroying the regular clearance, and twas here I 
 discovered the cause of the tone of my mate, for, though 
 there had been taken nothing of value besides, the 
 locker showed itself to have been rifled of the false
 
 "TWIXT THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA." H 
 
 documents. To be without credentials showing my 
 business on the high seas were as damning as to openly 
 sail under the flag of the colonies, and the discovery of 
 the theft left me for the moment high and dry. Be 
 thinking me, then, of the bare possibility of Lounsbury 
 having carried the matter with him, I jumped to the 
 deck for the purpose of overhauling his body. 
 
 A glance seaward showed the schooner now about 
 two miles away, but bearing straight for me. I could 
 easily imagine the perplexity that possessed them at 
 sight of the actions of the Phantom, for, as the helm 
 was still free and all plain sail made on her, she hove 
 into the wind for a space, and there hung in irons with 
 a thunder of canvas overhead; then filling on the oppo 
 site tack, she staggered off, until, rounding up again, the 
 entire performance was repeated. For all the world 
 she was like a man well slewed with liquor, using the 
 width of the road in his journeying. 
 
 That which lay before me to do must be done 
 quickly. Lounsbury sprawled on his back, so that ac 
 cess to his pockets was an easy matter. There was 
 nothing in his pea-jacket save the junk carried by a 
 seaman, though I soon discovered that around his body 
 was a belt stuffed full of papers. But the stolen ones 
 were not among them, and I felt a sense of hopelessness 
 come over me as the certainty of their loss was forced on 
 my mind. 
 
 But it was not for long. A hasty glance at the 
 belt s contents at once opened my eyes to the character 
 of the man before me, and caused me to come to a sud 
 den determination regarding my future action. Twas 
 a desperate resolve, but, saving some untoward circum 
 stance, it insured liberty, or, at least, immunity from 
 present imprisonment, although it would put my for 
 tune in jeopardy. It was no time to look far beyond the 
 present; freedom was worth more than fortune, and
 
 12 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 even that might not, in the end, be lost; so, throwing the 
 belt overboard, I placed the papers carefully in my 
 pocket and went forward. 
 
 The pistol dropped from aloft I found on the deck, 
 and with it in my hand I slid back the hatch cover of 
 the forecastle and called to the black to come up. This 
 he did, blinking mightily as he struck the strong light, 
 when, clapping the weapon to his ear, I swore I would 
 blow his brains out, and, if necessary, follow him to the 
 ends of the world to do it, if he breathed a word of 
 my ever having been master of the Phantom. 
 
 The fellow was bound to be a source of anxiety to 
 me as long as he had the power to speak, but I could 
 not well murder him outright. Fortunately, his patois 
 was well-nigh unintelligible to ears untrained to the 
 dialect of the Southern negro, and, if my plan worked, 
 he would ere long meet his deserts in one of the British 
 prison hulks, the horrible reputation of which was now 
 widespread. I have small doubt that he thought he 
 was coming to his death when I ordered him up, for, 
 like the slave he had once been, he cringed and writhed 
 at my feet, begging for his life in a manner both dis 
 gusting and pitiful. Yet, for all his gratitude at my 
 promise to spare him on the condition of his silence, I 
 felt that, were it in his power, he would have knifed 
 me as I stood. I had no fear that he knew of my hidden 
 gold, Lounsbury having been far too shrewd to take for 
 partners men of the character of the crew, he probably 
 having seduced them with promises of some ready cash, 
 backed with visions of prize money and the high favor 
 of British officers. I had a warrant for thus believing, 
 for my mate had suddenly lowered his voice as he re 
 ferred to the treasure below, in all likelihood for the 
 purpose of concealing from the man at the wheel its 
 presence on board the schooner. 
 
 To the fellow at my feet, whose name, I now mind
 
 "TWIXT THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA." 13 
 
 me, was " Stofe " (probably a corruption of Christo 
 pher), I made no promises for the future, only saying 
 I would hold my hand for the present, and then ordered 
 him to take in the jib and staysail, that the Phantom 
 might lay in the wind and meet her fate as soon as 
 possible. 
 
 Indeed, I had expected ere this to have had a shot 
 across my bows and another one into me for not obeying 
 the hint of the first, an action which had so far been im 
 possible. I fancied (and afterward found I was right) 
 they were nonplused at the queer seamanship displayed 
 by the drunken progress of the Phantom. It had been 
 thought, mayhap, that, as but two men showed on our 
 deck, we had a host below, and that, in the disguise of 
 a simple trader, we were intending to delude them and 
 lay them aboard with little ceremony; or, failing in this, 
 were adopting some uncouth mode of warfare on the 
 sea, as strange to them as is the Indian land method 
 to the European regular. 
 
 It was with a feeling akin to shame that when the 
 forward halyards were let go I had the negro bend the 
 Stars and Stripes to the ensign halyard, placing the 
 flag union down and under the flaming bunting of the 
 enemy. These were hoisted to the mainpeak, and thus 
 I had set a sign of surrender before surrender was 
 called for, but as part of my plan it became a hard 
 necessity.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ALIAS CAPTAIX LOUXSBUHY. 
 
 Now the headsails being let go with a run and 
 hanging loose over the bow, the foresail and its travel 
 ing blocks giving out a deafening protest against its 
 slack sheet, the mainsail joining in the thundering 
 chorus, and the wheel jerking violently hither and 
 thither with the kick of the rudder, we were sufficiently 
 beyond the usual order of things to suit my purpose, 
 and my trump card, in the shape of a dead man lying 
 in the scupper, lay clear to the eye of any who might 
 board us. The sight was uncanny enough, and my in 
 stinct was to have the negro heave the body overboard; 
 but, as it was to be a silent witness to the story I was 
 about to tell, I let it bide, though, as the sequel showed, 
 twould have saved me a sight of trouble to have fol 
 lowed my first impulse. 
 
 I confess that my heart beats took on additional 
 force and frequency as I stood and watched the schoon 
 er s nearer approach. She came on to within easy gun 
 shot, and swung into the wind, all of a flutter from 
 stem to stern, and then " lay to " with her headsails 
 full aback. From the scarlet flag at her peak to her 
 clean cutwater she was an object of beauty, though in 
 a light air I doubt she would have slid her keel through 
 the brine with greater speed than would the Phantom, 
 which had been built for fleetness and rapidity in stays. 
 
 With my wits by this time well about me, and my 
 14
 
 ALIAS CAPTAIN LOUNSBURY. 15 
 
 wound bleeding but little (as was shown by the few 
 drops that now dripped from my fingers ends), I stood 
 by the helm and took in every detail of the enemy, from 
 the crowd at her davits to the long brass piece forward 
 of the foremast, the gun being trained point blank at me. 
 
 The stranger worked with the alacrity of a man-of- 
 war, for the schooner had barely lost her way when I 
 saw a boat drop from her larboard quarter and pull 
 toward us, while another came around her bow and fol 
 lowed. They were both filled with well-armed men, as 
 could be seen by the glitter of musketry, and the way 
 they came over the whitecaps showed their temper. It 
 showed temper, too, in the smart manner they boarded 
 me, the first boat hooking on to the main channels, the 
 men clambering out with scarcely a shout and no ques 
 tions, and in a twinkling I beheld half a score of them 
 on my deck, they, I fancy, being mightily surprised at 
 having met with no resistance. 
 
 The crisis was now at hand, and I played my first 
 card with something of the desperation of a ruined 
 gambler. Striding up to an officer whom I saw coming 
 aft with bare sword in hand, I said: 
 
 " Ye show scant courtesy in boarding me, sir. Had 
 you turned up an hour agone, twould have been to some 
 purpose." 
 
 " Who in h 1 are you ? Where s the captain of this 
 ship?" was the excited rejoinder. 
 
 Now there was something about the tone of his voice, 
 the way of calling a schooner a ship, as well as the get- 
 up of the man himself, that, angered as I was at his 
 reply, made me back a pace and look at him. A quick 
 glance showed me I was not dealing with a man bred 
 to the sea, much less to the regular service, for, though 
 I then had small knowledge of the uniforms of the 
 British, I knew that which graced the back of the officer 
 before me was not of his Majesty s navy. I knew it by
 
 16 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 its cut and garniture, and the land flavor of the man 
 lay also in the fact that he wore a forage cap and car 
 ried a cavalry sabre instead of a cutlass. His face, too, 
 lacked the true sea tan, its fair complexion showing the 
 effects of unusual exposure to sun and wind. What his 
 rank might be I had no idea, and speculation was lost 
 in the quick retort that naturally rose to my lips. 
 
 " Who are you, sir, to tumble aboard a prize of his 
 Majesty s in this fashion? Ye stand in need of a lesson 
 in marine manners as well as marine matters. Do ye 
 hope to judge of a craft s cargo by a squint at her hatch 
 cover, or of a man by the cut of his jib? Think not to 
 deceive yourself or me! I know my rights, and also 
 know the difference betwixt the cry of a sea bird and a 
 henhawk! " 
 
 If I had any doubt as to the official position of 
 the officer, it was set at rest by the subdued laugh that 
 came from the group about us. Piqued by the sound 
 of mirth from those he had no power to punish, his face 
 turned to an ugly red, and, lifting his sabre as though 
 to cut me down, he shouted: 
 
 " You insolent dog! I will make you sweat for this! 
 Lay hold of him, some of you! Tie the villain up! 
 Damnation! are you all cowards? " he continued, as 
 there was a shuffle of feet, though no one approached me. 
 
 There is no telling what might have been the upshot 
 of this dispute had there been no interruption, for the 
 fellow seemed determined to use his sabre on me. But, 
 fortunately for one of us, we were joined by another 
 officer, whom I afterward found had come from the 
 second boat. 
 
 "Hold hard, Scammell! You are not handling one 
 of your own dragoons! What is this all about? You 
 fly the signal of a prize, sir," he continued, turning to 
 me; "how comes it you are alone? Wlio and what are 
 you?"
 
 ALIAS CAPTAIN LOUNSBURY. 17 
 
 " I am Captain Jack Lounsbury, bearing instruc 
 tions from Sir Henry Clinton, as that cockatrice might 
 have found ere this had he used a smooth tongue. This 
 is my prize a Yankee schooner laden with lead for 
 New London, and taken by me single-handed. There 
 lies her skipper, and all but one of her crew are over 
 board." And with this I pointed to the body of my 
 mate. 
 
 I had hardly spoken when two marines came aft 
 with the negro Stofe betwixt them. He was trembling 
 like a sail in the wind, and hung his head as though 
 he had lost all strength to lift it. I was looking for 
 an exposure on the instant, but the officer waved them 
 back with a motion. There was an unspoken but plainly 
 shown respect for me in the demeanor of the crowd as 
 it spread away. The two officers stood for a moment in 
 undisguised wonder at the recital of my prowess, giv 
 ing alternate glances at the body and myself, and then 
 the last comer, who was plainly the one in authority, 
 spoke. 
 
 "You alone did this? By Saint George, Scammell, 
 you came near getting into a mess! I promised to show 
 you a sea scrimmage, but not the kind you were hatch 
 ing. Let us have further warrant of these facts," he 
 continued to me. " Who was he? " pointing toward the 
 scupper, "and when did this happen? Let us come 
 by the papers." 
 
 " Yonder fellow is Donald Thorndyke, the master 
 till I overcame him," I answered. " I shipped as mate. 
 If you will go below, we can come by the whole matter," 
 I replied, not caring to extend my yarn with the negro 
 within hearing. " Or, better, we can take what we there 
 find and go aboard before your captain, where the whole 
 matter may be boiled down at one sitting." 
 
 " Twould be a saving of time, certainly," he an 
 swered, "but we ll hear the yarn while the schooner is
 
 18 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 being searched; of course, you understand the impor 
 tance of the form." And he turned to a sea corporal 
 and gave him the necessary orders. " Now, sir, I am 
 at your service," he said, crossing the deck toward the 
 cabin companion. Hesitating there, he seemed to hang 
 in the wind for an instant, and then strode over to the 
 body. 
 
 " Did you shoot him? " he asked, as he bent over the 
 prostrate form. 
 
 " Nay, I struck him," I answered. 
 
 " Faith, then," he returned, sizing me up with a side 
 glance, " I d sooner take the chance of a bullet than a 
 blow from that fist if you struck in earnest! Did he 
 wing you at the onset ? " 
 
 " Nay, nay; twas a nigger striving to knife me in 
 the back. Let s below. Mayhap ye have a doctor aboard 
 who will fix up a bad cut." 
 
 Through all this I was conscious of the eye of Scam- 
 mell fixed on me. AVhether or not he was suspicious of 
 me, or whether he was still boiling under the dressing 
 I had given him, there were no means of telling. I saw 
 plainly the resentment he made little effort to conceal, 
 and felt that I had made an enemy who would be mighty 
 glad to cross swords with me on the slightest provoca 
 tion. He was twenty-eight or thirty in years, or about 
 my own age, and was under me not two inches in stature, 
 which is speaking well for him, as I stood three inches 
 above six feet, unshod. By weight and brawn I well 
 overmatched him (as I did most men), especially in the 
 latter quality of physique; but he made a typical dra 
 goon officer, and would be a formidable antagonist in 
 any field. 
 
 I might hope for little mercy if ever I fell into the 
 power of this man, for mercy was a quality which, 
 strained or unstrained, he and his fellows had naught 
 to do with. This I made sure of on getting into the
 
 ALIAS CAPTAIN LOUNSBURY. 19 
 
 cabin, where in course of conversation it turned out that 
 he was a captain in De Lancy s Loyal Legion, a body 
 of Tory cavalry half freebooters and half in the regular 
 service. I had heard of them, as who has not ? Betwixt 
 New York and Philadelphia and the country surround 
 ing both places they were a terror, their malignancy 
 equaling if not surpassing the rapacity of Tryon him 
 self. 
 
 I itched to get my fingers on him then and there, 
 that there might be one less bloodsucker aboveground, 
 but policy held me from committing an act which prob 
 ably would have at once wrought ruin to my plans and 
 left my poor mother without a son. I was, therefore, 
 bound to treat him with civility, which I did when a 
 word to him was necessary, but I fancy we each knew 
 the other was but skipping over the thin ice of polite 
 ness. 
 
 Being, as it were, in the enemy s lines, I followed the 
 bent of the lieutenant, and laughed loudly and long 
 over the puzzlement (as he called it) into which the- 
 Phantom had led them. I drank to the King and 
 damned the rebels; told a story of being a free lance 
 under elastic instructions from Sir Henry Clinton, and 
 how I had taken the vessel by killing Captain Thorn- 
 dyke and besting the crew. In short, I put myself into 
 my mate s former place as nearly as was possible, fol 
 lowing his coarse manner and uncouth language, ex 
 hibiting the rough-and-ready character befitting a fellow 
 of his breeding. 
 
 But, beyond Sir Henry s signature, never a line did 
 I show them or tell the nature of my orders; and that 
 for the best of reasons, for I knew little of the business 
 myself, not having had the opportunity to more than 
 scan the papers I had taken from the body. 
 
 The regular clearance discovered the schooner to be 
 a Yankee trader. There was a Yankee sailor captured
 
 20 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 and a Yankee captain dead, and why should there be 
 suspicions? and there were none in the mind of the 
 lieutenant; but of his friend, the dragoon, who had 
 come aboard for a bit of dangerous play (and had nigh 
 achieved his wish), I was not so sure. 
 
 In my turn at questioning, I found that the enemy 
 was the Sprite, an American capture, refitted and re 
 named, one of the last of Howe s fleet (as Lounsbury 
 had surmised), bearing two passengers beside her usual 
 complement of men, and bound for New York to meet 
 General Clinton, then on his overland trip from Phila 
 delphia to that city. 
 
 Now we had been sitting below for upward of an 
 hour, drinking my rum and making game of the rebels 
 on land and sea (though once, when I spoke of John 
 Paul Jones, I saw I was on dangerous ground, and be 
 layed my tongue, cursing the liquor for having loosed 
 it), when the companion way was darkened by a ma 
 rine, who, jerking a salute, said, with a scarcely con 
 trolled grin: 
 
 " We have another prisoner, sir." 
 
 " Another! " exclaimed the lieutenant, starting up 
 and giving me a stern look. " What s the meaning of 
 this, Lounsbury? Are you dealing fairly?" 
 
 I was as surprised as he, and had no answer to make, 
 but before my confusion became manifest the marine 
 again spoke. 
 
 " Tis the dead man come to life, sir. We were 
 flushing him an the deck, an twas the water as fetched 
 him, sir." 
 
 " Glad I am tis no worse," said the officer with a 
 light laugh. " I feared I smelled a trick. You Ameri 
 can born are the devil and all at playing deep games, 
 and, faith! for a second I thought you might have coz 
 ened me. Let us to the deck." 
 
 I had sudden reason to turn mv curse from the
 
 ALIAS CAPTAIN LOUNSBURY. 21 
 
 liquor, for had it not been in me I doubt not I would 
 have fallen backward. Like a drowning man, I had 
 visions passing through my mind with a rapidity that 
 makes description impossible. My very strength gave 
 out for the moment, but there was enough left to get me 
 to my feet and follow the others to the deck. 
 
 I have faced death since, and well-nigh shaken hands 
 with it, but never did the knowledge of its nearness 
 affect me as did the words of the marine; and twould 
 take more than money to make me go through a like 
 thirty seconds, or the time it took me to get from the 
 cabin. 
 
 Lounsbury had been moved, and lay on his back 
 on the deck with his head resting on the edge of the 
 helm grating. lie was soaking from the sousing that 
 had brought him to life, but I sent up a mental thanks 
 giving on the discovery that it had not also brought 
 him to reason. The sole sign of vitality lay in the fact 
 that he breathed. There was a hoarse and hollow tone 
 at each heave of his broad chest, which I knew to be 
 due to his broken head; and though I felt him to be 
 a deadly enemy and a charnel house for morals, there 
 was a pity in it to see the abject helplessness of the 
 once powerful figure as it sprawled on the hot, white 
 planking. 
 
 Scammell stooped for the man s pulse, peering 
 closely into his face the while, and then for a moment 
 the whole load of anxiety came back on me as he 
 straightened up and said: 
 
 " I have seen this fellow before, though I fail to 
 place him as Thorndyke. He looks like the chap who 
 escaped from the rebels after spiking the guns near 
 White Plains. But that was before we took New York. 
 Why the d 1 can t I remember names? " 
 
 Here again was mighty dangerous ground, for Scam 
 mell was right, though I knew nothing of it then nor
 
 22 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 until after the war was over. The spiking of the guns 
 was an old story, but it had been long agone, and 1 Avas 
 only aware of the bald fact. However, I felt that he had 
 struck a scent, which if followed up (and I fancied him 
 the man for it) might, nay, would, be likely to drive 
 me to bay. 
 
 It was well, then, that at that moment a recall gun 
 sounded from the off -lying schooner. It seemed to wake 
 the lieutenant to the fact that time had gone, and that 
 the sun was well toward its setting. Without more ado 
 a guard was left on the vessel until a report could be 
 made to the captain of the Sprite, and with the others 
 I went along, that I might again tell my tale and get 
 my knife-thrust into proper dressing.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A VOLUNTARY PRISONER. 
 
 DARKNESS was well settled on the sea, though there 
 still hung a faint, hot glow in the west when I had fin 
 ished my business on the Sprite. 
 
 Barring the baleful eye of Scammell, there had been 
 nothing to mar the proceedings in making a report in 
 harmony with my story. The dragoon s silence and 
 steady gaze were a trifle disconcerting, and the knowl 
 edge of the captured black (who had been conveyed to 
 the Sprite), coupled with the feeling that Lounsbury 
 might return to his senses and spring a mine beneath 
 me, served to keep my nerves at a tension which became 
 well-nigh unbearable. 
 
 There had been a number in the elegant cabin, but 
 of them I wot not, save that most of them got hot 
 with liquor. For a sight of it had been taken, even the 
 captain having his judgment crossed and his jollity in 
 creased by constant recourse to the bottle. 
 
 And here let me say that, in my poor opinion, both 
 the length and cruelty of the war were helped more than 
 a little by this never-ending taking aboard of " Dutch 
 courage." Had it made men battle in proportion to 
 their boasting, twould have served some proper end, 
 but I never found that I could fight better with eyes 
 and wits tangled with liquor, and, in fact, though I 
 preach not, never touched it when in trouble save as on 
 this occasion to keep up appearances. 
 
 23
 
 24 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 And even on this occasion I had still the upper- 
 hand of what I drank, and noticed that Scammell was 
 nursing himself as well; but, aside from we two, twas 
 a noisy crowd that tumbled to the deck to see me back 
 to the Phantom. 
 
 I had made myself mighty popular during my short 
 stay aboard. A change of berths had been offered me, 
 but I had small notion of leaving my own craft with 
 its hidden cargo, though I put it on the ground of for 
 feiting prize money if I deserted her. A crew of five 
 men were given me (which would make a small claim 
 for salvage in favor of the Sprite), and now, with the 
 doctor, who was to give a hand to Lounsbury, I stood by 
 the side while laying a small wager on the race to New 
 York. 
 
 I had little heart in the laugh and last hand shake 
 to the rest, and was about putting foot on the side steps 
 to pass to the boat that was swinging high and low on 
 the running seas, when my attention was caught by the 
 face of a girl who rose through the companion and stood 
 startlingly clear against the black background of the 
 night. The bright lamplight from the cabin flooded 
 and brought out every detail of her features. It was 
 but the face and bust I saw, the open door cutting off 
 the lower part of her figure, but twas the face of an 
 angel, and for an instant I forgot to move, looking at 
 her as I would at a beautiful picture. 
 
 And a picture she made as she stood there turned 
 toward us. High breeding showed in the delicate con 
 tour of chin and cheek, dark eyes and clearly cut straight 
 nose, but twas the small mouth with its fine red lips 
 half open as though in inquiry that held me by its 
 sweetness, while the mass of auburn hair, dressed high, 
 as was the fashion of the times, gave a touch of per 
 fection to her countenance. 
 
 The vision for twas more akin to a vision than
 
 A VOLUNTARY PRISONER. 25 
 
 reality lasted but a breath, for Scammell thrust his 
 form betwixt us, and made rapid steps toward the com 
 panion way, while I, with a hand wave to the others, 
 joined the doctor in the boat. 
 
 The surgeon, a tall, raw-boned Irishman, afflicted 
 with a strong after-dinner hiccough and a desire to 
 talk, settled back in the stern sheets, and voluntarily 
 fell into an explanation of a lady being on board the 
 Sprite. 
 
 " An ye know not Mrs. Badely, Sir Henry s light- 
 o -love? Tis a shame that King s officers be made to 
 dance attendance to that ilk. Her ward seems to be 
 o different clay, though. A bonny lass she is, an a 
 lonely one, having no great love for her guardian, as 
 tis plain to see, an few to turn a word with, saving 
 Scammell. Did ye mark the way he slid to her when 
 she lifted o er the hatch? Tis in my mind he s jealous 
 o the deck her foot lights on, an he hangs about her 
 like a brooding hen. Twas a sorry move Sir Henry 
 made when he lit on him for a guard o honor to Mrs. 
 Badely and Gertrude King. Bad for him, I mean, since 
 tis plain he s struck between wind and water by the 
 lass, though, in my mind, she ll have little to do with 
 the likes o him after setting foot ashore." 
 
 From this and other rambling talk I gathered that 
 the Sprite was taking two ladies from Philadelphia to 
 K"ew York ladies high in favor with General Clinton 
 and that one of them, Mrs. Badely, was the famous 
 beauty to whom the doughty knight had given his heart 
 without the honorable accompaniment of his hand and 
 name. Her notoriety had even spread beyond the Brit 
 ish lines, and much of the opportune inactivity of the 
 enemy was explained as due to the fascination of his 
 mistress and the inability of the commander to withdraw 
 from her influence and take the field. 
 
 Of the younger lady I had never heard, nor, after 
 3
 
 26 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 my fleeting glimpse of her, could I make myself believe 
 that her nature was tainted. Scammell was the official 
 guard of the two for the trip, which accounted for the 
 dragoon being at sea, and, according to the doctor, he 
 had become deeply enamored of his younger charge, 
 the fair Gertrude King. Doubtless it was a desire to 
 cover himself with glory and dazzle the eyes of his love 
 which had led him to take a hand in boarding the 
 Phantom, but I gave over interest in the whole matter 
 by the time the boat reached its destination. 
 
 The half -slewed Irishman made but hasty work with 
 Lounsbury. The unconscious man had been removed to 
 the cabin, and lay in my berth with eyes fast closed, still 
 breathing like a pump. The doctor looked at him 
 frowningly, felt of his head and pulse with a careless 
 air, and then gave his diagnosis. 
 
 " Flip a sovereign, cap n, and bet on its fall, and ye 
 will have as good a notion of how the case will turn out 
 as myself. There s no knowing at all what the man 
 will come to. He has had the devil s own shock. Tis 
 concussion and mayhap fracture, mayhap structural 
 lesion of the brain. AVho knows? He may die, he may 
 live, but he ll be a bit fashed in his wits if he pulls 
 through, and ne er be the lad he was. What s one dead 
 rebel more or less? Let him lie and take chances. 
 Have you a drap o potheen to say good-night on? I m 
 off." 
 
 I felt like kicking the man for his heartlessness, but 
 gave him a drink and saw him started for his own craft; 
 then getting the crew together, I set them to work, 
 and in short order we were under way. 
 
 The surgeon s words had not tended to depress me. 
 The passion possessing me when I struck my mate had 
 passed away, and if he would live and remain " fashed " 
 until I had cleared from the muddle into which I had 
 been forced, I would pray for his final recovery.
 
 A VOLUNTARY PRISONER. 27 
 
 It was an easy matter to sail for New York. As 
 the schooner now bore, wing on wing, that port lay 
 fair off the end of the jib boom. The Sprite sailed 
 something less than half a mile on our larboard beam, 
 and thus we went for hours, each holding her own. In 
 the early light of the following morn the wind suddenly 
 lightened, then shifted to the north, and by the time 
 I had made Sandy Hook, where the bulk of Howe s 
 fleet lay waiting the arrival of the British army, the 
 Sprite was some miles to windward. 
 
 I had forgotten the race. The sick man had most 
 of my time and attention, for he had taken to raving, 
 and was finally lashed to his bunk. His speech was but 
 an uncouth mouthing of words that meant nothing, 
 and when at last, in the lower bay, the schooner was 
 formally taken possession of, I passed the care of 
 him to others, and began to look sharply to my own 
 affairs. 
 
 It was two days after the mess on the Phantom be 
 fore we dropped anchor oft the city, coming to a final 
 rest near the upper limb of the bight of the small bay 
 below Corlears Hook, on the Sound River.* 
 
 There had been more than a little fuss and many 
 questions put by the authorities before I stepped ashore. 
 Answers, too, were given, which might have been picked 
 full of holes had suspicions arisen in the minds of the 
 reigning powers; but owing to the disorder due to the 
 retreat of Clinton from Philadelphia, and the arrival 
 of his army, which had now boarded the fleet at Sandy 
 Hook, confusion ran riot in all branches of government, 
 and saved me from much fine lying. 
 
 There had never been a moment when I could have 
 gotten at the gold in the cabin without exciting sus 
 picion. In fact, I had but little time to study the 
 
 * East River.
 
 28 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 papers I had appropriated and still had on my person; 
 and now, well-nigh destitute from want of cash, I had 
 the misery of seeing the King s broad arrow painted 
 on the bows of the Phantom and of finding myself 
 turned ashore. 
 
 I was not greatly troubled by my lack of ready 
 money. I held indorsed documents for a claim on my 
 own ship for prize money for capturing her, and could 
 easily turn it into gold by allowing a liberal discount; 
 but it went to my heart to see the broad arrow (which 
 marks the King s property), and know the craft 
 was, by hook or by crook, a prize in possession of the 
 enemy. 
 
 But if my comparative poverty caused me no great 
 uneasiness, I was worried over the fact that I had two 
 living witnesses against me, one of whom, the negro, 
 was capable of damning me with his evidence could he 
 but obtain the ear of an official. It struck me forcibly, 
 too, that I was fairly within the enemy s lines and under 
 a false name and character. It were one thing had I 
 been caught at acting a part on the high seas and on 
 my own schooner, but quite another to be discovered 
 under the existing circumstances. The first could have 
 made me a prisoner of war at most; the second would 
 damn me as a spy, and give me short shift to the next 
 world by means of a rope. 
 
 At that time it might have been possible for me 
 to have left New York and gotten on my way homeward. 
 But it did not happen to lie in my blood to turn up 
 with the report of having forfeited everything save 
 liberty and life. "With a weakling it would have passed; 
 with me twould look as though I had thrown away all 
 for the sake of lightening my heels, and would likely 
 injure my reputation. 
 
 Aside from this, there lay hidden close at hand 
 five hundred pounds, and none, save Lounsbury, had
 
 A VOLUNTARY PRISONER. 29 
 
 fathomed the secret. It was my all, barring the 
 schooner, though that was not a total loss, as the ad 
 miralty papers in my pocket bore witness. No man 
 willingly foregoes two thousand, four hundred and odd 
 dollars in gold rightfully his own, unless he be a coward; 
 and that, I maintain, I am not. And so by my fortune 
 I determined to stand until it should be sunk, blown up, 
 or otherwise lost. 
 
 There was more than this pecuniary interest which 
 sealed my determination to stay where I was for a space 
 and risk the future. And that the war. 
 
 Lest my reader think I had been a laggard in the 
 conflict which had now been on better than two and a 
 half years, let it be known that I had been active against 
 the enemy, both afield and afloat; noticeably in the 
 whaleboat warfare on the coast. 
 
 I had made more than one lobster-back wish he had 
 stayed in Merry England (unless he was at once set 
 past wishing), and helped dig a mighty hole in the 
 King s exchequer by destroying his property. But 
 that was in the past, and runs not with this tale. 
 
 I could illy abide the discipline of the army, though 
 with the patriots discipline was but a trifle more than 
 a name. It suited me best to be my own master and 
 fight in my own way (not that I quarrel with the mode 
 of another man, and armies are necessary), and never 
 would I have more than earned rations had I stood in 
 the ranks and moved forward or backward on the word 
 of command. 
 
 Determined then not to run, it took me but a short 
 time to conceive that in my present position I could 
 well serve the great cause which to no man was dearer 
 than to me. Washington, I knew, had few agents with 
 in the lines of the city, and these I might never hope 
 to know, they, like myself, being hooded under the 
 mask of Toryism.
 
 30 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 This last fact was a hitch. I might become a store 
 house a very mine of information on the strength, 
 .weakness, and contemplated movements of the enemy, 
 but be without the means of unloading my knowledge. 
 To force a way through the lines was to take one s life 
 in one s hand with small chance of keeping it, and this 
 would become necessary in my case, for on a close ex 
 amination of Lounsbury s papers I found nothing in 
 the shape of a pass save an old one signed by General 
 Howe, which had opened a way out of Philadelphia. 
 
 The rest of the documents proved to be of no value 
 to me, as they related to matters concerning the kid 
 naping of some unnamed party in Norfolk and an in 
 vestigation with a view of British occupation of that 
 unimportant town. 
 
 From the moment I had found these papers until my 
 landing I had given no thought to the future, my first 
 business having been to provide for my own safety. 
 This now being accomplished (for the present, at least), 
 I fixed matters to my taste in this wise: I would become 
 a spy (a fair name in a good cause), and as a rampant 
 Tory, half freebooter, and half swashbuckler (as be 
 came the character of the man into whose shoes I had 
 stepped), I would peer and pry, and, when finally loaded 
 sufficiently to warrant it, go to Clinton and, on the plea 
 of past services and in the name of Lounsbury, demand 
 a pass through the lines. 
 
 I would not turn my back on this fair prospect 
 and become a common soldier. Nay, like Lounsbury 
 himself (who was now lying somewhere in the city), I 
 had been a free-lance, and a free-lance I would continue 
 to be. 
 
 Difficulties and obstacles were forever obtruding 
 themselves in my mind. The danger I put aside, for 
 war being no pastime, I must incur danger in any active 
 hostility or sit at home and play the boy. Both duty
 
 A VOLUNTARY PRISONER. 31 
 
 and self-interest demanded my standing where the force 
 of circumstances had placed me, and I hailed my de 
 termination with grim joy. Three years agone I was 
 a colonist which had been a small matter but since 
 the Declaration I had been an American, a title to be 
 proud of, and now, though not in the field, I would 
 prove worthy of the name.
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 NEW YORK IX 1778. 
 
 NEW YORK at this period was a scene of con 
 fusion. 
 
 The fear of the French, which had occasioned the 
 evacuation of Philadelphia, had brought a horde of 
 twelve thousand soldiers to be set down among five 
 thousand others, where but scant preparations had been 
 made to receive them. What with the smart of the 
 lashing administered by Washington at Monmouth on 
 their march across New Jersey, the weakness of Howe s 
 fleet, the fear of a sudden movement on the city by 
 the Americans, and the intense heat of the weather, the 
 army was in a state bordering on panic. 
 
 It was an army, too, that through rank and file had 
 been demoralized by inactivity and debauch, and noth 
 ing could have been more apt or prophetic than the 
 remark made by Franklin when it became known to 
 him that the Delaware had been opened by Howe: 
 " Philadelphia has succumbed to the British, but they 
 in turn will succumb to Philadelphia." 
 
 It had been even so, but the effect had become 
 apparent in New York. The civil law had long been 
 prostrate; the military authority lax. Now the British 
 were waking in the condition of a man after a night s 
 dissipation, battling with a muddled brain, and feeling 
 the internal economy fairly out of gear. Fraud, fear, 
 and incompetence reigned in every branch of the serv- 
 
 32
 
 NEW YORK IN 1778. 33 
 
 ice, and betwixt fire, vandalism, and the necessities of 
 war, New York, which had never known and was never 
 to know the dignity of battle, suffered as no besieged 
 city could suffer more. 
 
 All this suited my purpose, as well as directly fa 
 vored my interest. The influx of a host of newcomers 
 saved me from being prominent as a stranger, and the 
 extra preparations for the defense of the town, together 
 with the knowledge that the French were at last 
 upon the sea, diverted attention from small naval ven 
 tures. 
 
 I had feared the Phantom would be immediately 
 refitted and armed for sound or river cruising, and was 
 mightily pleased to have the days go by and see her, 
 as the saying goes, " taking root to the bottom." 
 
 Never did the sun set without my having a look 
 at her swinging at her anchor. She lay off the half- 
 deserted shipyard, which became a favorite haunt of 
 mine when I tired of the mask I wore and wished to 
 ease into my true self. 
 
 And there I would walk up and down, and each 
 day watch the growth of the muck that had fouled 
 her cable on the ebb and flow of the tide. She had not 
 even been dismantled, and, for aught I could see, was 
 without a guard save at night; but to have gone out to 
 her and worked upon the cabin bulkhead would have 
 been impossible. The boat from her larboard davits 
 had been taken away, but the dingey still hung over 
 the stern, as tantalizing as a cup of water just beyond 
 the reach of a thirsting man. 
 
 A sweet sight (but a melancholy one) the schooner 
 made to me as she swung on the broad river well from 
 land, the fair light of an evening over her, mellowing 
 her lines and diminishing the rustiness of her sides. 
 Beyond her was the bald work of Fort Sterling (built 
 and deserted unharmed by the patriots two years be-
 
 34 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 fore), standing clear and yellow above the height of 
 Brookland.* 
 
 Off Wall Street lay many of Howe s fleet, though 
 the largest number was posted south of Nuttens Island,! 
 in readiness to oppose the French, who were daily ex 
 pected. 
 
 But in the fair harmony of sky and land and water 
 there was one discordant note. The horrible hulk of 
 the Jersey, within easy scope of the eye, was directly 
 opposite, and more than once did I see her unload her 
 dead, and could almost hear the cry of " Down, ye 
 rebels, down! " as the patriot prisoners were driven 
 below at sunset. 
 
 Excepting in the shipyard and through the spars?ly 
 built district lying betwixt the line of fortifications and 
 the city proper on the westward side of the island, there 
 was scarcely a rood of land to which I could flee and 
 not come in contact with the evidence of war. The 
 quiet desolation or barrenness of the former and the 
 broad, green meadows, the song of birds, the harmoni 
 ous hush of Nature and calmness of the evening skies 
 at the latter point, were in marked contrast with the 
 hell lying close at hand. Had the devil come on earth 
 in his proper person, as some poet has made him out 
 to have done, and landed in New York, he would have 
 rubbed his hands and switched his barbed tail in glee 
 at the work of his emissaries who were serving him as 
 but few so-called Christians serve the Almighty. 
 
 Barefaced inhumanity stalked before society and 
 caused a laugh. Cruelty had become a pastime. Do 
 mesticity was dead. Robbery seemed set to the music 
 of a popular song, so universal it became, nor was it 
 confined to the confiscation of property belonging to 
 patriots. An uninitiated stranger would have found 
 
 * .Now Brooklyn. f Governors Island.
 
 NEW YORK IN 1778. 35 
 
 some difficulty in determining whether this brilliant as 
 semblage was exerting itself as much toward suppressing 
 a rebellious people as it was in making war on the King s 
 treasury. 
 
 There may have been honest men in New York dur 
 ing the summer of 1778, but as yet I had failed to 
 strike them. Every one with whom I had to do was 
 a gambler, a thief, or a drunkard frequently all three 
 and I dare swear that, were the truth known, one term 
 or the other applied to the whole army, from Sir Henry 
 Clinton to the last subaltern, and from the bowelless 
 villain of a provost marshal, Cunningham, to the low 
 est besotted turnkey under his thumb. 
 
 New York had ceased to be a town. It was nothing 
 more than a fortified camp, in which neither justice 
 nor mercy might be found. Morally, it had become a 
 vast, open sore, spreading its corruption beyond itself. 
 Virtue was a weight on man and woman (I speak but 
 of the rule), and power the only recognized right. 
 
 I was mightily depressed at this time. Seasoned 
 though I was, I shrank from life as I saw it, and sick 
 ened of those into whose company my policy forced 
 me. In fact, I might have made a shift to get myself 
 from this sink of heartless depravity, only my gold still 
 swung at the end of a cable within pistol shot of the 
 shore, and none knew it. 
 
 Many a night had I lain awake hatching schemes 
 to get aboard and recover it, but they were worse than 
 foolhardy, as I knew after a second thinking, so I took 
 it out in watching and biding my time. 
 
 As the days sped, I had little or no fear for my 
 self. Lounsbury was probably well under ground by 
 this, for I had heard nothing of him, and, if the negro 
 was a prisoner in a hulk, he might as well have been 
 in a tomb. 
 
 Of what was taking place in the world outside I
 
 36 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 knew nothing save from rumor, and rumor oft con 
 tradicted itself. The only report seemingly sure was 
 that Washington had sat himself down on the Hudson 
 just north of the Harlem (the very spot from which he 
 had been driven two years before), and was there await 
 ing the arrival of the French fleet in order to strike 
 a blow. And there he remained inactive, for the French 
 did arrive early in July, and, finding Howe s fleet drawn 
 up to receive them, but peered into the bay, and then 
 turned tail and sped away to Newport on the fruitless 
 mission of blockading that port. 
 
 In the seemingly open yet wholly secret life I led I 
 made many friends mostly pothouse companions to 
 whom I listened but spoke little, fearing to be recog 
 nized as an impostor. I kept both ears and eyes on the 
 alert the while, fighting shy of broils, yet holding the 
 respect of the roughest of the camp offscouring, owing 
 to my size and apparent strength. I even dared make 
 a map of the lower defenses of the city; but it was 
 so disguised, so crossed, and recrossed in a manner 
 clear only to myself that I would have trusted it to the 
 eye of any of them without fear of their coming by its 
 true nature. 
 
 This I did not to be idle, for nothing happened in 
 the way of military movement, or even threatened to, 
 for some weeks after my arrival. By then I was prac 
 tically a prisoner, for without a pass and a clear state 
 ment of business I could not have gotten beyond the 
 lines, which now extended across the island from the 
 heights of Corlears Hook to the Hudson.* 
 
 My wound healed in the space of two or three weeks, 
 but still I kept the arm in a sling, using it in privacy 
 that the muscles might not weaken or stiffen from lack 
 of exercise. The sling saved me from many awkward 
 
 * On about the general line of the present Grand Street.
 
 NEW YORK IN 1778. 37 
 
 questions, for when asked why I did not join the army 
 or apply for a berth in the fleet, I had but to point to 
 it, gently moving the limb, and say, " All in good 
 time," adding for weight that I had no call to further 
 serve his Majesty until he paid me the money I had 
 already earned. 
 
 But for the arm, backed perhaps by the way my 
 muscle filled out my coat sleeve, I would have been 
 pressed into the service whether or not, and the sling 
 being a safeguard, I let it bide. 
 
 I had taken quarters in the tavern of the " King s 
 Arms," on King Street,* near the Broadway, making 
 terms on credit, an easy matter with my prize-money 
 claim in my pocket. Twas the gathering place for 
 Tories of the better sort, and but little affected by 
 the military, the dashing element of which favored 
 Fraunce s, on Broad Street. 
 
 But my time was not spent here. Twas the " Bull s 
 Head," on the Bowery Lane,f and near the inner line 
 of defenses, that saw the most of me. 
 
 The spot was but a step from hades, but a great 
 place for much coming and going and hearing the news; 
 and then twas near the shipyard off which lay the 
 Phantom. Never a day passed without one broil, and 
 often two or three, most of them ending in more or less 
 bloodshed, and one of them put a stop to the life I 
 was then leading. 
 
 I mind me it was on a cloudy Saturday forenoon 
 early in August, though through the wet in the air and 
 the veiled heat every pore oozed as if one had raced. 
 There had been but few about. I was half dozing under 
 a locust in the tavern yard when I became conscious that 
 two men had but just settled themselves at a small table 
 
 * Now Pine Street. 
 
 f On the site of the old Bowery Theater.
 
 38 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 near me, and was thoroughly wakened by hearing the 
 name of " Scammell " in connection with some matter 
 they had been discussing. 
 
 One was a boyish-looking naval officer, seated with 
 his face toward me, the other being in dress a cross 
 betwixt a soldier and a civilian. Like the officer, he 
 wore a sword, but I could see no more of him than the 
 broad of his back. 
 
 Using but the tail of my eye, I marked them begin 
 a game of cards for stakes, for I could hear the clash 
 of coin, and after a hand or two he of the back 
 spoke. 
 
 " Does Clinton know the man? " 
 
 " Nay, but he knows of him and what he has done," 
 was the answer. " I was told last night that he has 
 been about. There s something afoot outside, and he ll 
 be needed. Tis a wonder he has not turned up for an 
 other job; Clinton is liberal with the King s cash! I ll 
 give you a pound to find him." 
 
 There was silence for a moment or two as the officer 
 drew in a stake and dealt the cards. 
 
 " I wish I could get fingers on this same King s 
 cash! " the unknown remarked. " Card-playing for 
 shillings is small truck for a man, and ye have had all 
 the luck. Could I pass myself off, d ye think, an do 
 the work instead o the chap yer after? " 
 
 " Nay; you re no sailor, and have but a shady record 
 for pluck." 
 
 " Then tis a sailor you want! As for shades an 
 records, tis but a case o the pot an kettle! It s the 
 way ye naval chaps have of robbing a man of an honest 
 living! Now I ve lost time with ye because I fancied 
 I scented cash. All last night I won nothing save a 
 sore head for this morning. Come! ye but stave me 
 off from the job. Play, then, for something save shil 
 lings and crowns an thin wine. I m sick of it. I ll
 
 NEW YORK IN 1778. 39 
 
 lay ye the pound ye offered on the better o three hands, 
 an then quit, win or lose." 
 
 " God knows I m willing to quit! " was the return. 
 " I ve played all night and am fagged. I ll play you 
 the pound for the last." And the officer yawned as he 
 tossed the cards to his opponent. 
 
 Now I knew this to be nothing less than the trick 
 of a blackleg. To lose on shillings and win on pounds 
 was a common practice with them, as it is to this day. 
 The officer must have been green not to have seen 
 through it, but I had little sympathy for any one wear 
 ing the scarlet, and, in truth, was interested in seeing 
 how the game would be played and possibly hearing 
 more of Scammell. 
 
 Doubtless I had been taken for a drunken drover as 
 I sat with my chin on my chest and my chair tilted 
 against the tree; anyway, they gave me no notice. 
 
 One hand was played to the advantage of the officer. 
 That was to be expected. Then another went smoothly 
 enough in behalf of the fox, after which, though with 
 out moving, I looked sharply for the end. 
 
 The method was slightly unusual, though conceived 
 and executed with skill. They had each been in the 
 habit of tilting back on the rear legs of their chairs 
 as they picked up their hands and conned them. As 
 the last card was dealt and the balance of the pack 
 laid aside, the officer settled himself backward, while 
 the fellow nearest me did the same thing but a second 
 later. It was then the fine play came in. Seeming to 
 lose his balance, to save himself from a fall he threw 
 out a foot which caught beneath the officer s chair, 
 sending that party over on to the broad of his back 
 and bringing himself down on the four legs of his seat. 
 With the rapidity of a skilled villain, I saw him draw 
 cards from his pocket, throwing those dealt him on to 
 the surplus pack, then slamming his false hand face
 
 40 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 down on the table, he jumped to the assistance of his 
 companion. 
 
 The officer accepted the rough apologies offered 
 him, and, after dusting himself with his handkerchief, 
 played out the hand. It fell to his lot to lose, and he 
 paid with a good grace. 
 
 As was usual, the winner proposed a parting dram 
 and set up a loud clamor for the waiter to fetch a 
 bottle of rum, swearing he would have no more of the 
 like of the wine he had been drinking, the empty bottle 
 of which stood betwixt them on the table. 
 
 Now had the waiter been forthcoming, I would prob 
 ably have less of a tale to tell. But twixt the heat, 
 long hours and the present lack of custom, he had 
 doubtless fallen asleep and was deaf to the calls given 
 him. Anyway, after fruitless bawling by the winner, 
 the officer took a hand in the matter by turning his at 
 tention to me, for he shouted: 
 
 " Here, ye lazy son of a bullock pricker! step out 
 and find the waiter, and be damned to you ! " at the 
 same time hurling the empty bottle at me. 
 
 The glass missile struck me fairly on the wounded 
 arm, about an inch above where the negro s knife had 
 entered. For an instant it gave me exquisite pain, but the 
 sling did much to deaden the force of the blow, though 
 it had naught to do with lessening the towering anger 
 to which both words and bottle had brought me. In 
 six strides I was on them, and upsetting the card- 
 sharper, chair and all, with my open palm I dealt the 
 naval man a blow in the face, laying him backward in 
 the dust where he had been but a short time before. 
 
 With this my anger slipped away from me like 
 breath from polished steel, and I saw but the comic 
 side of the two sprawling in the dirt. 
 
 Never could I hold heat longer than a wire (though 
 I take it as readily), and had they been quick to ac-
 
 NEW YORK IN 1778. 41 
 
 knowledge the mistake that had been made, I would 
 have cried them quits, and even joined them in a dram. 
 
 But it was not so to be. After a few seconds be 
 wilderment, the officer scrambled to his feet, and, pull 
 ing his sword from its scabbard, paused as though to 
 take his bearings for an onset. He was no more than 
 twenty years of age, carrying plenty of the marks of 
 dissipation on him, and what with his dust- whitened 
 clothes, his boyish proportions, and his dirty face, he 
 looked, with his drawn sword, like a ruffled bantam. 
 
 I should have been obliged to hurl the table at him 
 in self-defense (which would have been ill for him) 
 had not at that moment a cavalryman on a black 
 charger driven full tilt into the tavern yard, reining up 
 close to us.
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 A TRIANGULAR QUARREL. 
 
 I KNEW of no reason to fear him, but it gave me a 
 start to recognize Scammell, in the full uniform of a 
 captain in Do Lancy s marauding Tories. He threw 
 a quick glance about him, taking in the angry belliger 
 ent and his friend, who had picked himself up and was 
 standing at a safe distance with his blade in his hand, 
 as though waiting a favorable opportunity to rush 
 in and take a part in the muss. Though I fell under 
 the Tory s eye, he did not at once recognize me, for 
 I had my beard at about a ten days growth, and was 
 something more than picturesque in the shabbiness of 
 my dress. He immediately claimed the attention of 
 my opponent by calling him by name. 
 
 "Hello, Belden! Something put out again, eh? 
 What the devil s the matter now? Have you not had 
 lessons enough in your own set that you must fall 
 afoul of pothouse loungers? What s amiss? " 
 
 " That villain has dared lay his hand on me, and, 
 by God! he s bound to pay the penalty! " burst out 
 Belden, for the first time finding his voice. 
 
 "Which villain?" asked Scammell, as he threw his 
 leg over the saddle and came to the ground with the 
 bridle in the crook of his elbow. " Faith, you look as 
 though odds were against you. I see two of them. 
 Tis your good luck I had a thirst that needed slaking. 
 On my soul, whom have we here? " he exclaimed, scowl- 
 
 43
 
 A TRIANGULAR QUARREL. 43 
 
 ing, as with a second look he identified me. " Is it a 
 fair quarrel, Belden? I ll weight your pockets with 
 five pounds if you ll hand your rights to me, unless tis 
 a matter of cheating at cards. What, sirrah! " he de 
 manded, walking toward me with a malignant look 
 to his rather fine features, " you were quick to offer 
 me a lesson awhile since. Are you as ready to take 
 one yourself at this meeting? How is it you have out 
 raged my friend and your better? " 
 
 " Let them alone, yer Honor! " interposed the card- 
 sharper, approaching. " Tis a tie cause for the both. 
 One was hit by a bottle, the other grounded by a fist. 
 Can t we have a trifle o fun with a hawbuck without 
 interferences? Faith, the bullock man shall have my 
 sword, an we ll see which is the better carver! I ll 
 back him, too, an ye may back yer friend the popinjay, 
 who s one merit lies in not knowing when he s well 
 beaten. Come, now! we ll to the Kalchook Hill * an 
 have it out. I ll 
 
 "What! you villain you! you low thief ! Get hence, 
 or I ll scalp you! " interrupted Scammell, turning on 
 him. " Kalchook Hill, you dog! You would never 
 go so near the gallows on your own free will." 
 
 "Gallows, is it?" returned the fellow, still holding 
 his ground. " I tell ye, Scammell, capting though ye 
 be, ye are riper for the gallows than am I, an this I ll 
 back in any way ye name." 
 
 Scammell, instead of falling on the fellow in a fury, 
 an act I looked for, snapped his fingers in his face, and 
 with a look measuring him from head to foot, replied 
 contemptuously : 
 
 * Kalchook Hill was a small elevation near the Collect, a fresh 
 water pond, which was on the site of the present Tombs. The 
 gallows used for military execution stood between it and the 
 Fields, or present City Hall Park.
 
 44 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 "You dirty dog! Mighty brave you are in the 
 knowledge that a King s officer would ne er cross swords 
 with such scum. I ll give you one minute to be gone, 
 and, failing, I ll see you tied up and lashed. If you 
 know me so well, you know twill be done." And with 
 this he turned his back on the sharper, who, far from 
 obeying the hint to leave, stepped away but a few 
 paces. 
 
 " And now, my wild sea bird," said the Tory, re 
 directing his attention to me, " are you willing to clear 
 yourself with my friend here? Give a fair explanation 
 of this affair if you can, or perhaps you would like to 
 make a fine point of the matter with me in some quiet 
 spot. I might doubt my rights to honorably cross 
 swords with such as you in a matter as private as this, 
 but I will forego all objections and ask no terms. Ah! 
 but you have an excuse; you will doubtless plead a 
 wound." 
 
 The deep insolence of his last remark turned my 
 dislike of the man to a sudden hatred. Twas not the 
 words, but his more than unbearable manner of utter 
 ing them that roused my ire and brought me to the 
 pitch of action. Had he been nearer, I would have 
 served him with my fist as I had served Lounsbury, and 
 would have regretted it at once for its lack of dignity. 
 Forgetting for the moment my assumed role, I stood 
 where he had found me, and answered: 
 
 " Captain Scammell, my calling is the sea. You 
 are but a marauding bushwhacker, nor can the curse 
 be rubbed off you by a title or hidden by fine trappings, 
 and did you but know it you would be honored by cross 
 ing swords with me. As for an explanation, I will sat 
 isfy you so far as to say that I punished your friend for 
 insulting me, and, by the God above me, if you wish 
 to carry this further, I will punish you worse than I 
 did him! I could but defend myself from him, a boy
 
 A TRIANGULAR QUARREL. 45 
 
 whose back I could break across my knee, so he goes 
 harmless. As for you, I will fight you within the hour 
 and ask for no second." 
 
 " Good! " he broke in. " You gave the name to the 
 weapon. Let it be swords, and at once. Kemember," 
 he went on with an oath, and working himself into a 
 rage, "ask no quarter of me. Up or down I give no 
 mercy; let a I outrance be the word." 
 
 " Nay," said I, fanned to an equal heat by his blood 
 thirsty manner and the fury in his eye " nay, then, I 
 will not kill you, villain as you are, but, should I dis 
 arm you, or you slip, I will beat you with the flat of 
 my sword until you roar for quarter, or I break every 
 bone in your foul hide! Twill be scant mercy, as you 
 Avcre better killed outright. Now look to it, for this 
 I will do, or my name is not Thorn Lounsbury! " 
 
 I caught myself just in time, and started violently 
 as I discovered the trip of my tongue. Both the others 
 likewise gave a jump, but it immediately transpired 
 that each had a different cause. 
 
 It was Scammell who first showed his reason for thus 
 starting, and that was through the insult I had offered 
 him in degrading him by a threatened beating. White 
 with rage, he threw aside the bridle, and drawing his 
 heavy sabre, advanced on me with a torrent of oaths. 
 
 Before I could do more than whip my left arm out 
 of its sling and lift the bulky table in defense (for I 
 was unarmed), the young officer sprang between us. 
 
 " Hold hard, Scammell! Lounsbury! Are you Cap 
 tain Lounsbury? Lounsbury, of Rye? By my faith! 
 but I came near making a bull of it! This thing can go 
 no further now, Scammell. I ve been looking for the 
 man high and low for a week. Clinton wants him at 
 once at once! The order comes from headquarters. 
 What, man! Hold hard!" 
 
 "Hold hard yourself!" shouted the Tory, as he
 
 46 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 tried to dodge the young officer. " No further now! 
 Do you think I ll brook such words to my face and wait 
 for formalities? Ay, Lounsbury it is; and of Eye 
 and the Phantom and the devil, for aught I care ! What 
 can Clinton want with such a man? Stand aside, you 
 salt fish, and let me meet him! " 
 
 " Call me no fish, you butcher-bird! " snapped Bel- 
 den. " What ails your humor to-day? Has the heat 
 gotten your head? You first pick my own quarrel 
 away from me, and then flout me for looking to my own 
 interests. Has the fair Gertrude hipped you, that you 
 spleen so quickly? I tell you my orders are impera 
 tive." 
 
 " Fore God, you sprat! An you dare twit me in 
 public on my private affairs!" shouted the Tory, turn 
 ing his wrath on the naval officer. " Use but her name 
 again, and I ll spit you as you stand, you half a man! 
 How! Will you, too, fight? " 
 
 Stung by his words, and more than stung by the 
 reference to his short stature, Belden had whipped out 
 the sword he had sheathed and thrown himself into the 
 fencer s attitude. 
 
 "Fight? Ay, I ll fight! Put aside that meat axe 
 and use a gentleman s tool. I ll show you that half a 
 man is better than a whole brute. My wrist is as fine 
 as yours, for all your brawn." 
 
 That Scammell s blood had o ercome his brain was 
 plainly apparent by the way he threw his heavy sabre 
 to the ground and ran toward the card-sharper. But 
 that fellow, anticipating his wants, brought up the 
 point of the weapon which he still held, and presenting 
 it at the breast of the oncomer, retreated a few steps 
 and cried out: 
 
 "Nay, nay! Ye shall not have it. Settle yer brawl 
 as best ye may, but my sword is mine, an with me it 
 shall bide. By the look of it, ye must settle with the
 
 A TRIANGULAR QUARREL. 47 
 
 three of us. Pull out o the pickle, an ye can; ye shall 
 ha no help or steel o me." 
 
 Now while this was going on I had not been idle 
 with either brain or body. I saw at once that Louns- 
 bury had become a personage of importance, and that 
 lie was unknown to Clinton by sight. That something 
 of moment was on hand was also discovered, and it 
 evidently Jay in my power to thwart the matter and 
 confound the British. At the same time, it would 
 probably spread open a path for me to leave the city, 
 and possibly in some manner show me a way to lay 
 hands on my gold. It was a fair chance to act upon, 
 and I could in no wise let harm come to the young sailor 
 until I knew more or had been piloted on my way. 
 
 This was with my head. With my body I simply 
 moved to where lay Scammell s sabre, and picked it up. 
 
 As I did so, the baffled officer turned and saw the 
 action. Foiled at every point, and now unarmed and 
 compassed by three armed men, he swore and fumed like 
 a baited animal. 
 
 I saw the folly of his total loss of temper, for had 
 he not parted with it he never would have been placed 
 in his present position. He had quarreled and well- 
 nigh fought with three men in as many minutes, while 
 his blind fury had brought him to where he was worsted 
 and degraded at once. 
 
 As he stood there, too proud to retreat and unable 
 to advance, he glanced hastily in every direction. In 
 his desperation he was doubtless looking for his horse 
 and his pistols in the holsters, and had he found them 
 there would have been bloodshed. But his high-spir 
 ited animal, frightened at my act of swinging aloft the 
 table and the shouts that followed, had tossed up head 
 and tail at once and gone galloping from the yard, now 
 being nowhere in sight. 
 
 And thus we stood for perhaps the space of half a
 
 48 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 minute (though it seemed longer), while at a distance 
 gathered a number who had been drawn hither by 
 the noise of the brawl. Twas a mighty awkward pre 
 dicament for Scammell, but Belden finally put a period 
 to the matter, and opened a way for the Tory to re 
 treat. Slipping the point of his sword into its scabbard, 
 he thrust it down with a ring, and cried: 
 
 "Avast, all hands! We re nothing short of a pack 
 of fools. Each of us has had a thrust at his neighbor, 
 and each in turn has stood between two others. Tis 
 the prettiest muss I ever saw, so d n me! T\vas all 
 beginnings and devil of an ending. Let s make it up. 
 Come, Scammell, you might well go halfway to meet 
 half a man. By my faith, that s not bad. Lounsbury, 
 I was a bullock myself, and ask pardon for the bottle. 
 So there s my sop. Who s next?" 
 
 Now my heart warms to a man who is quick to take 
 fire, whose wrath is like the touch of a match to gun 
 powder, the force of which is gone when its work is 
 done; just as I hate the sullen spirit of one who nurses 
 the last spark and sulks until its heat dies for lack of 
 fanning. 
 
 The generosity of the boy for he was little else 
 struck home to me, and I was about offering my hand, 
 when Scammell, quick to take advantage of the turn 
 of affairs, spoke up: 
 
 " So let it be if you say so, Belden! I am overhot 
 from the ride from the outer lines at Kingsbridge. I ll 
 willingly pass you and yon fellow " indicating the 
 trickster with a jerk of his head " but I ll not be quits 
 with your new protege save but for the time you need 
 him. If Clinton wants him, I ll spare him the while to 
 do his dirty work, for on honorable matters he would 
 ne er employ such a man while his betters go begging. 
 How now, sirrah?" he continued, turning and advan 
 cing toward me. " You are glad enough to accept the
 
 A TRIANGULAR QUARREL. 49 
 
 respite, I doubt not. Will you name time and place to 
 receive your deserts?" 
 
 " Tis against my nature to duel in cold blood; but, 
 as my word is passed, I ll carry through my promise. 
 Where do you put up? " 
 
 "At the King s Arms, truckler!" 
 
 " Then, sir, you lie close to the rod, for there I 
 stay also. For the time to meet you, that must rest 
 with Sir Henry. For the place, that your howls be not 
 heard by your fellows, I make it the clump of trees in 
 Lepner s Meadows.* You doubtless know the spot. As 
 to the hour, I will enlighten you at your quarters as soon 
 as may be. Now, Mr. Belden, I am at your disposal. 
 Shall we get to headquarters? " 
 
 Saying this, I threw to the ground the Tory s sabre 
 and turned from him. Instead of stooping for his side 
 arm, Scammell stepped around so as to again be before 
 me, and, though there was no abatement to the ma 
 licious hatred in his eye, his voice fell to a hoarse whis 
 per as he said: 
 
 " By my faith, sir, it were better you had stood and 
 been run through than to have put into my head the 
 matter you have just given me! More than that. It 
 were better that you had the devil and his horde against 
 you than Walter Scammell! " 
 
 And bending, he picked up his sabre, sheathed it, 
 threw a careless salute to Belden, and walked off, the 
 card-sharper joining the throng about the tavern door. 
 
 * Lispenard s Meadows, an extensive tract of drained swamp 
 land beyond the then city limits, through about the center of 
 which now runs the present Canal Street.
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 LEFT alone with Belden, that worthy looked me 
 over slowly, and then holding out his hand, said: 
 
 " On my soul, Lounsbury, you had best shrive your 
 self! To tell the truth, I m mightily afraid of that 
 fellow, who is no less the brute I called him because I 
 offered to cry quits. He would be invincible with a 
 rapier, only he holds the light weapon with too light a 
 hand. He is all points and tricks, and, unless you dis 
 arm him, it looks to go hard with you. You will never 
 get by his guard." 
 
 " Thanks," said -I, laughing, and taking his hand. 
 " I ve a trick or two myself. What does the general 
 want with me now ? " 
 
 " I have but a fraction of the matter, and know my 
 place too well to talk of it. Let us step out; but, man, 
 you ll never appear at headquarters in such a rig! You 
 would be barred at the door! " 
 
 " Tis but the service of a razor and a shift of clothes 
 I need, and will soon have. Will you bear me company 
 to my lodgings ? " 
 
 He agreed to this, and we set out down the Bowery 
 Lane to the Fields, past the provost prison * and poor- 
 house, and so along the Broadway, chatting like two 
 old friends as we walked. 
 
 * Now the Hall of Records, City Hall Park. 
 50
 
 A FAIR PROSPECT. 51 
 
 Twas a strange coincidence, I thought, when I 
 found my companion was attached to the Sprite, having 
 been on board even at the time I was telling a false 
 tale of myself in her cabin, he having been laid up below 
 through a wound received in a duel while in Philadel 
 phia. A jolly, light-hearted, dissipated boy he was, but 
 as rampant a worshiper of royalty as has fallen to my 
 lot to meet. 
 
 He could tell me nothing of Mrs. Badely and her 
 ward, Gertrude King (the latter toward whom I had 
 an instinctive leaning), save that they had long ago 
 left the schooner and were in sumptuous quarters on 
 Queen Street. Scammeirs passion for the young lady 
 was no secret to him, and he made a coarse joke at the 
 expense of both, for which I could have wrung his neck. 
 
 But all were alike in those days, it seemed to me, 
 and not once did I hear a woman respectfully spoken 
 of, though the maligners of the sex professed a readiness 
 to lie down and be trodden on when in the presence of 
 the least of the ladies of fashion. Such a fulsome aping 
 of fine manners on the streets and off; such back-bend 
 ing and courtesying, froth, and hypocrisy; such affec 
 tation in speech and attitude; such utter prostration 
 before the god of mode and folly as was practiced by 
 these puppets of the King in this small copy of the 
 court, never before or since has it been the fortune of 
 man to see. Insincerity, heartlessness, and an absurd 
 sensitiveness regarding so-called points of honor ruled 
 the day. And these were the spirits who were expected 
 to subdue the hardy yeomanry of America! 
 
 But this is neither here nor there. 
 
 Well shorn, with a decent ribbon for my queue, a 
 suit but a shade or two the worse for wear, and a sword 
 at my thigh for effect, we set off for our destination, 
 Belden having washed his dirty face and generally 
 groomed himself.
 
 52 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 At this time Clinton s headquarters was on the 
 Broadway, at No. 1, and opposite the Bowling Green, 
 being the same dwelling wherein Washington had estab 
 lished himself while the patriot troops occupied the 
 city. 
 
 Twas strange to me that the British commander 
 should have hit upon this house, not only because of its 
 association, but from the fact that it was, with some few 
 mansions to the north, cut off from the rest of the city 
 by the broad swath of ruin caused by the great fire 
 of September, 1776. 
 
 This conflagration had started (God knows how!) 
 near the Whitehall, and, under the fanning of a strong 
 wind, had burned northwest, crossing the Broadway 
 below Trinity Church, and from there laying low every 
 thing clear to the Hudson and northward to nigh the 
 city limits. Trinity went with the rest, but by some 
 mercy St. Paul s was spared, as well as King s College,* 
 the fire stopping just short of Robinson Street,! on 
 which stood the latter. 
 
 No attempt had been made to rebuild or even clear 
 the ruins, and now twas a dangerous neighborhood, 
 as the offscourings of the camp had taken possession 
 of the whole area, and utilizing old walls, beams, and 
 sails, had established a colony of violence and filth, 
 which went by the name of Canvastown. 
 
 It might have been pleasant for Sir Henry to look 
 from his south windows over the grand Battery, the 
 bay, and the fleet beyond, but I take it he little cared 
 for the view east, with its black desert of devastation, 
 or to see in the Bowling Green, right beneath his 
 knightly nose, the hacked pedestal that had but lately 
 borne the desecrated statue of his Majesty of England. 
 
 But notwithstanding its isolation twas a fine man- 
 
 * Columbia College. f Now Park Place.
 
 A PAIR PROSPECT. 53 
 
 sion, this Kennedy House, as it was called, and well 
 fitted in its interior for the uses to which it was put. 
 Broad halls and large rooms furnished ample space 
 for the brilliancy usually gathered there, but to-day it 
 was comparatively deserted. 
 
 Had I been alone I should have had infinite trouble 
 in getting in at all, but Belden soon opened a way past 
 the guards at the door, only to meet disappointment in 
 the end, for Sir Henry was at dinner, and, as was his 
 wont, would let nothing short of a rebel invasion pre 
 vent its slow completion. 
 
 He sent word that he would see Captain Lounsbury 
 in private at three o clock on the morrow, and also sent 
 a sealed paper bearing my assumed name, which I was 
 requested to read against my return. 
 
 As I was primed and cocked for action, his char 
 acteristic delay chafed me, and, unknown to him, came 
 nigh to putting a mighty spoke in my wheel. 
 
 However, there was nothing for me to do but wait, 
 though with the possibilities of a duel on my hands and 
 my coming interview with Clinton, I had e en enough 
 to occupy my mind and save time from dragging. My 
 instructions, too, were to be read, and giving good-day 
 to Belden, I set off up the Broadway, determined to 
 both walk off a growing nervousness and seek a quiet 
 spot in which to con my paper. 
 
 No house should hold me in such sweltering weather, 
 so on past the Fields with its outlying barracks I went, 
 to where the Broadway dwindled to a mere cart track, 
 and finally ended in a cow pasture closed by a pair of 
 bars. 
 
 Twas the edge of Lepner s Meadows, and, with the 
 view of planning the details of my intended battle, I 
 made my way to the clump of trees near its center, 
 where, throwing myself on the close turf, I broke the 
 seal of the papers.
 
 54: A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 The contents made me start as even a shot near my 
 ear would fail to have done. The matter was short, 
 and ran thus: 
 
 " In the name of his Majesty George III, of England, 
 etc. You are by me instructed and ordered. Take five 
 men of your own selection and man the schooner Phan 
 tom, captured by you while sailing against the interests 
 of his Majesty. With this vessel you will repair to 
 General Pigot, at Newport, R. I., with dispatches and 
 instructions to be given you. Newport now being in 
 vested by the French and the rebellious subjects of his 
 Majesty, you will enter the harbor of Newport under 
 the guise and flag of the rebellious colonies, bearing 
 out the deception to the extent of casting away the 
 vessel on the coast of Ehode Island, or in any other way 
 reaching or putting yourself into communication with 
 General Pigot. You are to make requisition on the 
 Commissary Department for such stores and supplies as 
 you may deem necessary, and report to me for further 
 and secret instructions on the completion of arrange 
 ments, which shall not be later than ten days from 
 date." 
 
 This paper was undated, unsigned, and showed hur 
 ried construction. I saw at once that it was given me 
 to test my willingness to undertake the adventure. It 
 was to be but a dispatch-bearing mission, with spying 
 as a side issue, unless modified in some manner by the 
 secret instructions referred to. But should these prove 
 a demand to kidnap or even assassinate Washington 
 himself, I would be found ready to undertake the task 
 on any terms, so great had become my desire to leave 
 the city. 
 
 Five men I could easily get, though not a soul I 
 knew who could help me carry out the scheme that 
 leaped to my brain on the first perusal of the paper. 
 Yet even alone I would undertake to bring the Phantom
 
 A FAIR PROSPECT. 55 
 
 with five prisoners into a patriot port could I once get 
 the vessel clear of the bay. 
 
 I felt the strength of ten men within me as I 
 hatched the plot, and only prayed for the morrow and 
 the meeting with Clinton; for Scammell, the duel, and 
 all else faded before the glowing light of the future. 
 I worked myself into an ecstasy the like of which I had 
 not experienced since, when a boy and beset with home 
 sickness, I hailed the date of my return to the arms of 
 my mother. My property and my liberty were to be 
 set within reach at once, and beside them I would place 
 honor, the last by carrying back a batch of prisoners. 
 
 It was small wonder that I acted the boy again, and 
 you who have never known the sudden loosening of 
 tightened heartstrings and the childlike joy resulting, 
 know little of the upper scale of human happiness. 
 
 But I did not hold myself long at this height. The 
 practical fact that I must name date and hour when 
 on this very spot I should stand and fight for my life, 
 forced itself upon me. 
 
 The ground was well hit upon, being screened from 
 all sides by the trees, which would also keep the sun 
 from the eyes of either combatant. It was fairly open, 
 level, and free from underbrush. 
 
 The morrow would be the Sabbath, and, though war 
 is no respecter of days, I would not desecrate it by fight 
 ing out a private quarrel. Therefore I set my mind for 
 the meeting at sunrise of Monday, that I might have 
 the business off my hands and prepare for what I con 
 sidered the greater adventure. 
 
 Now I had little doubt of the result of this conflict. 
 Unless Scammell was different in sword play from those 
 I had met either in sport or earnest, he would be dis 
 armed ere he had well begun. It was through a trick 
 which depended more on sheer strength than great skill, 
 for of the latter I had little more than a fair ability to
 
 56 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 defend myself without seeking to pass the guard of a 
 practiced swordsman. 
 
 It was simply that I would use a rapier of greater 
 weight than my opponent (which would be but natu 
 ral), and at the proper time throw my guard wide open 
 by lowering my hand. On the instant of the onset 
 which would be sure to follow, I had but to step back 
 a pace and bring up my weapon with all strength and 
 speed, the fairly sure result being that the sword of 
 my adversary would be driven from his hand or the 
 blade fly to pieces by the force of the blow. Whether 
 this trick is allowable save under the rule that " all s 
 fair in war," I scarcely know, but in sport I had tried 
 it often, and with never a failure, even though my op 
 ponent knew my intention. 
 
 With the hint of Scammell s light hand which had 
 been given me by Belden, I was sufficiently without 
 worry to take with full zest the apparent good luck 
 which had come to me, and, with no thought of an 
 untoward slip in my fair prospects, I returned to the 
 King s Arms, and there wrote a note in set terms in 
 viting Scammell and his second to meet me the day and 
 hour on which I had determined. 
 
 This being dispatched to his room to await his com 
 ing, I ate my evening meal, and then sallied to the ship 
 yard for my usual look at the Phantom. 
 
 She still swung in the old spot, with an easy grace 
 and an apparent unlifting of her forefoot, an effect 
 caused by the sheer of her deck lines. My soul went 
 out to her, for she seemed to know me and strain at 
 the cable like a high-mettled steed that only needed 
 the word to take the bit and be off. Eusty she was, 
 and foul besides, but, rusty and foul, she could outpoint 
 half his Majesty s heavy-going cruisers, and I waved 
 my hand at her as I would have done to my lady had 
 I one, swearing to give the word ere that day fortnight.
 
 A FAIR PROSPECT. 57 
 
 How little I knew we would both be well tried by 
 then! 
 
 I waved my hand to her and turned to go, when 
 my eye caught a huge coil of black smoke rising from 
 near the river s edge far down the city. That it was a 
 fire on shore I made out at a glance, nor did I give it 
 more than passing notice until, on entering the streets 
 again, I became aware of the concourse pouring in that 
 direction. Soldiers by companies, disarmed and bear 
 ing buckets, were hurrying toward the conflagration, 
 but not until reaching the King s Arms and ascending 
 to the fine cupola that surmounted it did I know that 
 the fire was of vast extent. And even as I looked it 
 spread from house to house, threatening to assume the 
 proportions of the great scourge of two years before. 
 
 Now with interest well sharpened I made haste to 
 get to the scene of the burning and be of use a thing 
 not so easy to do, owing to the press of a mass of people 
 who stood about useless and curious, watching the play 
 of the great sheets of flame, and giving exercise to their 
 voices when their hands might have been of better 
 service. 
 
 I soon saw, however, that there was no organized 
 effort to suppress the flames, and without order my arm 
 was no better than the weakest. But of this second 
 mighty fire in New York, in which upward of three 
 hundred buildings were destroyed, I have little to do. 
 Looking back from these later days (for I am an old 
 man now), it seems as though the smoke had beckoned 
 me to its source that I might take my next step in the 
 quickening drama of my life, the plot of which was to 
 lead me through travail and bloodshed, that in the end 
 I might be fitted to enjoy the great happiness it has 
 been the will of God to vouchsafe me.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A SINGED PATRIOT. 
 
 AFTER being driven from one street to another by 
 the scorching of the advancing flames, I finally turned 
 into an alley and stood partly protected against the 
 baking radiation by the corner of a building. 
 
 Betwixt the heat of the day, the fire, the smoke, and 
 my fruitless exertions, I was as wet as though fresh from 
 the river, as black as a coal-burner, and not in the fair 
 est of humors. My coat and hat (my best ones, too) 
 were burned by falling embers, and the sword I had for 
 gotten to put off was hot to the touch and bothered my 
 legs exceedingly. My eyes burned as though peppered, 
 and the roar of the mad element, the falling of walls, 
 and crashing of breaking timbers were at times well-nigh 
 deafening. Blasting hot draughts drove down the way, 
 and a suffocating pall of smoke swept through the street 
 as though pushed from behind by a whirlwind. Noth 
 ing was visible ten paces off, and why I remained where 
 I was useless, and where my situation was becoming 
 as dangerous as it was unbearable, I can nowise account 
 for, save that I was ruled by Fate, against which no 
 man need combat. 
 
 I was about stepping from the mouth of the blind 
 alley in which I had been standing, when the figure of 
 a man sped out of the smoke and dashed against and 
 then passed me, reeling from the blow and staggering 
 into the recess behind. 
 
 Slight as he was, the speed at which he had been 
 58
 
 A SINGED PATRIOT. 59 
 
 going nearly took me off my legs, and I had barely re 
 covered my balance when a dozen armed soldiers ran 
 by, shouting and swearing, as though in chase. With 
 the last of my stock of patience exhausted, I turned on 
 the fellow who had run into me, and found him at the 
 end of the cul-de-sac, with his back to the wall, and two 
 blackened fists held up as if to defend himself to the 
 last. 
 
 Conceiving that I had caught a thief, a ransacker of 
 deserted houses, if not an incendiary, I clinched him by 
 the collar fo drag him forth for delivery to his pursuers, 
 but the fellow dealt me so smart a blow in the face that 
 for a second it caused me to see lights. 
 
 I was in the mood to cuff him into insensibility, and 
 might have done so had he not spoken, or rather gasped: 
 
 " Tore God, I thought you a redcoat, and tried to 
 vex you into killing me! If you have the heart of a 
 man, do not deliver me to them again! " 
 
 " Who are you? " I demanded, loosening my hold 
 and trying to get at his features through the black that 
 covered them, though I made out no more than that 
 part of his face was overgrown by a young beard well 
 singed, the rest being so grimed that he might have 
 worn a mask and been no safer from recognition. 
 
 " On your mercy, then," he answered; " an escaped 
 prisoner." 
 
 " From where? " 
 
 "The den lies in the heart of the fire by this." 
 And rolling up his eyes, the whites of which showed 
 pitifully against his burned skin, he hesitated, and then 
 broke out again: 
 
 " What is it to you who or what I am ? If you love 
 justice or hope for it yourself, let me go!" 
 
 " Come, then," said I, softened more by his manner 
 than his words, " we will roast here in three minutes. 
 Let us get into better air." So, taking him by the arm,
 
 60 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 I led him into the street, where the smoke was so dense 
 that it became necessary to grope one s way. Once we 
 were in danger of suffocation, but the wind whirled 
 aloft the thick muck for an instant, and gradually we 
 worked to a fairer spot, though still hard by the fire. 
 
 And here it was I noticed that the hair of his head 
 was burned off on one side, his coat scorched to tinder, 
 and his breeches hanging in shreds. 
 
 But I had no sooner brought him to where we could 
 take a whole breath and see a few rods in advance than 
 he held back, darting his glances in every direction 
 as though in fear of detection. Had I not kept a close 
 grip on him, he would have broken away and fled, being 
 more like a frightened animal than a man. 
 
 " Now, once for all," said I, with a great pity stirred 
 by his miserable condition as well as admiration by his 
 gameness, " what are you a criminal or a prisoner of 
 war? " 
 
 " Nay, no criminal," he answered, looking me fairly 
 in the eye and drawing a long breath. 
 
 "What then? A prisoner of war an escaped pa 
 triot? " 
 
 " You can be no Tory to have used the word pa 
 triot, " he answered hastily, with a sudden lifting of his 
 head. 
 
 " You are right," I returned quickly. " If you are 
 hunted as a rebel, you have found a friend and I the 
 same. We were each in need." 
 
 " Then, for the love of God, let me go! There will 
 be a price on my head! It is death to hold me here! 
 I was to be hanged as a spy, but the fire set me free." 
 
 "A spy! By the Lord, from your looks you might 
 be a second Shadrach! What name are you under? 
 Come, let us work into safer quarters," said I, full of a 
 sudden fever, for it never occurred to me to be doubtful 
 of his statement.
 
 A SINGED PATRIOT. 61 
 
 " Nay, then, I am best alone. Let me go, man; 
 your grip is crushing my arm! I have a friend, and, 
 once with him, I am safe. I believe you to be true. 
 Know me as Rex." 
 
 "One second more, then!" said I, loosening my 
 grip. "Where can we meet?" 
 
 He had drawn from me apace and was prepared 
 to run, but halted long enough to throw back: " The 
 Dove Kingsbridge Road if God be willing I get so 
 far. See Nick Stryker." And with this he disappeared 
 into the smoke. 
 
 This incident happened so quickly that I had met 
 him, taken his status, and he had gone before I realized 
 that I had not gotten from him a tithe of the knowledge 
 I wished. 
 
 The " Dove " was no puzzle, but of Nick Stryker I 
 had never heard. The former was a tavern somewhat 
 back from, the Kingsbridge Road, about seven miles 
 from the city, and near McGowan s Pass,* the latter 
 probably the host of that house of call. 
 
 I knew the place from having stopped there before 
 the war, and, in fact, the upper island was as familiar to 
 me as to the majority of its inhabitants, but at that 
 time there was no Nick Stryker holding forth at the 
 Dove. Years and the vicissitudes of war had doubt 
 less changed many features of the country above the 
 town, and might well have changed the proprietors of 
 a tavern. So to it I determined to go as soon as I could 
 come by a pass from Clinton. 
 
 How the spy could run the barriers was a peg fur 
 ther than I could see, but he seemed full of resource, 
 and evidently knew his business. Doubtless, thought 
 I, his friend is powerful, and will put him on his way. 
 I berated myself for having let him go. I would have 
 
 * McGowau s Pass is now included in Central Park.
 
 62 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 stood by him in the face of a platoon, so hungered was 
 I for one in whom I could confide and who could assist 
 me in the plan which still hoiled in my brain. 
 
 Find him again I must. The name of " Hex," being 
 but Latin for " the king," I guessed to be only a pass 
 word through which his allies might come by him, and 
 this conjecture Avas all I had to assist me in my intended 
 search. But it was something to go on, connected with 
 the rest, and with no further attention to the vast con 
 flagration, I made my way out of its vicinity. 
 
 Within two hours of the time I left it a deluge of 
 rain, which had been threatening all day, came down 
 and quenched the flames. For my own interests I 
 looked upon the flood as providential, and it was as 
 Avell for the interests of the thousands of patriots shut 
 up in the city, as, had it not been for this interposition 
 of Heaven, the entire town would have been swept by 
 fire, and the imprisoned inmates of the packed sugar 
 houses might have shared the fate of the buildings 
 themselves. 
 
 It did not surprise me that on reparing to the King s 
 Arms I found Scammell had not returned to receive my 
 note, nor did I greatly wonder when told the next 
 morning that he had not been in overnight. The con 
 fusion attending the fire might easily account for many 
 irregularities, and what cared I, after all? I had done 
 what I promised him, and he might take up or leave 
 the matter as he saw fit. As for myself, I busied me 
 with my damaged clothing, that I might be presentable 
 at headquarters in the afternoon, and when these were 
 in as fair a shape as a clumsy bachelor could make 
 them, I had nothing to do but pass the time. 
 
 Of all the days of the overheated summer of 1778 
 that of Sunday, the 8th of August, was the most ter 
 rific in point of temperature. By high noon no man 
 might stand the sun s rays unprotected, and the heat
 
 A SINGED PATRIOT. 63 
 
 radiated from the streets as from a furnace. Indoors 
 was but little better than without, yet for that little 
 I remained in my rooms and well-nigh stripped myself 
 for comfort. 
 
 Being now in the best of humors, I ordered a meas 
 ure of rum and a jug of water, and with these before 
 me sat me down to build air castles for the morrow. 
 Great waves of heat surged through the open windows, 
 and the drowsy stillness made me nod. Not wishing 
 to sleep, I brought out the paper received from head 
 quarters, and opened it as I had done for the tenth time 
 at least. 
 
 I had reread but a few lines when I was attracted by 
 the sound of distant thunder, and going to the window, 
 beheld a mighty bank of blue-black clouds towering 
 above the western horizon, the topmost ridge mingling 
 with the thin column of smoke still rising from the 
 burned district. Not a breath of air stirred the hanging 
 leaves of the trees before the door, nor was a soul in 
 sight save a small squad of redcoats that just then swung 
 rpund the corner from the Broadway and entered the 
 tavern bar. 
 
 The coming of a tempest has always been a delight 
 to me, and I watched with suppressed emotion the ad 
 vance of this, which presaged unusual violence. As 
 I looked, the first great gust of wind came tearing up 
 the Broadway, bending low the trees and bearing with 
 it a mighty van of dust and rubbish. Hurriedly slam 
 ming down the windows, I turned to don some cloth 
 ing and get below, when, through the din of clashing 
 branches, swinging blinds, and rushing wind I heard 
 a thunderous knocking at my chamber door, which was 
 opened ere I moved to answer, and in the gathering 
 gloom I beheld Captain Scammell hastily enter and 
 close the heavy portal behind him.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE HINT OF THE EAKTIIQTJAKE. 
 
 THE advent of this man, whom all the laws of duel 
 ing prohibited seeking me at the present stage of af 
 fairs, occasioned something of a shock. The manner 
 of his entry, the tragic aspect of Xature, and the sickly- 
 green light enveloping everything Avithin and without; 
 the clamorous advance of the storm, and perhaps as 
 much as anything, the sudden revulsion of temper 
 caused by seeing him, threw me for the moment off my 
 mental balance, and I stood without moving, gazing at 
 him as I might have gazed at an apparition. 
 
 As we thus faced each other, I noticed that he was 
 hatless, coatless, and without side arms, the latter fact 
 causing me further surprise, as I was aware of the ex 
 treme pride a British officer has in his sword and his 
 reluctance to lay it beyond his reach. 
 
 Hard upon these details came three others of differ 
 ent nature. I saw at once that the man was intoxi 
 cated, though not beyond his own control; that in his 
 left hand he had an open paper, while his right, which 
 still hung by his side, held a cocked pistol, though this 
 I would not have seen but for the sudden gleam of a 
 flash of lightning. It gave me a quick realization of 
 the fact that I was in great danger and without the 
 means of combating it, for my sword was in the closet, 
 while both pistols and rifle lay unloaded in a corner. 
 
 The crash of thunder following the flash for a time 
 64
 
 THE HINT OP THE EARTHQUAKE. 65 
 
 made words impossible; and action was equally out of 
 the question, for in the midst of the bellowing, and 
 while I was casting searching glances about the room 
 for some means of defense, he raised the weapon and 
 leveled it at me. 
 
 I could fathom no motive for his thus attacking 
 me, save the heat in his rum-maddened brain, and, was 
 he impelled by drink, my position was doubly critical. 
 Had there been a ghost of a chance to act in the ag 
 gressive, in this desperate moment I should have availed 
 myself of it; but not even that really formidable weapon 
 and guard, a chair, was nearer than the table, and to 
 have made a move toward it I felt meant certain de 
 struction. A sudden attack on him was out of my 
 power, for betwixt us intervened the broad table itself, 
 which made it impossible to avail myself of the tactics I 
 had used with Lounsbury. There was naught for me 
 to do but stand as I was and await the terrible issue. 
 
 However, as he remained silent, I managed to find 
 my voice, and, as the thunder rolled in the distance, I 
 shouted: 
 
 " Captain Scammell, are you so demented or so 
 cowardly and so lost to honor that you will murder the 
 man you challenged to fight in the field?" 
 
 Without a swerve of the arm, he answered sternly: 
 
 " Sit down ! " 
 
 Even thus beset, it irked me to obey him like a 
 schoolboy, but I realized that, armed, under the exist 
 ing circumstances he was far stronger than I with all 
 my sinews. Wisely, then, I swallowed my ire, and, 
 approaching the table, seated myself with the hope that 
 he would come within reach. 
 
 He was not slow in following, for he stepped for 
 ward and carefully slid into the chair opposite, though 
 not for a second uncovering me with the muzzle of his 
 pistol, or, for that matter, taking his eye from mine.
 
 66 A COLONIAL FEEE-LANCE. 
 
 And here we sat while flash and crash followed each 
 other in quick succession. My brain worked rapidly 
 enough, but as the seconds sped no way could I find 
 to rid me of the shining ring of steel confronting me 
 or turn for a moment the equally brilliant glint of his 
 eye, each of which acquired clearness with the fitful 
 lighting of the room. 
 
 The table was too broad for an onslaught, and now 
 that we were closer, I could see the nerves of the man 
 were at full tension, and that on the slightest hostile 
 move on my part he would pull the trigger. 
 
 I hoped lightning would strike the house and put 
 an end to the situation, which at last began to have 
 its effect on me; and I take it that no man can long 
 stand the scowl of a loaded barrel backed by a deter 
 mined yet silent enemy without undergoing more or 
 less strain. 
 
 I was even wishing that the heavens would let loose 
 a bolt and finish the matter, or that the man opposite 
 would open his lips and speak, despite the roar, when 
 I felt the floor beneath me tremble, as though the house 
 was shaken by a mighty power. It passed in the instant, 
 and as it did so the thunder faded away for the mo 
 ment, and Scammell, lowering his hand, let it rest on 
 the edge of the table, whence the pistol held me full 
 in the chest. Then he spoke, and perhaps because the 
 excitement indoors and out had partly sobered him, 
 his words came clearly: 
 
 " I have here your d d message in my hand, 
 
 but, as you may well guess, it is forestalled. There will 
 be no fight between us to-morrow morning." 
 
 "Because you deem it safer to murder me now?" 
 I returned calmly. " Give me but " 
 
 " Shut your mouth!" he interrupted, letting go his 
 temper. " Do you think I am here to bandy words with 
 a rebel? Captain Donald Thorndyke, alias Lounsbury,
 
 THE HINT OF THE EARTHQUAKE. 67 
 
 you are close on to the end of your rope, and you ll find 
 that end has a noose in it, you cursed spy! What! " he 
 continued, rising in his increasing rage, and immedi 
 ately reseating himself, while his voice grew louder, 
 " do you think I am a fool, or so blind that I may not 
 see through a riddle? I have found you out, hide and 
 hair Thorndyke, of Martha s Vineyard smuggler 
 rebel spy! Had you escaped me this day, and been 
 off on Clinton s business, which doubtless lies there " 
 (pointing to my papers, which lay on the table), " I 
 would have hunted you down had it cost me my com 
 mission. Escape me? No, by the gods! From the be 
 ginning I fancied you the fraud you are, and at the 
 Bull s Head, by your words and fine airs, you made me 
 sure of it. You slipped your role. You ll find your hen- 
 hawk has sharp eyes, and, giant though you be, you 
 will see that a seamew is nothing in his grip. Nay, I 
 have not come to shoot you down as you deserve, 
 but I know your infernal tricks, and mean to hold 
 you where you belong. I take it twill afford me more 
 pleasure to see you dance at a rope s end than dirty 
 my hands with your blood, save you make it urgent. 
 Let me clinch the matter now, and then make you 
 ready to march. Below stairs at this moment is Louns- 
 lury in the flesh, and with him a file of men to take you 
 off. This bit of play was for my own pleasure, and, 
 having had it, I ll be your valet and stay by your heels 
 until you are safely delivered to Cunningham. Now 
 God rest your miserable soul! Have you aught to say 
 before I give the word to the rest? " 
 
 To state that I was unaffected by these words, which 
 were poured forth in a torrent as though my tormentor 
 feared interruption, would be false. I saw my plans 
 for the future, my very hope for life itself, swept away 
 together, and nothing but a blank, broken only by a 
 vision of the gallows, danced before my eyes.
 
 68 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 To say that he had the satisfaction of seeing me 
 visibly quail would be equally false, for, though my 
 heart beat thickly enough, I sat unmoved and looked 
 at him as though in a dream. I even essayed to speak, 
 but words would not come, for my throat was clinched 
 by invisible bands. 
 
 "Are you crushed at last?" he exclaimed, with a 
 grim smile, though without shifting his eye or aim. 
 " Oh, you shorn Samson! I am well paid for your 
 cursed insults." 
 
 He was still speaking when again the heavy shake 
 came to the flooring. But now it did not pass into a 
 gentle tremor and fade away; instead, it grew stronger 
 and stronger until every rafter took up the motion 
 and the whole house trembled as though with an ague. 
 Greater grew the shaking until the building rocked, 
 the bed slid away from the wall, the table shifted, the 
 glass and bottle on it rang together, and the pitcher 
 danced so violently that the water within it splashed 
 from its top. A square of plaster from the ceiling fell 
 to the floor with a crash, filling the room with dust; 
 but through all Scammell never winced, showed won 
 derment, nor bore a less threatening attitude. 
 
 In the course of the seconds through which this 
 endured he held me as he probably would have done 
 had the roof fallen about our ears, so determined was 
 he to take me. I knew the nature of the turmoil at 
 once, for when in the Indies with my father I had ex 
 perienced it. It was not caused by the earth shaking 
 from the rolling of heavy thunder, for just then the 
 voice of the storm was confined to the roar of a terrific 
 downpour of rain. It was an earthquake a rare phe 
 nomenon in this latitude, and its rarity, its severity, 
 and its results before my eyes, trifling as were these, 
 woke me from my trance and again gave full play to 
 my wits.
 
 THE HINT OF THE EARTHQUAKE. 69 
 
 Fascinated and partly stunned as I had been by 
 the fiendish face of my enemy and the full significance 
 of the evil fortune into which I had suddenly fallen, 
 like him, I sat through the commotion. Every unim 
 portant detail about him, from the broken pearl button 
 on his shirt front down to the grains of powder in the 
 pistol pan and the fine edge of the flint in the lock, 
 found a force of attraction to the eye only known to 
 those who fall into sudden hopelessness or deep de 
 pression. 
 
 But with the dancing of the tableware a quick idea 
 shot through my brain, and showed me a last desperate 
 chance to extricate myself from the coil about me. Nat 
 ural phenomenon in the shape of a breeze had saved 
 me from the knife of the negro, and now twas an earth 
 quake that might open a way for my deliverance by 
 splashing water from a pitcher. 
 
 Straining my nerves to conceal the new hope that 
 had sprung to life, I began to act. Never had I felt 
 my muscles knit firmer or been less in need of stimulant 
 than when, sinking back as if at last overcome by the 
 combined shock of his words and the convulsion of 
 Nature which had now passed, I said slowly and as 
 though dazed: 
 
 " I am but a prisoner of war, sir. I was forced for 
 my own safety to come to New York. I am no spy 
 I will go but you let me drink. I feel lax and 
 dizzy." 
 
 " You have none of the Indian in you, you pale- 
 livered sneak! " he answered. " Drink, then, and gather 
 your spunk and legs for action. Beat me with the flat 
 of your sword! Tore God! But wait till I can shift 
 my eye from you! Drink, and then move before we 
 have another quake, and the walls about us twill be 
 your last dram." 
 
 With apparent effort I raised myself, reached for
 
 70 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 the bottle, and poured out a stiff measure of liquor, 
 which I drank oft ; then taking the pitcher, I made as 
 though to fill the glass, but as I tipped it, with a sudden 
 movement I whirled full half a gallon of water over the 
 pistol, drenching the priming and making the weapon 
 useless. With this action I sprang to my feet. 
 
 Scammell was quick, but not quick enough. The 
 Avater had but reached the powder when I heard the 
 snap of the descending hammer, and saw his first mo 
 tion to gain his legs; but, following up the drowning 
 of the fire-pan, I lifted the heavy table and overturned 
 it on him, pushing him backward, where to the floor 
 went man, furniture, and crockery with a terrific crash. 
 
 At that moment there came a vivid flash of lightning, 
 and hard upon it an appalling peal of thunder. Though 
 almost blinded and deafened by the bolt, I sprang round 
 the overturned table, and seizing the first thing coming 
 to hand, which proved to be the water jug still un 
 broken, I grasped the struggling Tory by the throat 
 and with all my force brought down the heavy earthen 
 ware on his uncovered head. 
 
 The pitcher flew to fragments, leaving but the 
 handle in my grasp, while Scammell became limp and 
 collapsed. 
 
 This action took place during the interval at which 
 the thunder was the loudest, and was probably the rea 
 son that caused the noise of the fall of the table to be 
 unnoticed by those below. But, as though it had been 
 insufficient, another violent convulsion followed, which 
 came and went with the suddenness of the explosion of 
 a park of artillery. 
 
 I had but gotten to a standing position when a 
 concussion rocked the house to its foundation. It 
 sprang not from the earth below this time, but from 
 the air above, the vibrations of which dashed the hang 
 ing glass from the wall and caused the window panes to
 
 THE HINT OF THE EARTHQUAKE. ft 
 
 fly in pieces into the room. It was not of the nature of 
 an earthquake, still less like thunder near 6r afar; much 
 it resembled the blowing up of a magazine, though not 
 until afterward did I come to know this as the solution 
 of the matter. The flash that had lighted my attack 
 on Scammell had struck a powder ship just from Eng 
 land as she lay at anchor off Wall Street, and no vestige 
 of it or those aboard was ever discovered.* 
 
 The vicious nature of the shock was unlike the grad 
 ual coming and going of the earthquake, and that it 
 had occasioned more alarm I soon knew by the shouts 
 that came from beneath my window. Eushing to it, 
 through the shattered panes I beheld men running from 
 the opposite houses, while in the yard below was the 
 squad of soldiers, which had pressed from the tavern 
 in a panic when it seemed that the building would fall. 
 
 My safety still demanded immediate action, for 
 should curiosity or distrust impel the guard to come up 
 stairs, I would be undone. That move would drive me 
 to bay, and either oblige me to finally surrender or die 
 like a rat in a hole. 
 
 But I had determined a course of procedure by the 
 time I had finished getting into my clothing. Hastily 
 setting the table upright, I stooped over the body of 
 Scammell. I expected to find him dead, and was sur 
 prised to discover that he was still of this world, the 
 thickness of his curly hair and a possible crack in the 
 jug having saved him from a crushed skull. He was 
 completely stunned, however, and with little ado I 
 dragged him into the closet and shut the door. 
 
 My sole chance of escape now lay in getting to Clin 
 ton and procuring a pass, which might be used ere a hue 
 
 * This combination of intense heat, violent storm, earthquake, 
 and explosion actually occurred in New York city, Sunday, August 
 8, 1778.
 
 72 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 and cry was raised after me, and I fancied the hour 
 was not far from that appointed for the meeting. It 
 was possible that Clinton had been informed of the 
 falsity of my name, though I argued if that had been 
 the case Scammell would never have approached me 
 in the manner he had done. At all events, the risk 
 must be taken. 
 
 At first sight there seemed no means of leaving the 
 house save by the stairs or a drop of twenty feet or 
 more from my side window; but, upon investigation, 
 I discovered a pent roof beneath the windows of a room 
 near the end of the hall, and upon going into the 
 chamber I saw the apartment was probably the quarters 
 occupied by my late assailant. Upon the bed lay a 
 military hat, coat, and a sabre, while from a hook hung 
 a long cloak used by cavalry officers. 
 
 Appropriating the latter, I stepped from the window 
 to the roof, creeping to the eaves which came to within 
 ten feet of the ground, and from there dropped. 
 
 So far I had been unobserved, and it took me not 
 many moments to get into the street and below the 
 tavern, working from there a roundabout course through 
 the east side of the town or until I dared come out on 
 the Broadway. 
 
 I had little fear of immediate pursuit, as none save 
 Belden had an inkling of my mission to Clinton; and 
 this, with the prevailing excitement due to the ex 
 plosion and everywhere manifest, placed me out of 
 danger for the time. 
 
 With the cloak about me, both as a disguise and a 
 protection from the rain which was still falling though 
 rapidly diminishing, I strode down to headquarters, and 
 there boldly sent in the name of " Captain Lounsbury " 
 to the general in chief. It relieved me greatly to note 
 no signs of an unusual stir about the place, nor did the 
 guard at the door show more than a passing interest
 
 THE HINT OF THE EAETHQUAKE. 73 
 
 in me as he turned me over to the flunky within the 
 hall. 
 
 Being ushered into the same great saloon I had 
 known the day before, I waited with natural impatience 
 for recognition. I was not far from my appointed time, 
 for the clock on the mantel showed it was but quarter 
 of three, nor had I cooled my heels for long before a 
 lady entered. I caught but a glimpse of her, seeing 
 little more than that she was richly dressed, but marked 
 her apparent familiarity with the place in the way she 
 immediately swept from the room without giving an 
 opportunity for the announcement of her name. 
 
 However, I was struck by the deference of the uni 
 formed attendant as he backed away from her, and her 
 ladyship had not been gone above five minutes when he 
 returned. With a glance askant at my costume, he re 
 quested me to follow him. We traversed the length of 
 the hall to an apartment at its end, where, throwing 
 wide the door, he loudly announced " Captain Louns- 
 bury! " and retired, while I entered to find myself in 
 the presence of the lady who had left the saloon but a 
 few minutes before.
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 GENERAL SIR HENRY CLINTON. 
 
 CONCEIVING that a blunder had been committed, 
 and that I was unwittingly an intruder in a private 
 room, I was about to make an apology for my presence 
 when the lady half rose from the partly reclining 
 position she had assumed, and with a gentle wave of her 
 hand said: 
 
 " You are Captain Lounsbury? Come nearer, please. 
 Sit here against the light, that I may have a look at 
 you! " at the same time indicating a chair near the 
 great window, which was swung open and led to a small 
 balcony without. 
 
 Her voice was sweet, but even in these few words 
 I noticed the affectation of inflection so common with 
 ladies of fashion, and her original position, which she 
 immediately regained after thus addressing me, was a 
 pose pure and simple, doubtless taken for the purpose 
 of exposing her fine arm and the graceful curves of her 
 small though equally fine figure. 
 
 " Madam," I replied, advancing a pace or two, " I 
 have not the honor of knowing you as well as you seem 
 to know me. By what name 
 
 " Mrs. Florence Badely," she interrupted, with a 
 smile which discovered her small, white teeth, and ac 
 centuated the rather infantile prettiness of her face. 
 " I have taken the liberty of asking to see you ere you 
 
 74
 
 GENERAL SIR HENRY CLINTON. ?5 
 
 met Sir Henry. A woman is a better judge of a man 
 than one of his own sex." 
 
 " And in the present case to what end, madam? " 
 I asked, bowing and taking the chair to which she had 
 motioned me. 
 
 For an answer she slowly raised a pair of double- 
 bowed gold eyeglasses, deliberately and silently scanning 
 me from head to foot. 
 
 "Well!" she broke forth irrelevantly. "I protest, 
 Captain Lounsbury! You are almost a gentleman! 
 Were your face but less red and your figure less gigantic, 
 in a proper costume you would not be amiss. Your leg 
 is none too delicate, but you have fine eyes and teeth, 
 and your hair also is excellent. I am quite provoked! 
 Sir Henry has deceived me, though it is now perhaps 
 just as well that you are not ill-favored. Are you so 
 hard-hearted, Captain Lounsbury? You scarce look a 
 kidnaper! " 
 
 Her reference to kidnaping brought me sharply back 
 to the role of Lounsbury, whose papers had shown kid 
 naping to have been one of his accomplishments. Under 
 the sharp eye of this lady, whom I now knew to be 
 Clinton s reported light-o -love, it would not do for 
 me to make a slip. That in some manner she had to 
 do with my coming secret instructions I instantly sur 
 mised, but no conjecture on my part could clear the 
 mystery of the nature of this interest. Deeming it 
 policy to refrain from discussing the matter, I simply 
 said: 
 
 " Madam, my leg is not exactly that of a dancing- 
 master, nor has my figure the grace of a courtier, but 
 they are the gifts of God, and have seen service in this 
 broil against the King. As for the small compliments, 
 I am your debtor." 
 
 " Now really, Captain Lounsbury, you have quite a 
 neat gift at retort also." But she got no further, as at
 
 76 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 that instant a door concealed by heavy hangings was 
 suddenly thrown open, letting in a burst of noisy laugh 
 ter from what might have been a dozen men, the sound 
 of jollity being mingled with the clinking of glasses 
 and clattering of coin. The door then shut, and was 
 evidently securely fastened, as I heard the turn of a key 
 and the shooting of a bolt; the curtains were pushed 
 aside, and there entered a man, whom by his uniform 
 alone I knew to be the commander in chief of the Brit 
 ish forces in America. 
 
 Sir Henry gave me but a passing glance as I rose 
 to my feet. He stepped forward, and taking the hand 
 of the lady, who barely shifted her position to greet 
 him, bowed low over it, repeatedly kissing the finger 
 tips. 
 
 The broad light from the window fell full upon him, 
 showing him to be a man of but medium height, though 
 stout and pale of face. His eyes were dark, his nose 
 long and slightly dished at the bridge. The mouth was 
 sensual, and bespoke his character at a glance, though 
 his face was by no means coarse or weak. His brow 
 was not broad, but it was smooth and open, and his 
 brown hair, greatly puffed about his ears, was tied into 
 a queue behind and profusely powdered. 
 
 But he was not a striking figure despite the gor 
 geous uniform of scarlet and gold adorned with the 
 waistcoat ribbon and brilliant star of his knightly order. 
 Something there was about him which impressed me 
 with the littleness of his nature, and there was a lurk 
 in his side glances wholly incompatible with an honest, 
 fearless spirit. Undoubtedly he was a man proud of 
 his rank and power a man much given to self-com 
 munion and silence. His official standing was indi 
 cated by the single heavy epaulet adorning his right 
 shoulder. His sword, with its belt wrapped about it, 
 he carried in his hand.
 
 GENERAL SIR HENRY CLINTON. 77 
 
 " I declare, madam," he said, as he straightened 
 himself and walked to a handsomely appointed table, on 
 which he deposited his sword, " you have braved the 
 storm and stolen a march on me, as you promised. 
 Have you other charms to pit against the terrors of 
 tempest and earthquake? You are the queen of gra- 
 ciousness to thus honor me. Do you find Lounsbury to 
 your liking? " And as he pronounced the name he 
 recognized my presence by a look and an almost im 
 perceptible bending of the head. 
 
 "Now I protest, Sir Henry!" said Mrs. Badely, 
 rising and affecting petulance as she adjusted her cos 
 tume. " You interrupted me before I had come to 
 conclusions. The affair is none of my making, and I 
 am broken-hearted at its necessity. Oh, necessity is 
 such a dreadful word! Is it not, Captain Lounsbury? 
 Really, Sir Henry, I supposed you would not come 
 for an hour yet, but, now that you are here, I will leave 
 you to settle with the captain while I look after my 
 recreant ward. Sir Henry, I feared I would have found 
 her with you. Ah! Captain Lounsbury, one s children, 
 be they ours by law or nature, are such a trial such a 
 trial! When shall I know of your decision, Sir Henry? " 
 Then with an upward look and clearly affected arch 
 ness, " You will honor me to-night, will you not, Sir 
 Henry?" 
 
 What answer Clinton made I never knew. He held 
 out his hand to her, the fall of lace from his cuff almost 
 covering it, and with a step as unnatural as that in the 
 minuet escorted her into the hall, closing the door be 
 hind him. 
 
 He was not absent long. I had but time to take in 
 the details of the elegantly furnished apartment, from 
 its carved fireplace behind the table to the carved casing 
 of the window overlooking the Hudson, when he en 
 tered rather hastily, his face no longer bearing its genial
 
 78 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 expression, and with something of a businesslike air 
 seated himself at the table, motioning me to take the 
 chair opposite. 
 
 Before speaking he cast quick glances at me, in 
 stantly removing his eye from mine as he met my gaze, 
 but immediately returning to the charge. Finally, he 
 began quite sharply: 
 
 " Are you Captain Lounsbury? " 
 
 My heart leaped at the question, and I pulled myself 
 together with the firm intention of laying violent hands 
 on him if he had discovered the fraud, but I answered 
 quietly and with an unswerving look: 
 
 " Yes, your Excellency." 
 
 " General Knyphausen has always vouched for you, 
 but you hardly appear the desperado I had been led 
 to expect. Your physique and carriage make you an 
 excellent agent if you have subtlety behind." 
 
 His manner was unsuspicious, and this relieved me. 
 Bowing, I answered: 
 
 " I have seen service, your Excellency, and have al 
 ways rendered a good account of myself." 
 
 " So I am told," he replied. " You are a remarkable 
 man. You look and speak like a gentleman, yet your 
 record is shady, sir; still," he put in hurriedly, " I am 
 not criticising. War has its necessities. You read the 
 order given you yesterday ? " 
 
 " Yes, your Excellency." 
 
 " Are you prepared to act on its suggestion? " 
 
 " Yes, your Excellency." 
 
 He stopped as if perplexed, and passed his hand 
 across his brow. 
 
 " You were not successful in your mission to Xor- 
 folk! Why did you not report? " 
 
 " The party was out of reach," I ventured, hazard 
 ing the guess that he referred to the kidnaping business. 
 " But I made amends later. I have been ill from
 
 GENERAL SIR HENRY CLINTON. 79 
 
 a wound," I continued, pointing to my sling, which 
 through all the excitement in leaving the King s Arms 
 I had not forgotten. 
 
 " Will you undertake a similar errand here in the 
 city, and in connection with the trip to Newport? " he 
 asked, looking at me and then away. 
 
 " Yes, your Excellency, if it he feasible." 
 
 " It is feasible; it is easy, and you shall be well 
 rewarded. Have you money? " 
 
 " No, your Excellency; I have nothing but my prom 
 ise of prize money. I am living on the credit of that." 
 
 " Indeed! Have you the paper with you, properly 
 indorsed? " 
 
 For an answer I took it from my pocket and laid it 
 before him, at the same time realizing with a start that 
 the communication given to me the day before had been 
 left in my room in the hurry of escaping from the tav 
 ern. He picked up the document I laid before him, 
 glanced at it, and then, rising, went to a bookcase, 
 which on being opened disclosed a small strong-box. 
 This he unlocked, and taking from it several rouleaux 
 of coin laid them on the table. 
 
 " You must have money; you can not get ready 
 without it. You will have many expenses. Listen! I 
 shall not intrust you with a packet to General Pigot. 
 The venture is too hazardous. Tell him to hold New 
 port to the last extremity, and I will start to his relief 
 within two weeks. I shall also communicate with him 
 by land." 
 
 He arose again, and clasping his hands behind him 
 walked up and down the floor. I saw that the man was 
 wishing to come to a point against which just then he 
 was shying, and, as time was an object to me, I hoped 
 to help him over the difficulty by remarking: 
 
 " The matter of the cruise is plain enough, but your 
 Excellency hinted at secret instructions."
 
 80 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 " Yes, yes," he answered. " It was that I referred 
 to a moment since." He hesitated, and then pointing 
 to my arm, continued, " Perhaps your wound would 
 cripple you for active service? " 
 
 " No, your Excellency," I answered hurriedly; " it 
 is about healed." 
 
 " Will you, then undertake to to in short to 
 abduct a a person and and perhaps deliver her to 
 Pigot?" 
 
 "It is a woman, then?" 
 
 " It is a woman. In fact, my position is delicate 
 I must not be known in the matter. She is troublesome 
 
 to Well, her brother is about to be executed. I 
 
 wish to save her from this knowledge. Do you follow 
 me? She is to be the victim of an unauthorized out 
 rage; the motive to be your own. Xo ill treatment, 
 no unnecessary violence, of course. You shall be paid 
 you shall be well paid. Get the boat ready be ready 
 within five days. Can I rely on you? Then report for 
 final details. Is there anything more? " 
 
 " Yes, your Excellency, there is more. I shall need 
 a pass. Some of my men are without the lines." 
 
 " Very good ! " he returned, sitting down and pulling 
 paper toward him, on which he wrote rapidly; then 
 pushing the writing away, he began talking with the 
 feather of the quill betwixt his teeth. 
 
 " Here is your pass," said he, laying his hand over 
 the paper and looking hard at me, " and there is your 
 gold. There is more to come. No violence no brute 
 violence. What would you do if necessity demanded 
 your sinking the ship? If if if 
 
 The pen in his mouth gave his voice the character 
 of a snarl; his eyes flashed, and he bent forward eagerly. 
 I caught a glimpse of the villainy of this man, and 
 without winking promptly replied: 
 
 " Save myself, your Honor! "
 
 GENERAL SIR HENRY CLINTON. 81 
 
 As though smitten by a revulsion of feeling, he 
 started back and exclaimed: 
 
 "No! no! Not that! Great God! not quite so 
 quick! What a tool you are! Is there no other way? 
 Let me think; let it rest as it is until you report. Ah! 
 what is the meaning of this? " 
 
 The last remark was drawn from him by a noise of 
 controversy in the hall without, the sudden opening 
 of the door, and the entry of a female unannounced. 
 She was veiled, but before the door had fairly closed 
 behind her, with a graceful move of her arm she uncov 
 ered her face, and I involuntarily came to my feet as 
 I recognized the young girl whose beauty had struck 
 me as I was about leaving the Sprite. 
 
 Her eyes were red from weeping, and, indeed, the 
 tears on her cheeks were as apparent as the few rain 
 drops on her silken hood, as well as on her plain though 
 elegant costume. Over her white brow and from under 
 the back of her head covering there strayed a few locks 
 of hair, which some might have called red, but red they 
 were not, being the richest of auburn, and of such a 
 nature that the damp of the air had curled them into 
 a mass of crisp waves. 
 
 If tears were on her cheeks, there were none in her 
 voice as she advanced before the Englishman. As she 
 came to within a pace of him she halted, and demanded 
 in a low, firm tone, which for all its firmness was sweet: 
 
 " Sir Henry Clinton, where is my brother? " 
 
 Clinton dropped his eyes, while a heavy frown con 
 tracted his smooth forehead. For an instant he ap 
 peared about to give way to temper, but finally un- 
 puckered his brows and replied easily, as though patron 
 izing a petulant child: 
 
 " My dear Miss Gertrude, you must ask your aunt." 
 
 " Call your Mrs. Badely no aunt of mine, Sir Henry. 
 She may be my guardian, but none of her blood flows
 
 82 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 in my veins. Be that as it may, sir, she has but this 
 moment referred me to you. My brother has been gone 
 a week. You have promised each day that I should 
 see him the next. Sir Henry, where is my brother? " 
 
 The decidedly defiant tone of the last demand made 
 me wonder at the audacity of the speaker, but instead 
 of arousing the temper of the man to whom it was ad 
 dressed, it made him rather draw into himself, though 
 not without an effort at self-control. Again he rose 
 and paced the floor behind his desk, but finally stopping 
 in his walk, took a long breath as if he had arrived at 
 a determination, and suddenly turning to me, said: 
 
 " Captain Lounsbury, the plan I mentioned will re 
 main in abeyance. My dear Gertrude," he continued, 
 addressing the girl, " I have been trying to save you 
 from pain, but, as you will have the truth, I will give 
 it to you. Your brother has been discovered acting in 
 the interests of the enemy. His offense was clear, and 
 he has acknowledged it. He was arrested one week ago 
 this day. He was tried fairly, convicted, and sentenced 
 to be hanged as a spy. Yesterday he perished in the 
 fire at Cruger s Wharf before the sentence could be 
 executed." 
 
 JSTow at these words I guessed this was the girl 
 whom I had been expected to kidnap and make way 
 with, and my first impulse, quickly controlled, was to 
 blurt out the fact of her own danger. It had become 
 plain, however, that Clinton could not screw his cour 
 age to going the length of even indirectly taking her 
 life, much as he wished for some reason to be rid of her. 
 It was strongly forced on me that he was being used 
 as a cat s-paw by the woman who was known to power 
 fully influence his actions, even to the extent of altering 
 the plans of a campaign. As he finished his statement, 
 I knew he had told the girl an untruth, or he had been 
 lying to me, as he had informed me that the brother
 
 GENERAL SIR HENRY CLINTON. 83 
 
 was about to be hanged, no mention having been made 
 of his death by fire. Instantly there came to mind my 
 encounter with the scorched patriot, and I instinctively 
 strung the two together. 
 
 I expected to witness the collapse of the girl as the 
 British general completed his sentence, but there came 
 nothing of the sort. Instead, she stood tall and grace 
 ful, with lips apart and eyes widely strained. Her 
 color faded a trifle, but after a breath or two she an 
 swered stoutly: 
 
 " General Clinton, that is false! My brother held 
 no communication with any one beyond the lines at 
 Kingsbridge. You have overshot your mark. It was 
 I, sir, who informed General Washington of your in 
 tended movement into the Jerseys, but my poor brother 
 has been doomed because he is in possession of facts 
 which would compromise Sir Henry Clinton were they 
 known abroad. I, too, know them. Work your will 
 on me, a girl I care not; but if you injure a hair of the 
 head of Beverly, all England shall know how Mr. Henry 
 Clinton obtained his knighthood, together with other 
 matters which would make interesting reading.* By his 
 appearance, here is doubtless one of your familiars," she 
 went on, indicating me by a fine look of intense scorn. 
 " Order him to apprehend and make way with Gertrude 
 King, who, by the help of God, has been, is now, and 
 always will be, devoted to her own land and its liber 
 ties!" 
 
 * Two years before, General Clinton had challenged Lord 
 George Germain, of the British ministry. In fear of his life, Ger 
 main promised Clinton a title and the command of the army in 
 America if he would withdraw the challenge. Clinton did so, ob 
 tained leave of absence from America, went to London and was 
 knighted by the King. Returning, he succeeded General Howe, 
 who resigned shortly before the evacuation of Philadelphia. The 
 affair caused great scandal at the time.
 
 84 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 As she uttered these words she was sublime. Her 
 figure swayed slightly, her eyes sparkled, and her voice 
 rang like a bell. There was no effect of bravado, but 
 it was apparent that with her there had come a crisis, 
 and she had thrown off her mask, either because it was 
 no longer of use or for the purpose of sacrificing her 
 self for her brother. Her great beauty, her youth, her 
 fearlessness ay, even the grace of her pose, set off by 
 her faultless costume gave weight to the words which 
 on her listeners produced profound though widely dif 
 fering emotions. 
 
 My own first feeling was that of utter insignificance 
 as I marked her great courage and heard the inspiring 
 eloquence of her last sentence; my next that, if neces 
 sary, I would risk my life to assist her if my way to do 
 so was made plain. My admiration, my respect was 
 beyond measure. I was almost moved to defy Clinton 
 to his face there and then when that party exposed 
 the spirit in which he had listened. 
 
 He had halted and whirled about as she threw at 
 him the falsity of his statement, and as she progressed, 
 his face turned from white to red and from red to pur 
 ple. On her finishing, he hung a moment as though to 
 gather the full import of her words, and then banged 
 his fist on the table as he exclaimed: 
 
 " You doubly damned rebel wench! You spy! How 
 dare you use such language here and to me? So you 
 have taken advantage of your housing with My 
 God! what a fool your aunt has been! Madam," he 
 suddenly thundered, " you are under arrest " 
 
 " Sir," she said, cutting him short, " if I am, I will 
 be released. You have now an opportunity to confis 
 cate my property as you have my brother s. Doubtless 
 this sum will also go to enrich your paramour. You 
 have taken me for a child, but I am not the helpless 
 girl you think me. I know your motives. They are
 
 GENERAL SIR HENRY CLINTON. 85 
 
 money, and fear, and Mrs. Badely. And now I have but 
 one demand,, General Sir Henry Clinton, and one more 
 statement. Your personal secrets are safe with me con 
 ditionally., and my property you are welcome to, as you 
 will but hold it until the right prevails; but this I will 
 have now a pass beyond your lines at Kingsbridge. 
 The statement will simply show the extent of your 
 falsity and the ease with which it is overcome. My 
 brother " 
 
 At that moment the hall door for a second time 
 was thrown open violently by a female, and now it was 
 Mrs. Badely who re-entered. There was no affectation 
 about her as she hurried in and closed it behind her. 
 With her hand on the knob, her face blanched to an 
 ash color, and her whole figure trembling, she pointed 
 to the defiant girl and burst out: 
 
 " She is a traitor! she is a traitor! Let her not go 
 hence! Sir Henry! Sir Henry! he has escaped! He 
 has been back and taken all those 
 
 She got no further, but, tottering slightly, gradually 
 sank to the floor in a real or pretended faint.
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 THE HEROISM OF GEETRUDE KING. 
 
 GENERAL CLINTON stood as if stricken with cata 
 lepsy, while I sprang to Mrs. Badely. Discarding the 
 useless disguise, I threw my sling from me and, lifting 
 the lady, bore her to the couch. As her aunt sank to 
 the floor the girl had given a violent start, and, as 
 though taking for granted that the escaped party re 
 ferred to was her brother, she raised her hands and 
 exclaimed fervently, " Thank God! thank God! " Then 
 the emotion she had bravely suppressed when her mis 
 fortune seemed at its height overcame her on the re 
 laxation of the strain, and she broke into a torrent of 
 tears. 
 
 Giving no further attention to Mrs. Badely, I turned 
 and looked at Clinton. He had sunk into his chair, and 
 was undergoing a strong inward struggle, but the ex 
 pression of his face boded little good to the girl who 
 still stood before him. In a moment he straightened 
 himself, and pointing to the weeping maiden, sternly 
 said: 
 
 " Captain Lounsbury, call my orderly, and see that 
 this woman is placed in confinement. Report to me 
 when it is done." 
 
 It appeared that the moment had arrived when I 
 must declare myself, for to allow this heroic girl to 
 suffer the indignity of arrest while I could prevent it, 
 was not in my books. I was about to turn on him with 
 my answer when she lifted her head, and, directing her 
 
 86
 
 THE HEROISM OF GERTRUDE KING. 87 
 
 wet eyes toward Clinton, said as firmly as she had be 
 fore spoken: 
 
 " General Clinton, I care little for what you may 
 do to me. The only load I had has been lifted. My 
 brother is free! Listen to me! He was never arrested 
 as a spy, never tried in any court, never condemned to 
 be hanged! I knew he was to be secretly removed from 
 his prison; of that I was informed by one of your own 
 officers, and I came here to demand his whereabouts. 
 Is not my so-called beauty as powerful for my interests 
 as your commands for yours? Look to yourself, Sir 
 Knight! What I know of you will find a ready ear, but, 
 Sir Henry Clinton, you will scarce have the courage 
 to demand an earldom from the one who hears it." 
 
 The utterly fearless way in which she spoke, coupled 
 with sarcasm and a taunt the nature of which I then 
 knew nothing, drove the British general into a fury. 
 Springing to his feet and again slamming the table, he 
 shouted: 
 
 "Arrest her, sir! Arrest her instantly! Stop her 
 vile mouth! Good God! am I to be thus bearded by a 
 self-confessed traitress? " 
 
 By this I had gotten to a pitch of spirits that ripened 
 me for any deed insuring the safety of the gallant girl, 
 and yet my head was left clear enough to see the pos 
 sible consequences of my act. 
 
 " Nay, Sir Henry," I replied clearly, but without 
 moving, " I shall never arrest her nor see her arrested 
 here; rather would I see her canonized. Do your own 
 dirty work." 
 
 "Hell and furies!" he thundered, fairly bounding 
 from the floor. "What means this treason? You are 
 under arrest yourself, sir! What, sir! you defy me? " 
 
 As he spoke he moved from behind the table and 
 took a couple of strides toward the hall; but seeing his 
 intention was to call the sentry, and that for me it was
 
 88 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 now the whole pace or the scaffold, in an instant I was 
 ahead of him, and, quickly locking the door, threw 
 the key through the open window. 
 
 I was none too soon. Through the heavy mahogany 
 I heard the approach of hurried footsteps, and the knob 
 twisted while yet my hand was on it. 
 
 With an oath Clinton turned toward the table and 
 grasped his sword; but again I anticipated his action 
 and was before him. Laying my left hand on the 
 weapon, I pressed it down, while with my right I pushed 
 him into his chair and held him there. He paled as 
 though fearing immediate assassination, and gasped, 
 then after a fruitless effort at freeing himself, he 
 shouted: 
 
 " What! Captain Lounsbury, would you murder 
 your commander? " 
 
 I rapidly shifted my grip, and to prevent his further 
 clamoring placed my hand over his mouth, pinning his 
 head fast to the back of the chair. 
 
 " Call me not Lounsbury! " I exclaimed in my ex 
 citement. " I have been damned by that name weeks 
 enough! Know me as Donald Thorndyke, an enemy 
 to the King. Quick, now! " said I, turning to the girl. 
 " Here is a pass ready written. Get away out of the 
 window! I will cover your going." And with that I 
 snatched the writing from the table and held it toward 
 her. 
 
 By this there was a violent knocking at the door 
 and some shouting in the hall, but, taking no notice of 
 the shortness of time allowed for her escape, the girl 
 stepped close to me, and, peering into my face with un 
 disguised surprise upon her own countenance, said: 
 
 "Are you from Washington?" 
 
 " Nay, miss," I answered, " I am but a free-lance; 
 not from him, but for him to the end. Hurry your 
 leaving, and God bless you for a brave lass! "
 
 THE HEROISM OF GERTRUDE KING. 89 
 
 ( But you but you ! Must I take the sacrifice ? " 
 
 "I am already known and outlawed. Hurry! 
 Heaven help the first man who enters this room now! 
 If you would prevent bloodshed, leave at once. I will 
 follow betimes. Live for your brother s sake! Get 
 gone get gone! " 
 
 Taking the paper I had pushed into her hand, she 
 gave me a smile that was a benediction, the memory 
 of which comes to me as I write. Turning, she hastened 
 to the balcony. I saw her gather her skirts, climb over 
 the light iron rail and drop a matter easily accom 
 plished, as the window sill was a scarce six feet from 
 the soil of the garden below. 
 
 And then I turned attention to myself and my own 
 desperate situation. 
 
 There was nothing to do but follow her immediately 
 if I hoped to escape, but, knowing that every second s 
 delay helped the maiden, I still held the general so that 
 he could neither cry out nor prove aggressive, and so 
 continued holding him for perhaps the space of a 
 minute. 
 
 In the meantime the attacks on the door were be 
 coming more violent, and even the one through which 
 Clinton had entered was now being tried. Mrs. Badely, 
 who had been unattended through the episode, sud 
 denly recovered her senses and lifted herself upright 
 on the couch, when, seeing me apparently strangling 
 her lover, she set up a shrieking that must have driven 
 to desperation those without. 
 
 It was my final moment. Casting a quick look over 
 the table for anything in the matter of writing that 
 might be used as a pass, my eye spied the rolls of money 
 which had been given me, but nothing else of service 
 was in sight and there was not an instant to lose in 
 investigation. Releasing Clinton, I jumped for the 
 gold, swept it into my pocket, and seizing Scammell s 
 7
 
 90 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 cloak as I went, ran to the window, barely evading 
 the grasp of Mrs. Badely, who made a bob at me and 
 would have hung like a leech had she fastened to my 
 clothing. 
 
 In less than a second I was over the rail, and, land 
 ing on the turf, took to my heels, pointing myself to 
 the earthworks of the deserted " Oyster Battery," which 
 had been erected by the Americans exactly in the rear 
 of headquarters and on the edge of the Hudson. 
 
 This battery, grass-grown, dismantled, and neg 
 lected as useless by the British, I knew would be no 
 permanent cover, but its embankments made a tem 
 porary shield betwixt me and a possible shot from the 
 house had my line of flight been discovered. It was a 
 fair post for a minute s observation and reflection, and, 
 bounding through an empty embrasure, I dodged down, 
 and then raising my head above the edge of the works, 
 looked back. 
 
 To my astonishment I was not at once pursued, 
 though two or three figures appeared at the window I 
 had gone through, all others being seemingly deserted. 
 I had to thank the day for my good fortune, as the 
 Sabbath was a time for general relaxation, and were it 
 not for that my chances would have been next to 
 naught. Few soldiers were about, a corporal s guard 
 only being before the house when I entered it, but that 
 there would soon be wild confusion and a general turn 
 ing out I had small doubts. 
 
 The banks of the Hudson at this point terminated 
 in a steep bluff, at the bottom of which was a narrow 
 strip of beach. Once on the sands, I might run along 
 screened from those at a distance, but could easily be 
 headed and captured like a fish in a purse net. I took 
 the risk, however, and sliding down the steep, sped 
 northward for some ways, coming to the top undiscov 
 ered and at the edge of the burned district.
 
 THE HEROISM OF GERTRUDE KING. 91 
 
 Into this wilderness of destruction I plunged, but 
 soon slackened my pace to a walk to avoid marked ob 
 servation from those who inhabited the shanties abound 
 ing throughout the ruins. I was fairly safe for the 
 present, and decided there to halt and take stock in 
 myself and circumstances, especially as I had no definite 
 plans before me. 
 
 It came to me that I was now doubly damned- first, 
 as a spy; second, for doing violence to the person of the 
 highest functionary in America. I was without means 
 of escape from the city, and entirely unarmed. I would 
 be hunted like a wolf, and with less mercy from one 
 quarter at least. In short, though I was then breathing 
 free air, I was in desperate straits, and, being so, it took 
 little reflection to see the necessity for acting like a 
 desperate man. 
 
 I came, then, to this decision: I would attempt a 
 return to the tavern, recover my arms and the paper of 
 instructions, the last which might at least add weight 
 to my assumed character and help me in forcing my 
 way through the lines a move that had become impera 
 tive, and might be successful if I acted with dispatch. 
 Then to the Dove I would go, and throw myself under 
 the protection of Stryker, whom, I had reason to be 
 lieve, was one of the true men secretly helping the pa 
 triot cause. 
 
 Of the brave girl to whom I had sacrificed the pass 
 (an act I did not for a moment regret) I thought much, 
 Like me, she was marked for destruction; like me, she 
 had now two virulent enemies, for I could not help 
 believing that Mrs. Badely was at the bottom of Clin 
 ton s desire to remove her from a field which threatened 
 the social supremacy and interests of that lady. I won 
 dered how she had fared and in what direction she had 
 fled. 
 
 But I was in no position for long wonderment.
 
 92 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 Eising from my seat, I walked on until I had reached 
 a point opposite King Street, then coming out into the 
 Broadway, crossed it and got myself to the rear of the 
 tavern. The man who interfered with me now would 
 be past praying for, but to my surprise I met with no 
 opposition on passing through the kitchen and bound 
 ing up the back stairs, marking only the frightened 
 looks of the two women who were cooking. 
 
 In a moment I gained my room. It was in a terrible 
 state of confusion. Bloody bedclothes strewed the 
 floor, the mattress was ripped open, blood was upon 
 the table (doubtless Scammell had been laid thereon), 
 and the dust of plaster covered everything. Scammell 
 himself was gone, and likewise was gone the paper I 
 had counted on. My arms, however, were unmolested. 
 The ammunition had been swept from the shelf to the 
 floor in probable search for treasonable documents 
 (which search also accounted for the general disorder), 
 but no part of it was missing, nor, barring the paper, 
 had any of my personal property been taken from the 
 room. I felt new strength as I fastened on my sword 
 and stuffed the pistols in my belt, then, taking my 
 rifle, I went out the way I had gone in, and still with 
 out opposition. 
 
 And still without opposition or interruption I re 
 gained the burned district. It had been a miracle, but 
 I was now no better off than before, save that I was 
 armed and commanded the lives of at least three men 
 when the attempt should be made to take me. 
 
 I was aware that the wilderness of blackened walls 
 and charred timber, which seemed such a haven at 
 present, would be about the first region over which an 
 organized search would be prosecuted. The very un 
 likelihood of my returning to the tavern had made it 
 possible for me to enter, regain my arms and leave un 
 molested, while the darkest holes of the city would be
 
 THE HEROISM OP GERTRUDE KING. 93 
 
 thoroughly scoured, and that at once. To burrow into 
 a crevice in this field of desolation might be possible, 
 but it would end in starvation and final discovery. 
 To disguise myself was not possible, nor, had I the 
 means, would it have availed me much, as my unusual 
 size would have made disguise of little more than tem 
 porary benefit. My line of flight, which might easily 
 be traced along the sands of the strip of beach, pointed 
 plainly toward the region which I was now traversing, 
 and to remain in its vicinity was tantamount to placing 
 myself within easy reach of my pursuers. I had but 
 one expedient, and that to elude capture until nightfall 
 by placing myself where there was the least liability of 
 search, and, under cover of darkness, boldly attempt 
 ing to force the lines at a spot remote from the regular 
 roads of travel. 
 
 To this end I bethought me of taking to water, and 
 by swimming outflank the defenses; but I soon realized 
 that the banks of either river would be doubly guarded 
 by sentinels and patrol boats, though, aside from the 
 risk, I gave over the idea, as the attempt would neces 
 sitate my complete disarming. 
 
 Turning northward, therefore, I kept within the 
 limits of the black desolation until I reached its upper 
 termination. Leaving it behind, I cut through the 
 grounds of King s College, walking with apparent care 
 lessness, then on to the hospital, through its confines, 
 and still onward over a garden or two and a field until 
 I had arrived at the edge of Lispenard s Meadows. 
 
 I dared not trust myself to its broad open; I could 
 have been too easily marked from a distance, so I turned 
 me toward the Hudson, keeping the while close to the 
 shrubbery which defined the meadows limits, and final 
 ly took refuge under a chestnut tree, though ere long 
 I was up it and as far toward its top as I durst ven 
 ture.
 
 94 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 Years after I looked in vain for this tree, but it had 
 fallen under the axe, as fell all the heavy timber on the 
 island during the terrible winter of 1780. 
 
 I was now wet through. The cloak I had continued 
 to wear to prevent easy identification, together with 
 the reeking weather and the showers of water which had 
 poured from the wet leaves, had saturated me, and I 
 was anything save comfortable as I sat astride a bough 
 and waited for the day to end. 
 
 It was something after five o clock, but as yet I had 
 discovered no signs of pursuit in my direction. To 
 beguile the time, I reloaded my rifle and pistols, though 
 I laid more reliance on my strength of arm and hard 
 ness of fist to overcome a single guard than I did on 
 firearms. The great wet meadow stretched before me 
 like a green sea, broken only by the clump of trees 
 which was to have been my dueling ground on the mor 
 row, and the sluggish brook taking its rise from the 
 Collect, cutting in twain lengthwise and draining the 
 plain which had once been a dangerous and pestilence- 
 breeding quagmire. The thunderstorm had passed, but 
 the sky was yet heavily overcast, promising a dark, wet 
 night (which suited my purpose), and by the time the 
 sun set and I swung myself from my lofty perch the 
 rain was coming down, not in torrents, but with a steady 
 drip-drip that told of a decided change of weather. 
 
 I had no preparations to make, nor from the point 
 at which I had been hiding had I a long distance to 
 go before coming to the line of defenses. This line 
 was not a continuous embankment, but consisted of 
 short breastworks and redoubts at no great distance 
 apart, every foot of the intervening spaces being pa 
 trolled by sentinels. I had resolved to strike the line 
 near its center, or about midway betwixt the Kings- 
 bridge and Greenwich roads, and so walked straight 
 over the meadows, crossing the brook and feeling my
 
 THE HEROISM OF GERTRUDE KING. 95 
 
 way up the rising ground of the northern boundary of 
 the great field. 
 
 It was not yet dark, but through the gloom I soon 
 made out that I was exactly in the rear of a redoubt. 
 Eetracing my steps, I worked eastward, then again 
 headed north, and this time found myself at the end of 
 a slight dip of the ground, with fortifications on the 
 heights at either hand. The way between appeared un 
 obstructed by military works, though what guard was 
 there posted I could not guess, and as yet it was too 
 light to attempt the passage. 
 
 Still protecting my primings, I threw myself on the 
 sodden ground, and in this fashion lay waiting, while 
 the minutes dragged and the half hour seemed length 
 ened to an age. I say half hour, but it might have been 
 more or less. There was no sound save the patter of 
 the rain, the dismal chirrup of a forlorn tree toad, and 
 an occasional hail of a guard. Finally, the gloom grew 
 to dusk, the dusk to darkness, and that to pitchiness in 
 the tree-shadowed passage which lay before me. And 
 now I girded myself for the attempt, fully conscious 
 that my life and death hung finely balanced. 
 
 I had first thought of crawling through the line like 
 a snake, belly down, but the distance and nature of 
 the ground made such a course impossible unless I was 
 to take the whole night to it, and if discovered I would 
 be taken at a disadvantage. Kising, therefore, I stepped 
 behind a tree, slung my rifle across my back, and drew 
 my cloak well about my sword, throwing back the gar 
 ment in a manner that left my right arm free. From 
 this cover I slipped to another and another, and so on 
 ward until I found myself at what I thought to be 
 the edge of a small clearing beyond, but I could neither 
 see nor hear aught ahead, a fact causing me some per 
 plexity. I was debating the feasibility of advancing 
 boldly and risking an encounter, or staying until I
 
 96 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 could locate the sentinel I knew must be near, when to 
 my right I caught the shadow of a man walking across 
 my line of progress. As he came close I heard him hum 
 ming a tune below his breath, and hoped he would 
 pass on that I might step over his beat unnoticed. 
 There was nothing white about me but my face, and 
 I bent it low that it might not betray me. On he 
 came until he reached the tree under which I was stand 
 ing, and there halting, leaned his gun against the bole 
 and put his hand into his pocket, presumably for to 
 bacco, for I heard him spit forth a quid. 
 
 He was within a pace of me, and why he did not 
 feel my presence I can not guess. But I was in a pre 
 dicament, for should he turn I was lost. If I moved 
 forward or backward I was lost, but if I took matters 
 into my own hand, I might clear the barrier with one 
 blow, and with a sudden shifting of my position I 
 threw the weight of my nerves into my right arm and 
 struck out. 
 
 My fist took the man fair in the temple. I doubt 
 if he ever knew what struck him, for he went down 
 with no other sound than that occasioned by the fall 
 of his body.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE DOVE TAVEBN. 
 
 I HAD never before and have never since in cold 
 blood struck violently an unarmed man. God knows 
 I recoiled as I felt the plates of this fellow s skull give 
 beneath my fist, and, though I knew my act to be a 
 righteous one, and that had I been discovered I would 
 have had a foot of cold steel in my vitals, I could not 
 at once overcome the feeling of having committed 
 murder. 
 
 Whether or not the man was a sentinel I could not 
 tell. The shiftless way of leaning his gun against a 
 tree and humming made me doubt it, but it mattered 
 little he was an obstacle whose removal was necessary. 
 I was fairly sure there was more to overcome beyond, 
 but resolved to try strategy in passing unless driven to 
 open violence, and even then my fist should not be 
 my mainstay. With my temper inflamed, it boded ill 
 for the man who crossed me; but with pulses slow and 
 even, it went against my grain to spill human blood, 
 especially that of one doing his duty, and this fact alone 
 would have made me a poor soldier for the ranks. 
 
 Now I unshipped my sword, drew my cloak about 
 me, and walked on as openly as though I was an officer 
 of " grand rounds." It was miserable going. In the 
 darkness I seemed to find and stub every stone and 
 shoot into as many brambles as might be discovered in 
 a ten-acre wood lot. I passed unchallenged through 
 
 97
 
 98 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 the shallow ravine, and was wondering if by chance I 
 had already cleared the lines, when the works of an ad 
 vanced redoubt rose against the dim sky, and at the 
 same instant there came the ring of a musket and a 
 voice called: " Halt! Who s there? " 
 
 It was not my plan to halt, or answer either, for 
 that matter. I had located the voice to the right, but 
 could see no one, and was fairly sure that only the noise 
 of my progress had been marked, and not myself. 
 Therefore I swung toward the left and hurried along 
 as rapidly and silently as I could, soon having the pleas 
 ure of hearing the sentinel stumble across my trail 
 some distance in the rear. 
 
 I had now the redoubt to flank, and, as the woods 
 had been cut down at its front as well as on either side, 
 there was an open space for me to traverse. Here I 
 lowered my dignity by getting on to all-fours, and, 
 holding my blade betwixt my teeth, I crept slowly on 
 ward, taking advantage of every stump and fallen tree 
 as a post to halt and listen. But these latter were none 
 too frequent, and I used at least an hour in getting the 
 few hundred feet which lay between the works and the 
 abatis protecting them. Having gained the abatis, I 
 rose and felt my way through the tangled branches 
 of the felled timber, making a deal of noise I thought, 
 but finally got past and into the woods beyond. These 
 woods proved to be but a strip, and a narrow one at 
 that, for I soon came to a road which served me only 
 in showing my location, as I knew of one crossing from 
 the Kingsbridge road to another leading to the village 
 of Greenwich. 
 
 I was well satisfied with myself and my progress, 
 considering that the worst was passed, but my pride 
 underwent a sudden fall when, as I was putting my leg 
 over the snake fence, a voice came out of the darkness: 
 
 "Halt! Who goes there?"
 
 THE DOVE TAVERN. 99 
 
 " A friend, but without countersign. Where are 
 you? " I returned easily, though I made a mighty start. 
 
 " Then stay where you be, or I fire ! " 
 
 " Very good ! Come to me," I answered, swinging 
 myself back and retreating to a tree near by, and from 
 that to another. 
 
 It gave me infinite relief to hear the tramp of a 
 horse, and know the man was a mounted vidette, and in 
 the course of a few seconds he went by me to where I 
 had answered him, though by then I had retreated 
 along the line of the road and was forty feet away. 
 Halting his horse, he again challenged, but, on receiv 
 ing no answer, fired his pistol into the woods and began 
 cursing like a pirate. 
 
 I knew there would be trouble now, and, indeed, 
 the echo of the shot had scarce died away when I heard 
 galloping coming from either direction as his fellows 
 hastened to join him. It would not do for me to linger 
 in the vicinity, so I leaped the fence and crossed the 
 highway above him, gaining the opposite timber just 
 before another horseman swept by toward the point of 
 alarm. 
 
 At this juncture I thanked my stars for three things: 
 First, for the wet and blackness of the night; second, 
 that the lines I had run were the third or inner lines, 
 comparatively illy guarded and but half manned, estab 
 lished to be used only in case of the fall of the outer 
 defenses; and, third, that my present destination lay 
 not beyond the next obstruction. I never would have 
 dared attempt the passage of the " barrier gates," as 
 they were called, a strong and continuous work across 
 the neck of land below Fort Washington; and even 
 had this been possible, the outpost of the British army 
 at Kingsbridge would have floored anything without a 
 pass or wings. There, in the face of the army of Wash 
 ington, now but a few miles distant, it would have
 
 100 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 become almost a matter of creeping betwixt the legs of 
 the sentinels. 
 
 I was not possessed with a great curiosity regarding 
 the outcome of the trouble I had raised on the road, 
 and got myself away from its locality as rapidly as was 
 consistent with rough ground, thickly growing trees and 
 underbrush, and pitchy darkness. I felt I was safe at 
 last, safe from immediate disaster, and then awoke to 
 the fact that, save from being warm instead of cold, 
 I was in about as miserable a position as any man un 
 hurt and shaking a free foot could well be. I had eaten 
 but little during the day, and a man of my size and 
 activity soon hungers, though as yet my hunger had 
 not become a serious matter. I was drenching, without 
 shelter and without prospect of shelter, and miles from 
 any possibility of a helping hand. To stumble onward 
 might land me in some difficulty from which I could 
 not easily recover. I was now at a distance from the 
 cross road, and knew not if I was bearing out of my 
 line northward or toward one of the two great high 
 ways, to approach either of which was fraught with 
 the greatest danger. 
 
 Therefore I determined to settle where I was until 
 a glimmer of dawn should show me my way onward. 
 I had no choice of spots, and so sat me down on the 
 stump I had but just fallen over, and, drawing my 
 cloak about my head, emulated the extremest patience 
 of Job, who, for all his troubles, had never been beset 
 as was I. 
 
 Not for an instant did I nod or cease my watchful 
 ness through all the long hours. The rain, noted for 
 its impartiality, seemed to belie the adage and focus 
 on me as though I sat beneath a gargoyle. Toward 
 daylight, which came none too early, the heat had gone 
 from my blood, and something like a chill took its place, 
 and with the first sign of lividness in the clouds above I
 
 THE DOVE TAVERN. 101 
 
 set out, more from an instinct toward flight than from 
 any definite plan. The Dove was my destination, but 
 it was only to be approached by night, and it was scarce 
 an hour s walk from where I sat. Nothing could be 
 gained by wandering aimlessly, yet such was the spirit 
 of flight within me that even movement partook of the 
 nature of safety, and the loadstone attracting me lay still 
 to the northward. Toward the north, then, I turned. 
 
 The birds had begun to stir in their nests and twitter 
 sleepily as I came to the edge of the woods and beheld 
 the checker of farm fields and woodland from the ele 
 vation on which I was standing, a fine-drawn mist so 
 blurring the distance that it seemed infinite. I went 
 on, and by sunrise crossed the Minetta water, striking 
 westward that I might get into the wilderness above 
 Greenwich, reaching that almost primeval forest toward 
 noon. 
 
 But it is useless to follow my old trail here. I did 
 it years after with great satisfaction to myself, calling 
 up a cloud of memories that brought back my lost 
 youth, albeit it brought (as it does now) a mist before 
 my eyes as well. Through that afternoon I wandered 
 well toward Bloomingdale, and as the shadows fell, cut 
 eastward near the old Apthorp mansion and across the 
 wild land which lies a beautiful waste about the center 
 of the island.* 
 
 I was now close to the Kingsbridge road again, and 
 not half a mile from the Dove. The storm had cleared 
 with the going down of the sun, leaving the air cool and 
 pleasant, but, though I am a lover of Nature and prone 
 to mark the effect of storm and sunshine, I remember 
 little of this evening save that it was a gorgeous one, 
 with a moon, something less than half grown, swimming 
 in the sky like a cleft coin. 
 
 * Now Central Park.
 
 102 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 Not a morsel of food had passed my lips for more 
 than four-and-t\venty hours. I was tired, not from the 
 miles of walking or manifold exertion, but from lack 
 of nutriment, and, more than all, from the moral effect 
 of knowing I was being hunted like a wild animal. My 
 clothing had well-nigh dried on my body, but I was still 
 damp. I had not even the comfort of tobacco, for, 
 though I possessed it in plenty, I could get no fire, my 
 tinder box having been wetted in the soaking I had 
 endured. I had fled from the sight of man as Satan 
 flies before the sign of the cross, but by the time I had 
 gotten on my journey thus far I cared little for Nick 
 Stryker, Rex, the British army, or the devil himself. 
 My sole yearning was for food, and the sun had not 
 sunken fairly behind the Jersey hills when, against all 
 reason, I rose from my last hiding place near the road 
 side and strode into it, making my way toward the 
 tavern as fast as I could walk. 
 
 My arms were like lead. The gold in my pockets 
 and the bullets in my pouch had fifty times their weight 
 as I splashed through the mud, but I was protected by 
 a divine Providence, for no soul saw I going or coming 
 while I was on the great thoroughfare. When I turned 
 into the lane leading to the tavern some of my reason 
 returned to me, and I slipped over the fence that I 
 might not approach too directly the front door. There 
 were no horses under the shed as I passed it, a fact that 
 gave me assurance, and on peering through the bar 
 window, I marked that the room was unoccupied. 
 
 The bar of the Dove was, like many of the taverns 
 of the day, as much a refectory as a bar, and the gen 
 eral assembly room of the house. As I have said, it was 
 deserted, and barren of light as well, the far corners 
 being so immersed in gloom that I could barely make 
 out the tables under the curtained windows. My ad 
 vent within brought an answering sound of steps, and
 
 THE DOVE TAVERN. 103 
 
 there entered a black man, half waiter and half hostler, 
 as I made out by his apron, the table knives in his hand, 
 and a general smell of the stable he brought with him. 
 
 Without ado I asked for food food of any sort, hot 
 or cold, with a bottle of wine, or, failing in that, stimu 
 lant of any description. I thought the fellow was 
 frightened at my fierceness, and showed him I meant 
 to pay for all I demanded by pulling from my pocket 
 a few pieces of gold and exposing them. He slipped 
 behind the bar and brought out a bottle of rum, setting 
 it on a table in the darkest corner of the room, and 
 then hurriedly went out, saying I should be served 
 without delay. 
 
 Left to myself, I took a stiff dram and looked about 
 me. The room was decidedly barren in appearance, the 
 only attempt at ornamentation being in the boughs of 
 green stuff that had been piled into the vast fireplace. 
 The rafters overhead, somber with age, were black in 
 the increasing darkness, and the walls, unwhitened for 
 months and perhaps years, were deeply scored with 
 names and coarse mottoes graven by sword points or 
 bayonets, and smutted by candles held against the 
 rough plaster. The bar took up a space near the en 
 trance, the floor was clean and sanded, and the only 
 furniture in the room consisted of an immense settle 
 in the corner by the chimney, one long table with a 
 bench betwixt it and the wall, and four or five smaller 
 tables with accompanying chairs. In strong contrast 
 with the prevailing dinginess of the apartment were the 
 two windows in the rear of the room, their curtains of 
 plain stuff as white and stiff as crusted snow, and the 
 panes as sparkling and brilliant as newly minted coin. 
 
 With an eye to future action in case of mischance, 
 I went to the windows and found them unfastened. 
 The view looked east and showed an infield with a 
 stream on one side, which I knew must drain the ponds
 
 104: A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 and swamps of the lower Harlem flats in the vicinity 
 of McGowan s Pass, and empty itself into the Sound 
 River.* 
 
 The sight of its brush-grown banks and the oncom 
 ing night suggested a way of escape, but a boat would 
 have been necessary, and even with this there were the 
 jaws of Hell Gate and the river patrols to overcome. 
 
 I think I had plumbed the depths of every possible 
 chance to get off the island and on to the main, but 
 saw no way out. The Hudson was too wide to swim; 
 the Sound Eiver too boisterous in either run of the tide, 
 and even better guarded than was the land. To pass 
 the Harlem was not possible, both banks being sen- 
 tried by the enemy, and thus I was held betwixt the 
 " barrier gates," the lower lines, and the two rivers. In 
 time every foot of this ground would be scoured, and the 
 end looked to be that I would succumb. 
 
 But the end was not yet. I was well armed and 
 stronger by a dram than when I came in. I left open 
 the windows, changing my seat to the long table, partly 
 stretching myself along the bench to render me less 
 conspicuous. From here I commanded a view of the 
 front door and all within the room, being myself quite 
 in the darkness. 
 
 Thus I waited for a full quarter of an hour with 
 dead silence all about until the black brought in my 
 food and a candle, setting the light at the end of the 
 table farthest from me, pulling down the windows, 
 and drawing the curtains, though it was far from being 
 chilly. I was about to resent this disposition of the 
 candle as a piece of impertinence, as it barely cast a 
 shadow at that distance, when I suddenly considered 
 the advantage of being in gloom, and so let it bide. I 
 
 * This stream, now culverted, still runs under the city in the 
 neighborhood of East One Hundred and Tenth Street.
 
 THE DOVE TAVERN. 105 
 
 finished everything before me in short order, and, as 
 though the man had anticipated my wants, my plate 
 was immediately recharged with a liberal supply of 
 harn and eggs, while a bowl of bonny clabber was placed 
 beside it. 
 
 Now, instead of withdrawing as he had done be 
 fore, the black sat himself opposite me, with every wink 
 the whites of his eyes snapping in the light of the dis 
 tant candle. After watching my jaws gradually slow 
 down as I drew near the end of the supply, and while 
 I gave a long sigh of relief and comparative comfort, 
 he leaned slowly forward and, speaking softly, said: 
 
 " Yous hungry, sah! " 
 
 " Slightly," I remarked; " I have e en had a hard 
 day of it." 
 
 " Who be you lookin f o ? " he asked abruptly. 
 
 " What s that to you, you black rascal? " I answered 
 with a forced fierceness that made him grin. " Who is 
 the host here?" 
 
 " Nat Burns, sah; he s away, sah. I looks to de 
 house den. I t au t you might be spec in some one, 
 sah." 
 
 " Not I," I replied, having no desire to confide in 
 a negro hostler. " Has any one been here to-day? " 
 
 " Yes, sah," he answered, rolling his eyes. " Heap 
 o soldiers, sah. Deys makin de house upset all froo 
 lookin for somebody." 
 
 " Looking for whom? " I asked, now mightily in 
 terested. 
 
 " Two or free pussons an a young gal, sah. But dey 
 nebber finds dem here, no, sah! When am you goin 
 on, sah ? " 
 
 I had hard work to restrain my curiosity about those 
 
 who were being looked for. If the girl was Gertrude 
 
 King, and I felt fairly sure of it, then she, too, had 
 
 escaped arrest so far, though it gave me a strange feel- 
 
 8
 
 106 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 ing about the ribs to think that she might be suffering 
 even as I had been. To his question I carelessly an 
 swered : 
 
 " Not to-night, at all odds." For I at once consid 
 ered that if the house had been searched, it was the 
 safest place I could find in which to abide. 
 
 "Ah! by the way," I inquired easily, "know you 
 of a party named King? " 
 
 " King? " said he, rising and taking up the candle. 
 " No, sah; no King, ceptin the good King Gawge." 
 
 He held the candle so that for the first time I had 
 a good look at him. I saw then that he was not a full- 
 blooded negro, his hair being silky and waved, his nose 
 straight, with fine nostrils, and his mouth lacking the 
 thick lips as his skull lacked the prognathous develop 
 ment of the true African. His hide was abnormally 
 black, however, and his tongue that of the Southern 
 darkey improved by contact with the purer speech of 
 the North. With all its fine points his face bore no 
 signs of great intelligence, and as he looked at me, it 
 was almost expressionless. 
 
 I feared that if it ever had been, the tavern was 
 now no longer a refuge for those of my party, for it 
 seemed clear that Nick Stryker had lost the proprietor 
 ship, his place having been taken by one Burns (of 
 whom I had never heard), whose very hostler was of 
 rank Tory breed. I was glad I had not put myself 
 into the darkey s hands, now even being afraid to ask 
 for Stryker for dread of arousing suspicions against 
 me. 
 
 " If yous boun to stay all night, sah, I soon hab 
 nice room, sah," he continued, while I was watching 
 him, and taking the light with him, he went out with 
 no apology for leaving me in the dark. 
 
 Being alone again, I filled my pipe and awaited his 
 return with the means to light it. The difference be-
 
 THE DOVE TAVERN. 107 
 
 twixt the man I had been an hour since and was at that 
 moment was amazing, so great is the power of nutriment 
 to lift both body and spirits. I was ready for another 
 night s wandering if needs be, though I thanked my 
 stars for lack of the necessity. Stretching myself along 
 the bench, I was almost dozing from sheer comfort 
 when I heard the tramp of horses in the yard, and the 
 next minute the door opened and two boisterous voices 
 rang through the room demanding lights and service. 
 
 The violent rattling of a chair on the floor, which 
 one of the newcomers had used as a means of gaining 
 attention, had hardly ceased when the negro returned 
 with the candle. I could not see the faces of either 
 of the parties from my position (which I deemed advis 
 able to retain), naught but their legs showing, but for 
 two they made a vast noise. The negro, without seem 
 ing to notice my apparent absence, placed bottles and 
 glasses on the table farthest removed from mine, and 
 the two, after ordering a meal, sat down and began 
 drinking. 
 
 And without stint they drank, if one could judge 
 by the sound of pouring. The single candle but broke 
 the gloom of the apartment, though it was helped out 
 by the moonlight, which streamed through the south 
 windows and over the sanded boards. By it I made out 
 that one of the party was a cavalryman, his muddy boots 
 and short clothes proclaiming the fact, as well as the 
 sabretasche that trailed on the floor by the side of his 
 heavy sword. The other, also booted and armed, was 
 not of the ranks, for his breeches were not embellished 
 or of striking color (his coat I could not see), while the 
 hat he flung under the table was but a nondescript 
 slouch without a cockade. 
 
 That they had accidentally met was at once made 
 plain by the first words that passed between them after 
 the negro left the room.
 
 108 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 " An ye are from the north! " said the soldier. " It 
 were a fine chance that brought us together, for I am 
 nigh spent an must ha traveled back on an empty 
 belly had we not crossed." 
 
 " Have ye no news o either o them ? " asked the 
 civilian earnestly, ignoring the former s remark. 
 
 " Nay, man. "Pis the coldest scent I e er put nose 
 to. Scammell s an ass to think they fled together, an 
 twice an ass, too, to look for a flying man an woman 
 along the main highway! Have any of your gang lit 
 on news? This failure puts me twenty poun s out o 
 pocket, for I was to ha that if I could but locate the 
 woman; the man he feels sure of." 
 
 "Why of him?" 
 
 " That he s not tellin the likes o me, though I 
 think he means to lure him." 
 
 "Lure him! the fool!" said the civilian. "The 
 man who can overcome Scammell with an ewer, throttle 
 Clinton an run the lines on his fist is no bird that can 
 be touched with salt. Faith! tis nothing but cold lead 
 an steel that can take him, an I wish I might cross 
 swords with him, for all his bigness." 
 
 " Well, by the piper! " broke in the soldier, bang 
 ing his fist on the table, " I m fain to meet him myself. 
 I d show him sword play 
 
 " Shut up, ye brag! He d make but a pinch o ye! 
 Better stick to the woman, who d come easy when ye 
 sighted her! What s the outcome along o Belden?" 
 
 "Belden!" said the soldier, with a laugh and an 
 oath; " Clinton will ne er forgive him for bringing for 
 ward such a mountain o fraud. He s e en a prisoner 
 on board his own ship, an Scammell is in the old man s 
 bad books for havin blabbed something to the girl I 
 wot not what. There s the devil s own muss below, 
 made worse by the fact that both man an woman ha 
 gone up to heaven or downward, for no sign o them
 
 THE DOVE TAVERN. 109 
 
 is on the island, an they ha not had time to get off it 
 by plain means." 
 
 " The girl had a pass, I was told." 
 
 " All passes were stopped, though not in time at 
 the lower lines, to my thinking. I fancy the man is in 
 the woods to the west, an the lass hiding in the city." 
 
 "Well! well!" said the civilian, stretching his legs 
 under the table and refilling his glass. " Here must I 
 bide till the rest come up. To the devil with rebel spies, 
 man an woman! I wish I had known that Thorndyke 
 was not Lounsbury when I had him unarmed. T would 
 ha been worth a pile; but a bigger pile this day could 
 I get him." 
 
 Now all this was mighty interesting, and I lay as 
 still as the bench beneath me until the civilian s last 
 remark. Something there was in his voice that struck 
 me as familiar, while his reference to having met me 
 made me more than curious. Carefully lifting my eye 
 above the table s level, 1 beheld the card-sharper of the 
 Bull s Head, his companion being a non-commissioned 
 officer and a total stranger to me.
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 A FIGHTIXG QUAKER. 
 
 HERE was I at last pinned down to close quarters. 
 I had hoped they would eat, then drink themselves 
 drunk and leave, but the sharper s intention of remain 
 ing all night, if necessary, together with the known 
 hardness of head of the average trooper, made the hope 
 a forlorn one. It seemed that I was to be confined to 
 the bench for hours unless some chance should free 
 me, and I had resigned myself to this when the black 
 came in with food for the two, and at the same time 
 the door reopened, there entering a man whom even 
 in the dim light I knew to be of a different stripe than 
 the others. 
 
 He was a Quaker, and so infirm that he walked 
 slowly and heavily with the aid of a staff. Giving the 
 two at the table a wide berth, he wended his way to 
 the rear of the room and, seating himself on the settle, 
 ordered a plain meal of milk and bread and butter. 
 
 There was nothing remarkable in the advent of a 
 tired Quaker, but his appearance caused the sharper 
 and his companion to draw their chairs together and 
 whisper, though after a moment s close talking the for 
 mer shouted across the room: 
 
 " Hello, snuffy! Where be thee from? " 
 
 There came no immediate answer to this, whereat 
 the trooper swore roundly and repeated his fellow s 
 question in a louder voice. 
 
 110
 
 A FIGHTING QUAKER. HI 
 
 " I travel from the Kingsbridge and beyond, friend," 
 was the final answer returned in a feeble treble. 
 
 " To where, then, thee son o drab ? " mimicked the 
 gambler, as he put in his turn at insulting the old man. 
 
 " To a friend in the city a Captain Scammell, of 
 De Lancy s regiment. Mayhap thee knows him?" was 
 the innocent response. 
 
 But, innocent as it was, it had its effect on the two, 
 who were at once more respectful in both tone and words. 
 
 " Ye ll not find him, then," volunteered the trooper. 
 " He has a sore head an a broken heart the one from 
 a scrimmage an the other through loss o his lady. 
 Ha ye seen aught o a runaway beauty on yer travels 
 a tall young lass with a painted head? " 
 
 " Does thee mean a young girl with hair inclined 
 to red? " asked the traveler, with something of interest 
 in his voice. 
 
 " Ay, that same," returned the trooper, bringing his 
 feet under him and half rising. 
 
 " Yea, friend. I met with a female, though scarce 
 a beauty, and with hair as thee describes. She was tired 
 and wan as she came from the woods near Day s Tavern, 
 by the Hollow Way, and asked me for victuals. But, 
 friend, I was unprovided, and, indeed, in these times 
 fear stragglers, be they male or female." 
 
 " Was the same tall an fine o skin, an with dark 
 eyes? " 
 
 " Ay, I think she was of proper height, and her eye 
 was dark, if I do not err." 
 
 " Fore God, an I believe it the lass, Lowney! " said 
 the trooper, starting up and for the first time giving 
 the card-sharper a name. " I m off on the scent. 
 Where away did she go, old man? " 
 
 " Back to the woods, as I saw her," was the answer. 
 
 " What woods? In what direction? " hurriedly asked 
 the redcoat.
 
 112 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 " Thee knowest the woods and orchard where Wash 
 ington worsted Howe on the heights of Harlem? That 
 is the spot, friend. It strikes me she might be fair 
 enough after food and rest. I would not have her 
 harmed through me. Thee had 
 
 " Damn your thees an thous an Washington an 
 being worsted!" shouted the trooper excitedly. "I m 
 off, Lowney. Tell the rest when they come. Tis a 
 fair day that bid ye stop me for a sup in this place. I 
 will requite ye yet. (live me a Quaker for truth an 
 good luck. Alloh, lad! " And with a rattle of metal 
 he was out of the door, while in a moment I heard his 
 horse putting from the yard full tilt. 
 
 As I listened to the Quaker s description of the girl, 
 of whose identity I doubted as little as did the trooper, 
 my heart sank within me. I considered the suffering 
 she had undergone to make necessary her asking food 
 of a stranger on the high road, and was fast getting 
 to the point of leaving my place of concealment, dis 
 patching the man Lowney, stealing his horse, overtak 
 ing the trooper, and rescuing the girl myself, and all 
 without a thought of my own risk, when an accident 
 put an end to this sudden dream of heroism and caused 
 me to face stern facts. 
 
 Twas but natural that I had taken a quick dislike 
 to the Quaker, who had innocently been the means of 
 setting a pursuer on the track of the patriotic girl, and 
 twas also natural that I wished to see more of him than 
 his legs and the butt of his staff. To the end of satis 
 fying my curiosity, I lifted my head as before, but was 
 seemingly less cautious with my foot, for, moving it 
 unthinkingly, I tilted my sword, which must have but 
 just balanced on the edge of the bench, and sent it 
 crashing to the floor with (to me) a racket that might 
 have been made by a falling house. 
 
 Both the Quaker and Lowney gave a start as the
 
 A FIGHTING QUAKER. 113 
 
 sharp sound echoed through the room, the former drop 
 ping the spoon he was carrying to his mouth, while the 
 latter sprang to his feet and looked toward the darkened 
 corner in which I had been hiding. The two candles 
 in the large apartment gave but scant light, but, scant 
 as it was, it proved enough for the sharp eyes of the 
 gambler who evidently caught sight of a face, for with 
 an oath he cried, " What have we here a drunkard 
 or a deserter? " and advanced toward the table. 
 
 And now it appeared that I would be suddenly 
 forced to do the very thing that but a moment before 
 had been buzzing in my brain as only a dream. Con 
 cealment being no longer possible, I would face matters 
 as they fell out, and trusted to put all into execution 
 before help in the shape of the negro or others without 
 might arrive. Ere Lowney had covered half the space 
 betwixt us, I stooped for my sword, and, jumping to the 
 bench and from that to the table, drew the blade. 
 
 As the advancing man beheld my figure loom sud 
 denly on high, for the beams of the ceiling barely 
 cleared my head, he stopped short and stepped a pace 
 or two backward, drawing his sword the while, then 
 with a voice which might have been heard a furlong, 
 he shouted: 
 
 "By the great Jehovah! tis Donald Thorndyke, or 
 his spook from hell! Are ye run to ground at last? If 
 ye be no ghost, surrender in the name of the King! 
 Ho, old man! here is the devil himself; get to my 
 holsters and fetch the firearms! Hither, ye black 
 rascal! help me hold him here! Help here, I say! 
 Damn the closed door! Boy! boy! Oh, what a pass 
 is this!" 
 
 Waiting for no action on the part of the old Quaker, 
 and hoping to forestall the negro, I leaped to the floor, 
 and in an instant the swords of Lowney and myself were 
 crossed in combat.
 
 A COLONIAL FKEE-LANCE. 
 
 The onset was so sudden that it drove the man back 
 ward against his table, which, with the candle and 
 earthenware, was upset, though the crash did not mar 
 the fellow s guard. Taking advantage of the opening 
 thus made, I sprang between him and the door, and 
 then the battle began in grim earnest. 
 
 The light was far too uncertain to permit my put 
 ting into practice my well-worn stroke, and Lowney 
 was much too wary and too skillful in fencing to allow 
 me to at once come at him by any other method. I 
 was fairly sure of tiring him and in the end beating 
 down his guard, but at present I had enough to do in 
 looking for his tricks and avoiding his furious lunges. 
 In the half light of the room the fire flew bright from 
 the steel in the energy of the parry, and my opponent 
 hurried his fatigue by wasting breath in a constant 
 string of oaths. 
 
 I will not go so far as to say how this certainly 
 Avould have ended had there been no interference, but 
 the end came in a manner totally unlocked for. I had 
 worked the fellow backward through the room, hoping 
 to get him where he could retreat no farther, and had 
 forced him well toward the heavy settle whereon still 
 sat the Quaker, when that white-haired patriarch rose 
 with an exclamation, and seizing his staff, stepped be 
 hind Lowney and brought the stick down on his bared 
 head, felling him to the floor a senseless carcass. 
 
 Though the blow was serviceable to me, such an act 
 of war on the part of a Quaker made me turn on my ally 
 and regard him with astonishment. 
 
 " Twas a foul thing to take a man from behind 
 when engaged in front, my friend ," I broke out, " and, 
 though I give thanks for good intentions, twas an un 
 seemly act, and you belie your cloth ! " 
 
 " Thee has small time to pick fine holes in my serv 
 ice, friend/ he answered hurriedly. " Turn thee to the
 
 A FIGHTING QUAKER. 115 
 
 window and see my motive. I wish to make friends with 
 thee, but we must hurry! Look yonder! " 
 
 I looked as directed, and to my amazement saw a 
 squad of British cavalry about turning into the lane 
 leading to the tavern. There was scant time for me to 
 run for my arms and get to the window, but, as I was 
 about to throw open the casement, the Quaker laid his 
 hand on my arm. 
 
 " Not that way! " he cried. " It is swamp land, and 
 thee would be mired in the night. Upstairs tis safer 
 for now leave the rest to me." 
 
 With mighty nimbleness for so old a man, he drew 
 me toward the kitchen, and, throwing open the door, 
 pointed to a set of boxed-in steps leading above, and 
 then quickly drew back, closing the door behind him. 
 
 I had but gotten up the short flight when I heard 
 him go to the barroom entrance and shout for help 
 with all the might of his cracked voice. In a moment 
 I heard the clatter of arms as the men entered the 
 lower room, and at the same time the negro came 
 bounding up the stairs behind me. 
 
 The moonlight through the hall window just 
 showed me his black face as he ran toward me, and 
 with a will to sell myself at high cost I lifted my sword 
 to cut him down when he cried in a hoarse whisper, 
 and without the slightest trace of dialect: 
 
 " Hold up, man! I m yer friend! This Avay! " 
 
 As he spoke he indicated a door the latch of which 
 he lifted, and, throwing it wide, placed his finger on his 
 lips as he pointed to a passage with a window at its far 
 end. With the words, " I have no time to explain; lie 
 quiet till I get back! " he turned and left me, running 
 downstairs as quickly as he had come up. 
 
 Now from the moment I had crossed swords with 
 Lowney till the present the time had been so short that 
 it was as nothing. I was not confused as regards los-
 
 116 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 ing my head, but mighty strange it seemed that two 
 friends had so suddenly arisen, and this fact was a trifle 
 bewildering. In some blind way the Dove was still a 
 Whig station (unless treachery lay hidden about), 
 though what had become of young King and how I 
 could come by Nick Stryker, were still puzzles. In the 
 face of the action and words of the Quaker, whose blow 
 had saved me from immediate capture, I could but think 
 he was not what he had seemed to be, even if he was a 
 Quaker at all. That he was a friend to the cause was 
 plain enough now, though at first, with the feeling 
 that every man s hand was against me, I even thought 
 his sending me above might be but a trap to take me 
 alive. But this could not be, for on going to the 
 window I saw the casement opened on a roof that 
 sloped easily to near the ground a common arrange 
 ment in architecture in those days, and one that still 
 holds. 
 
 I had been alone a bare five minutes when through 
 the still night air I heard the sound of voices and the 
 clattering of hoofs from the yard, and guessed that 
 some of the troopers below had gone in haste to the 
 north, for, my window being on the south side of the 
 house, I saw nothing of them as they passed. All below 
 became silent as the confusion melted in the distance. 
 My nerves were like harp strings as I stood and listened, 
 but, as the time went on and nothing occurred, I 
 breathed a trifle easier, and finally gathered enough 
 confidence to reprime my firearms. Had it not been 
 for the damp I knew was in them, I should have used 
 a pistol on the gambler at the start. 
 
 For all of an hour I waited in the passage, which 
 turned out to be little more than a narrow lumber room, 
 but at last I heard the door below open, and even as I was 
 hoping for some one to guide me to my next move, the 
 negro was before me. Like a spirit he entered the pas-
 
 A FIGHTING QUAKER. 117 
 
 sage, for no sound of steps had heralded his coming, 
 and the only words he spoke were: 
 
 " Pull off yer boots and follow me! " 
 
 His own were in his hand, and obeying, I trailed 
 after him in and about two or three rooms and a hall, 
 coming at last to a flight of steps that led us down and 
 out by a back way. 
 
 It was something like waking from a nightmare to 
 breathe the outer air again and not feel the cramping 
 of close quarters. Motioning me still to follow, he bent 
 himself like an Indian seeking footprints, and thus we 
 passed beneath the rear bar windows, soon being at a 
 distance from the house and toward the stream I had 
 noticed. Under some low bushes we stopped long 
 enough to pull on boots, and then onward we went, 
 now bearing toward the east and through a swamp, 
 which would have been fatal to me had I attempted 
 to traverse it alone. 
 
 Save to caution my going, not a word my guide 
 spoke, nor did I ask a question, only stepping close 
 behind him as he made his way through a blind path 
 he evidently well knew. Presently we came to some 
 thing like a rod of firm ground slightly overgrown with 
 coarse weeds and low shrubbery. Here my guide halted, 
 and, turning about with a chuckle, said: 
 
 " Considering they know nothing of yer going, ye 
 be safe enough here." 
 
 " What the devil " I began, but he interrupted 
 me. 
 
 " "Pis plain enough, my friend. I know ye now, an 
 thought I did at first. Did ye mark me draw the light 
 from ye at the table and shut the windows? " 
 
 " How did you know me? " 
 
 "Are ye not the man who bearded Clinton? Who 
 would not know ye after the day s rumpus with search- 
 in s an descriptions? Are there two o yer shadow on
 
 118 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 the island? Is not yer name Thorn dyke? Tis lucky 
 ye fell afoul o Nick Stryker instead o others." 
 
 "By the Mighty! Are you Nick Stryker?" I 
 asked, a light bursting on me. 
 
 " Nick Stryker is my name," he answered. 
 
 " I thought you said Nat Burns was " 
 
 "Who ever saw Nat Burns?" he broke in. "No 
 one. He s always away. Come, now, I ve little to tell. 
 What brought ye to the Dove ? " 
 
 " To find one calling himself Rex " I began, but 
 
 he stopped me by an exclamation. 
 
 " Eex! an ye asked for a man o the name o King? 
 I know none such, but Eex why, he it was that laid out 
 the Tory and saved yer neck. An ye knew him not! 
 Well, on my soul, tis scarce a wonder! " 
 
 " Is it possible? No more than a brother unborn 
 would I have known him. Is Lowney dead ? " I asked. 
 
 " Ay, he s dead, an ye ha the credit o it. Did ye 
 not hear a party putting after ye to the north? We 
 have no time to palaver. Stay here until I guide the 
 Quaker hither; he s makin blind fools o an officer an 
 three men over the body o the Tory, but his risk is 
 great. I tell ye that Eex is sore beset himself, an I 
 would hang higher than Haman were my position 
 known. Ye each need the other, for tis beyond me now 
 to more than help ye out of the muss ye have just got 
 ten in." 
 
 " What is the man s real name? " I asked as he 
 turned to leave me. 
 
 " Ames," was the short answer as he made off, and in 
 the small light of the moon that was now close to its 
 setting I marked his figure grow less and less until the 
 shadows swallowed it. 
 
 Now I saw where I had made a mistake in not 
 closely following directions and asking for " Eex " in 
 the first place. And equally stupid had I been in de-
 
 A FIGHTING QUAKER. 119 
 
 termining that Mck Stryker was openly known by his 
 name. When I inquired for " King," it had never en 
 tered my head that Eex could be aught but the brother 
 of Gertrude, and it now came to me that mayhap Clin 
 ton was inside the truth when he said that youth had 
 perished in the flames. How, then, could the poor girl 
 have fared since she left me? Yet her brother had es 
 caped, according to Mrs. Badely, and twas possible the 
 girl had known where to join him. Either Clinton had 
 lied or his mistress had been deceived, and twas a fair 
 muddle to clear. Stryker had known me through repu 
 tation and description, and if my act had become cele 
 brated so might have hers, and I determined to ask him 
 if he knew aught of the girl for whom I had now more 
 than a passing interest. 
 
 However, the matter was not to be cleared by think 
 ing, and as just now I had need of my brains in my 
 own behalf, I put it aside and came home, as charity 
 should. 
 
 Where was I to pass the coming night? Where was 
 I to procure bread for the morrow? I would not fast 
 again, though it came to entering a house and demand 
 ing food at a pistol s point. What was the end of it all 
 to be? Even now I was held prisoner by a quaking 
 bog, and had put myself into the power of a man who, 
 in my mind, was no more a negro than was Rex or 
 Ames an aged Quaker. 
 
 Twas foolishly weak in me, but as one hour went 
 far into another and nothing chanced, I took a blue 
 turn, thinking of home and my old mother and my 
 sister, and their worry and wonderment at my long ab 
 sence, finally getting myself into a mood that was made 
 up of universal doubts, and, were it not that I had a 
 sense of shame left, I fairly think I might have whim 
 pered like a sick child. 
 
 Indeed, there was nothing in my surroundings to
 
 120 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 prick my pluck. When the moon set, a darkness almost 
 like that of the night before came down on me. The 
 dew was like rain on all about, and not so much as a 
 stone, wet or dry, was there to rest upon. The unusual 
 fast, the lack of sleep, the unceasing danger and present 
 inactivity made me look at matters with a jaundiced 
 eye. The night voices of the swamp were well-nigh 
 deafening, and I was like to lose my head betwixt the 
 vociferous bellowings of the frogs and the strain under 
 which my nerves had so long been strung, when, as 
 though they had come from below, the figures of Ames 
 and Stryker were before me.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A HOUSE OF EEFUGE. 
 
 LIKE smoke in a gale my vapors vanished with the 
 sound of a human voice. It was Stryker who spoke: 
 
 " Come, now, put yer hands on my shoulders an let 
 me have ye out o this. There be no time to lose." 
 
 "Where do we go?" I asked. 
 
 " Thee will be guided by me, friend," said the 
 Quaker. " Let us get beyond this quagmire, and I will 
 pilot thee. I will now make the rear." 
 
 So saying, he took me by the flap of my coat, and 
 I, placing my hands on Stryker s shoulders behind, we 
 three moved off into the bog in an opposite direction 
 from that we had come. 
 
 The negro must have had the eye of a bat and the 
 nose of a hound to make his way over such a ground in 
 such a darkness. There were many turnings in the 
 path, and more than once did I see the reflection of 
 the stars in the black water that was almost under foot. 
 More than once was there a loud splash as we disturbed 
 some ancient croaker of the swamp, and now and again 
 a tall clump of bushes or a mass of rank August growth 
 came out of the gloom ahead like human figures. I 
 think we must have walked in this close Indian file for 
 something over half a mile before the ground began to 
 rise and the sod felt firm beneath me; but when it did, 
 Stryker stopped and turned about. 
 
 " Now I leave ye," he said. " Ye know yer way on- 
 9 121
 
 122 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 ward, Ames, an ye can be safe till sunrise at least. I 
 charge ye both to keep away from the Dove. I can 
 do no more for ye, though much I regret it. I must 
 not be suspected, and, were a spy caught in my house, 
 I would be undone and my days of usefulness to the 
 cause be over. Tell No. 5 that all is right thus far. I 
 will hear of ye fast enough if ye be taken. God bless 
 ye both for true men! An now good-night. I must 
 hurry back." 
 
 Without a word being spoken in return, he started 
 on a dogtrot in the direction of the morass from which 
 we had just escaped. As he disappeared, I turned on 
 the Quaker with the determination of settling a few 
 small matters, and abruptly asked: 
 
 "Is that man what he seems a negro?" 
 
 " Yea, and thee has seen as devoted a patriot as the 
 colonies know," he answered. " As for his race, tis 
 anomalous. His parents blood was almost white, but 
 he bred backward, as men sometimes do, and is blacker 
 than the average negro. And he has talent for a go- 
 between. He can mimic so that the evil one might 
 take him for a double. Did he not fool thee? Ah! 
 Nick," he continued, apostrophizing the absent man, 
 " an were it not for thy color thy name would be great 
 in the field, though not so great as is thy big heart ! " 
 
 "Would I had known it!" I answered. "I would 
 have atoned for the black thoughts I had of him. And 
 now, friend Ames," I continued, " I have fancied you 
 other than you are. Had I known what I now know, 
 twould have saved a deal of trouble. But, first, I owe 
 you my life for what you did for me, as, had you not 
 sighted the redcoats and acted, I would 
 
 " We re quits, friend, we re quits, did thee but know 
 it," he interrupted. " Let us not stand here; we have 
 Turtle Bay ahead and no bed nearer. The way is long 
 and rough, seeing we are debarred the highway. Thee
 
 A HOUSE OP REFUGE. 123 
 
 be well armed; give me a pistol, for as a Quaker I have 
 not so much as a bodkin." 
 
 " Being no Quaker, then spare me your thees and 
 thous," said I, thrusting a pistol into his hands. 
 
 " But I am a Quaker, in truth, friend," he an 
 swered. 
 
 "A Quaker, and fight!" 
 
 " I am a follower of one Elias Hicks, who takes a 
 wider path than the orthodox. But the blood is not 
 thick in me, though I am of the Quaker stock. I fall 
 into the style when in need of concealment, and carry 
 it out fairly well eh, friend?" 
 
 " Faith," said I, " I take it you re on a broader path 
 than Hicks e er trod. That blow would have read 
 you out of meeting were you a true broad-brim. And 
 how did you cozen the party at the tavern?" I asked 
 as we stepped out. 
 
 " By sending most of them to the north after thee," 
 he answered. " To the rest I outlied the father of lies, 
 and ended by getting them into a fair state of drunken 
 ness, and after, as an old man, I pleaded fatigue and 
 went to bed. I am in bed now, friend, to them." 
 
 Though he still clung to the Quaker style of speak 
 ing, he had laid aside the voice and actions of the old 
 man he had represented, making a strange combination 
 with his long, white hair, broad-brimmed hat, youthful 
 tones, and sprightly behavior. Through all his words 
 there was an undercurrent of dry humor, which seemed 
 to take no account of the deep danger we were in, or 
 the, to me, absolute blankness of the future. 
 
 Nor was this due to bravado or wonderful courage 
 (though he lacked none of the latter), but, as he afterr 
 ward told me, to the fact that with the failure to get 
 help from Stryker a help he had accounted as cer 
 tain he had given over hoping, and took a desperately 
 calm view of the next day or two, surely believing that
 
 124 A COLONIAL FREE-LAXCE. 
 
 by then all would be over. Yet withal he in no wise 
 abated his vigilance, though he considered the hand of 
 death was near him, and when, finally, there opened 
 up a bare chance for our escape from the island, he said 
 it was as though he had come back from the grave. 
 Ay, and so did I. It was as though a suffocating hand 
 placed over my mouth had been suddenly withdrawn. 
 
 On the start he told me little of himself (though 
 I had thought to find him communicative), and I had 
 to drag from him that he had left a brother at Turtle 
 Bay, whom he was now journeying to rejoin. The 
 youth was but a year or two younger than himself, and 
 fairly helpless, having been stricken by the Almighty 
 with dumbness from birth, though not with its usual 
 accompanying curse deafness. From helping the great 
 cause in some way both brothers were under a ban, and 
 my companion s life was forfeit if he was taken. 
 
 Now as black as seemed my chances, I felt the weight 
 of the old adage of life and hope being akin, and I was 
 by no means overjoyed in knowing that we might be 
 handicapped by a helpless youth should some chance 
 open a way out from the surrounding danger. And this 
 I frankly told my companion, though to me he made 
 no reply. 
 
 For the most part he walked a pace or so ahead of 
 me, and thus we went along, going easily enough while 
 crossing open fields, but fairing sorely when we struck 
 woodland or plowed ground. Perilously near, too, we 
 went to dwellings, even stopping at a well hard by one 
 to drink, though first making sure there were no dogs 
 about. I never would have dared this had I been alone, 
 but my companion laughed at the risk, and I followed 
 his lead, though it then struck me as strange that I 
 should let this stripling take the upper hand in our 
 expedition. The truth is, I was fagged and not myself, 
 and though if driven to a corner would have fought like
 
 A HOUSE OF REFUGE. 125 
 
 a shrew, I had no head for fine points on that night, 
 and was growing timid. 
 
 Anon we took to the high road for a space to flank 
 a swamp, and once a dog went wild at the smell of us, 
 but we were unmolested. Not a house showed a light 
 (though that was small wonder, it being past midnight), 
 and now we felt the breath of the damp that rose in the 
 cooling air, and could even mark the pondlike appear 
 ance of the mist as it lay in some black hollow of the 
 land. Through brooks, small swamps, and pools we 
 went, I with heavy boots going dry-shod, though Ames, 
 with but pumps and stockings, was wet to the knees, 
 and I could hear the scrunching of water in his shoes 
 as he walked. But there was little to choose about him 
 after I had pulled him out of a ditch into which he 
 stumbled, though he made a joke of it even while his 
 teeth were chattering from the chill of his sousing. 
 
 It was fearful going in the dark. The Dove lay 
 five miles from Turtle Bay by road, but, with our cir 
 cling and retracing, we must have gone three or four 
 more. For the most part we spoke little, and, though 
 much remained to talk about, I was in no spirits to 
 ask questions or answer them either, for that matter. 
 "With me there was now no thought of what lay behind 
 or before, all that remained of my wits being a stupid, 
 stubborn determination to get on and reach our destina 
 tion, be it what it might. 
 
 I take it twas past one o clock, and I had been fol 
 lowing my leader in an aimless fashion for half an hour 
 without a word between us when he halted and laid his 
 hand upon me, pointing toward a house with the bulk 
 of a barn looming through the gloom behind it. I 
 seemed to wake then, and notice the glimmer of water 
 stretching beyond, and knew we were on the bank of 
 the Sound River. 
 
 "Is this the place, then?" I asked, as I tried to
 
 126 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 make head or tail of the bleak building that stood 
 against the faint sky like a black block. 
 
 He grunted an assent and climbed a fence, I follow 
 ing tamely behind, but instead of proceeding to the 
 house, we cut around it, and finally entered what might 
 have been a disused cow shed built against the rear of 
 the barn. Going to the end, he laid his ear against 
 the rough boards of the barn and began scratching 
 gently. Nothing coming of this, he fumbled about, 
 and presently, to my great astonishment, a broad board 
 came away in his hand, leaving in the barn s side a long, 
 black hole that looked to lead into the bowels of dark 
 ness. 
 
 Ames pushed me toward the opening, and I squeezed 
 through, feeling solid boards under my feet, and being 
 greeted by such a strong smell of old hay that I might 
 have been in the heart of an ancient rick. And this 
 proved to be the case, for I soon heard the story of this 
 hole of refuge. It had been made inside the barn and 
 beneath the mow, and was now scantily covered with 
 the little hay the British had a habit of leaving farmers 
 to take the curse from their wholesale robbery. There 
 was no entrance to this concealed den save the loosened 
 board, and all cracks and openings being stuffed with 
 wisps, from the outside this part of the building seemed 
 bursting from fullness. 
 
 Twas the finest masking of a retreat that could be 
 imagined, and here one might lie and escape hanging 
 (if he ventured not abroad), though there would be 
 starvation to grapple with, and no small danger of 
 smothering, . for the heat was vile, the air heavy, and 
 there was no means of ventilation. 
 
 My companion followed me into this inclosure, 
 quickly readjusting the board, and, as though familiar 
 with the place, struck his steel and got a light in a 
 pierced tin lantern, which he set on the end of an up-
 
 A HOUSE OF REFUGE. 127 
 
 turned log serving as a table, on the top of which lay 
 a scrap of paper. 
 
 This he seized, and, bending low to the glimmer, 
 read the contents while I took in the details of the 
 queer apartment. The rough boards of the room were 
 barren of everything save a rifle hanging on a nail, and 
 the wisps of hay that penetrated each crevice from the 
 mow without. A heap of small arms lay in one corner; 
 in another was a sleeping bunk filled with straw, at the 
 foot of which was a closely strapped bundle filled, as 
 I afterward found, with provisions to be used in the ex 
 tremity of being driven to this retreat for a protracted 
 stay. It was a hiding place pure and simple, and not 
 one to be defended save by secrecy, for a brand touched 
 to any part of the structure would reduce it to ashes in 
 less than an hour. 
 
 " Tis all right!" said Ames, raising his head as I 
 finished my brief survey. " "We are not bound to this 
 hole yet. We may go to the house and sleep like mod 
 ern Christians for once more at least. Come! " 
 
 Extinguishing the light, he loosened the board, and 
 we passed out, the night air coming to the lungs like a 
 cooling balm after the heat and closeness of the con 
 tracted den. 
 
 " There is little danger for the next few hours," he 
 whispered as we made a straight line for the house. 
 " The redcoats were here this noon and searched the 
 place, but my the boy was then in the barn. They 
 will hardly try here again until they have beaten up 
 other quarters. Tis a sorry outlook, Thorndyke ! Have 
 you not in your head a way off this island? Think hard, 
 man! We must both think hard, and then take chances 
 however desperate. You are willing that we pull to 
 gether? " he concluded interrogatively. 
 
 In his earnestness he dropped his assumed manner 
 of speech, and there was an appeal in his voice that
 
 128 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 made me think it was not for himself he was most anx 
 ious. However, I could give him no comfort, only say 
 ing that I had small head for thought until I could clear 
 my brains with sleep, but that if taken, though it were 
 barren of gain, I would send some of the enemy ahead 
 of us to announce our coming. Then I laid my hand 
 in his and swore I would stand by him, and his brother, 
 too, if need be (though such swearing seemed useless 
 in the face of matters), telling him I would be but an 
 ungrateful brute to desert him after he had lost his 
 chance for help at the tavern by giving his hand in my 
 behalf. 
 
 We had halted on our way, and in the darkness we 
 came to the agreement each to stand by the other so 
 long as a chance to help remained. Twas a compact 
 hurriedly thought of and hurriedly made, but there, 
 under the stars dimly showing overhead, was completed 
 a bond that failed not. Twas made through necessity 
 and became strengthened by love. Not conceived in an 
 excess of happiness nor backed by the exuberance or 
 iictitious generosity of strong drink, not even expected 
 to extend beyond the present period of danger, it held 
 through life like an invisible chain. 
 
 There was no delay in getting into the house. 
 Though every window I could see was closed by solid 
 wooden shutters, the back door stood wide for entry, 
 and I soon found myself in what was probably the 
 kitchen. It was pitch black within, but Ames knew 
 his whereabouts, and I, with my hand on his shoulder, 
 followed him through this room into a hall and up a 
 flight of stairs. At the top a man s voice broke out 
 with 
 
 "Who s there?" 
 
 " Seven! " spoke Ames in return. 
 
 "Five!" was the answer. 
 
 "Well enough! And I have a friend," said my
 
 A HOUSE OP REFUGE. 129 
 
 companion. And without more parley he went ahead 
 and up more stairs, opening a trap or hatch, and land 
 ing in the garret at last, where he struck a light. 
 
 The room was undivided, and took in the entire 
 ground plan of the house. So large was it that the single 
 candle failed to clear the gloom from the corners, and 
 made the great rafters spanning the space overhead, 
 deeply mysterious. Two immense chimneys pierced the 
 floor and went out at the roof, but beyond these the 
 sweep of level was unbroken save by a large bed with 
 curtains, a table, and several chairs. A half-moon win 
 dow at either gable end was let high into the wall. A 
 long ladder leading to one of them showed it had been 
 used as a post of observation, but now both were care 
 fully covered to prevent any interior light reaching 
 abroad. 
 
 Here, then, were comfortable quarters at last. It 
 was none too cool, but there was plenty of air, and 
 could I but get a bite and a few hours sleep I felt 
 something might come of it, especially as there was a 
 safe hiding place near at hand which could be used at 
 a pinch, and such a possible refuge would prove a 
 mighty factor in preventing demoralization. 
 
 I was looking at the trapped hole in the floor 
 through which we had come when I heard a footstep 
 on the stairs and a man appeared from below. He 
 rose into sight as though there was no end to him, so 
 tall and gaunt was he, and as he came to the light I 
 saw that he possessed but one eye, and that set in a 
 face which had the length and expression of that of a 
 horse. With barely a glance at me, he took my com 
 panion aside, where they held a whispered conference. 
 Suddenly turning, he held out to me an arm like a 
 flail and grasped my hand. Then with a smile which 
 disclosed a magnificent set of teeth, and like magic 
 transfigured the expression of his face, he said in the
 
 130 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 purest English and with a voice of wonderful modula 
 tion: 
 
 " Donald Thorndyke, you are heartily welcome to 
 the poor house of Peter Burt. I trust it will hold you in 
 safety until a way of escape is made clear. Your deed 
 is known to me. I honor you for your generosity, brav 
 ery, and patriotism. Pardon me/ he interrupted as I 
 was about to speak, " I know your present needs, and 
 will supply them at once; then we will talk." And 
 with this he abruptly turned and went below. 
 
 He had barely disappeared when a strange thing 
 happened. I was facing the bed when I heard an ex 
 clamation come from behind the curtains which were 
 drawn close, and at the same time they parted, discover 
 ing a youth clad in a long Quaker cloak which de 
 scended halfway down his shapely calves. For the 
 moment I was startled, but at once surmised that he was 
 the dumb brother of my companion. Ames sprang 
 forward to meet him, the boy greeting him with a smile 
 and a hand clasp, but, pushing past my guide, he ad 
 vanced to where I stood by the table, and with a rippling 
 laugh where there was no mistaking astonished me by 
 saying: 
 
 "Donald Thorndyke here! Has he, too, escaped? 
 Heaven is indeed good! I have no need of counterfeit 
 ing dumbness with him. Beverly, by what fortune " 
 
 The flow of words were cut short here, for Ames 
 let out a cry just as I cleared my muddled brain and 
 recognized the girl, Gertrude King, disguised as a 
 Quaker. With the cloak gathered about her as though 
 to conceal her altered apparel, and slightly bent as in 
 shrinking modesty, she stood with eyes and lips apart, 
 w r hile my late guide grasped my hand and said: 
 
 "By the Lord! but I struck better than I knew. 
 Why, man, twas you who gave me the first hand in 
 help, and that at the fire, but I have never seen your
 
 A HOUSE OF REFUGE. 131 
 
 face closely till now. I knew you as the savior of my 
 sister, but had no guess I was in your debt for my 
 self." 
 
 " We re quits, as you said, but tis a small debt. 
 She is your sister, then ! " I exclaimed, in my bewilder 
 ment referring to the matter which had been bothering 
 me. " How is it I am thus hoodwinked? Have we not 
 just sworn 
 
 " Nay, friend," he broke in entreatingly. " I but 
 guessed at you at first. This dumbness has been a mask 
 from the start. Twas that and your pass which got 
 Gertrude through the lower lines. I but continued it 
 with you, fearing you would shirk the risk of having 
 a girl share what adventure we might have in store. 
 You gave me to understand that much. Be not of 
 fended." 
 
 " Nay, Beverly, I could have told you better! " said 
 the girl. " Captain Thorndyke, you must pardon my 
 appearance, nor think I am unsexed inwardly as out 
 wardly when I say that I know you will not refuse your 
 help to me; for, as you once risked your life for mine, 
 you will not leave us and put it beyond my power to do 
 my share in making good the debt. The same feeling 
 which bade you defy Clinton will surely not allow you 
 to leave me while I am still unfortunate! And I can 
 help. I will not faint nor lose my head and cry out if 
 danger comes. I can shoot; ay, and will, if need be!" 
 
 She was a striking object as she stood there in the 
 light of the single candle. As she spoke she stepped 
 forward, the cloak slipping from her hands and fall 
 ing about her in graceful folds. Not a whit less of a 
 beauty was she for all that her hair was shorn for more 
 than half its length and stained almost black, for in her 
 male attire there was no mistaking the grace of her 
 sex, which in her was accentuated. In her present rig 
 she seemed less tall than in her proper costume, but it
 
 132 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 gave freedom to her movements, and there were ease 
 and suppleness in even the small gesture of extending 
 her arms toward me as if to add weight to her words. 
 From top to toe there was witchery about her, and I 
 little wondered at ScammelPs infatuation. How on 
 earth she had passed the lines without having been sus 
 pected was a puzzle, unless, indeed, she too, like her 
 brother, was skilled in acting a part. 
 
 " Mistress Gertrude," I replied, bending my head, 
 whereat she attempted a courtesy, which, to say the 
 least, was graceful despite the lack of sweeping dra 
 pery, " you need not think me generous when I tell you 
 that the oath which binds me to help your brother 
 binds me to help you also, and to the last extremity. 
 These may be but empty words; danger lies in every 
 quarter, nor can I probe a way through. Madam, do 
 not count on the success of my best efforts, but for the 
 sake of all know them to be my best. And now for 
 your story; but, first, how is it that brother and sister 
 bear different names? " 
 
 " We are but half brother and sister," said Ames. 
 " Ne er mind genealogy; let s get below and eat, then 
 for sleep, then for what God wills. It can bode no evil 
 to us that we three are thus met, but what a find for 
 Clinton could he but clutch us! "
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS. 
 
 WHETHEK our meeting would prove for good or evil 
 fortune the future alone would tell, but certain it was 
 there was nothing remarkable in the fact of our com 
 ing together. Twas but natural that the girl had flown 
 straight from Clinton to where she might expect to find 
 her brother, and, as the report of his escape had been 
 true, she there found him. Her freedom from arrest 
 had been due to the same cause or causes that had al 
 lowed me to retain my own liberty on that memorable 
 Sabbath; namely, the lack of military precaution at head 
 quarters on that day and the suddenness and unlooked- 
 for nature of the episode. Once under the roof of a 
 Quaker relative, she and her brother had been quickly 
 disguised and passed through the lines as father and 
 son, finding refuge in the house on the shores of Turtle 
 Bay, and they had thus far eluded capture by retreating 
 by day to the concealed quarters before described. 
 
 From there Ames had proceeded to Stryker (another 
 link in the chain of secret patriots), hoping through 
 him to find the means of getting to the Jersey shore or 
 above the lines at Kingsbridge; but partly through the 
 fact that all points of possible escape were doubly 
 guarded, and partly through the adventure caused by 
 my going to the Dove, he could obtain no help from the 
 innkeeper. However, as he had further protected his 
 sister by starting Lowney s companion, the trooper, on 
 
 133
 
 134 A COLONIAL FEEE-LANCE. 
 
 a false scent to the northward, and had ended the days 
 of the Tory blackleg himself, his errand could hardly 
 be considered fruitless. 
 
 The only remarkable point in the sequence of events 
 that had brought us all together was that I should have 
 met " Eex " in the nick of time and had him made 
 known to me. 
 
 There was nothing in his present appearance by 
 which I could have connected him Avith the scorched 
 youth I had encountered at the fire. He was now clean 
 shaved, and, with the grime of smoke washed from 
 his face, his singed hair replaced by a white wig, and 
 his entire change of costume, he was an aged Quaker if 
 one peered not too closely at the lines which had been 
 laid upon his features. 
 
 The details of their escape and a recital of my own 
 adventures were given as we regaled ourselves with a 
 hasty meal in a room beneath the attic. Though solid 
 shutters were over the windows, they were further pro 
 tected from any gleam of light straying outward by a 
 hanging of sheets nailed to the casing. This closeness 
 made the heat stifling, but physical discomfort was a 
 small matter, and was almost forgotten as I listened 
 in turn to the news from the city as it was given by 
 our host. 
 
 Like a band of plotting freebooters in masquerade 
 we must have appeared as we sat at the small table with 
 its single candle, talking in whispers, the girl and her 
 brother in their incongruous characters making the 
 strong points of the picture, while the tall, long-fea 
 tured man, whose melancholy cast was instantly cor 
 rected by a smile, sat opposite me, a more than sufficient 
 foil to my proportions. 
 
 My host never laughed, but his smile was a passport 
 to favor, making his natural expression sour by con 
 trast or as though he was acting a part when his face
 
 THE SEQUENCE OP EVENTS. 135 
 
 was in repose. Of the little band of those who remained 
 in New York, and were underhanded though active in 
 their devotion to the cause, I saw not one but who was 
 an adept in his ability to mimic or portray a character 
 totally at variance with the one God had given him. 
 Peter Burt was not the least of these, for, though he 
 looked like a graveyard, he was the reverse by nature. 
 This worthy was a typesetter in the office of the notori 
 ous Kivmgton, the official printer to the King, and was 
 the right-hand man to that blatant Tory. His position 
 and his undoubted education made his real sentiments 
 unsuspected, and, while by day he damned the rebels 
 and seemed to lack common compassion for those who 
 by chance fell prisoners or were even suspected of trea 
 son, by night he was doing all in his power to get in 
 formation to Washington or giving a helping hand to 
 refugees or those in distress. Late in life I heard that 
 Rivington himself was in full accord with Burt, and 
 used his post to the confusion of the King s interest, 
 but I know naught of the truth of it. 
 
 The matter that roused my greatest interest was the 
 news (or lack of it) of Scammell. As a garner of in 
 formation Burt was in the thick of it, and I was 
 mightily mystified when told that Scammell had recov 
 ered sufficiently to move from his quarters at the King s 
 Arms and had disappeared, leaving no trace behind, 
 though the search made for him was but a trifle less 
 keen than that made for us. 
 
 "Has he started his lure for me?" I asked myself, 
 but dropped the subject as I listened to the explanation 
 of his move. 
 
 " It comes about through a remark made by Mis 
 tress Gertrude," said Burt, indicating the young lady, 
 who laughed lightly at the story she had undoubtedly 
 already heard. " It is possible you may recollect her 
 twitting Clinton with a reference to some officer who
 
 13G A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 had informed her about her brother. Well, Clinton 
 took this to mean Scammell, and Scammell hearing of 
 it, possibly in a garbled recital, and fearing arrest, has 
 given color to the matter by putting himself beyond 
 the reach of investigation. He is a sharp fellow, sir, 
 and knows his broken head will excuse him when the 
 trouble blows over. Sir Henry is not fond of making 
 enemies among the line and file of his army, though he 
 cares little for the staff. As for you, Captain Thorn- 
 dyke, it were well if you quickly devised some means of 
 putting yourself into a position of greater security than 
 I can offer you. There is a large reward for you, and 
 if you were taken, your trial would be a mockery. Our 
 friend Ames has but little better chance should he be 
 caught, and as for his sister, though her life might not 
 be sacrificed, she would be undone Mrs. Badely would 
 see to that. Failure to find you thus far means re 
 doubled efforts in the future. They know you must be 
 still on Manhattan. What can be done ? " 
 
 " Nothing to-night/ I replied, the blackness of our 
 prospects opening like an abyss before me. " Let me 
 sleep; in my present condition I am useless." 
 
 " Right! " he exclaimed. " You are safe for to 
 night. I will not leave here till past daylight, and will 
 return at dusk. Now, Miss King, up to your quarters. 
 Gentlemen, you will rest here. If I give the alarm, 
 get to the barn. Look to yourselves by day, and be 
 wary, for were you discovered here I say, as did Stryker, 
 my days of usefulness to the cause would be over." 
 
 So saying, he blew out the light and opened the 
 windows, while I threw myself, dressed as I was, onto 
 the bed, and, drawing in great breaths of the damp 
 night air, soon slept as only sleep the tired and healthy.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE FOG. 
 
 I LAY like one dead until well into the morning, 
 waking as blithesomely as a child, only to be shocked 
 as I came to a realizing sense of the toils that beset me. 
 Physically I was a new man, and the feeling of antago 
 nism and defiance with which I met the outlook proved 
 that my spirit was yet unbroken. 
 
 But not a hole could I discover through the network 
 of circumstances that had made me a victim. Testing 
 the matter from all sides, the result was the same. It 
 was fight and die, though I was careful not to betray 
 this conclusion to either Ames or his sister. I knew 
 that the youth was equally at sea, but the girl was cheer 
 ful and acted as though her troubles would be of short 
 duration, feeling doubtless, as her sex is prone to do, 
 that with two protectors things would go not far wrong. 
 
 And, indeed, we needed the fillip of good spirits 
 from some source, and hers aided my philosophy to the 
 extent of causing me to think it were as well to smile 
 at approaching death as to sit and quake over its cer 
 tainty. 
 
 All that day we fed well, this once maiden of fashion 
 preparing our food, while by the aid of the ladder in 
 the attic Ames and myself kept watch by turns through 
 one of the half-moon windows which commanded the 
 high road a mile or so away. But we were undisturbed, 
 though we saw numerous troops going north, and once 
 10 137
 
 138 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 feared a squad was about to turn toward us, but they 
 went on, only halting a moment where the roads 
 joined. 
 
 At sunset Burns returned, bringing the news that 
 a double cordon of the enemy had been drawn across 
 the island near the Dove, which body was to divide and 
 beat up the country both north and south, scouring 
 every house, tree, and nook and cranny from one end 
 of Manhattan to the other. This accounted for the 
 unusual number of troops we had seen that day, and to 
 this extent had my act stirred to its center the British 
 army. It almost enabled one to count the hours of re 
 maining freedom, and I figured that by noon on the 
 day following the forces would have drawn their line 
 close to the purlieus of the city and caught us as a fish 
 is caught in a narrowing net. 
 
 The thought fairly drove me wild, and in my very 
 despair I rose from the table at which we had been 
 sitting and went to the window for air, that I might 
 be rid of the oppression which like a weight lay upon 
 my chest. Was this fear? Hardly; for, had the house 
 been assaulted at that moment, the load would have 
 fallen away as fell the burden from the back of Chris 
 tian. Xay, it was uncertainty and inaction still play 
 ing on the harp strings of my nerves, but it was an un 
 bearable feeling. 
 
 The moon was up, and it cast a lusty light over the 
 lowlands and the river, though its setting would not 
 be late. It was a lovely night; in faith, all Nature was 
 possessed of a beauty which made the thought of yield 
 ing up of life bitter enough. Everything suggested 
 freedom, from the rolling of the distant woodland on 
 Long Island to the sparkle and dance of the water which 
 lay betwixt it and me, barring me from liberty and my 
 inborn right to breathe the free air. The speck that 
 shot across the brilliant moon path I knew to be a patrol
 
 THE FOG. 139 
 
 boat, and a sudden hatred of the bonds that compassed 
 me, as exampled in that small floating thing, brought 
 my muscles into iron bands, and I clutched the sill with 
 my fingers until the casing cracked. 
 
 I turned back to the others, and we ate the balance 
 of our meal in silence, even the girl feeling the growing , 
 nearness of the end and glancing furtively at each 
 man s face in turn. 
 
 I think we sat in this state of depression for much 
 more than an hour, or long after we had finished eating, 
 and each face was well-nigh lost in the darkness. The 
 window being open, no light was made, and, as there 
 was not a breath of wind, the stillness was only broken 
 by the sounds of night life without. There was a faint 
 shimmer of moonlight on t-he floor which barely gave 
 form to those at the table, but the only sign of anima 
 tion existing within doors was the glowing of our three 
 pipes as we men sat and sucked away, each respecting 
 the thoughts of the others. 
 
 At length Burt spoke. " I am bound to confess 
 that darkness looms ahead," he began, " and if I make 
 a suggestion, it is not to hint that you should take a 
 hopeless chance in order that I may be rid of you. 
 Could you do aught with a boat? I have one concealed 
 that might be made ready in an hour." 
 
 The spell of silence and inactivity was broken, for 
 the girl left her chair and stepped softly to the window 
 as I replied: 
 
 " I have thought of boats, but only for the Hudson 
 side. Could we go far and not be picked up by another 
 such sneaking devil of a patrol as I saw yonder? Whith 
 er shall we go? I say we, for we it must be. I have cast 
 my lot with the others." 
 
 He made no answer, and I rose and joined the girl 
 (whom I could hardly yet think of as a girl) at the 
 window. But now the aspect of Nature had changed,
 
 14:0 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 and the fair picture I had seen below but a short time 
 before was blurred as a breath blurs a cold pane. With 
 the quick alteration possible in this region and at this 
 season, within the hour the night had grown damp, and 
 a light, low fog hung over the river and its banks, so 
 shallow, so still, and so silvery in the clear moonlight 
 that it was as though a quiet inundation had ingulfed 
 the land and turned the world into a lake. At the eleva 
 tion from which I viewed it, I looked down upon it as 
 one looks down upon the sea from a low headland. A 
 billowy fullness lifted here and there, slow moving and 
 majestic, but over its vast extent the line betwixt fog 
 and clear air was sharply drawn. No moon track cut 
 across this fleecy ocean, no sharp ripple broke its sur 
 face, and a breeze would have wrecked its strange beauty 
 in a second. 
 
 The trees rose through the vapor, clear at their tops 
 but invisible at their bases, and one dead sycamore stood 
 strongly out against the light like the masts and rigging 
 of a sunken ship. Its similarity struck me. As my 
 eye caught it, like a flash of lightning an idea shot into 
 my brain and my pipe snapped off at my teeth as I bit 
 through the stem in the intensity of my feeling. With 
 a cry I sprang for Ames, and gripping him by the 
 shoulders with a force that made him cry out, I said, 
 or rather shouted: 
 
 " I have it! I have it! Now is the time! Will you 
 follow me and take a monstrous chance? Look, man! 
 Mark the fog! We will to the boat drift for the Phan 
 tom cut her cable and trust to the ebb and God above 
 to carry us past the fleet." 
 
 " The phantom! For the love of God, what phan 
 tom? Are you suddenly daft, Thorndyke, that you see 
 ghosts? " was the vehement return of the youth as 
 with a violent twist he tried to free himself from my 
 grasp.
 
 THE FOG. 
 
 " Nay, man, no ghost! " I cried betwixt a laugh and 
 a sob, so high was my nervous excitement. " My ship 
 the schooner Phantom! Have I not told you? She lies 
 but a mile below on a straight drift. See, man, see! " 
 said I, hurrying him to the window. " The fog will be 
 our guard! Once away, we are safe! Tis death to 
 bide here when such a mask stands ready for our use! 
 We are yet alive! We are not spent! Will you risk 
 the outcome? Let us not stand here and see those 
 scarlet devils hem us in like a ring of fire! Better 
 strangle in the sweet brine beneath the vessel s keel than 
 be jerked into the next world by means of a rope! Never 
 shall they dance me! How now? Shall we sink or swim 
 together in the venture? " 
 
 I was beside myself with excitement. As the mean 
 ing of my words, which had been poured out in dis 
 jointed sentences, caught the youth, he instantly took 
 fire. We were now all standing, and I had released him 
 from my hold. With a bound he gained the side of his 
 sister, who had stood like a statue as my plan was un 
 folding, and taking her hand, he said: 
 
 " Gertrude! Gertrude! do you follow him? Tis a 
 grand opening; tis like a call to life! I am for it! We 
 have no home, and can lose no more than is already 
 lost if we remain here. Will you cast your lot with him 
 with us and risk the danger which can be no greater 
 beyond than in this place? Come, Thorndyke, make it 
 clear; show her tis the last resort, desperate though it 
 be." 
 
 There was no need of argument, however, for with 
 one hand in that of her brother and the other stretched 
 toward me, she simply answered, " I dare all you dare! 
 Have I yet failed? " and stood with lifted head and un- 
 trembling form as she spoke the words. 
 
 Out of sheer respect and admiration for the heroism 
 of this girl, I felt like bending my knee even as a knight
 
 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 bends before his sovereign, but the practical mind of 
 Burt put a period to any possibility of mock heroics, 
 for that individual asked in the calmest of tones: 
 
 " Is your ship still where she has been? Is she de 
 serted, or, at least, is she not guarded ? " 
 
 " Three days ago not a gasket had been touched 
 since the broad arrow was painted on her bow," I an 
 swered. " By night she is guarded by a single man, but 
 that troubles me less than would a fly on a hot day. 
 He has seen his last sun if he thwarts me. I care not 
 for one man nor three if I can but guide my approach. 
 From aught I have seen and I have watched her well 
 nothing has been done to her, naught carried away. She 
 was thought fit to go on an errand to Pigot, only want 
 ing in men, arms, and provisions; even the fresh water 
 stowed forward may be good! " 
 
 " Arms and provisions you can have. They are 
 even now in the barn room," he answered slowly and 
 in strong contrast to my excited speech. " But," he 
 continued, as he closed the shutters, blocked the win 
 dows, and lighted the candle, " might you not overshoot 
 your vessel in the fog, or run into some of the anchored 
 fleet when once adrift? " 
 
 "Ay, all is chance!" broke in Ames; "and twere 
 better to take the chance than to be run to earth like 
 a tired fox, as is like to happen in biding here. What, 
 then, would come to you, Peter? Like enough you 
 would help weight a third string, and we all hang to 
 gether! " 
 
 " When does the tide ebb to-night? " I asked. 
 
 " Near eleven, or at about the setting of the moon," 
 Burt answered. Then after a moment he continued: 
 " Well, God be with you, gentlemen! I will do my part. 
 Like the refuge in the barn, I made the boat and hid 
 it while yet Washington held the city. I clearly foresaw 
 the outcome of his collision with Clinton, and little
 
 THE FOG. 143 
 
 doubted the ultimate use of both barn and boat. Either 
 is at your service." 
 
 With the opening of possible escape before me, and 
 one demanding immediate action, my spirits went aloft 
 in the measure of their former depression. Nor did I 
 fear their reaction, as enough uncertainty lay before 
 to keep a man s eyes and wits awake, and that, too, with 
 out the aid of liquor. Even after the decision to trust 
 to the boat was made, my mind misgave me. Was it 
 better to drag this girl into the danger of an attempt 
 to fly through a plan which might be nipped in the bud 
 and end by our running at once into the hands of the 
 enemy, or lie in a suffocating box with the doubtful 
 chance of being overlooked? Even if safer, the latter 
 would become more than awkward if necessity demanded 
 protracted concealment, and if discovery ensued it would 
 but serve to damn our generous benefactor. Besides, to 
 tell the truth, I had no wish to be found like a scared 
 rabbit in a hole. A man s pride hangs on nigh as long 
 as his breath, if he be properly balanced, and I had made 
 a reputation of which, to say the least, I was not 
 ashamed. Xay, I would make a bold and novel move, 
 and, if it must so come, end my life like a man with his 
 liver of the proper color. 
 
 This much settled, and in less time than it had 
 taken to write it, I thought and spoke no more of the 
 barn room, but turned with the rest to making ready. 
 Beyond the boat, the bundle of provisions, an extra 
 brace of pistols, and a rapier, we mulcted our host of 
 nothing. In an hour the boat, which was no more than 
 a flat-bottomed scow squared at the ends, was brought 
 from its hiding place. It was fitted with the roughest 
 of oars and but one thwart, and was a damp affair alto 
 gether, its concealment having been made through cov 
 ering it with boards on which had been piled a mass of 
 wet salt weed. It proved tight, though terribly heavy,
 
 144 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 but as I worked I completed the details of the start, and 
 had determined that the use of oars would but menace 
 our safety, so that speed, or lack of it, would be a qual 
 ity cutting no figure. We would but drift and steer. 
 
 After cleaning it, there was little else to do but load 
 the boat, getting the arms snugly bestowed, and then 
 wait for the slacking of the flood tide. It was tedious 
 and impatient waiting, for I feared me that the wind 
 might rise and wreck the fog. If this should happen 
 before dawn our prospects would be wrecked with it, 
 and then and then 
 
 But I am not prone to borrow trouble, though it 
 was with half relief and half regret that toward mid 
 night I finally heard the swashing of the ebb as it eddied 
 along the rocks, and knew the time to start had come. 
 The full realization of the risk came upon me as I stood 
 with painter in hand giving my last farewell to Burt. 
 " God keep you safe! " he said. " If I find the schooner 
 gone to-morrow, and hear not of your capture by Thurs 
 day, I will thank Him as never before." The next min 
 ute the three of us were out on the Sound Kiver, and 
 the black land was hidden by the fog that closed 
 around us. 
 
 I at once sculled out into the stream until I struck 
 the free current, and then sat myself on the boat s bot 
 tom, using an oar as a rudder to keep the scow s head 
 down the river, letting her drift with the tide which 
 was here running at a great rate. All night sounds from 
 the land were lost in the thick cloud, and an almost 
 dead silence ensued as we whirled southward, the only 
 break being an occasional sucking noise in the water, 
 due to the hurrying whirlpools. 
 
 It was nervous work. Ames was forward as a look 
 out, his figure even at that short distance being almost 
 lost in the combined darkness and blur. The girl, 
 seated upon the center thwart, held herself as straight
 
 THE FOG. 145 
 
 as an arrow, though her head was slightly bent as in in 
 tense listening. Fears of her becoming an incubus had 
 long since vanished, and if her heart beat thickly at 
 our dubious adventure, it did not show in the quiet and 
 confident smile with which she had adopted every sug 
 gestion and obeyed every order with as little hesitation 
 as though she had been a disciplined soldier. In her 
 hand she held a pistol which was huddled closely in her 
 cloak to keep the damp from its priming, and in an 
 emergency I fully believed she would use it without a 
 qualm. 
 
 I had given orders that no shot should be fired save 
 in extremity, determining that interference should be 
 met by cold steel only. At the onset I feared nothing 
 beyond blundering into a patrol, and in that case the 
 use of firearms might alarm the enemy ashore. 
 
 In the above fashion, then, we drifted along for per 
 haps twenty minutes, the wet dripping from my brows 
 and lashes like tears. I had no means of getting at our 
 definite whereabouts save by guessing by our speed, that 
 making me think we should be abreast of the highlands 
 below Turtle Bay. Turning the boat s head inshore, I 
 ran close to the rocks, and then slid along (more slowly 
 for being hard by the bank) just beyond what I thought 
 to be the loom of the land. By this I had gotten into 
 the swing of the situation and had less fear of inter 
 ruption than of missing the Phantom. Twould be an 
 easy matter to slip by her, and even could I once mark 
 the height of Corlears Hook, with its alarm beacon al 
 ways ready for the touch of a torch, I would then be an 
 unusual sailor if I could make a straight course for the 
 schooner, though she still lay at her old anchorage. In 
 the darkness both beacon and heights would be beyond 
 vision, and I was approaching what was very like real 
 worry when my fears were relieved and our present situ 
 ation indicated by the sound of eight bells struck in true
 
 146 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 man-o -war s-man s style that came floating over the 
 river about off our larboard beam. I gave a fair guess 
 that the measured beats came from the Bellerophon 
 striking the hour of midnight, that ship being the only 
 vessel of size which had been anchored above the Jersey 
 prison hulk to dispute a possible passage of the Sound 
 Kiver from above. I was sure of this when, after in 
 tently listening, I heard no other striking, for had the 
 fleet been near there would have been a harmony of 
 bells in quick succession. 
 
 My mind being thus relieved, I turned the tub s 
 head into the stream again, and for awhile we floated 
 rapidly and silently along, a boat with three figures 
 that might have been carved from stone so rigid were 
 our attitudes of watchfulness and expectancy. 
 
 I fear I am none too strong a believer in the doc 
 trine of special providences, though I have seemed to 
 see its workings in my own behalf, as instanced in the 
 breeze that saved me from the knife of the negro; but 
 if ever the Almighty carried three human beings in the 
 hollow of His hand, and pointed out the way of deliver 
 ance from pressing danger, He did it this night, and that 
 without the working of a miracle. Suddenly, and with 
 out the intervention of a breeze, we were floating in clear 
 water. Before us rose a white, impenetrable cloud of a 
 dull luminosity, while behind us lay the moist veil from 
 which we had just drifted. Its height was clearly 
 marked, and showed the mist extended not more than 
 twenty feet above the river s surface. We had struck 
 a chasm in the fog, and once when on the high seas I 
 had marked the like, then, as now, there being no wind 
 to mix or drive the vapor. 
 
 The rift was but a few hundred feet across, though 
 it apparently extended from shore to shore, like the 
 waters rolled back for the passage of the children of 
 Israel. Not a boat was in sight. On either hand the
 
 THE FOG. 147 
 
 water lay black and flat, only shimmered here and there 
 by the light of the stars that shone clearly overhead.* 
 
 It was a wonderful, an awe-inspiring sight, but the 
 quick exclamation I involuntarily made the first sound 
 from the boat since it left Turtle Bay was followed by 
 almost a shout as I marked a height of headland from 
 the top of which, faintly outlined against the pale sky, 
 stood up the beacon. It was Corlears Hook past doubt, 
 known not alone by its rounded outline, but by the un 
 used alarm signal which Clinton had caused to be placed 
 there to warn the fleet in case of a sudden attack by the 
 Americans. A watch was always kept from this point, 
 but I doubt that the eye of an eagle could have caught 
 the tiny speck of our boat with its load of three as it 
 floated over the space of open water. 
 
 In less than five minutes we were plunged into the 
 opposite bank of fog, and then I passed the girl to my 
 place in the stern, quietly shipped the oars in the muf 
 fled tholes, seated myself on the thwart, and held me 
 ready to alter our course and feel for the schooner as 
 soon as we had gained a trifle more way down the river. 
 
 * This incident must not be considered forced. The writer 
 saw these exact conditions while on a ferry boat from New York 
 to Brooklyn during a foggy night in the summer of 1895. The 
 phenomenon is probably due to a warm and comparatively dry 
 streak of slowly moving air, and lasts but a few moments.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE CABIN OF THE PHANTOM. 
 
 WITH my mind lost to all else save the calculation 
 of the speed and distance we were making, and my body 
 braced forward awaiting the proper moment to swerve 
 the boat s course, I was suddenly startled by a quick 
 exclamation from Ames, which was at once followed 
 by a rasping bump and the heeling of the scow until the 
 water poured in over the gunwale. At the same moment 
 the starboard oar received a blow that almost tore it 
 from my hand, and what seemed a huge black object 
 arose alongside and quickly vanished in the mist and 
 darkness astern. The suddenness and smartness of the 
 shock were startling; but, quick as were the appearance 
 and disappearance of the obstruction we had fouled, I 
 recognized it to be the spar buoy which marked the 
 outer edge of the reef extending from the Hook into the 
 river. 
 
 One might have cruised a week under the conditions 
 besetting us and failed to have picked it up. It was 
 like groping through the proverbial haystack and find 
 ing the proverbial needle without having looked for it, 
 and, though its greeting had well-nigh been disastrous, 
 it gave me the one point I wished with absolute accu 
 racy. I now knew that we were nearly dead on the 
 Phantom, and not two cable lengths away; indeed, had 
 we missed the rude warning of the spar, it was but 
 fair to reckon we would have fouled the schooner her- 
 
 148
 
 THE CABIN OF THE PHANTOM. 149 
 
 golf unless in my miscalculations I had altered our 
 course, in which case we would have missed her alto 
 gether. 
 
 Quickly turning the boat s head about, I let it drift 
 stern first, and even before I expected, heard the rush 
 of the tide against a vessel s stem, while almost instantly, 
 magnified through the fog, loomed up like a blank wall 
 the bow of the schooner. 
 
 So suddenly were we upon it that the jib boom was 
 well over us before I sighted the black hull, and with 
 all my might I checked the boat s way, grasping the bob- 
 stay in time to save a collision, while Ames whipped the 
 painter about the taut cable, and we came to a rest. 
 The suck of the rushing waters against the broad, flat 
 end of the scow made me fearful that the noise would 
 call the guard s attention forward, and, whispering into 
 the ear of Ames to hold all fast until I returned, I 
 gently rid me of my boots, took my sword betwixt my 
 teeth, swarmed up the stay to the bowsprit, and stood 
 again on the deck of my own schooner. 
 
 At last twas done. The exultation I felt would be 
 but natural to any man who sees the successful ending 
 of a difficult undertaking. Fog and darkness were as 
 nothing to me here; my way aft would have been clear 
 had I been blind, but hardly had I gotten abreast the 
 foremast when I heard the burly tones of one man ad 
 dressing another, and the noise of oars as they fell into, 
 rowlocks came plainly to my strained ear. Stepping 
 softly over the bulwark, I lowered myself to the channel 
 and listened. 
 
 " An ye get astray in the fog an come not back by 
 dawn, I ll have ye in the guardhouse for bein off post," 
 said the voice from the deck. 
 
 " Nay," came the answer from a boat; " ye do me 
 a good turn by giving me this leave; fear me not. I ll 
 ne er betray you or fail to be back in time for you to get
 
 150 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 ashore. Tis a summer s fog, an will melt by sunrise! 
 Tell him I will fetch the rum." 
 
 " Fetch it, then, but not in yer skin," was the re 
 turn. " If they speak o me, say ye heard I was going 
 on a quest to Kingsbridge, to be back on the morrow. 
 Ye had better belay yer lip, for ye are off post, an I 
 hold ye in my hand." 
 
 " Ay, ay! Never fear! Good-night! " was the an 
 swer, and the boat moved off with steady strokes of the 
 oars, while the first speaker evidently entered the cabin, 
 as I heard the companion door open and close. Then 
 all was again silent. 
 
 Here was an unexpected situation made more mys 
 terious from the fact that there was something familiar 
 in the voice of the man who had just gone below. I 
 could not place it, only noticing that both men spoke 
 with the savor of sea brine in their words, and though 
 one was totally strange to me, the voice of the other 
 hung in my ear as a misty dream hangs in the mind 
 after waking, naught but its effect remaining. 
 
 Getting to the deck again, I moved slowly aft, stop 
 ping as I noticed a slight luminosity at the side of the 
 cabin, but on further cautious approach found the cause. 
 The cabin was lighted. To prevent the light from going 
 beyond the vessel a tarpaulin had been stretched over 
 the cabin house from rail to rail, thus leaving an open 
 space betwixt the rails and the deadlights, whereby was 
 served the double end of obtaining air and guarding 
 the outward show of light. 
 
 Here was deviltry for sure. Dropping on to my 
 stomach, I snaked myself beneath the tarpaulin, brought 
 my eye to the swung back port, and nearly betrayed 
 myself by the start I made. 
 
 A lighted lantern hung from a carline, the remains 
 of a meal were spread on the table, and there, half re 
 clining in a bunk and with his head in a bandage, was
 
 THE CABIN OF THE PHANTOM. 151 
 
 Captain Scammell, haggard from fever and somewhat 
 the worse from liquor, while on the transom and by his 
 side sat my whilom mate, John Lounsbury, of Rye, late 
 risen from the dead. 
 
 Here, then, were my two arch-enemies; probably the 
 only living souls whose animosity toward me was both 
 of a personal and political nature, saving perhaps that 
 of Clinton himself. Possibly my gorge would have 
 risen sooner against Scammell than at the man by his 
 side, though the latter was none the less a villain, and 
 it seemed as though Fate, having given me friends when 
 in need, had guided me hither to test my mettle to ex 
 tremity. 
 
 Giving no thoughts to those in the boat, I settled 
 myself to hear the opening dialogue of the two, for it 
 immediately transpired that Lounsbury had but just 
 arrived. 
 
 " My God! I thought you would never come! " were 
 the first words by Scammell. " What news do you 
 bring? " 
 
 " None to warrant a grin," was the answer. " I can 
 give ye no end o advice though, an tis to get from 
 this an have it out wi Clinton while there s yet a 
 chance." 
 
 " Damn your advice! What s your news? " 
 
 " Well, Belden goes scot free, an is back in favor 
 an on the Sprite. He lays the fault o palming off 
 that devil Thorndyke to ye. He says ye called Thorn- 
 dyke by my name in the tavern yard, and that he is 
 innocent of all fraud." 
 
 " Curse the stunted coward! And is not Thorndyke 
 caught? or or the girl or her brother? " 
 
 " Nay, but a peg worse. Thorndyke has brained 
 Lowney, whom ye must know, and then escaped, God 
 knows how, being mixed up with a Quaker at Stryker s 
 tavern on the road. Stryker was arrested, but after-
 
 152 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 ward let go, for he was not thought to have had a finger 
 in the pie. As for the boy an girl, naught has been 
 seen o them not a smell and there ye have all I 
 know. They say the girl is in the woods to the north, 
 but she may ha gone to heaven by this ! " 
 
 " What ? what ? " said Scammell, starting up, but 
 sinking back with a curse as he placed his hand on his 
 bandaged head. " In the woods! Known to be there 
 and not taken! Are je all cursed babies on the trail? 
 Tore God, you are right! I was a fool to fly at a shadow! 
 I ll back to Clinton and plead fever to explain my ab 
 sence. I ll back with you this night. The first tale told 
 is the best! Is it not known whose name she mentioned 
 to Clinton?" 
 
 " Nay, man, she gave no name that I can find. 
 Clinton but suspicioned ye. Go to him, an yer not a 
 fool, while I bide here the while. What made ye pick 
 this spot to hide in?" he continued, carelessly pass 
 ing his hand over the smooth woodwork of the bulk 
 head. 
 
 " Because twas right beneath their noses, and the 
 guard was in my pay. In faith, Lounsbury," he went 
 on, with something like relief in the easing away of his 
 body and the long breath he took while he laid his hand 
 on the brace of pistols sticking in his belt, " there was 
 another reason, one with money 
 
 " Ah! what? " interrupted the other, suddenly with 
 drawing his wandering hand and bending eagerly for 
 ward. 
 
 " Ay, the reward, you know; I m nigh done up for 
 cash. That and revenge, for, mind you, I thought that 
 Thorndyke might take it into his head to come aboard 
 his own ship, thinking, like me, it was the least likely 
 place to be searched. His paper gave me the idea. I 
 hoped to lie by here until the trouble blew over, or roll 
 in the glory of taking the hound if he came. He is
 
 THE CABIN OF THE PHANTOM. 153 
 
 equal to attempting a surprise, but I was ready for him. 
 The guard is none too bright; had you not better step 
 up and take a look about ? " And with this he patted 
 the gleaming pistol stocks and looked toward the com 
 panion way. 
 
 " There will be no guard to meet him this night," 
 answered Lounsbury with a laugh which also betokened 
 relief. " I let him go till sunrise, and his musket lies 
 fog-soaked on the deck, the ass! Ye have the vapors. 
 We be safe enough. The fog lies like a fleece, but 
 but 
 
 " But what, you fool? " was the irritable rejoinder. 
 
 " I meant twas a new thought, that o the chance 
 o his coming. Ne er mind. Go ye ashore with the 
 guard when he gets back, and I ll bide here against 
 Thorndyke s boarding the schooner." 
 
 For a moment or two there was silence, and during 
 it I fancied I could trace the working of the minds of 
 both: Scammell s bent on the probable result of deliver 
 ing himself to Clinton, and Lounsbury s on the dawning 
 chance to get his finger on my gold still safe in the bulk 
 head. Presently the cavalryman smote his knee with 
 his fist and broke out: 
 
 " My God! why why did I not spit the fellow while 
 I had the chance two days since, or shoot him? Why d d 
 I not know him for a spy? T would have saved all this! 
 Is there no trace of him? " 
 
 " None since he passed the lines an put Lowney to 
 sleep. They tell me he killed the green sentinel with 
 his fist. Faith, my head aches at the thought o him, 
 an ye may thank God the ewer was cracked, else twas 
 your skull that broke an not the pitcher. By the powers 
 above, I begin to fear him, an ye 
 
 "Shut up!" was the ungracious answer. "Hand 
 out the bottle and help me get on deck for air. I hate 
 this hole! I have been buried three days! " And with 
 11
 
 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 this Scammcll struggled into a sitting position, reach 
 ing out his hand for the dram Lounsbury was already 
 pouring. 
 
 Now that I had these two at twice a sabre s length, 
 it went against me to think of their coming on deck and 
 possibly spoiling the plans I had already hatched in 
 their behalf. Slipping from my cover, I crawled over 
 the cabin house and got to the door. There was a lock 
 on it, but the key had long since gone and I had been 
 used to make a shift of fastening the companion by pad 
 lock, hasp, and staple. As I felt over it I missed the 
 padlock, though hasp and staple were still intact. While 
 fumbling for my knife to use as a bolt, in the light from 
 the cabin window I caught the glint of a musket lying 
 along the deck under the tarpaulin, and, quickly un 
 shipping its bayonet, thrust the steel through the iron 
 loop, and the two below were prisoners. There was an 
 other door in the cabin, but it opened into a small 
 space, or " tween decks," and I knew a mass of lead had 
 been piled aft and against it to give the vessel a proper 
 trim, so that mode of egress was blocked. 
 
 My scheme was simple enough. I would now go the 
 whole pace and take with me a couple of prisoners, and 
 if I failed I would be no worse off than before. In any 
 event there would be a sudden ending to my difficulties 
 if I was to be taken, and the kidnaping would not hasten 
 my final swing. 
 
 Still unshod and silent, I made my way forward, and 
 with some difficulty, owing to the darkness and need of 
 stealth, the scow was emptied of her load, and at last 
 we three stood on the deck. So far all had gone well. 
 My next move was to cut away the ground tackle, leav 
 ing the boat s painter still belayed to the cable. As tho 
 last strand parted and the schooner shot away leaving 
 the scow still fast, I fancied the astonishment of the 
 giiard on finding the Phantom had dwindled to a rusty,,
 
 THE CABIN OF THE PHANTOM. 155 
 
 mud-spattered contrivance but a peg removed from a 
 raft. 
 
 As the schooner gathered force and fled, now broad 
 side to the ebb, I told in whispers what I had found and 
 what done. I was well aware that not many minutes 
 would elapse before those below would discover some 
 thing out of gear. Between the covered dead-lights and 
 the fog they could have no notion that the schooner was 
 free, for- the water was as flat as ice, there being no 
 more apparent motion now than before. Unless we 
 fouled something, they could make no guess at what 
 had happened, but the door would bother them, and in 
 all likelihood they would end in an attempt at breaking 
 it down. 
 
 To balk this I led the way aft, bidding Ames be 
 spokesman if it came to words, and to act as he saw fit 
 if it came to blows. Placing Mistress Gertrude on the 
 top of the house, and so out of harm s way, Ames and 
 I bent our ears to the door, though I kept my eye open 
 for what might at any minute confront us from out the 
 depths of the fog. 
 
 We had not long to wait ere hearing from those 
 within, for soon a hand was placed on the fastening, and 
 the door rattled in the forcible shaking it received. Its 
 failure to open was followed by a round oath, and we 
 plainly heard the voice of Scammell suggesting that it 
 be broken down. After a parley betwixt them as to 
 what was the probable cause of the trouble, another at 
 tempt was made to force the door by shaking, and then 
 there was worked through the joint of the companion 
 way the blade of a sword. This I could not see, but 
 felt the steel with my hand, and, thinking the situation 
 had better be known at once, I picked up the musket 
 and with a blow of its stock broke the protruding 
 weapon close to the panel. 
 
 To the two below this was the first intimation that
 
 156 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 aught was going wrong, and their consternation must 
 have made a fine show. Possibly ten seconds elapsed 
 before they recovered from their surprise, and then the 
 voice of Lounsbury demanded, " Who s on the deck? " 
 but on receiving no answer, the panels were assaulted 
 with a force that well-nigh sprung them from their 
 frames. Now I bade Ames speak, and, placing his head 
 conveniently near a dead-light, he called out: 
 
 " Below there, Scammell and Lounsbury, you two 
 be prisoners in the name of the United Colonies, and I 
 demand the surrender of your arms! If you force the 
 companion, it will mean death to both; you are out 
 numbered." 
 
 " "Who are you? " came from within, this time from 
 Scammell. 
 
 " Call me the ghost of Donald Thorndyke, if you 
 will, but pass out your arms." At which I laughed out 
 right, despite the situation. 
 
 The laugh must have been heard by them and my 
 locality fairly well marked, for there came a volley of 
 curses, and then through the door two pistol shots in 
 quick succession. 
 
 It was fortunate that I was well at the side of the 
 companion, else the assault would have finished me. It 
 showed the temper of my captives, as well as the neces 
 sity for protection against another similar attack, for 
 should it come to our getting off and using the sails the 
 helmsman would be in sore danger of being shot as he 
 stood at the wheel. There were no window openings 
 in the cabin fore or aft, and, save the door, no possible 
 weakness in the structure; but this door exactly faced 
 the helm and was in danger of being forced or so riddled 
 with bullets that it would become an outlook for the 
 two royalists who could thus command the wheel and 
 adjacent deck. 
 
 It would have been an easy matter to shoot either
 
 THE CABIN OF THE PHANTOM. 157 
 
 or both of the prisoners and so put an end to our in 
 ternal danger, but at this juncture I did not like the 
 report of firearms, nor had I yet arrived at a blood 
 thirsty mood. Moreover, I felt that the bringing into 
 the patriot lines of a brace of live Tories would redound 
 more to my credit than a tale of a couple of carcasses, 
 which must needs have been thrown overboard at once. 
 
 With this menace from within, and without a danger 
 even greater, my nerves were keyed to a pitch that 
 equaled if not exceeded their state at the time Scam- 
 mell held me at his pistol s point. At least an hour of 
 uncontrolled and uninterrupted drifting must elapse be 
 fore I might draw a long breath and begin to count on 
 the final success of our attempt to escape; and in that 
 hour there was no knowing what the desperadoes below 
 might not venture upon. At all odds, the door must be 
 secured. There was no time to fumble about for tools, 
 so bidding Ames shoot down both Tories should they 
 force the way, I went forward, and by sheer strength of 
 arms and back lifted the main hatch cover clear from 
 its combings and, carrying the unwieldy mass of timber 
 aft, set it upon edge against the companion. 
 
 Here, then, was a shield of solid oak which would 
 resist any pistol shot, and I had no further concern as to 
 the danger of being winged from the cabin while steer 
 ing the vessel, should fortune get us to sea.
 
 CHAPTEE XVII. 
 
 THE PASSAGE OF THE BAY. 
 
 Now for some time after this no sound came from 
 within, and I stood by the helm anxiously keeping one 
 eye on the fog and the other on the cabin. As there 
 was now no knowing whether we were drifting by the 
 bow, stern, or broadside, I sent Ames forward to hold 
 a lookout at that end of the vessel, standing guard on 
 the quarter-deck myself, that I might control any possi 
 ble outbreak from below. 
 
 Still on the cabin house sat the young lady, appar 
 ently unmoved by what had occurred, and certainly 
 unmoving, as her form, which was just to be made out 
 from my post, was as quiet as the schooner s figurehead. 
 Once I had gone close to her to mark her state (some 
 what marveling at her self-control), and found her pil 
 lowed against the great main boom with its furled sail. 
 She had greeted me with a touch of her hand, the first 
 she had ever vouchsafed me, while the quick turn of her 
 eyes and the gleam of her small teeth (which was all I 
 could see of her face) showed me that she was alert and 
 still self-contained. But not a whisper of a question 
 did she bother me with, though for that matter she had 
 spoken not a word since leaving Turtle Bay. I had a 
 mighty respect for her if only for her knowledge of 
 how and when to keep from obtruding her helplessness, 
 and would have lifted to my lips her smooth finger tips, 
 only I dared not. Even had she not resented the act, 
 
 158
 
 THE PASSAGE OF THE BAY. 159 
 
 it might be but for the reason that through gratitude 
 she would save my feelings, and the thought was not 
 comforting . 
 
 Dropping her hand, therefore, with the word that 
 all was going well, I returned to my post. In my ex 
 pectancy and dread of I knew not what, the minutes 
 seemed to lengthen to quarter hours. The white muf 
 fle of mist appeared thicker than ever, and once or twice 
 I fancied I caught on my wet cheek a cooling breath, 
 as though the dead air was giving a first faint heave 
 of coming activity. I felt that the wind was not far 
 off, and feared it, but come what might I must now 
 hold my course and drift into freedom or eternity. 
 
 And still no sound from the cabin save now and then 
 a cough, showing that the lungs of the two were harried 
 by their own powder smoke. I dared not explore the 
 interior for fear of being greeted by a shot, and could 
 only await some overt act to show me what was afoot. 
 Suddenly from below there came a dull, jarring thud, 
 and the fog about the quarter-deck was lighted by a 
 brilliant flash, apparently from beneath the tarpaulin, 
 while at once following came the voice of Lounsbury 
 calling for water and " Air, air, for the love of God! " 
 Almost on the instant, and before I realized that some 
 thing untoward had happened below, seemingly from 
 the muck directly overhead a hoarse voice shouted: 
 
 " The deck, ahoy! There s a schooner adrift and 
 almost on us! Did ye see that light? " 
 
 "Ay! Where away is she?" came an answer close 
 at hand. 
 
 " On our starboard bow, sir; coming stern first and 
 no sail set. She s like to foul us! " 
 
 " Can you make her out? " 
 
 " ISTaught but the f oreyard and topmasts show above 
 the fog, sir." 
 
 " What the devil can be the meaning of it ? " came
 
 160 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 the return, and then I heard the scuffle of feet on the 
 stranger s deck, followed by a quick call: 
 
 " Schooner ahoy! What schooner s that?" 
 
 Hitherto my policy had been silence, but now it in 
 stantly struck me that to pay no attention to the hail 
 would be but to precipitate ruin while yet there was a 
 forlorn hope. If we came in collision,, unless I answered 
 they would board us in the twinkling of an eye, while 
 if we missed they would be suspicious and start a search, 
 which, blind as it would be, might end by their running 
 across us. Therefore I at once sent my voice back with 
 all my power and without the least hesitation: 
 
 " Ay, ay; we ve parted a shackle and are losing 
 ground. Will bring up in a couple of cable s lengths 
 if we clear you. Stand by to take a blow. What ship s 
 that? " 
 
 " His Majesty s sloop-of-war Ajax! What schooner s 
 that?" 
 
 " The Sprite," I returned at a venture, that vessel 
 being the only schooner I could then call to mind. The 
 answer hurled back at me was startling. 
 
 " Ye lie! The Sprite went outside this morning on 
 patrol. Come to, or I ll sink ye! Stand by for qiiar- 
 ters! On deck, the watch below! " Then, evidently to 
 guard aloft: " Where away is she? Damn the fog! " 
 
 In the quick bustle, the shrill rattle of the boatswain s 
 whistle on the deck of the enemy (which sound seemed 
 to fill the harbor), and all that followed, I heard no an 
 swer to the call aloft. There was enough close at hand, 
 for from our own cabin there came a bedlam of shouts 
 that drowned the details of the notes of preparation 
 made on the Ajax. 
 
 " Treason! treason! Help! help! Tis the Phan 
 tom cut out by the rebels! Tis the villain Thorndykc! 
 We are prisoners in the cabin! Board us, for God s 
 sake! " and matter of this tenor which crossed the water,
 
 THE PASSAGE OF THE BAY. 161 
 
 and was as plain to the ear of the officer on the adjacent 
 vessel as it was to mine. 
 
 And now for us the game appeared to be played to 
 the end. With faces evidently pressed close to the open 
 dead-lights of the cabin the two below had sent forth 
 the alarm and made the muss past mending. From the 
 Ajax came loud orders, and just as I caught the glim 
 mer of that vessel s anchor light as it swept by in a thick 
 yellow halo, there came the rattle of a drum beating 
 to quarters, and it was at once followed by a similar 
 but faint alarm from some ship anchored east and to 
 ward the Brookland shore. Then we slipped into the 
 darkness again, and went whirling on our way. 
 
 We had missed a collision, but by a close shave only, 
 as I think there lay not two rods betwixt me and the 
 light I had seen. Our move had been exposed, and 
 the only thing gained by us was a knowledge of our 
 speed and whereabouts. The Ajax I knew had been 
 anchored for upward of a month about a mile below 
 the " grand battery," and the way her riding light had 
 slid by us betokened the fact that just then we were 
 moving at the rate of four or five miles an hour. 
 
 Therefore we were now off Nuttcn s Island, but the 
 bulk of the British fleet still lay below. They were 
 fairly close to the Staten Island shore, however, and 
 there would be small danger of fouling them, the tide 
 always setting the fairway well into the center of the 
 Narrows. But of danger from the forces below I was 
 not now thinking. More fear had I of the boats that 
 would put after us from the vessel we had almost fouled, 
 for as we passed her and the noises on her deck faded 
 in the distance, I heard the dull clashing of tumbling 
 oars and the sharp splash of a boat as it dropped from 
 the davits into the water. 
 
 As though to guide the enemy, ever and anon there 
 came a cry from our cabin a cry that shot into the
 
 162 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 quiet air like an alarm gun and drove me to madness. 
 I was now as one who, having broken through a quick 
 set, was carrying the thorns in his flesh. Danger hung 
 over me like a descending bludgeon, though instead 
 of cowering beneath the coming blow it set my blood 
 on fire. With a curse which must have caused the girl 
 to shudder, I seized the musket, and, driving its butt 
 through the nearest dead-light, felt the iron stock shoe 
 crunch against flesh and bone. There came from within 
 a yell of agony, and after silence, and then I spoke: 
 
 " Another shout, ye villains, and I ll fill the cabin 
 with flying balls. Mind this, if yonder boats board us, 
 before being taken I ll kill ye both! Ye are dealing 
 with Donald Thorndyke, and now lie and stifle, and may 
 God have more mercy on ye than have I, ye spawn of 
 the devil! " 
 
 And with this I cut away the seizing that held the 
 tarpaulin and rolled the heavy covering close to the 
 windows, thus blocking all ventilation below. So long 
 as this remained undisturbed it would muffle any noise 
 they might make, and, I fancied, soon bring them to 
 terms from lack of air. Hailing Ames (who had thus 
 far stuck to his post) in a voice which I took care should 
 be heard by the prisoners, I ordered him to fire into the 
 compartment at the first attempt they made to move the 
 smothering cover, and then I hurried forward to pre 
 pare for being overhauled by the boats. 
 
 Being on my own ship, everything was familiar, and 
 I easily got a lantern from the galley and dropped into 
 the hold, carrying with me a line. Here I selected four 
 or five of the largest lumps of lead which in my hurry 
 I could light upon, and, drawing them to the deck, 
 placed them at different points near the rail, that they 
 might come handy to drop into and stave any boat that 
 came close alongside. This done, I reprimed all fire 
 arms, even to the guard s musket, which was loaded,
 
 THE PASSAGE OF THE BAY. 163 
 
 and from the after davit quietly lowered the dingy, that, 
 if worse came to worse, it might be possible to escape 
 by our getting into her and disappearing. Then I 
 waited. 
 
 I had worked with feverish haste, knowing that the 
 outcome of this episode with the Ajax would terminate for 
 good or evil in a mighty short time. Once they ran off our 
 track we would be comparatively safe, though, to lessen 
 this possibility, I surmised that they would themselves 
 be guided by the drift, only using their oars that they 
 might make their speed greater than that of the schoon 
 er. By so following they might hope to overtake us, 
 and doubtless would have done so only we were now at 
 the point where the rush of the Hudson meets that of 
 the Sound River, and Ihe rips and whirlpools formed 
 by the mingling of these waters off and below Nutten s 
 Island were constantly creating counter streams and 
 cross currents that shifted and spun with the minutes, 
 ever changing and never at rest save at the brief inter 
 vals of slack water on the turning of the tides. 
 
 Beyond the gurgling and rushing of the stream not 
 a sound could I now hear, though once or twice I was 
 sure I caught the thumping of oars in their tholes and 
 heard voices of men. But if I did, they went wide of 
 us, for the minutes swung into half an hour at least, 
 and the half hour into a whole one, yet nothing of the 
 boats from the Ajax did I see. 
 
 And now I took a deep breath and moved, for dur 
 ing this time of terrible suspense we on deck had barely 
 stirred. Not a sound had come from below, nor had an 
 attempt to uncover the windows been made, and yet 
 I knew one man had a broken nose from a musket butt, 
 and both must be pressed for want of air. Mistress Ger 
 trude still sat on the cabin top, and crouched low near 
 the companion door, with pistol in hand, was her 
 brother.
 
 164 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 As patient as was this girl, she was human flesh, and 
 a delicate bit of femininity at that. The cabin top 
 could not be made permanent quarters for her, and, 
 though I believe she would have collapsed from sheer 
 exhaustion ere offering a word of complaint, it was an 
 uncalled-for sacrifice for her to remain longer unshel 
 tered and seated on bare, hard planking. Up to the 
 present comfort had not been considered, but now that 
 immediate danger was past, I turned my thoughts to 
 the young lady, and cast about for a retreat to which 
 she might retire. Save the hold or the forecastle, no 
 spot was available, and either would be repugnant to 
 one of her fastidious tastes. Still, shelter she must 
 have; I would see to it presently, but now I became 
 more than curious to know what devilment was meant 
 by the continued silence of the two desperate men caged 
 in the cabin. 
 
 It struck me that the quiet, coupled with what had 
 gone before, might bear a mighty significance, and going 
 softly to a corner of the tarpaulin, I quickly threw it 
 up and looked in. The light was out. Drawing back 
 out of range I called Scammell by name, and then 
 Lounsbury, but received no reply. Putting the threat 
 of death in my demand for an answer, I still received 
 nothing in return; so, clambering to the cabin top, I 
 laid my ear above a dead-light to catch a sound of move 
 ment within, but had hardly taken my position when 
 both nose and lungs were assailed by such a mixed 
 stench of burned powder, lamp soot, rum and foulness in 
 general as to almost turn my stomach, though it at once 
 cleared up the mystery. 
 
 Here, now, was my threat to stifle them carried out 
 better than I knew. Dragging off the tarpaulin, I 
 pushed away the hatch cover, drew the bayonet from 
 the staple, forced back the companion slide and en 
 tered. The first thing I did was to stumble over a man s
 
 THE PASSAGE OF THE BAY. 165 
 
 body on the floor, and then I turned and got to the deck, 
 for the air in the cabin was more than I could at once 
 endure. Letting the place clear for a little, I fetched 
 the galley lantern and went down once more. The 
 cabin was yet filled with a heavy blue mist, and the sul 
 phurous fumes were choking. Lounsbury lay on the 
 floor with his face covered with blood, apparently dead, 
 both eyes being swollen and his countenance blackened 
 beyond recognition. His companion sat on the cush 
 ioned transom, jammed into a corner betwixt a berth 
 and the bulkhead. He was unconscious, and, with his 
 tongue hanging out, was breathing feebly. Physically 
 he was alive, but, through liquor and foul air, was so 
 dead drunk that nothing could have roused him. Three 
 empty brandy bottles lay about, together with Scam- 
 mell s sabre, a broken sword, pistols, and tobacco pipes, 
 while on the table, the cotton cover of which was burned 
 to ashes, were the remains of a leathern powder pouch 
 rent by explosion. 
 
 No wonder they had succumbed. In their tipsiness, 
 or through the carelessness of desperation, they had fired 
 their ammunition, the amount not having been suffi 
 cient to cause more than the muffled blow and flash I 
 had heard and seen on the instant of our being hailed 
 by the Ajax. This, with the smoke of their previous 
 firing, together with the heat and closeness of the quar 
 ters, had created a smudge and foulness in which none 
 but a drunkard could have lived a minute. They had 
 evidently been deep in some scheme to blow open the 
 forward door (which showed signs of attack) when a 
 spark from a pipe caused the plot to harass the plotters. 
 Lounsbury had been the chief sufferer, and thus was ac 
 counted for his blackened face and his cry for air and 
 water. 
 
 However, it could not have hit my turn better had 
 I laid the train of events myself, nor was it long before
 
 1G6 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 I had the two lying on the deck and knew the cabin was 
 sweetening and would soon be a fit retreat for Miss 
 King. Neither was it long before I discovered that 
 Lounsbury was not as dead as he was drunk, though 
 hardly as far gone in liquor as Scammell, who could 
 have been pitched over the rail and passed to the next 
 world without the slightest inconvenience to himself. 
 And more s the pity twas not done. 
 
 Like bags of dunnage I took them by their collars, 
 hauling them amidships, and then clapped the wrists 
 and legs of both into irons, articles which in those days 
 stood somewhat ahead of the medicine chest in impor 
 tance, and frequently in use. With a mingled feeling 
 of pity, hatred, and disgust, I soused the sots with a 
 bucket of salt water, and then left them for Nature to 
 bring to life. As I moved aft I caught the freshness 
 of a small, early morning breeze, and felt that ere long 
 the protecting blanket of fog would be rolled away. 
 Much would I have given for a knowledge of our exact 
 whereabouts, but as this was impossible, nothing re 
 mained but to prepare the schooner for sailing as soon as 
 we could get our bearings. Twas a small job to cast off 
 the gaskets and get loose the headsails ready for hoist 
 ing, but another matter for Ames and myself alone to 
 run the heavy canvas of the main and foresails to their 
 mast heads. I was fearful that the rattling blocks and 
 rustling of the great cloths might herald our situation, 
 but nothing came of it, and after a deal of hauling we 
 got something like a slack set to the sails which for 
 months had been mildewing against their booms. 
 
 Gradually a lividness came over the fog, and, as the 
 light of the coming day strengthened, it showed the 
 mist driving across us like wads of smoke. As the light 
 broadened I went to the binnacle to see how we were 
 heading, but found the compass gone from it, and, on 
 examination, discovered that all my instruments had
 
 THE PASSAGE OF THE BAY. 167 
 
 been confiscated saving the telltale screwed into the 
 cabin ceiling. This, like the hanging lantern, was be 
 grimed by a white deposit from the explosion, but, on 
 clearing it with my palm, I found we were heading north 
 by east, or still going stern on toward the south. 
 
 So matters went till sunrise, the wind growing 
 fresher as the time sped, and at last, while Ames and 
 myself were putting the cabin into some shape and the 
 girl had gone to overhaul the pack of provisions, I 
 heard her give a great cry, and rushed to the deck to 
 find its meaning. 
 
 It was no alarm. She was standing by the fore 
 shrouds looking at the sudden transformation which 
 had come over the face of Nature. Often have I seen 
 the sun rise, but never did it appear in such a grandeiir 
 of pearl and grays. The glory of its coming was none 
 the less for the lack of vivid coloring. The fog had 
 rolled off as rolls a curtain, and to the east and north 
 lay piled in towering masses ranging from thunderous 
 blackness to the opalescent clearness of a seashell. 
 Through its misty caverns shot dazzling shafts of sun 
 shine, which wavered and played over the face of the 
 bank like the tremulous shifting of the northern lights. 
 Astern, clear as far as one could see, lay the ocean blank 
 of all sail, the small summer waves glinting back the 
 strong light from the east. To the west and over our 
 larboard beam stood out the green heights of Staten 
 Island, and under their shelter I marked two heavy 
 ships of the line, while toward Sandy Hook lay two 
 others with sails furled and at anchor. Gravesend Bay 
 also held one, a mammoth, which I took to be the Cer 
 berus, but not a ship was alert. No more were in sight, 
 and I marveled that we had run the gantlet of the fleet, 
 thinking, naturally, that most of them had gone up the 
 bay and must have lain close to our track. Little I 
 knew that the bulk of Lord Howe s flotilla had sailed
 
 168 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 east the day before, and thus opened the path that other 
 wise would in all likelihood have been blocked. But 
 so it was, and later I knew we had the French to thank 
 for having drawn them away. 
 
 Doubtless we were marked by a hundred eyes on 
 board those about, but the leviathans were powerless to 
 harm us, their very size and ponderosity shackling them 
 against quick action. Close aboard and on our starboard 
 beam lay the white sand spit of the lower island which 
 goes far to make New York harbor the haven it is, and 
 once past this wilderness of beach, now known as Nor 
 ton s Point, we would be on the sea. 
 
 With a shout of relief almost delirious I sprang 
 forward and mastheaded both jib and staysails, while 
 Ames jumped for the main sheet and drew it in. It was 
 the first inkling I had that he was anything of a sailor, 
 and the knowledge was mighty welcome. Slowly we 
 came about until the schooner nosed into the west wind, 
 and then he ran to the helm while I caught the draught 
 with the headsail to help her getting past the point of 
 " irons "; then I belayed both jib and staysail sheets. 
 
 But of what use are these details? Enough to tell 
 that presently we were slipping eastward and past the 
 Dry Komer, the sails swung wing-on-wing, and an air, 
 which turned to a calm as we fled, pushing us from over 
 the taffrail and toward the rising sun.
 
 CHAPTEK XVIII. 
 
 * 
 
 PURSUED. 
 
 ALL that morning we sailed almost as blithely as 
 ever pleasure seekers sailed a summer sea. True it was 
 that a measure of anxiety still hampered my spirits, 
 but, as compared with what we had undergone, we were 
 at heart as light as the filmy mares tails floating athwart 
 the blue above. And even now, while tragedy might 
 be lurking near, there was an element of the ridiculous 
 in our appearances, too marked not to be noticed by each 
 of us. The girl, with a natural care of herself, was the 
 most presentable of the three and looked to be but a 
 proper youth; but twas Ames who gave color to the 
 ship s present company. He had retained his wig to 
 make his hat fit, he said and what with his fresh face, 
 white hair, and clothes still mud-stained from his fall 
 into the ditch the night before, he was a sight to behold. 
 As for myself, I appeared to be in the last stage of 
 dilapidation. A four days growth of dark beard, my 
 clothing burned, rain-soaked and ragged, my linen a 
 shock to the eye, my queue ribbonless, and my hair 
 streaming about my shoulders, I made a picture fit to 
 repel the girl. Two days before, her likes or dislikes 
 would not have caused me a second s thought, but now 
 somehow my very size seemed to me obtrusive, and, 
 coupled with my outward state, shamed me into an 
 avoidance of her close observance. 
 
 But no change could I mark in her manner when 
 12 169
 
 1YO A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 necessity brought us together. Her smile was as bright 
 ay, brighter than the dazzling sea about us, her 
 voice as free from nervous tremulousness, and her man 
 ner as self-contained as though she was treading a ball 
 room floor instead of the grimy., slowly heaving deck of 
 a fugitive schooner. Once she had laid her hand on 
 mine as I stood at the wheel, and seemed to be about 
 to speak to me, giving a quick upward glance of her 
 dark eye, though lowering her gaze as quickly; but as 
 her brother hove aft just then, she turned away and 
 went below to the cabin, which by this had been given 
 over to her exclusive use. 
 
 I minded me that it was I to whom she first brought 
 an allowance of salt beef and ship s bread, and let her 
 brother wait. Somehow the fact warmed me, and then 
 I apostrophized myself for a fool for having thought 
 of it. How she regarded her ci-devant lover I had 
 easily seen in the way she turned her head and made a 
 wide detour when necessity compelled her to pass him 
 where he sprawled on the deck, his repulsiveness as 
 much, if not more marked than his companion s, owing 
 to the tarnished richness of his once glittering uniform. 
 The prisoners had so far recovered as to be maudlin, 
 and in their restlessness had rolled into the scuppers. 
 The sight of them was an evil easily remedied, and, as 
 air and light were no longer imperative to their well- 
 being, I had taken them into the forecastle and laid 
 them each in a bunk, that they might finish off the 
 fumes of liquor without offense to decent eyes. 
 
 Once onto blue water we held a council to deter 
 mine our destination. It was safer, I thought, to land 
 my passengers on the Jersey coast and by myself try to 
 work under short sail to New London, where was con 
 signed the schooner s cargo. But neither brother nor 
 sister would hear of such a move. Washington having 
 withdrawn to the north, there could be no telling the
 
 PURSUED. 171 
 
 state of southern Jersey, especially as it had heen over 
 run with bands of marauders known as " Sandhillers," 
 and, there being no safe objective for the fugitives, 
 to land would be but beginning anew a search for refuge. 
 Without money (though I would make a shift to remedy 
 the lack of that), without friends and with a price on 
 their heads, a change to the pine wilderness of the west 
 ern coast would be scarce an improvement over the deck 
 of the Phantom, outlawed though she was. Such was 
 their argument. 
 
 As for myself, nothing would have now tempted me 
 to desert the vessel. By holding a course well south, 
 clinging only to the loom of the Long Island coast as 
 a guide (for I had no sure compass), I might run across 
 a Yankee privateer or find protection in a possible 
 French cruiser. At this moment I had recovered all 
 I had lost and more. The schooner with its cargo was 
 intact; the gold was still in the cabin; I had been en 
 riched by several rolls of money from Clinton (though 
 I had not yet counted the coin, only guessing at its 
 value by its drag on my pocket), while below were 
 Lounsbury and a prisoner of rank. More than these, I 
 had the knowledge of a move to be made toward the 
 relief of Newport by the British, and here I was honest 
 with myself as I thus compiled my gains I had two 
 friends, one of whom, oath or no oath, should come to 
 no harm from mankind while I had an arm to interpose. 
 
 I had suggested the Jersey shore as a matter of duty. 
 I had heard their determination to abide with me and 
 share my fortune, be it high or low, with something 
 of a feeling that put a new power into me, and, I fancy, 
 a new light in my eye (had they been looking closely), 
 not caused by the dazzle of the sun. Our destination 
 lay, then, first for the Vineyard. There I would place 
 this now homeless girl in care of my mother and sister, 
 who were probably mourning for me as lost, then to
 
 1Y2 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 New London to deliver prisoners and cargo to the proper 
 authorities, and after that well, I would wait and see. 
 
 Ay, I would wait and see. One need not plan one s 
 life for months ahead. Somehow there was a brilliant 
 spot in the future which I cared neither to define or 
 get behind a Will-o -the-wisp both tangible and elusive 
 which I would not analyze, being content with the 
 glow it spread- over my mental picture. The radiance 
 lay on the ancient island farm. It fell on the ancient 
 house and livened its homely interior. It went abroad 
 over familiar fields, dusky woodlands and swamps, and 
 gave a color to the stretches of lonely Leach. It made 
 life more than living, and changed the dross of existence 
 into something very like gold. 
 
 I knew I was dreaming dreams and bupding air cas 
 tles as I stood my trick at the wheel and hove it over 
 to meet the low-running swell and forestall the vessel s 
 yaw. But what picture equals that of the brain? In 
 progressive stages I mentally doubled Montauk, raised 
 Block-house Island, sunk it, and saw the mist of Nor 
 man s Land, and then swept around the great western 
 clay cliffs of the Vineyard, and was at home. Every 
 detail was real, yet fairer than reality. By some queer 
 change in me I looked less for glory now than I had 
 the month before. War was well enough if it must be; 
 glory was a prize easily gotten, but there was nothing 
 to equal peace. I had tamed wonderfully; nothing to 
 equal the delights of home and domesticity. I had 
 acquitted myself before my fellows, and for a time would 
 rest on my honors. In short, I had by then gotten into 
 a weak-kneed mood, the like of which every man knows 
 at some moment of his life; harmless enough, possibly, 
 and for the enjoyment of which he can thank God for 
 withholding the knowledge of what the next hour has 
 in store. 
 
 By this it was about four in the afternoon as I fig-
 
 PURSUED. 173 
 
 ured from the height of the sun, which, though clear, 
 shone from a sky that had become flaked as though a 
 fine-drawn smoke had settled over it. Though the 
 wind hung still from the west, it was lighter, and the 
 schooner dragged through the water as if it was traveling 
 uphill. Its sluggishness I knew was due somewhat to 
 the character of its cargo, which was the deadest of dead 
 weights, but more to the marine growth which had 
 collected on her bottom during her long anchorage, and 
 which could easily be seen streaming below like a long 
 and ragged green beard. Beyond the dull gurgle of the 
 cutwater and an occasional sob in our wake, not a sound 
 broke the intense stillness of the afternoon. Ames was 
 forward, guarding the forecastle hatch, and his sister 
 had gone below. From the prisoners (who had come 
 at last to a realizing sense of their position) nothing 
 had been heard beyond a demand for water, which had 
 been given to them, and air, ocean, and schooner, with 
 all on board, had quieted into what bade fair to become 
 a dead calm. 
 
 We had seen a number of sail during the day, but 
 nothing had as yet come hull above the horizon, even 
 these showing south and west mere specks of light 
 against the pearl of the sky line. I thanked God for 
 the scare given the British by the advent of the French 
 fleet, and knew that each cable s length we made to 
 the east brought us so much nearer safety. The day was 
 waning; night would soon be on us, and if the wind 
 held, under cover of darkness we would be secure in our 
 flight, and possibly the morrow s sun might rise and 
 show me the gorgeous reds and yellows of Gay Head 
 bluff with its cap of green turf, a sign that we were in 
 home waters. 
 
 Even as my heart warmed at the thought, I cast my 
 eye landward over the larboard quarter and saw com 
 ing out of the haze which had all but blotted out the
 
 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 Long Island coast, a topsail schooner bearing southeast,- 
 or directly toward the Phantom. She was some five or 
 six miles away, but even at that distance I could see by 
 her slope that she had found a fresh slant of wind, and 
 that from her forward cloths to the tip of her main 
 boom every rag was drawing, her progiess being mightily 
 helped by the square sail set on her foretopmast. 
 
 There was no knowing what she was, but the fact 
 that any craft had gotten so close without having been 
 marked, gave me a start, and I put the helm down that 
 the jib and staysails might draw, which would at the 
 same time bring the stranger over our taffrail. A land 
 lubber could have seen she was no Frenchman, for the 
 Gaul had a style of cut, rake, and carry, all his own, 
 besides which they were not given to sailing small craft 
 in these waters. She might be a privateer, in which 
 case all would be well, but if not, and I feared my own 
 intuition, then my air castles were doomed to ruin, my 
 borrowed happiness was but the swan song of hope, my 
 dream that of a condemned man. 
 
 The jibing of the foresail and my hail to Ames 
 brought Miss King to the deck. Her brother joined us, 
 and we three stood looking at the oncoming vessel 
 which had appeared like a cloud to mar the brightness 
 of a perfect day. There was no need to explain the men 
 ace lying beneath that bunch of swollen canvas. By 
 the faces of the two I saw they realized it was a plain 
 case of chase, the only doubt being whether it would 
 prove for good or evil. I would have given the gold 
 in my pocket for a good glass with which to make her 
 out, but, as that was impossible, it took me but a few 
 seconds to come to the conclusion that our only hope 
 (and that a slim one) was to make the chase a stern 
 one and give the poor Phantom with her foul bottom, 
 all the speed possible. Putting the wheel in charge of 
 Ames, with no loss of words I went forward, clambered
 
 PURSUED. 175 
 
 up the fore shrouds and managed alone to unfurl the 
 square sail, settling the bracing and the sheet and tack 
 on my return to the deck. In the present light air the 
 pull of the canvas was small, but it was something, and 
 I knew the stranger would mark the increase of sail and 
 read as plainly as print that we wanted nothing of 
 her. 
 
 As time went, we saying little or nothing betwixt 
 us, I marked our follower s growth as she drew on. 
 Little by little out came the details of her canvas, and, 
 as I picked point after -point, there dawned on me the 
 almost certainty that our pursuer was none other than 
 the Sprite, the last vessel of his Majesty s flotilla I cared 
 to meet. 
 
 From the deck of the Ajax I had been informed of 
 the Sprite s absence on patrol, and through the whole 
 morning had held in my mind the dread of meeting 
 her, only feeling safe from that particular craft since 
 noon. Probably she had been sneaking under easy sail 
 along the Long Island coast, and had only fairly sighted 
 us after the westering sun had thrown a broad light on 
 our canvas. Then with a keen nose for anything less 
 than a three-decker, she had piled on her clothes the 
 sooner to come by about what business a trader had to 
 sail the King s sea without being under convoy. I dared 
 not unfold my suspicions, but the girl, with the eye of 
 a hawk and the instinct of a woman, saved the neces 
 sity. Turning to me after a long and searching look 
 at our pursuer, she said: 
 
 " Captain Thorndyke, that vessel looks like the one 
 that took me from Philadelphia to New York. I hardly 
 know why I think so, but I fear me tis the same." 
 
 " Ay," I answered hoarsely, " I have that fear, and 
 God help us if they overhaul us, as they are like to do, 
 barring a miracle! Have you aught to offer, Ames?" 
 said I, addressing her brother whose face had taken.
 
 176 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 on a look of hardness the like of which I had marked 
 at the Dove when he was posing as an old man. 
 
 " Nay, friend," he returned, suddenly falling into 
 the Quaker style of speech, and without taking his eyes 
 from the vessel astern " nay, friend, I have but a light 
 knowledge of sea possibilities. To run as thee be run 
 ning means but to be beaten in the race. Thee has a 
 head for tricks. Are thee lost? If so, there is but one 
 thing for thee and me." And turning his eyes to mine, 
 he made a quick gesture toward the water, which motion 
 I thought was unobserved by the girl. But I was wrong 
 in my surmise. 
 
 "Has it come to this, then?" she ejaculated with 
 sudden terror in face and voice. " Am I to be left alone 
 and at the mercy of those yonder? Beverly! brother! 
 you will not commit suicide and leave me without a 
 protector! Donald Thorndyke," she continued, her ter 
 ror giving place to an imperiousness royal in its effect, 
 "you have sworn not to desert me! Are you nerveless 
 at last? Nay, 1 know you too well. I ask your pardon," 
 she faltered with a bend of her head and a rapid change 
 to humility; " I am wrong. Better give back to the 
 Almighty direct the life he gave you rather than have 
 those yonder, if enemies they be, take the giving into 
 their merciless hands. I was wrong. I let the woman 
 in me speak first. Your burden is greater than mine! " 
 And with this she placed both hands to her face and 
 sobbed aloud. 
 
 I listened in silence to this outburst with its shift 
 ing emotions. There was no answer to make. The 
 blackness of the last few days seemed to gather and settle 
 itself over me like a pall. We had been on the brink 
 of safety, the threshold of content, honor, and success, 
 and to see the prizes snatched away at this late hour was 
 beyond human endurance. The softness of the air, the 
 mellowing light, the silky veiling on the sky above us,
 
 PURSUED. 177 
 
 and the lively sparkle of the ocean, suddenly changed 
 from gay congratulation to a hideous grin of irony and 
 malice. Without a word in return I grasped the spokes 
 of the wheel with my whole heart seemingly bent on 
 meeting each surge in a manner to save our speed. To 
 comfort the girl was beyond my power even had it lain 
 in my province, and in real life no man, I fancy, ever 
 juggles with the truth (be it never so bitter) while look 
 ing squarely into the face of death. 
 
 Neither did Ames go to his sister s rescue. As 
 though to let her gather the full import of the future, 
 he stood apart, only saying, as the poor girl s sobbing 
 decreased, " There is a God in heaven, and what must 
 be, must be." 
 
 If, however, I had remained silent it was not be 
 cause I was stunned, for, though my tongue was dumb, 
 my brain was active enough. There was one chance 
 in a million that our pursuer was not the Sprite, or 
 even one of the British fleet. If so, well. If not, I 
 would sell myself at such a price that there would be 
 but little triumph for them over my carcass. Turning 
 at last to Ames, I said: 
 
 " Until it be made certain that we be lost to one 
 another, I shall hold my life as dearly as ever. The 
 mere capture of the schooner unless that fellow astern 
 be the Sprite need not bring despair. We will run as 
 long as run we can, and then fight; after that the action 
 of each lies with his own conscience. As for me, I shall 
 not be hanged from a British prison, but I swear again 
 that while you or your sister live and I can lift an arm 
 for either I will still cling to the breath God has given 
 me. If, becoming powerless, I choose to cheat the rope, 
 I will but be like many a captain who goes down with 
 his ship. I take it twould be no common suicide, for 
 my honor would not have suffered." 
 
 " Ay, I said naught to mean the cowardly taking of
 
 178 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 one s own life," answered the youth stoutly. " Fight we 
 will so long as powder and shot hold out, Quaker or no 
 Quaker. We be scant of the first, though. I would to 
 Heaven a sudden darkness like that which fell on Cal 
 vary would settle on us now! We might then take to 
 the dingy astern and sneak for the Long Island shore." 
 He had hardly spoken when the mainsail flapped, 
 and the wind, which had been rapidly growing lighter, 
 almost went out. I cast my eye on the following 
 schooner, and saw with some satisfaction that she, too, 
 had lost the breeze she had been carrying with her, for 
 no longer did she heel to its pressure, and, I thought, 
 no longer were her sails bellying, but, like ours, hung 
 in folds, only occasionally rounded by the dying puffs. 
 By this she had drawn to within a couple of miles of 
 us and was still coming on. Under our stern there was 
 barely a wake (so slowly we moved), the froth from our 
 bends and rudder having given place to an oily flatness 
 filled with tiny eddies, through which the boat we still 
 towed slowly dragged its way. Now there was a yellow 
 haze on all the horizon, that told of the waning day, but 
 the sun s broad light still lay over the ocean, and it 
 would be hours ere darkness could furnish us shelter. 
 By then our fate would be known.
 
 CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 THE CAPTUEE OF THE SCHOONEE. 
 
 I WONDEEED mightily that they had not fired at us, 
 but the solution of the riddle came to me when I re 
 membered that the Sprite had but one powerful gun 
 forward, and hitherto she had not been in a position to 
 use it on us without blowing away her own forward rig 
 ging. Her silence thus confirmed my fears as to the 
 identity of the vessel, nor were we long in doubt as to 
 the malevolence of her purpose. Still she glided toward 
 us, wafted as is a feather over a smooth pond, while 
 we rolled to the long reach of the surges without more 
 way than would take us a fathom in a minute. 
 
 For all the deadness of the Phantom, I still stuck 
 to the wheel, that she might not round into the wind. 
 Ames and his sister had gone below to reload the fire 
 arms and lay out ammunition, when, just as the last 
 gasp of wind went out and the shivering sails set the 
 reefing points beating the canvas with a musical ripple, 
 the enemy slewed a couple of points to the south, and 
 a ball of white smoke broke from her bow. Plainly as 
 day I marked the shot as it struck the water and in great 
 leaps came skipping toward us. It passed us well astern, 
 for, with the fall of the wind, we had swung into the 
 trough of the sea, and the Phantom was now parallel 
 to her pursuer, the latter lying off our starboard quarter. 
 
 There she might remain, and, using us as a target, 
 sink us at her leisure, though I had little fear of this 
 
 179
 
 180 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 action on her part, as the British policy was ever to 
 capture anything that could be of use, only destroying 
 that which they could not carry away. 
 
 I watched the flight of the hall until the spouts sent 
 aloft as it struck the sea became smaller and the missib 
 sunk in the distance. It was a command to come into 
 the wind and show our colors, and hoping (though with 
 out reason) to defer to the last the fall of the bolt, I 
 descended into the cabin and fumbled through the flag 
 locker for the Union Jack. I had the ensign in my 
 hand when the girl looked up from her work and quickly 
 asked: 
 
 "Are you to make a last stand under that? Nay, 
 then, Donald," she said, with an appeal in her voice, and 
 for the first time giving me my first name alone, " un 
 less you hope to blind them for good and all by the 
 sight of that bunting, twere a weak thing to do. You 
 say you will fight; then fight under your own colors. 
 It will make no difference in the end." And with this 
 she bent to the locker, picked up the ensign of the colo 
 nies, and, holding it out, dragged from my hand the 
 red flag of the enemy. It was a noble act, and worthy 
 of the spirit which had been equal to bearding Clinton 
 in his own quarters. It put into me the stimulus I 
 needed. Without a word I turned and bounded up the 
 companion, and in a moment the Stars and Stripes were 
 hanging at the main peak, barely unfolded by the zephyr 
 that was still playing aloft. 
 
 It was a plain defiance, and met with a ready an 
 swer. The bunting had been aloft no longer than was 
 necessary for those on the distant vessel to have made it 
 out with a glass, when again came a spurt of smoke and 
 another ball leaped toward us. It was a well-aimed shot. 
 and, had the gun been trained a trifle more to the right, 
 it would have ended matters on the instant. As it was, 
 the ball dipped close to our stern and beneath the trail-
 
 THE CAPTURE OF THE SCHOONER. 181 
 
 ing dingy. There was a swirl of spouting foam, a tear 
 ing crash, and the little boat leaped into the air amid 
 a shower of splinters, spun over and over like a top, and 
 then settled, keel upward, with a clean-cut hole yawning 
 in her bottom. 
 
 I could almost hear the shout of triumph that un 
 doubtedly took place on the enemy s deck as the result 
 of this piece of marksmanship, but in the end, had they 
 but known it, they were whetting the tiger s teeth in 
 stead of pulling them. Hardly had the smoke thinned 
 from the shot, when from under the cloud I marked a 
 boat putting away. There was little need of a glass to 
 tell me it was filled with a boarding party, and that 
 the drama was rapidly nearing its close. With the few 
 minutes left for preparation we made haste to get what 
 arms we had on deck, and, while yet the yellow flash 
 of the oars was distant, our arrangements were com 
 pleted. For defense we had two rifles, four pistols, three 
 cutlasses and my rapier, though the latter and one of 
 the cutlasses, being of no use, were left in the cabin. 
 The lady was to take charge of the ammunition and 
 reload the firearms as used, for, though her brother and 
 myself both begged and commanded her to remain below, 
 she had for the first time drawn for herself her own line 
 of action by simply shaking her head and following us 
 to the deck. She was white as chalk as she stood and 
 watched the near approach of the boat, but I will swear 
 that her fear (if fear it was) was not for herself. 
 
 Just before the enemy drew into rifle shot I went 
 forward and opened the forecastle slide, calling both 
 prisoners to come up, for I had a mind that I might use 
 them to make a show of numbers on our deck. But in 
 return I received a volley of curses only, and, as I had 
 no time to try discipline, I shut and again fastened the 
 hatch, rejoining the others aft. 
 
 Even at this stage I was possessed with the forlorn
 
 182 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 hope that we might drive off the approaching boat, and, 
 if they were short-handed aboard (a condition not un 
 likely), and failed to cripple us with their long gun, 
 something might happen in the way of wind from an 
 other quarter or the coming darkness to enable us to 
 escape. The hope, however, was not enough to give life 
 to my spirits or make it worth the telling to my com 
 panions. I had put my past behind me, never hoping 
 to reap what I had sowed, and with set teeth awaited 
 with little fear and less doubt for the result of the com 
 ing hour. 
 
 Ames lay along the deck with his rifle over the 
 counter; the girl sat in the companion door ready to re 
 load the arms as they were passed to her; and I, looking 
 for the proper moment to open fire, stood in plain sight 
 above the taffrail. 
 
 Slowly they came on until I could count ten men 
 and an officer, and as I marked the easy range I told 
 Ames to let them have it. The crack of his rifle was 
 yet in my ears as I saw the bowman pitch forward, his 
 oar slipping from his hand into the sea. There was a 
 slight commotion aboard, and the boat s progress ceased; 
 but it was only to recover the lost oar, and then on they 
 came again. Eesting my gun over the rail, I calculated 
 the roll of the schooner and in my turn fired. This shot 
 told as well as the first. A man in the waist sprang to 
 his feet, beat the air with his hands for an instant, and 
 then toppled over the side, hanging half in and half 
 out of water, as limp as a bag of wet salt. At this there 
 was more delay, and by the time they were again well 
 under way both rifles had been reloaded, and as yet 
 there had been no call for the services of Miss King. 
 
 " Let them come nearer," said I, " and then give 
 them both barrels at once, and after that the pistols." 
 There was a grim determination in the way their oars 
 flashed now, and as they came to within two hundred
 
 THE CAPTURE OF THE SCHOONER. 183 
 
 feet we both, by this time under the shelter of the rail, 
 fired on the count of three. 
 
 Through the smoke that drifted on us I saw the 
 officer sink back in his seat and the rowing cease, then 
 there came a yell from the boat, and two muskets were 
 discharged at us, but without effect. "What fools they 
 were to delay, for I had reloaded before the first mo 
 tion had been made to continue the course! But to 
 my amazement it was for only a moment the} 7 held on 
 their way. As I fired again, apparently without hitting, 
 I saw the boat s head slew about, and then they quickly 
 hauled off and started to return to the distant schooner. 
 
 It was so far a triumph. Out of ten men we had dis 
 abled and perhaps killed three at least, one being an 
 officer. Why they had fled still numbering enough to 
 have vanquished us could only be accounted for by the 
 supposition that they knew naught of our weakness, 
 and feared the plain showing of our colors was but a 
 sign of strength and fearlessness, if not a lure beckoning 
 them to ruin. I had not dreamed of such an easy con 
 quest, and for the while it was all I could do to restrain 
 the extravagance of my feelings. I turned to Miss King. 
 Her pallor had given way and left two bright spots of 
 excitement which glowed on her cheeks and matched 
 well the brilliant sparkle of her eye. She was trem 
 bling with suppressed emotion, and as I held out my 
 hand to her in unspoken congratulation, she took it, 
 and, lifting to her lips my grimy fingers, rose without 
 a word and hurried forward. 
 
 The impulsive spirit of her brother showed itself in 
 the cry he gave as, with half a sob and half a laugh, he 
 danced about the deck and then threw himself into my 
 arms, breaking therefrom, shaking his fist at the re 
 treating boat, and in mighty un-Quaker mood, though 
 in Quaker style, damned the British high and low, afloat 
 and ashore.
 
 184 A COLONIAL FREE-LAXCE. 
 
 " A curse on thee, thee white-livered, scarlet-backed 
 cowards! " he shouted at the end. " To let two men and 
 a girl drive thee! Oh, by the Lord God above me, the 
 battle is not with the strong! Donald! Donald! mark 
 thee well! I tell thee we will yet best them though 
 they send the whole ship s company! We will rise from 
 the depths! Thy hand and head have so far shown the 
 way! Thee will yet prevail! " 
 
 I was well aware that this exuberance was but the 
 reaction following strain. I felt the relief myself, but 
 knew, despite the fact that we were so far safe, the re 
 pulse would prove but a respite. The lump that had 
 risen to my throat when I saw that the enemy was 
 beaten off, still held me speechless, but it passed pres 
 ently, as did also the wildness of the youth, and ere 
 long we were speculating as to the next probable move 
 of the discomfited redcoats. It was true that I had 
 realized the first part of my secret hope of overcoming 
 the boat, but, on scanning the horizon, there was no sign 
 of a rescuing wind, though I thought the south held 
 some promise of a later breeze. There was naught to do 
 but stand at bay and await the issue. 
 
 Nor did we await it for long. The sun was sliding 
 rapidly to the edge of the sea, being but an hour high, 
 its path lying in a line with the now thoroughly be 
 calmed schooner off our quarter; its glare throwing 
 a dazzling pathway betwixt the two vessels. It is more 
 than likely they scented the advantage given them by 
 their present position, for not long after the return 
 of the first expedition against us I saw three boats leave 
 their side and proceed along the track of blind ng glitter. 
 
 To aim into this eye-watering brilliancy with any 
 but a mere chance of hitting a mark was an impossibil 
 ity, but, with the old determination to face the worst, 
 Ames and I repaired to our posts, though the girl still 
 lingered forward.
 
 THE CAPTURE OF THE SCHOONER. 185 
 
 As I saw the uselcssness of protracted defense, I 
 let her bide away, knowing that at the bow she would 
 be clear of flying bullets when the boats should come 
 near enough to return our fire. How the attack was 
 planned was at once apparent, for to cover the onset of 
 the boarders the schooner again opened on us with 
 its forward piece. In evident fear of striking their 
 own men, they abandoned their former manner of rico- 
 chetting the ball across the water, and instead drove 
 point blank at us. Although we lay a plain target, and 
 their schooner, like the Phantom, was at rest, the first 
 shot flew wide of us; the second passed somewhere aloft, 
 yet so near that I heard the horrible humming of the 
 
 ball, and the third To this day they know not all 
 
 they did, nor, for the matter of that, did I at the time. 
 
 We had let the boats come near, that we might shoot 
 with effect, and I had fired and was about to pass the 
 rifle to Gertrude, who in my excitement I fancied had 
 by this time returned to the companion, when to my 
 astonishment I saw she was not behind me. There was 
 no time for protracted search, for, as I sprang from 
 the cabin, where I had gone to look for her, I heard her 
 brother discharge two pistols in quick succession and 
 saw a boat sweep under our counter. In an instant it 
 had hooked on to our starboard channels. With a 
 round oath Ames seized the two remaining pistols and 
 poured their contents into it with scarce a chance of 
 missing, while I rushed to his side, and, lifting the 
 heavy hatch cover from the cabin, against which it had 
 been leaning, hurled it on to the heads of the packed 
 mass below. 
 
 Beyond the fact that no man boarded the schooner 
 at this point, what execution was made by the broad and 
 bulky timber I never knew, for at that moment the 
 third shot from the schooner struck the foretopmast 
 just above the hounds. In a thundering crash down 
 13
 
 186 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 came the spar with the squaresail, the outer canvas, top 
 mast, fore and back stays, blocks, and upper running 
 gear in general, the broken mast smiting the deck with 
 the sound of an explosion. 
 
 The din of the shot and the tumbling wreck slewed 
 me around as though I had been on a pivot, but it was 
 only to see that all was lost. From beneath the foresail 
 boom I saw that the other boats had boarded us on the 
 larboard bow, and already half a score of men were 
 swarming over the side. Even then my thoughts went 
 to the girl, but she was nowhere in sight. Body and 
 brain work quickly in times of excitement, and think 
 ing that possibly she had fallen through the gaping 
 hatch and into the hold, though time was scant, I sprang 
 for the opening and looked down, calling her by name. 
 There came no answer, neither was her body in sight, 
 the dull gray of the lead alone meeting my eye. Spring 
 ing again to my feet, I drew my cutlass and retreated 
 to the quarter-deck where stood Ames with drawn steel, 
 his back braced against the wheel and his breath coming 
 and going as though from violent exertion. 
 
 " Tis the final stand, my lad!" I exclaimed, as I 
 ranged myself by his side and turned to face (for the 
 last time, I thought) the enemy, who were now pouring 
 aft. "Gertrude is gone! I could find her nowhere!" 
 
 " I know it! " he panted. " The game s up; I 
 marked her when she 
 
 I lost the rest, for at that instant an officer whom I 
 at once recognized came running up, followed by half 
 a dozen marines. As he caught sight of me he halted, 
 and, eying me with profound astonishment, suddenly 
 broke out: 
 
 " Good God! tis Thorndyke! Touch not that man, 
 on your lives! " he shouted. " Here s game worth a 
 whole watch! Surrender, ye rebel! Throw down your 
 arms and surrender! Can t you see you are beaten?
 
 THE CAPTURE OF THE SCHOONER. 187 
 
 You doubly damned spy, the rope will have its own! 
 By Saint George, but this is luck! " 
 
 "Surrender to ye, Lieutenant Belden?" I vocifer 
 ated in turn. " By the Lord, no ! Come and take me 
 if ye can, but twill not be alive. Your rope is not for 
 me, nor will the colors aloft be struck while I stand on 
 this deck! I have given over this world, and fear neither 
 ye nor the pink shrimps at your back! Come, now, and 
 clutch your luck! " 
 
 If I was strong as two men before, I felt the strength 
 of ten within me as I spoke. The swath I would have 
 mowed through that press would have brought the bullet 
 I invited, but there was no advance. True, the crowd 
 showed a tendency to rush in as I thus defied them, and 
 several muskets were leveled at us, but Belden nipped 
 the act by waving his sword and threatening punish 
 ment to the first man who fired a gun or advanced 
 without orders. 
 
 It was plain that to him the prize was a tremendous 
 one, nor would he have the glory of defeating me 
 dimmed by my death, and to this ambition to take me 
 alive and see me hanged was doubtless due my final 
 safety. 
 
 Saving the two shots from the first boat, not a 
 small arm had been fired by them up to this time, their 
 determination to carry the vessel by cold steel alone 
 being apparent all through the attack. As my eye 
 ranged over the circle of men that spread about us and 
 hemmed us to the taffrail (yet for all their numbers were 
 held off by the command of their officer), I saw many 
 a face well known to me ashore, but not one expressing 
 an atom of mercy. With a watchful look I anticipated 
 any possible onset, and yet through all the pent vigor 
 of tightened nerves and stiffened muscles my gaze played 
 beyond their lines and marked the details of the sur 
 roundings.
 
 188 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 The broad ocean lay almost like glass save for the 
 regular heave that passed over it like a wave over the 
 surface of molten metal. Off our starboard beam was 
 an upturned boat floating lazily away, it probably hav 
 ing been stove or capsized by the hatch I had cast into 
 it, and near it drifted the hatch itself; On deck the 
 fallen canvas covered the vessel amidships, and aloft 
 the ragged stump of the topmast, standing clear against 
 the dappled sky, looked like a pine shivered by light 
 ning. A profound silence had fallen where a moment 
 before had been a din of shouts and crashing timber 
 profound save for a dull thumping forward, which I 
 knew came from the prisoners, who were thus signaling 
 for release. The moment was near at hand when I 
 should pass my soul to its Maker, and yet, though the 
 resolve was as strong as ever, I wavered, not in fear of 
 the next world, but dreading the terrible struggle that 
 would come when a healthy body like mine wrestles in 
 the grip of suffocation. If our captors could not be 
 goaded into shooting me, nothing was left but to cast 
 im self into the sea, and this I would not do so long as 
 the young Quaker stood at my side. 
 
 A sudden cry from the bow, soon followed by the 
 sound of metal striking metal, told me that the prison 
 ers were out and being freed from their irons. Belden, 
 without vouchsafing to answer my defiance, lumg hesi 
 tating, evidently awaiting the arrival of his superior to 
 direct future movements. Disarmed save for the bare 
 steel in our hands, we were an easy prey to him had 
 our deaths now been his object; but as there had been 
 no show of force after boarding us, the peppery royalist, 
 still smarting from the disgrace under which I had been 
 the means of placing him, felt sure of his ultimate tri 
 umph over me, and, giving the order to hold us where 
 we stood, turned toward the point of the disturbance 
 forward and hurried off. I was a step in advance of
 
 THE CAPTURE OP THE SCHOONER. 189 
 
 Ames, who still leaned against the wheel, when I heard 
 his voice in my ear. 
 
 " There s a fair chance for a leap, Donald," he whis 
 pered. " The last tie is gone. Be thee ready? " 
 
 " Nay, lad," I answered softly. " We are not yet 
 parted. I still hang to my oath. I have seen nothing 
 of Gertrude. Where can she be?" 
 
 " She is past the sight of this, thank God! " he re 
 turned. " She is dead, man; dead and gone, and we will 
 soon follow her. I saw her : 
 
 Again he was interrupted, this time by a wild yell 
 from the bow, and the man who uttered it started aft 
 chased by half a dozen marines. It was Scammell. With 
 little upon him save a shirt and his small clothes, he 
 broke through the half circle that compassed us, halt 
 ing just within its limits. He was a horrible objeet. 
 His hair hung tangled over his shoulders; his eyes were 
 fierce and bloodshot; his face was distorted by rage, and 
 its pallor was startling. Without a word of warning he 
 called me a vile name, and with an oath raised a pistol 
 he had probably snatched from some one and, leveling 
 it at me, fired. The ball passed betwixt my body and 
 elbow without touching the skin, but it struck Ames, 
 who was just behind me. I heard a deep groan as the 
 youth fell to the deck, his head striking the planking 
 with a heavy blow, and a number of hands sprang upon 
 the infuriated officer and dragged him backward. 
 
 It was done in an instant. The shock and sudden 
 ness of the attack came like a thunderbolt, and yet I 
 retained my presence of mind. With my eye still fixed 
 on my enemies, I stooped to one knee and felt for the 
 hand of my friend, calling on him to speak; but no 
 sound came to my repeated appeal, and the hand I found, 
 gave no answering pressure. He was dead past doubt, 
 and had quickly joined his sister, who, in some manner 
 unknown to me, had gone before him.
 
 190 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 It was the culminating wave of disaster, and for the 
 moment I felt like sinking beneath it. Within a quar 
 ter hour by violence I had been bereft of my two com 
 panions,, and thus was I suddenly freed from my obliga 
 tion to live. With none left for whom to combat,, sur 
 rounded by triumphant enemies, and before me ruin in 
 the shape of the noose, it was now my right, as well as 
 considered duty, to preserve myself from the disgrace 
 of being hanged as a spy. Twould be but a short strug 
 gle, a moment s wild agony, perhaps, and then the end. 
 I braced myself for the ordeal. Eising to my feet, I 
 gave a last glance around, my eye taking in the vast 
 sweep of the sea, on deck the marines still wrestling with 
 the murderous royalist, and, hurrying aft, Belden, fol 
 lowed by Lounsbury. Then turning my thoughts aloft, 
 I made a silent prayer ere taking the final step, when, 
 like a revelation, without the slightest mental effort, 
 without the slightest bending of the mind toward any 
 refuge this side of the great unknown, a possible ay, 
 probable way of escape opened before me. As the 
 angel of the Lord at the last moment called on Abra 
 ham to desist from the sacrifice of his son, so burst this 
 light out of thick darkness and showed me my work 
 was not yet finished. More than willing was I to grasp 
 this more than chance. As though a stone had been 
 rolled from my chest, I took a deep breath, and quickly 
 unloosing my belt, threw both cutlass and scabbard to 
 the deck, then turning, with a stride I reached the rail 
 and cast myself headlong into the sea.
 
 CHAPTEE XX. 
 
 THE SHELL OF THE DINGY. 
 
 NEVER was my love of life or the certainty of my 
 saving it greater than when I shot beneath the surface 
 of the ocean. Like a plummet I went down, the air 
 bubbles I carried with me roaring in my ears like a 
 cataract. As I lost the impetus of the dive I turned 
 and looked up. Having gone over at the starboard quar 
 ter, I was almost under the stern, and the clear green 
 of the water magnified the great shadowy hull of the 
 schooner as she stretched forward into seeming infinity. 
 Like a blot on the silvery surface above me lay the over 
 turned dingy, still held to the vessel by its painter, and 
 in her lay my salvation. 
 
 With a few vigorous strokes I swam under it, and, 
 regulating my rise as best I could, came to the surface 
 within the shell of the wrecked boat. The move had 
 been successful. If the trick was unsuspected, I was 
 safe. Letting go my pent breath in a blast, I thanked 
 God for His sudden intervention, and prayed that His 
 hand be not removed from me. 
 
 Settled low as was the overturned dingy, my head 
 barely cleared her bottom, but that was sufficient. Sus 
 taining my position by a light hold on the thwart, that 
 my w r eight should not prevent the regular and natural 
 roll of the wreck, with nerves now tuned to their highest 
 pitch, I hung and awaited developments. The hole 
 
 191
 
 192 A COLONIAL FKEE-LANCE. 
 
 in the boat s bottom furnished me with air, and, to my 
 astonishment, this vent in the hollow which now shel 
 tered me gave to my retreat the character of a trumpet, 
 and every sound was magnified, though its quality was 
 changed to the deep sonorous roar such as one hears 
 come from the heart of a conch held to the ear. It was 
 an indistinct babble of cries and oaths that first greeted 
 me, and from the few words I could disentangle I 
 guessed that the whole host had rushed to the schoon 
 er s side in the hope that I would rise. Had I still 
 courted death, I might easily have met with it by means 
 of a bullet through my head, for through the confused 
 humming of voices I distinctly heard the sharp clicking 
 of gunlocks, and knew that had I appeared I would have 
 been made a target for a score of muskets. 
 
 The sound of voices decreased as the moments flew, 
 and when at last it seemed certain that I had gone to 
 the bottom, there came a general awakening, and a 
 sharp order was given to search the hull, strike the flag, 
 and hoist the British ensign. The clicking of boot 
 heels and the rattling of arms were more distinct than 
 words, but the marines had barely scattered to obey the 
 last commands when, above all else, I heard an unknown 
 voice: 
 
 " Overhaul that carrion, and then pitch it over 
 board!" 
 
 This I knew must refer to the body of my poor 
 friend, but before I could realize the necessity of the 
 order thus brutishly given, as clear as the order itself 
 rose the voice of Scammell. 
 
 "Look, look, Belden! Damn me, but I thought I 
 had brought down a buzzard in missing the hawk, when, 
 after all, I have struck but a peg lower than Thorndyke 
 himself! By the crime of Judas, I wish it had been 
 the other way! If this young, old broad-brim be not 
 Beverly Ames, I ll lose fifty pounds to any one of you!
 
 THE SHELL OP THE DINGY. 193. 
 
 Quick, man! Sec, he is not dead! Tore God, but may 
 hap he can yet give us some news of his sister! Over- 
 hoard he goes not! Dead or alive, he must be taken to 
 Clinton, else your commission is in danger! Know you 
 not that he is connected with Mrs. Badely? Send off 
 for help! Is not that long-legged Irishman yet aboard 
 you?" 
 
 Here a number of voices joined in and turned to a 
 confused roar all words at once following. In the space 
 of a few minutes I heard a boat putting away from the 
 side, the thud of oars in the water making a jar on my 
 ear drums, almost painful. For a time there reigned 
 comparative silence, and then came what was doubtless 
 a marine s report. 
 
 " The hold is clear of all life, sir. Nawthin but lead 
 below, an cabin an forec sle all cleaned out barrin 
 some arms an the captain s old clothes." 
 
 " How s this, Scammell ? " said Belden, evidently 
 turning to that officer. " We saw three men aboard, 
 and but two are accounted for. Thorndyke has gone 
 to hell over the side, and this lad of yours is like to 
 join him by another route! Where s the third?" 
 
 " There was no third," came the sharp response. 
 " Two it was that smothered us below. I know of none 
 other; no more does Lounsbury." 
 
 " Nay," said that worthy, speaking for the first time, 
 and with a thick burr to his speech, " there was never 
 more than four legs to the lot. Mayhap that giant split 
 hisself in two for the sake o looks there was enough 
 o him. Thank God for his loss! I would ne er sleep 
 easy again knowin him alive." 
 
 Here words fell to a murmur until Lounsbury again 
 spoke, evidently addressing himself to the one who was 
 in authority on board: 
 
 " Xow I take it, leftenant, that by rights this craft 
 is mine."
 
 194 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 " Yours, ye toasted mug! " demanded the unknown 
 voice. " What mean ye? " 
 
 "Ay, only by right o prize, I mean," was the an 
 swer. " Twas I who first laid hand on her, an got a 
 split skull for my pains, an not a damn sovereign to help 
 heal it, neither so much glory as shines from the buttons 
 o yor coat. Prize be cussed! Now, if yer capting wills 
 to let me take her into port as I came nigh doing 
 awhile agone twill go far to put me right with the 
 admiralty an get me a job, mayhap, like that lost 
 through Thorndykc takin my name, damn his soul! 
 D ye see?" 
 
 " Ay, I see, ye sweep ! And is that all ? No prize 
 money? " 
 
 " Ay, all, all. Only to sail her home; no more." 
 
 " No more, eh ? Ye are a cursed deep villain, but 
 I ll touch the captain on it. Go get the grime from your 
 face and look less like a toad. Had he seen you, twas 
 no wonder Thorndyke launched himself over the rail. 
 What now, Scammell? Does the lad still live? " 
 
 " He lives, indeed," was the answer, " but whether 
 or no he will bide long I can not say. He was better on 
 deck than he is below. The cabin still stinks. I hope 
 twill not be forever before the doctor gets here. Was 
 he drunk at mess? It is possible he can hold the lad s 
 life long enough to allow him to speak; he does little 
 now but moan." 
 
 At this the two walked forward, and I heard noth 
 ing but the coarse voices of the marines as they sang 
 out to one another or laughed uncouthly. 
 
 The knowledge that Ames still lived gave me a quick 
 sense of relief a relief which fled on the instant as I 
 thought of the probable future in store for him. My 
 own position was infinitely better than his, even were 
 he not suffering from a wound, and, as for his sister, 
 after all was done, was she not better off than either?
 
 THE SHELL OF THE DINGY. 105 
 
 But was she dead? If not, what could have become of 
 her? I had heard that the vessel had been searched 
 without finding a trace of the third party to whom 
 Belden had referred. On seeing all was lost, was it pos 
 sible that she had thrown herself overboard that she 
 might not witness her brother s tragic end? It was like 
 her. "It would have been an act showing her strength 
 of character, as well as the weakness of her sex; a nat 
 ural recoil from physical and mental suffering without 
 a purpose; a heroic self-sacrifice. It were as well she 
 Had not suffered captivity and long-drawn misery. With 
 her brother at death s door, or perhaps saved to die by 
 military law; her property confiscated, without a home 
 or relatives and at the mercy of Clinton s heartless mis 
 tress, life would have held no more for her than the 
 doubtful benefit of mere existence in confinement for an 
 indefinite period. 
 
 And yet was my reason against the idea of her self- 
 destruction. There was mystery in her disappearance, 
 but its solution lay not in that. The attacking party 
 had boarded us from either side, yet not an eye had seen 
 her cast herself into the sea. There was more than this 
 to make me doubtful. For her brother s sake she had 
 sacrificed herself before Clinton, yet on my hand was 
 placed her last kiss. Had she left the world thus, with 
 out a word to him, without a warning to me? It was 
 unnatural, unholy; it was monstrous to think of, and 
 yet The possible solution of the riddle as it drove 
 into my brain had scarce time to find lodgment before 
 it was put to flight by the voice of Belden, which seemed 
 to come from directly overhead, his words showing that 
 the continuance of my present safety was not assured. 
 
 " Think you that dingy could be hauled aboard and 
 repaired? Twas a neat shot, and the ball seems to have 
 cleft her like a knife." 
 
 " So it looks," came an answer, " but I ll warrant
 
 196 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 you ll find her full of fissures. The work will barely 
 repay the trouble. Better cut her adrift. If wind 
 comes, the wreck will drag like a sea anchor. You 
 might give attention to the quarter boat yonder, and 
 get the hatch aboard." 
 
 " The hatch, yes," Belden returned; " but the boat 
 is stove badly. Curses on the rebel; he has cost us ten 
 men in all, and only to give us the slip! Tis small 
 wonder Lounsbury has the shakes at thought of him! 
 Think of the nerve " 
 
 "Damn him!" was the retort. "What about the 
 schooner? Lounsbury wants to take her in. There s 
 nothing gone but the foretopmast, and with three men 
 he could work her if the captain consents. In the face 
 of our being short-handed, the idea is not bad if the 
 villain can be trusted." 
 
 " He ll scarce run off with the schooner/" answered 
 Belden, " and lead is no temptation, though I d be shy 
 of trusting him with anything more valuable. I know 
 him of old. He was scavenger to Clinton, and to Howe 
 before him. Here, lad, cut away that painter." 
 
 The last words was an order probably given to a 
 sailor, for presently I heard the splash of the severed 
 line. At the same moment a boat swept by, and from 
 the few words I could gather I guessed the Irish sur 
 geon had arrived and gone aboard. 
 
 After that more boats passed and repassed as time 
 dragged on, and finally the bulk of the vessel s captors 
 returned to their own schooner, for, saving now and 
 then the sound of a single man tramping the deck, the 
 stillness was unbroken. 
 
 It was with mighty satisfaction that I had heard 
 the final order to cut the tie binding my refuge to the 
 schooner. I gave no thought to what might come of my 
 being adrift on the broad ocean. Beyond each moment 
 as it came and went I seemed to have no interest. The
 
 THE SHELL OF THE DINGY. 197 
 
 future was blank, nor need I consider it so long as the 
 wind held off, for in the calm the dingy and schooner 
 would not part company, and until darkness fell I would 
 be compelled to remain in my present pinched quarters. 
 
 Hooded as I was, up to the present my hearing had 
 been my only sense brought into play, but with the de 
 parture of the last boat load of men I used my eyes for 
 the first time. The interior of the shelter under which 
 I hung was lighted almost entirely from below, and a 
 delicate greenish-blue tint played over the planks and 
 ribs of the wreck. Shielded from direct light overhead, 
 the shell gave all the effects of a water telescope, for, 
 on turning my eyes downward, my sight pierced the 
 ocean for fathom after fathom, the color of the depths 
 growing from the most tender blue to a clear and then 
 dark green, showing me that the bottom lay beyond 
 vision and far below. It was only by turning to the 
 hole in the keel that I could guess the hour, nor was it 
 long before the sun had set and darkness came on apace. 
 By the natural attraction of floating bodies, the boat 
 had drawn near the schooner, and, as they struck and 
 crunched together, I heard the voice of the surgeon as 
 he left the cabin and came on deck. 
 
 " Well, by the powers, I suppose I must obey orders. 
 If the boy is moved, he dies that s flat an by me 
 soul, he may go, spite o me skill! I must bide here 
 the night, must I? Ay, well; send aboard a couple o 
 bottles, Belden, or, by the piper, I ll mutiny. Why 
 should a dirty rebel be worth more than our own men? 
 Is Scammell to bide with me ? " 
 
 " IS"o," answered Belden; " he s sent for by the cap 
 tain. I ll fix the liquor, McCary. Xow, Mr. Louns- 
 bury, you have heard your instructions. Follow us as 
 soon as the wind rises; you will have it ere long the 
 glass has fallen. We will stand near you. Are you 
 ready, Scammell?"
 
 198 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 There was suppressed conversation after this, and 
 then another boat put away. In perhaps an hour it re 
 turned and was hoisted to the davits, and then again 
 there was silence a deep, brooding silence, such as is 
 only known in a night calm on the sea.
 
 CHAPTEE XXI. 
 
 DE PKOFUNDIS. 
 
 As I have said, I had given no thought to the future 
 or what consequence my present situation might entail 
 should the schooner follow her captor. But as the dark 
 ness deepened and a chill due to my protracted sub 
 mersion struck to my bones, I realized that, except for 
 having put myself beyond the sight of my enemies, I 
 had accomplished nothing. True it was that 1 might 
 have laid a course ere this, for I had hung unmolested 
 for a number of hours; but, instead of turning to my 
 own interests, I had let my brain play over the mystery 
 of the disappearance of Miss King. What this por 
 tended I had failed to dwell upon. Knowing that for 
 myself there remained nothing to do but stay where 
 I was until chance should open a way for me to gain 
 the shore or mischance deliver me a prisoner or send me 
 to the bottom, I had racked my fancy for a solution of 
 the one question regarding the lady. As a reward for 
 this constant effort, I had hit upon what I thought to 
 be the correct answer to the puzzle, but to verify it had 
 been thus far beyond possibility. Now the darkness, 
 the warning chill, and my general uncertainty brought 
 me up with a round turn, and I gave attention solely 
 to my own affairs. 
 
 Further than that I must leave my shelter and gain 
 the schooner, I could not proceed in laying my line of 
 action. To use the wreck as a support and push the 
 
 199
 
 200 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 unmanageable thing for an uncertain number of miles 
 to the Long Island coast would result, in my present 
 condition., in collapse and death. It did not take me 
 long to determine that my only hope lay in the near-by 
 schooner; a forlorn hope at best, for the attempt to 
 board her would immediately place my life in jeopardy. 
 Nor would I have turned a thought to her had I not 
 overheard that she would be manned by Lounsbury and 
 three hands only. This handful of men (the doctor 
 counting as nothing in my eyes), the calm, and the prob 
 able total lack of discipline which would follow the 
 transfer of the sailors from a vessel of war to a half- 
 dismantled prize under unofficial command, might allow 
 me to gain foothold on deck. Ay, I thought, by some 
 possibility I may reclaim my loss and become master of 
 the situation, only let me fairly see the chance. 
 
 It was now so dark that the sky showed but faintly 
 through the hole in the boat s bottom. As time ad 
 vanced and there became great danger that the wind 
 might rise, thereby rendering my attempt abortive, I 
 sank myself into the water and came to the surface 
 clear of my late shelter. The tide or some unknown 
 force had drawn the wreck from the schooners side, and 
 I found I had been slowly drifting south, being now 
 some ten or a dozen rods off the vessel s starboard bow. 
 By the most intense listening I could hear a subdued 
 sound of voices, but from what part of the deck it pro 
 ceeded I was too far away to determine. All around me 
 was black water, with nothing in sight saving the shad 
 owy hull of the Phantom and a guiding light, evidently 
 swinging over the stern of the Sprite, though that craft 
 was swallowed by the distance and general gloom. Not 
 a star was in sight, not a breath broke the glassiness of 
 the silent swell as it rolled northward. The ocean never 
 seemed so vast nor its depths so repulsive as now, when 
 in the darkness it clung to me with its chilly fingers.
 
 DE PROFUNDIS. 201 
 
 The fathoms below gaped like an open pit., and it was 
 with a convulsive horror that I let go my hold on the 
 dingy and struck out for the schooner, resolute, come 
 what might, to. rid myself of the frightful loneliness 
 which all at once was magnified before me. Indeed, I 
 felt that my time had come. For good or evil there 
 would be a sharp turn in my affairs, but if evil, I would 
 die by shot or sword; not to the black element about 
 me would I give myself. 
 
 Like a frightened child fleeing from the dark, I at 
 first swam boldly, but, as my vigor sent before me a 
 small surf that roared through the silence, I abated my 
 speed, and with slow and noiseless stroke headed myself 
 toward the schooner s bow, that I might approach her 
 as I did when drifting through the fog. The gold in 
 my pockets dragged on me, but not once did I think 
 of ridding myself of the burden, for the swim was short, 
 and I had won the money hardly. However, it seemed 
 an age ere I saw the Phantom s bowsprit outlined against 
 the sky over my head, and by the time I felt the firm 
 ness of her bobstay in my hand something like confi 
 dence had come back to me, and my momentary horror 
 of the deep was past. The touch of the rigging put 
 strength in me, and I slowly drew myself out of water, 
 that the torrent from my clothes might not attract at 
 tention from the deck. I could now hear the sound of 
 voices plainly, and knew it came from forward, but it 
 was too muffled for me to make head or tail of the con 
 versation. It would guide my actions in a measure, for, 
 so long as it continued, my presence would be unsus 
 pected. 
 
 Carefully I dragged myself up until I came within 
 reaching distance of the bowsprit, and then I brought 
 my head to the level of the deck. The jib and staysail 
 hung motionless from their riggings, but from beneath 
 the latter I marked the figure of a man leaning against 
 14
 
 202 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 the larboard fore shrouds and smoking a pipe as he 
 looked over the water. He was partly turned toward 
 me, and as long as he held his present position I could 
 not advance. As far aft as I could see the deck was 
 otherwise deserted, though a light, hitherto concealed 
 by the rail, gleamed from the cabin window. A slight 
 yellow haze spread from the open hatch of the fore 
 castle, and from there came the voices I heard. 
 
 Putting myself astride the bowsprit, I sat concealed 
 from the larboard side by the schooner s head cloths, 
 though by bending my body I could peer beneath the 
 sails and see the figure that blocked my further prog 
 ress. The talking from the open hatch drowned the 
 drip of the small streams still flowing from my clothing, 
 though it seemed to accentuate the mournful creak that 
 from the top hamper occasionally answered the -heavier 
 rolls of the sea. I was now momentarily at my wits 
 end, for neither forward nor backward could I go. Had 
 I wished to return to the wreck, I could not have found 
 that speck in the darkness, and my plans had not ex 
 tended beyond getting on to the vessel, and this had 
 been accomplished. But I had not remained passively 
 seated astride the bowsprit for many minutes before a 
 scheme opened before me. It was born of necessity, 
 and, unless he should soon move, demanded the life of 
 the fellow standing by the shrouds. I had barely come 
 to this conclusion when, as though he read my thoughts 
 and felt the sinister threat they contained, he knocked 
 the ashes from his pipe and turned himself toward his 
 companions below. 
 
 As he came into the radius of light that shot from 
 the hatch, I saw he was an ordinary seaman a regula 
 tion rnan-of-war s-man from his light pumps to his 
 oiled and eelskin-cased pigtail curling clear of the collar 
 of his shirt. With a light remark to his fellows, he 
 seated himself on the top step of the ladder leading
 
 DE PEOFUNDIS. 203 
 
 down, and, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin 
 on his clinched hands, started to palaver with those 
 below, probably enjoying to the fullest extent the con 
 trast in the discipline of the two vessels. 
 
 His action was a glaring piece of marine carelessness, 
 but it both saved his life and opened to me a way to 
 act. Now, with the dazzle of light full in his face, he 
 might lift his head yet fail to see me, and, as the time 
 was ripe, I felt for the foot ropes and silently slid to 
 the heel of the bowsprit. Once there, I crept to the 
 cathead, and from there with a spring I reached the 
 forecastle opening behind the unsuspecting sailor. With 
 a sudden push I sent him headlong on to his fellows, 
 and then I quickly closed the doors, slid the hatch 
 cover, fastened it, and for the third time I had made 
 the Phantom s forward quarters a prison. 
 
 There was now little time to spare, for I knew the 
 rumpus that would come would attract the cabin, and 
 it behooved me to get command of that ere Lounsbury 
 could act on the offensive. Snatching a belaying pin 
 from its ring on the mast, I ran to the galley, but found 
 it dark and deserted. From there I hurried aft, and, 
 without the precaution of peeping through a window, 
 presented myself at the open door of the companion 
 way. I knew not what I would find, but was far from 
 expecting the sight that met my eyes. The lantern 
 swinging from its beam had been trimmed and washed, 
 and cast a strong light over the interior. Though no 
 one was at the table, it showed that a makeshift meal 
 had been sent from the Sprite, for on the Phantom there 
 were now no means of cooking, as pots, kettles, and 
 table gear had gone the way of my instruments. In a 
 bunk, the curtains of which were flung wide, and at 
 the side of which stood a bucket of water, lay Ames, his 
 face like chalk and his eyes closed, but whether in death 
 or sleep I could not tell. On a transom locker at the
 
 204 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 other side of the cabin sprawled the doctor, somewhat 
 more than tipsy, his head rolling to and fro with the 
 plunge of the vessel, while in his hand was a bloody rag 
 or bandage. He was vainly trying to reach a bottle and 
 glass -that stood near him on the floor, the heave of the 
 schooner throwing him off his balance at each attempt 
 to raise himself. At the extreme end of the compart 
 ment was Lounsbury on his knees, working at the bulk 
 head with a carpenter s chisel and calking mallet. Ig 
 noring the presence of the drunken surgeon, he had 
 torn away half the casing to the partition, and had 
 finally struck upon my hidden gold, which now lay as 
 plain to my eye as to his. For this, and probably for 
 this alone, he had once attempted to betray me, threat 
 ened my life, and well-nigh lost his own. He had 
 guarded the secret as well as I, and now, after months 
 of waiting, hard fare, and harder blows, he doubtless 
 felt a full measure of sordid pleasure as my little hoard 
 lay uncovered before him. And not so little, either. 
 Five hundred pounds would make him passing rich 
 among his fellows. 
 
 Though his face was from me, its exultation seemed 
 to strike through him and shine from his back. I could 
 almost see the dry, greedy grin and close set of his 
 ragged teeth as he laid his hand on the bag to judge its 
 worth by lifting. With the inborn suspicion of the ever- 
 fearful thief or miser, he threw a cautious look over his 
 shoulder, , and as he did so his eyes met mine. 
 
 I once saw a laughing man shot clean through the 
 heart, and the sudden change of his expression as death 
 seized him, was appalling; but it was nothing to the 
 swift alteration that came over the face of Lounsbury 
 as that villain recognized me. Crouched low at the top 
 of the companion way, with one foot on the steps and 
 the other on deck, I remained immovable as I witnessed 
 the effect of my sudden appearance. Without shifting
 
 DE PROFUNDIS. 205 
 
 liis position, the wretch held his head craned over his 
 left shoulder, his jaw dropped, and his small, piglike 
 eyes opened to their farthest extent, glaring at me as 
 though their owner was in a trance. His face was too 
 blackened and weather-beaten to allow of a change of 
 color, but pallor and fright were plain in his very atti 
 tude. Not a sound or movement was made by either 
 of us as we thus faced each other, and the surgeon, mark 
 ing nothing amiss, still made desperate though ludicrous 
 bobs toward the liquor on the floor. 
 
 Perhaps for a minute Lounsbury held his position, 
 and then with a slow, snakelike motion, his eyes still 
 fixed on mine, he twisted till his back was to the bulk 
 head, where, extending his arms against the woodwork, 
 he flattened himself as though trying to shrink through 
 the partition, horror and dread written over his swollen 
 and repulsive features. 
 
 It had never been in my mind to play a part, but 
 it was plain that to this ignorant and superstitious man 
 I was nothing less than a veritable spirit of the dead. 
 Indeed, the glistening of my dripping clothes, the plas 
 tered hair on my head, unshaven, and with the paleness 
 of long immersion on my face, these, with the probable 
 glitter of excitement in my eyes, all tended to make 
 me uncanny in appearance, especially as my figure was 
 backed by the absolute blackness of the night. Louns 
 bury had seen me in apparent desperation plunge over 
 board, and doubtless thought I had been drifting fath 
 oms deep below the Phantom s keel, yet in the hour of 
 his success I had come to torment him. Like Banquo s 
 ghost and ghost I was to him I would not down. 
 
 The agony working in his mind would soon find an 
 outlet in some fashion, but it stirred him in a way I 
 hardly expected. Still piercing me with his glance, his 
 broad chest heaved spasmodically and his right hand 
 gradually moved to the hilt of the cutlass hanging on
 
 206 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 his left hip. Slowly, like a man asleep, he drew the 
 blade, and with slaver now running from the corners of 
 his mouth, he left the bulkhead and crept toward me. 
 Fascination ruled him. The pent-up energy of the man 
 showed in his crouching, catlike step as he glided along 
 the edge of the table and into the space between it and 
 the foot of the ladder. Madness, murder, and every evil 
 flamed from his eyes, and I knew that now he or I must 
 die, though I would have mighty small qualms in kill 
 ing him, .and had still smaller doubts as to which was 
 to be killed. 
 
 Though I was armed with naught but a belaying 
 pin, while he possessed a sword, the chances were more 
 in my favor than in his. In the narrow passage of the 
 companion, to which he must come to attack me, his 
 Aveapon would be of no avail save in the thrust, while 
 the short and fairly heavy club I gripped would be un- 
 trammeled by want of space, and my position above him 
 gave me an advantage I had seen from the beginning. 
 
 As the fellow reached the foot of the steps, his man 
 ner suddenly changed. Pulling himself upright, he let 
 out a yell that was blood-curdling, and clapping his left 
 hand over his eyes as though to shut out the sight of 
 me, he thrust his sword at arm s length before him and 
 rushed blindly up the ladder as though to impale the 
 uncanny spirit he had seen at its top. 
 
 As the steel came near me I beat it down with a 
 blow of the belaying pin, and, reaching forward, struck 
 him fairly on the head. He threw up both hands, bal 
 anced for an instant, and then pitched backward, strik 
 ing the floor head first, the weight of his body doubling 
 and breaking his neck as though it had been an icicle. 
 
 Before I followed him by a leap that carried me the 
 length of the companion, I knew my enemy had come 
 to anchor forever. It was not to him I turned my no 
 tice as I struck the floor, but to the now half-sobered
 
 DE PROFUNDIS. 207 
 
 surgeon who was fumbling beneath his pillow, from 
 under which he drew a pistol just as I reached him. 
 Grasping him by the throat, I threw him on to his back 
 on the locker, and, with my knee on his thin chest, 
 twisted the yet uncocked firearm from his hand and 
 sent it spinning across the cabin. 
 
 It was done. Once again I was master of the 
 Phantom. 
 
 Hurriedly searching the prostrate man and his im 
 mediate surroundings for more weapons, and finding 
 none, without further attempt to conceal my voice or 
 purpose, I commanded him to lie where he was on pain 
 of instant death, and, as I saw the cowardly noncom- 
 batant shrink away from me and knew I had nothing 
 to fear from him, I left his side and crossed the cabin 
 to where lay my wounded friend. To my astonishment 
 his eyes were open and he was regarding me curiously 
 enough, though the greeting he gave me was but a 
 movement of the lips, for from them there came no 
 sound. I grasped his hand. There was but the faint 
 est trace of fever in it, and a slight answering pressure 
 was returned. Again his lips moved, and, by bending 
 to them, I made out the word " Ghost ? " 
 
 " Nay, my lad," I answered heartily. " We are once 
 more to the good. I had small hopes of ever again see 
 ing you alive, but God has willed differently. Are you 
 badly hurt?" 
 
 The only answer was a tremor of the lids, and I 
 might have known that weakness would hold him dumb. 
 " Where was the boy hit? " I demanded, turning to the 
 lank redcoat who had not shifted his position but lay 
 looking at me with intense interest. The royalist raised 
 himself on his elbow, and, instead of answering, asked: 
 
 " Who are ye, man, and where from? " 
 
 " Know ye not Donald Thorndykc returned from 
 hell for a substitute? " I thundered, striding up to him.
 
 208 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 "Answer my question, ye sot! Where was the boy 
 hit?" 
 
 " In the right lung; the ball passed clear through 
 him," he answered as he shrank back, and then, as his 
 curiosity struggled for mastery, he continued, " They 
 told me that overboard ye had gone." 
 
 " They told ye the truth," I returned, stooping for 
 the pistol I had wrenched from him, and cocking it. 
 " Put me aside and tell me, will the lad live ? " 
 
 " Ay, like as not if he has the pluck," he snapped 
 back, eyeing and dodging the muzzle of the firearm. 
 " Faith, I ll do my best if ye will honor my calling and 
 play that damn thing to some other point. Have ye 
 murdered all but meself ? " 
 
 " Nay, ye skewer," I answered, almost amused by his 
 fear and amazed at the way it had overcome the fumes 
 of the liquor in him. " I but gave the crew a rest from 
 duty; it is their watch below, and if ye dare call me mur 
 derer for taking and defending my own, I ll act the 
 part in truth." 
 
 " By me sowl, ye are the devil himself! " he ejacu 
 lated, but I cut him short. 
 
 " Whate er I am, ye are my prisoner. Now take 
 your choice betwixt irons and parole; the hold or this 
 cabin. Speak fast! I have business on hand." 
 
 "A prisoner only, is it?" he exclaimed quickly, sit 
 ting bolt upright and raising his hand aloft. " Then, 
 on the honor of an Irish gentleman, I take oath not to 
 sneak from ye or bear arms," he answered, as though 
 relieved by the terms I offered. 
 
 " And bide in the cabin until allowed the deck? " I 
 added. 
 
 " That same," he answered. 
 
 " And care for the wounded lad? " 
 
 " Oh, ay! oh, ay! an now 
 
 " Then tis ten to one that before long ye will be
 
 DE PROPUNDIS. 209 
 
 back among your fellows by exchange," I interrupted, 
 being in a hurry. " Bring the boy to his feet, and twill 
 be money in your pocket; but no more liquor." 
 
 So saying, I picked up me bottle and took a long 
 draught of what proved to be good whisky. Twas a 
 well-earned and sorely needed dram, but a mighty 
 uncivil way of taking it, inasmuch as I had just cut him 
 off his own grog. The act may have been the means of 
 fanning the spark of malice held in his nature a spark 
 that glowed, smoldered, and burst into flame when I 
 least expected. The cunning in his brain made up for 
 the lack of sinews in his body, for when I turned from 
 locking up the bottle and sliding the key into my pocket, 
 I noticed a malevolence in his face; but he shifted his 
 eye from me, and, getting to his feet with an effort, 
 walked unsteadily across the cabin and bent over Ames.
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 FEOM UNDER THE SQUAEE-SAIL YARD. 
 
 BY the rules of civilized warfare I had rendered 
 the surgeon incapable of offensive action, but, apart from 
 his word of honor, my best defense seemed to lie in his 
 cowardice and ready acquiescence to my demands. Even 
 in my intense interest in the welfare of my friend I 
 did not follow the doctor to his side. I had matters on 
 my heart and hands requiring immediate attention, but 
 my first business was to rid the cabin of the repulsive 
 carcass that cumbered the foot of the companion way. 
 
 With as little feeling as though I was handling a 
 bale of goods, I turned Lounsbury over that I might 
 be sure of his death, and by the limp and hideous way 
 his head fell to his shoulder I knew he was past all 
 surgery. Grasping him by the collar, I hauled him to 
 the deck, and from thence to the rail, launching him 
 over the side with the feeling that with him went the 
 last of my ill luck. With the dead man s cutlass about 
 my waist and McCary s pistol in my belt (a poor place 
 for a dry priming, as I was still reeking with wet), I 
 went again into the cabin, and with an apology to the 
 doctor for leaving him in the dark, took the lantern 
 from its hook on the beam and hurried to where the 
 wreck of the top hamper still covered the deck about 
 the foremast. Though the light was seen from the 
 Sprite, it would create no suspicion; so, seizing the lan 
 tern to a hoop in the mast, I attacked the mass of broken 
 
 210
 
 FEOM UNDER THE SQUARE-SAIL YARD. 211 
 
 spar, gear, and canvas, that I might verify or prove 
 groundless the more than half hope which had come 
 to me while I hung beneath the wreck of the dingy. 
 Then the hope was but a flimsy tissue; now it was tinged 
 with fear. If the girl had not been struck down by a 
 falling spar and hidden by the folds of the square sail, 
 then she must have been translated, for of her deliberate 
 self-destruction I would not now believe. 
 
 There was a desperate thumping on the forecastle 
 hatch by the imprisoned trio, but I paid no attention to 
 it, and indeed I was so engrossed in my present busi 
 ness that nothing short of the splintering of the cover 
 or the arrival on a belated errand of a boat from the 
 Sprite, would have caused me to desist. 
 
 The first I uncovered was what I thought to be a 
 pair of booted legs, but they proved to be no more than 
 my own foot gear which I had stowed near the mast 
 the night before, for since boarding the Phantom in 
 the fog I had gone unshod. The wreck had been thrown 
 into a fairly compact mass by the side of the hatch, 
 and it was perhaps five minutes before I had gotten 
 to the bottom of it. But I was well rewarded. Ere I 
 had cast aside the last of the fallen hamper I heard a 
 slight groan, and, on pulling away a mixture of torn 
 sail and tangled line, I saw the object of my search. 
 
 My conjecture had been right. The girl was lying 
 betwixt the combings of the galley and the butt of the 
 splintered topmast, a position allowing her enough air 
 to prevent suffocation, at the same time partly protect 
 ing her from the weight of the stuff piled over her. 
 She lay on her face, and across her thighs, pinning her 
 fast, was a small end of the broken topsail yard. Her 
 cheek and neck, with the hand that lay along the spar, 
 were covered with blood, and blood stained the plank 
 ing of the deck about her. 
 
 I lost no time in feeling for life, as the groan had
 
 212 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 told me life still existed. Cutting the lantern from the 
 hoop, I slung it on my arm and, lifting the girl, strode 
 toward the cabin, now in the strangest state of mind 
 that had ever possessed me. If I moved quickly with 
 my body, my brain outpaced it. As I look back at it, 
 the passage from the foremast to the companion way 
 was a long one, though it was compassed in twice ten 
 steps. In the time it took me to traverse it I lived over 
 the five days I had known this lass, and felt them to have 
 been as many years. I suddenly knew the source of my 
 daring, which had grown with the time until at that 
 moment I was ready to face the devil himself, and knew, 
 too, for whom it was meant. I now knew that my head 
 had not been playing over the mystery of her disappear 
 ance because it was mystery, but because this girl had 
 usurped all other interests. I was now aware that my 
 resolve to board the schooner was not so much to re 
 capture the prize (though that motive, hopeless as it 
 had seemed, had been strong) as to overhaul the wreck 
 of the foretopmast in quest of Gertrude King, and see 
 her again dead or alive. I gave no name to all this; I 
 raised no fine points anent the strength or weakness of 
 my feeling, nor did the word " love " cross my mind. 
 I only knew that alive I had found her, and that one day 
 she might know I had saved her from both death and 
 her enemies. In a purblind fashion it was all the re 
 ward I looked for, and it seemed reward enough. 
 
 If I was not fairly subdued by the beauty and hero 
 ism of this girl, my pity for her carried me far on the 
 way, and though burly, sea-roughened, and a man to 
 boot, in this case of need I felt that for tenderness I 
 could pit myself against the gentlest woman who ever 
 made a sick-bed a dream of pleasure. 
 
 Beyond getting at the extent of her injuries, I deter 
 mined not to let the now sobered surgeon lift a finger. 
 When I brought my burden down the companion way ho
 
 FROM UNDER THE SQUARE-SAIL YARD. 213 
 
 was placing a wet compress on the boy s wound, his man 
 agement of this in the darkness speaking loudly of his 
 skill. My prisoner was evidently past being surprised, 
 for he did little but give a grunt as he saw me bear her 
 in; but when I told him the new patient was a girl, and 
 the sister of Ames, he cast on me a quick, hard look. 
 It was only after I mentioned her name and he remem 
 bered the former passenger of the Sprite that he showed 
 real interest, and as he examined her for injuries I heard 
 him grumble the name of Scammell beneath his breath. 
 Pending the outcome of his search I went on deck. 
 Although a nearly full moon was behind the clouds, the 
 night was unusually dark. The roll of the schooner 
 was growing heavier. It caused a rattling of blocks 
 overhead, and a jerking of the foresail boom on its trav 
 eler until it sounded as though the deck must be ripped 
 up. There was a sullenness to the sea that boded mis 
 chief, but the cause of it was still at a distance. Be 
 twixt the clashing of blocks aloft, the kicking of the 
 rudder, the mad clank of the boom travelers and the 
 excited tattoo of the reefing points, there was sufficient 
 fuss to at once tell a seaman that the present condition 
 of calm would not be protracted. The look of the sky 
 was enough for me (for beyond the immediate vicinity 
 of the moon a pot of tar could not have been blacker), 
 and in the momentary intervals of partial silence that 
 ensued as the schooner balanced on the tops of the 
 surges I thought I could hear a faint moan far above 
 the truck, as though an unseen and troubled spirit was 
 winging through the depths of space aloft. The horizon 
 had drawn close to the vessel, and the repelling black 
 ness of the water sent a chill through me as I considered 
 what might have been my plight had the schooner sailed, 
 leaving me on the broad ocean with no support but the 
 frail shell of the dingy. A sudden coldness had settled 
 from above, though not a breath of wind had come with
 
 214 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 it, and, though there was nothing to be distinctly 
 marked through the heavy gloom enveloping the schoon 
 er, there existed in the surrounding elements a men 
 acing something which, like an invisible monitor, sent 
 to me an inarticulate warning. 
 
 The change had been rapid. Plainly enough I 
 scented the vague threat of the weather and set about 
 to meet the outbreak. Minding me that I was both 
 captain and crew, with the extra weight of having on 
 my hands three prisoners in the forecastle and a shaky 
 one in the cabin, I saw that if it came on to blow I had 
 more than sufficient work cut out for one pair of fists. 
 Determined then to take time by the forelock and be 
 safe in all weathers, I let go the foresail halyards and 
 quietly lowered that canvas, putting it in stops only that 
 it might not blow out, but, as for the furl, twould have 
 made a landlubber laugh to see the bulge of the bunt. 
 The shot from the Sprite had reduced the head cloths 
 to jib and staysail, and yet so impressed was I that we 
 were face to face with impending disaster that I lowered 
 and, after a fashion, stowed the jib. 
 
 The more I worked the more I felt the necessity, 
 and, though I was on fire to return to the cabin, I held 
 away and turned my attention to the great mainsail 
 which was hurtling to and fro, the subdued thunder of 
 its thrashing bunt and quick patter of its reefing points 
 playing out of the mysterious darkness overhead like 
 the sounds of a distant storm. Alone I double reefed 
 that canvas, though I remember very little of it, the only 
 thing coming to my mind being the horrible smooth 
 inkiness of the water beneath me when I crawled out 
 on the boom to pass the ear-ring and haul taut. Though 
 my hands worked on deck, my heart was below, and it 
 was with a deep breath of satisfaction that I saw the 
 last of more than an hour s hard labor. Casting off the 
 main sheet, that I might not be taken unaware, I gave
 
 FROM UNDER THE SQUARE-SAIL YARD. 215 
 
 a glance at the light on the Sprite still lying on our 
 quarter, and then went below, filled with a mixture of 
 hope and dread. 
 
 McCary was sitting by the side of the girl as I en 
 tered. He looked up before I was fairly off the steps, 
 and said in a surly voice: 
 
 " Ye had best be no niggard with the whisky; pass 
 it out!" 
 
 "What do you find?" I asked. 
 
 " Shock," he answered shortly. 
 
 " And naught else ? " 
 
 " Be not so d n quick," he replied. " There may 
 be enough else inside, I know not. Outside there s a 
 nasty bit of a blow on the nob and a fractured clavicle. 
 There s the shock to nurse, but if all s well within she ll 
 mend in a few days. It was a narrow escape she has 
 had! How came she here? " 
 
 " Tis a long story, and one with mighty little to 
 flatter your side of the fight, my friend," I answered. 
 " Let that pass. If you can save both these children, 
 and will settle down ashore and swear by Congress, I ll 
 see that your fortune s made as a doctor. You will be 
 a rare hand! " 
 
 " I ll see ye and yer Congress d d first ! " he re 
 turned with an ugly scowl. " What I lay hand on, be it 
 rebel or loyal, I do me best with. I ll do it here. I have 
 little against the like of Gertrude King. She is a true 
 lass." 
 
 " That s well," I answered as I went to the locker for 
 the whisky. " But Gertrude is flying like myself from 
 Clinton; her loyalty is to her country, and not, as you 
 think, to George III. The title of rebel is one to be 
 proud of." And with this I handed him the bottle which 
 he took with a dogged air, pouring therefrom a dram 
 which would have been more than respectable for a man. 
 I watched him closely as he put it to the girl s lips. He
 
 216 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 held it there until a small quantity had disappeared, 
 then, as though no longer able to restrain himself, he 
 lifted the remainder to iiis own and drank it in a single 
 gulp. 
 
 I was about to jump on him, when down the open 
 companion way there came a faint wailing followed by a 
 roar that grew into a shriek appalling in its intensity. 
 It was the first howl of the great tempest of 78, and, 
 turning, I made for the companion. Ere I was halfway 
 to the deck we were laid over to larboard in a manner 
 that for a moment prevented my further progress. A 
 mighty gush of damp wind struck my face as I hung 
 on to the rail, and before I could grip my way hand over 
 hand up the ladder the schooner righted and hung on an 
 even keel, trembling like a suddenly affrighted animal. 
 
 In an instant I was at the wheel. As quickly as the 
 squall came it passed, but I knew the weight that must 
 be behind it. Well it was that I had reduced sail and 
 let go the sheet, for in such a sudden blast we would 
 have been thrown so low that the cargo would have 
 shifted and the end come in the twinkling of an eye. 
 
 As near as I could guess the first rush of air had 
 been from out the southeast, but the whole gale that 
 followed struck us fairly on the bow, and, in spite of 
 my jamming the helm hard over, I think for a space 
 the schooner made direct sternway. "Without a sail 
 drawing, the din of the thrashing canvas drowned all 
 other noises, and in this fashion we hung in irons until 
 it appeared that the mainmast would be shaken out of 
 the vessel. I could not man the wheel and staysail sheet 
 together, and the former I dared not leave; but the wind 
 settled my dilemma, for after a time, and when I was 
 getting desperate, it whipped a point to larboard, and 
 in the half glimmer that now came from the sea, which 
 looked like a dish of froth, I saw the foot of the stay 
 sail streaming over the starboard bow.
 
 FROM UNDER THE SQUARE-SAIL YARD, 
 
 How I lashed the wheel with the helm up and got 
 forward, I hardly know. I remember it was like drag 
 ging against a stone wall to get the sheet halfway in, 
 but I did it, and ran back again before we were fairly 
 paid off. Now I lashed the helm down and put my 
 weight on the main sheet, but twas past my power to 
 move it a foot. As I had no wish to lose time by run 
 ning toward South America, I bawled to the doctor to 
 come up. He did so in a hurry, but demurred when I 
 told him to lay hold of the line and haul. The sudden 
 tongue lashing I gave him and a sight of my face in 
 the light which poured from the cabin made him think 
 better of his manner, for he gripped the sheet and fell 
 back with it like a born sailor. It was an almighty 
 tug at best, but grew easier as we hauled into the wind, 
 and when the line was belayed I commanded him to 
 take the wheel while I sheeted home the staysail. 
 
 The veriest duffer can not follow the sea for year 
 in and out without learning something of the handling 
 of ships, and, though McCary had probably never laid 
 hand on a spoke from necessity, he may have done so 
 for pleasure, as he seemed to know how to hold the 
 Phantom somewhere near the wind s eye. There was 
 no difficulty, then, in getting a proper trim to the head 
 cloth, and by the time the sheet was belayed and we 
 stood off on the starboard tack the schooner was well 
 under way, her bows smiting the seas, which had risen 
 like magic, in a way that threw a curtain of solid water 
 into the air, which, catching the wind, blew in and 
 came aboard a deluge. I was wet to the skin before, 
 but it was a dry wet as compared to the way the water 
 shot through my clothing, the drops stinging my face 
 like a discharge of small shot. Even under scant canvas 
 and pointing as close as the schooner would go, she lay 
 down to the blast until at times the brine gurgled in the 
 lee scuppers. The channels sheared through the black 
 15
 
 218 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 seas and turned up a smother of froth as they tore along, 
 while the noise of the roaring wind and water was 
 enough to deafen one. 
 
 Knowing that all now unsafe must be left unsafe, I 
 turned to get aft, when I bethought me of the men in 
 the forecastle. During the past hour they had not en 
 tered my mind, for I had felt that I had them secure. 
 With the light they possessed, together with the rations 
 I knew had been supplied them, they were better off re 
 garding comfort than though they had been free seamen 
 on duty. Other matters had taken my attention, but 
 now that I was forward I would give a look to the hatch 
 fastening. It was right enough, and I laid my ear over 
 the crack below the slide that I might hear if aught was 
 amiss. Ay, there was. A clear sound of rasping and 
 splintering wood greeted me as I stopped the other ear 
 with my hand to keep out the surrounding racket, and 
 I had hit the spot on which a knife was at work. 
 
 Drawing my cutlass, with its hilt I smote the wood 
 work. The sound instantly ceased. Unfastening the 
 slide, I drew it back an inch or more and sang out 
 through the opening: 
 
 " Keep at it, my lads, and when ye have the hole the 
 size of a pistol s barrel, I ll put one there and give ye a 
 quick trip to Davy Jones. Mayhap ye have heard of 
 Donald Thorndyke. "\Vell, I am he. Xow mind your 
 selves ! " 
 
 Twould have been a fine chance for them to have 
 put a ball in me had they foreseen my coming, but they 
 seemed in no mood to act offensively, only standing 
 under the flare of the swinging lamp and gazing through 
 a mist of soot toward the spot whence came my voice. 
 One had a knife in his hand, and all three were stripped 
 to the skin, for the heat in the forecastle was no joke, 
 especially with the hatch closed and an oil lamp, which 
 they dared not put out, filling the close quarters about
 
 FROM UNDER THE SQUARE-SAIL YARD. 219 
 
 the schooner s eyes with a rank and greasy smother. 
 I changed my ideas regarding their comfort, but in my 
 present situation all the pity in my nature was either 
 hibernating, had gone to the girl in the cabin, or was 
 waiting a fairer chance to blossom. I certainly felt none 
 for them. 
 
 With another dire threat I again closed the hatch, 
 fastened it, and betook myself to where the doctor hung 
 on to the wheel, which had almost mastered him in his 
 endeavor to keep the vessel off the wind. Grasping the 
 spokes, I motioned him below. He hesitated a moment, 
 glancing forward and astern as though in quest of some 
 sign of the Sprite, then crawled back to the cabin, 
 closing the doors behind him, a thing I was glad 
 enough for his doing, as the light below dazzled my 
 sight. 
 
 And now I settled myself for a night of it, putting 
 aside all matters save the ship s safety. I was lucky to 
 have a doctor in the cabin to care for my sick; as for 
 myself I needed none. So long as I was holding east, 
 I cared little for the blow if nothing carried away. I 
 had hopes that the suddenness of the storm bespoke its 
 shortness, but never did I dream it was affecting my 
 destiny. Beyond the elements I had now little to fear, 
 and, as I knew my own boat as a mother knows her 
 child, felt there was but small danger of her inability 
 to weather the gale. 
 
 But the tempest was not of usual temper. Its ap 
 proach, its violence, and duration were beyond common 
 rules, and had it held aloof but a day longer it would 
 have doubtless altered the history of the colonies, and 
 perhaps have put a period to my own career. One has 
 but to turn to history for the truth of this. The great 
 storm which suddenly sprang on the coast the night of 
 August 11, 1778, and which lasted for more than three 
 days, was of such a nature that it has been set apart by
 
 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 historians as worthy of especial mention, hoth from its 
 results and its more than fiendish force. 
 
 As I have said, the absence of the bulk of Lord 
 Howe s fleet had enabled the Phantom to drift through 
 the fog and from the bay in comparative safety, and this 
 absence was due to an attack planned against the 
 French who were besieging Newport by water, as the 
 patriots under Sullivan were doing by land. The Brit 
 ish general Pigot was in desperate straits when Howe 
 appeared off Point Judith, and, had the English admiral 
 been possessed of the sluggish and procrastinating na 
 ture of his brother (lately commander of the British land 
 forces in America), he would probably have been a day 
 or two later, and Pigot would have followed the example 
 of Burgoyne at Saratoga and laid down his arms. As 
 it was, Howe arrived in the nick of time, and the French 
 sailed out of the harbor to fight him. The English took 
 to the ocean for sea room in which to maneuver, but 
 from all I could ever gather, each was mortally afraid of 
 the other. The French followed. For two days they 
 played about, either seeking to get the weather gauge 
 of his opponent before opening hostilities. Here at last 
 there must have been fought a battle which might (and 
 probably would) have altered the complexion of the war; 
 but the storm stepped in, and, after damaging and partly 
 wrecking both fleets, drove them asunder. Howe re 
 turned to New York to refit, and D Estaing gathered 
 his scattered ships and sailed back to Newport. What 
 my fate would have been had the tempest held off leaves 
 little to guess, as, had my hoped-for programme been 
 carried forward, I would have run into a network from 
 which there could have been no escape. 
 
 By the same storm which had prevented a conflict 
 on the sea the patriot force on land had suffered well- 
 nigh as severely as the fleets. What with ruined am 
 munition, destroyed stores and demolished shelter, the
 
 FROM UNDER THE SQUARE-SAIL YARD. 221 
 
 ferocity of the hurricane even causing several deaths, 
 Sullivan s army was in a forlorn and desperate state, 
 and, though in no condition to make an assault, the 
 gallant commander furthered preparations to that end. 
 Knowing, however, the ticklish temper of our allies, the 
 attack was postponed until the French should return, 
 an event which occurred on the 19th of August. 
 Mighty was the joy of the patriots as D Estaing sailed 
 up the bay, but the joy was short-lived, for, giving his 
 damaged ships as an excuse, he refused to remain at 
 Newport, and, turning away, sailed for Boston for re 
 pairs, leaving Sullivan with a discouraged and rapidly 
 dissolving army close to the strengthened lines of the 
 British.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 IN THE HEART OF THE STOB1I. 
 
 BUT, barring the storm, of these matters I knew 
 nothing then nor for some time after their occurrence. 
 Now I stood and strained at the wheel, squeezing the 
 vessel into the wind as close as she would go, having 
 an unreasonable objection to making the least southing 
 in the course. And yet I was uncertain as to the exact 
 point to which I was steering, possessing no compass 
 save the telltale which was set into the cabin ceiling 
 and out of reach of my eye. If I escaped the pitiless 
 and treacherous sands of the coast of Long Island I 
 would be well content, and by holding to the present 
 tack I had little fear of disaster from that quarter. 
 
 I figured that we had made half the length of Long 
 Island up to the time we had been overhauled and the 
 calm set in, and that in a wind for the most part light. 
 If this was so, at the rate which we were now going I 
 hoped to enter Vineyard Sound by noon on the mor 
 row, barring disaster, and twenty-four hours from the 
 present would see me at my own hearthstone. The 
 thought of it warmed me, and great was my need of 
 warmth of some kind, for I was as empty as a drum, 
 fagged by excitement and lack of sleep, and had not 
 known comfort for so long that my memory of it was 
 misty. 
 
 But by midnight even the fleeting comfort of think 
 ing was gone, and soon after in feeling I was little better 
 
 222
 
 IN TEE HEART OF THE STORM. 223 
 
 than a block of stone. That which I had gone through 
 might not be reckoned by time alone; it seemed the 
 experience of years. In my half-dazed state I felt that I 
 had been an outlaw for years; for years I had been flee 
 ing and each day fenced with death; for years known 
 and protected the girl and her -brother; and for years, 
 it appeared, must I stand and face this howling wind 
 which bore against me like a living thing. 
 
 Thank God it was not bitter weather, else I would 
 have frozen stiff as I stood at the helm. As it was, so 
 tortured had I become that I grew rigid under the men 
 tal and physical strain rigid in either quality, and 
 guided the schooner by instinct alone. Hours ago the 
 light on the Sprite had vanished, and now to me the 
 sky, the ocean, the crash of the boarding seas and the 
 shriek of the gale was but a monotone of color and 
 sound, giving me no lightness of hope, no qualm of 
 fear. With the strength of an ox my muscles did their 
 duty and saved me, but there was little brain back of 
 the power. What the end would have been had the con 
 ditions remained unchanged there can be no telling. 
 
 The tempest, which had come in the teeth of a smil 
 ing day, was marked as well by capriciousness as by 
 violence. As the ghastliness of early dawn broke in the 
 east, and I gradually awoke to the fact that morning 
 was at hand, the wind fell as though chopped off or as 
 if we had suddenly shot into the lee of a vast wall. In 
 a half-senseless fashion, like a man under a drug, I tried 
 with fruitless efforts to shake off the feeling of utter 
 carelessness which had fastened to my senses. With the 
 calmness of absolute indifference I marked the sudden 
 dropping of the wind, though I knew full well that it 
 portended an increase of the gale, but when, for how 
 long, from what quarter or with what force, the Al 
 mighty alone knew; as for me, I cared not if it blew the 
 vessel out of water. With the same dull indifference I
 
 224: A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 marked our new danger and every detail attending it. 
 With the sudden calm we were at the mercy of the long, 
 green, foam-capped billows which charged toward us 
 like moving hills. They came not, like rollers, with the 
 regular swing of the ground swell, but every surge was 
 the head waters of a mighty dam broken loose, its crest 
 made up of a mad, throbbing mass of liquid torn into 
 shreds and cross seas by its own weight and violent 
 motion. The face of the world was a vast tumult of 
 yeasty, ash-colored madness cut by the darkness of its 
 hollows; a terror (if I could have felt it), not a horror; 
 more sublime than grand, more awful than sublime. 
 
 In five minutes we were in the trough of it. With 
 out a zephyr to steady her, the schooner wallowed like 
 a crazy thing. The roll, the sidelong heave and lurch, 
 the jerking pitch and recovery were terrible tests to the 
 stanchness of the vessel. Alternately the bow and stern 
 rose to a dizzy altitude, then sank with a rapidity that 
 even to my trained nature, was sickening. Each joint 
 and block found a voice which complained in notes 
 ranging from a bang to a squeak, of its unnatural treat 
 ment. Alow and aloft the poor Phantom protested, 
 and, as I looked calmly on, I knew that if the condi 
 tions continued she would end in rolling her masts out, 
 leaving us to finally founder, a sheer hulk. The main- 
 topmast swayed like a whip, cutting through the arc of 
 its motion with amazing swiftness. The diminished 
 sail beneath it, with its spars slashing hither and thither, 
 shook out a report like a cannon, and threatened to burst 
 as its slack bunt drove from side to side. Everything 
 loose or insecure fetched away and wandered at random 
 about the decks. The lumps of lead I had brought up 
 the night before rolled betwixt the hatch combing and 
 bulwark, banging the latter with blows that threatened 
 to drive out the planking, and would have done so had 
 I not gripped my way to them and thrown them over-
 
 IN THE HEART OF THE STORM. 225 
 
 board. The scuttle-butt sprang from its skids and came 
 aft with a bound, halting and spinning like a top when 
 in the waist, then dashed to larboard only to be stopped 
 by a sidelong lift of the stern which shot it into the 
 bows where it hung fast, bung up, jammed betwixt the 
 flukes of the spare anchor and the bulwark stancheon. 
 
 I noted these things with an eye more interested in 
 the antics of the barrel than in aught else. Its speed 
 and agility were wondrous, and I thought more of its 
 fearful force and erratic movements than of the general 
 straits in which the schooner was now held. Through 
 it all I felt my impotent numbness, and it was with the 
 mere animal instinct of getting food for a craving stom 
 ach that I wearily moved to go below. 
 
 Stiff, sore, and dispirited enough I was as I stag 
 gered toward the companion way and entered the cabin. 
 The first sight of its interior was enough to break one s 
 heart, and that fact probably did much to pull me to 
 gether. The surgeon, the cowardly, besotted wretch, 
 lay drunk on the floor, and also on the floor was Ger 
 trude King, dead, I thought for an instant, but soon 
 found she was not only alive but conscious. Having 
 been thrown from her bunk, she had crawled over to 
 her brother to prevent a like disaster to him, and now 
 lay or leaned against his transom, powerless alike to 
 help him or herself. She was almost dead from sea 
 sickness and pain, yet when she saw me, the fright that 
 came into her eyes reminded me of Lounsbury s last 
 look. It was plain that McCary had but given her a 
 dram to revive her, and when this had been accom 
 plished, without going further or vouchsafing an ex 
 planation of the day s later events, started in to finish 
 the drunk I had so suddenly interrupted. The fever 
 for rum was upon him, his manhood and morals having 
 been consumed along with the liquor. 
 
 Notwithstanding the suffering his actions had en-
 
 226 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 tailed, I could almost have thanked him for being the 
 cause of putting into me a sense of real existence, for 
 there was a slight awakening from the heavy lethargy 
 that held me as I stooped to the poor girl and lifted 
 her in my arms as though she was a child to be com 
 forted. The instinctive shrinking she had shown when 
 I reached for her gave way to a moan and the limpness 
 of total abandonment as she felt the strength of my arm 
 about her. As I laid her on the transom by the side 
 of her brother, whose eyes were shut and whose height 
 ened color now betokened fever, she placed her un- 
 wounded hand against my cheek as if to make sure of 
 my being mortal, and faltered out: 
 
 " I thought you dead! Donald! Donald! I thought 
 you dead! " 
 
 In the mere sound of a human voice there was some 
 thing that stirred me to a livelier sense of myself and 
 surroundings. But her words did more than this. Of 
 themselves, as I set them here in cold black and white, 
 they hold no significance, but as I heard them there 
 was something which caused the waning spark within 
 me to burst into flame and shoot through the dullness 
 of my exhausted body and overtaxed brain. The touch 
 of the smooth hand, the look, and the simple tones -of 
 this ill-used, wounded, and bedraggled girl were beyond 
 misinterpretation to me, when to others it might have 
 been but a trifle more than commonplace. Like a shock 
 the attending danger of our situation rushed upon me, 
 and again I realized my responsibility; a feeling that 
 had been dead for hours, and which was now resur 
 rected by the light that burst upon me at the girl s 
 words. 
 
 She was a pitiful object as she lay prone at her 
 brother s side. Her left arm was powerless, and the 
 blood from her wounded head still stained her face, 
 neck, and hand. The flow had ceased, but through her
 
 IN THE HEART OF THE STORM. 227 
 
 bright hair I could see the location of the gash. I was 
 no surgeon to dress either the cut or fracture, and, as 
 for the sake of all, my own necessities were paramount, 
 I would lose no time in experiment without more war 
 rant. 
 
 My own necessities, forsooth, and for the sake of all! 
 I lost no honesty through dreaming of heroism. If my 
 finer sensibilities had awakened, so had my coarser, and 
 I knew I was now working for a purpose, the roots of 
 which lay in selfishness, but of a stripe easily forgiven. 
 
 As I put the maiden down she closed her eyes, and 
 either fainted or slept from exhaustion, and I, like a 
 famished wolf, groped about the floor for the food which 
 had been tipped from the table, holding her onto the 
 transom the while with one hand, and with the other 
 drawing together the fragments of the but half-eaten 
 meal. 
 
 Twould have been a moving sight to an onlooker 
 could one have peeped into the cabin at this time. The 
 wounded brother and sister, abject in their misery, even 
 the ocean allowing itself no rest in its efforts to throw 
 them from where they lay; the lengthy bulk of the 
 drunkard sprawling half under the table, his body sway 
 ing with the leap of the vessel, and about the floor a 
 mixture of broken food, the bag of gold and empty 
 bottles which ran hither and thither with the acute 
 and ever-changing angle of the deck, all seemingly 
 chased by the overturned bucket which had stood by 
 the side of Ames. 
 
 The light of the low-burning lantern swinging madly 
 from its hook in the beam gave a melancholy effect in 
 contrast to the pale dawn now gleaming white and cold 
 through the windows, and in this muss, to the accom 
 paniment of the groaning woodwork, was I half on my 
 knees cramming my mouth with bits of hard bread and 
 such matter as came rolling within reach.
 
 228 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 I ate like a man in despair, and yet with a hunger 
 which gave a sweet taste to each morsel, unsavory as I 
 commonly would have thought it. As I snatched and 
 swallowed, now possessed by the fear that the gale might 
 rise again while I was below, I marked the unholy aspect 
 of the surgeon. He did not present the disgusting ap 
 pearance of Scammell, but beggarly enough he looked 
 a rum-sodden brute, outshining his surroundings in the 
 glory of his scarlet uniform. I held a firm hatred for 
 him as he lay there, feeling that half my present trou 
 ble was due to his infernal weakness or deliberate care 
 lessness. Had matters gone well below, I might have 
 made a shift to keep to the deck and yet have food and 
 drink supplied me, but now the whole business was on 
 me, and my wounded were without proper care. I won 
 dered how it could have come about that such an ac 
 complished swiller of liquor had found it possible to 
 have gotten dead drunk on the short allowance of 
 whisky left in the bottle I had given him, but I soon 
 gave over thinking of it. The question to be settled 
 was how I could leave Ames and his sister, but it was 
 soon solved. Letting them take their chances for a 
 moment, I seized the snoring redcoat by the collar and 
 hauled him up the companion way, he making the third 
 drunkard I had pitched from the cabin in this fashion. 
 As I dropped him with small ceremony there came a 
 sound as though he had struck the deck with a muffled 
 club. This made me suspicious of still concealed arms, 
 but, on turning him over, I found the cause and supply 
 for his latest debauch. In the skirts of his coat were 
 two bottles like that I had taken from him, one full, 
 the other two thirds empty. It was a Godsend, and 
 then and there I took such a dram that ere long the 
 contents of my veins were less akin to the ice water they 
 had seemed to be holding. 
 
 Going back to the cabin, I hauled the larboard bunk
 
 IN THE HEART OF THE STORM. 229 
 
 mattress to the floor and laid the girl upon it. Close 
 to her I laid Ames, lifting bed and all, and thus both 
 were beyond danger of a bad fall, however the vessel 
 might ramp. The lad opened his eyes as I placed him 
 by his yet unconscious sister, but I bade him not speak, 
 and tried to hearten him by telling him I was yet mas 
 ter, that Gertrude was by his side, hurt, but not badly, 
 and that we would, by the help of God, be safe ashore 
 ere sunset. He smiled faintly, and made as if to nod, 
 by which I guessed he was already aware of his sister s 
 presence. I knew that whisky was no medicine for his 
 complaint, but I managed to get a dram down the throat 
 of the girl, whereat she soon opened her eyes and came 
 to life with another moan. 
 
 Though I wished to linger by her, I dared not; there 
 was much to do too much for one mortal. It was the 
 work of a moment to clear the floor of the bounding 
 missiles and heave them above (all but the gold, which 
 I threw into an empty bunk), and I followed after for 
 a brief look about. 
 
 Since I had taken the whisky my energy had come 
 back full fledged and in fighting mood, as though the 
 numbness of the past few hours had been a waking 
 slumber from which I had just recovered. The broad 
 ening day put hope in me, though clearly and with a 
 quick sensitiveness I marked the anger of the sea, the 
 sinister scowl on the face of Nature, and the wild dis 
 order reigning aboard the Phantom from her bowsprit s 
 end to her remaining truck. Bestowing a glance on the 
 drunkard, who lay on the wet planking not a whit less 
 comfortably than on the carpet of the cabin floor, I 
 gave my attention to the shrouds, finding as yet nothing 
 had let go or sprung. I then carried aft the main throat 
 and peak halyards, that they might act the part of a 
 back-stay and give some relief to the standing rigging. 
 I was engaged in making fast the lines when there
 
 230 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 passed beneath us a wave of extraordinary height and 
 sharpness. It was a cross sea, and it well-nigh tripped 
 the schooner,, which term betokens a capsize from lack 
 of supporting surface beneath a vessel s bilge. With 
 a twisting lift it bore the stern so high in the air that 
 the deck slanted like the sides of a steeple, forcing me 
 to drop the halyards and cling to the rail to prevent 
 falling into the bow. For an instant I thought of a 
 surety we would plunge sidelong below the following 
 sea, pierce it, and be swamped inside the tenth stroke 
 of my pulse; but the send of the water flung us partly 
 out of the trough, and as it passed lifted the bow to a 
 terrible incline, and, giving us an extra vicious lurch, 
 left us almost stern on to the run of the billows. Had 
 it broken as it reached us, the tons upon tons of water 
 which would have fallen on our deck must have driven 
 the schooner beneath the surface as though she was no 
 more buoyant than the lead in her hold. It was a won 
 derful view I had of the ocean from the height of the 
 mighty comber. The sharpness of its ridge foretold the 
 coming cascade, and, though it drove us down on our 
 beam s ends and made the schooner groan like a suffer 
 ing mortal as she recovered, it was not evil in its effects 
 on me or mine. 
 
 Two things on deck there were which seemed to 
 catch the infection of motion, one being the surgeon, 
 who was shot into the scuppers with a violence which 
 did something to sober him, for, like a man waking 
 from a deep sleep, he threw out an arm and began rub 
 bing his eyes, muttering words that might have been 
 a protest at his rough usage. The other was the run 
 away scuttle-butt which had been captured by the 
 flukes of the spare anchor. As the stern of the Phan 
 tom sank to the hollow and the bow pointed higher than 
 it had ever been my lot to see it, the barrel, like a wild 
 thing waiting its chance, dropped from the position in
 
 IN THE HEART OF THE STORM. 231 
 
 which it had been held and with a rush tore aft like 
 a spent cannon ball. At the break of the poop it was 
 met by the lifting stern, and, retracing its course, drove 
 against the door of the forecastle hatch with a force 
 that split the panel from top to bottom. As a ball it 
 sprang from the impact, spinning on its chines for an 
 instant, the water flying in a circular shower from its 
 now open bung, then hurrying to larboard amidships, 
 it reached well aft in time to be caught by the mount 
 ing stern. With a wonderful agility and seemingly with 
 the instinct of one mad to escape environment, even if 
 it ended in self-destruction, it jerked itself on end as 
 though to look about, tottering and falling again on its 
 side with the lift of the bow. For a brief space it hung 
 seesawing and gurgling thickly as though choking, 
 then it shot forward with the fury of a bolt. Nothing 
 intervened to check its course, and, as though it had 
 wings, it ran up the mass of rope and wreck which had 
 now become jammed near the heel of the bowsprit, 
 leaped into the air, cleared the low bulwark, and plunged, 
 shrouded in its own spray, into the frothing sea below. 
 I would sooner have fought the three prisoners than 
 been forward in the path of that insensate thing, and, 
 though I was aware that our available stock of fresh 
 water went with it, I was glad to see it spring off the 
 deck.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 A SMALL TRAGEDY. 
 
 THE scuttle-butt had barely disappeared, and I was 
 about to get back to the cabin to see how had fared its 
 inmates, when my ears were assailed by a violent ham 
 mering forward, and I at once perceived that my prison 
 ers had assaulted the weakened panel of the forecastle 
 door. With my blood well up, I got myself hand over 
 hand along the bulwark, and by a leap from the cat 
 head came to the hatch and boldly threw back the slide. 
 The three were jammed on the ladder at work together, 
 but the suddenness of my move caused them such a sur 
 prise that they tumbled from the perch as though struck. 
 The lamp was out, and from the black hole came a 
 hot and reeking smell that was suffocating. 
 
 " What s amiss there? " I roared, hanging on to the 
 hatch with one hand and with the other showing the 
 barrel of my pistol. 
 
 They scrambled to their feet and looked up, little 
 but their white flesh showing in the wan light entering 
 the half-open hatch. The sailor with the pigtail whom 
 I had pitched below was a trifle in advance of the others, 
 and, stepping a pace forward, he shouted back: 
 
 " Wot s amiss? Everything s amiss! Wot kind o 
 treatment is this to give a man? Split me! but I d 
 rather go overboard and stifle in a jiffy than smother 
 by inches. Wot s amiss above, man? Who be you? 
 Where s the cap n? " 
 
 232
 
 A SMALL TRAGEDY. 233 
 
 " Never mind me! " I answered. " Tis enough that 
 I am master here, Lounsbury being some two leagues 
 back. Pass up your arms! You are prisoners to the 
 colonies, and the first finger that lifts in fight belongs 
 to a dead man! Pass up what you have below there! " 
 
 " Prisoners, is it ? " said he of the pigtail, turning to 
 his fellows. " Heard ye a sign o the gang that boarded 
 us? Cuss me, mates, but they must ha come on wings 
 then, for the sea was as smooth as a pan o warm, grease 
 two minutes afore I was hurled on to ye, an not a speck 
 in sight, ban-in the Sprite! Prisoners, is it? Cuss me, 
 list to that! " 
 
 " Ay, prisoners it is, and to the colonies; so no more 
 palaver. What have you below? " 
 
 " I care not a damn for colonies or King! " was the 
 reply. " There be no arms here. D ye think three men 
 were sent hither to beat off a boarding party, an the 
 schooner in consort? D ye take us for sea-loafing ma 
 rines? We be sailors, we be that s all. Here s wot I 
 have, an I ll trade it for air! " Saying this, he pulled 
 his knife from its sheath, and, taking the steel by its 
 point, held it toward me. 
 
 "Will you swear to no other arms, each of you?" 
 I cried. 
 
 " Ay, that s God s truth ! " spoke up one of the 
 others. " Ye say ye are of the colonies well, so be I. 
 I m a New Bedford lad, sir, an I ll thank ye to hold a 
 grip on me that I may not be taken from ye." 
 
 "An that s God s truth, too, yer Honor! " broke in 
 the first speaker. " There was naught vicious in the 
 rumpus we was raisin . A man has a right to air, an 
 twas all we was cravin . So be I m a prisoner, I m 
 content if it means grub an water an a chance to 
 breathe! " 
 
 Now I know little of the nature of the black sailor 
 save that his anger is apt to show in treachery, but with 
 16
 
 234 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 the regular white salt I am better acquainted, and have 
 found that the English seaman, be he Yankee or Briton, 
 argues his point with a square fist and a flashing eye. 
 Though there may be wars and wars with the mother 
 country, it will be open and without back-stabbing by 
 those of the Saxon race, and, believing this, I thought 
 I saw a way of scoring a point, and -that with little dan 
 ger to myself. The truth of the statement that they 
 were unarmed appealed to my reason. For defense three 
 men armed or not would have cut no figure, and, as the 
 Sprite had intended to act as consort, the necessity of 
 force on the Phantom had not been considered. Being 
 satisfied that my prisoners possessed no weapons other 
 than the sailor s universal knife, and holding that a bold 
 face will carry a man further than a too open show of 
 caution, I flung back the door and, grasping the slide, 
 hung over the hatch opening and dropped into the fore 
 castle. 
 
 " Now," said I, as I gathered myself and clung to 
 the woodwork, " if you mean fair by me we ll soon come 
 to terms; if foul, take the last chance you ll have to 
 settle ! Who comes first, or come you all ? " 
 
 " Look a here, mister," said the spokesman, who 
 scarce shifted his position as I dropped near him, " I 
 spoke ye fair, an had I boarded ye alongside I would 
 be fast enough in the fight, mind ye, an twould be 
 along o the leftenant s eye on me. But as it be, I care 
 not for blood. If I fight, tis from bein forced to it. 
 I was shanghied into this business, an that s the truth; 
 an if I can get out without stakin my neck as a de- 
 sarter, I m willin enough. Ye say we be prisoners? 
 Say no more. Do ye drive us to work for rations? Why 
 so be. We knew naught about bein tooken captive, an 
 only wanted to speak ye fair an get a breath. That s 
 why we carved the hatch. Ain t that so, mates?" 
 
 "Ay, that s gospel!" came from the one who had
 
 A SMALL TRAGEDY. 235 
 
 spoken of himself as a Yankee, while the third held 
 his peace, leaning with folded arms and a skillful bal 
 ancing of his person against one of the bunk uprights. 
 
 " You say you are a New Bedford lad? " said I, 
 speaking to the man who had made the statement. 
 
 " Yes, sir; New Bedford, sir," came his ready an 
 swer. " I was pressed in Portsmouth three years agone, 
 sir, while on shore leave from the Sallie Mull, trader, 
 sir. I ve been sailin in these here home waters for nigh 
 on two year, sir, with never a chance to run. I say it 
 boldly, sir. Put me in three miles o the coast an give 
 me leave, sir, an I ll go over the bow, damn me, an swim 
 ashore. But I won t join the Yankee navy, sir. No, sir. 
 I don t want to hang; but, for God s sake, sir, don t get 
 taken, else back to the Sprite I ll have to go, an I d as 
 soon go to hell for a spell o sufferin ! " 
 
 I looked sharply at the third man, expecting some 
 word from him, but he shifted his eye from mine, giv 
 ing me something like a sneer and shrugging his bony 
 shoulders, but vouchsafing nothing in the way of words. 
 He was a dogged-looking rascal, with a broad, red scar 
 across nose and cheek, a sabre slash without doubt. 
 Eawboned and light of weight, he looked like a sleeping 
 cat as he lolled against the upright, his lack of brute 
 strength probably balanced by great activity. 
 
 "Come, lads!" said I, ignoring the attitude of the 
 silent man, " I ll be frank with you. I m Donald Thorn- 
 dyke, of the American forces. The schooner was taken 
 by me single-handed, and the Sprite is beyond all bear 
 ings. Lounsbury is overboard, there are two sick in the 
 cabin, and the surgeon is at my mercy. So are you if 
 you abide not by the terms I offer. The schooner is 
 in danger, and unless you turn out tis like you ll find 
 the forecastle a coffin. If I make no mistake, we re in 
 for a waft that will come nigh to blowing us out of water 
 if we don t roll our spars out before. Get on deck and
 
 236 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 work the schooner under my command until we make 
 Holmes Hole in the Vineyard, an when you set foot 
 ashore you are free men. I have no rations and no 
 water. The scuttle-butt has launched itself overboard, 
 and I am afraid of the supply in the forehold. There s 
 not a shilling in it for any of you, but tis a fair way of 
 escaping the King s navy without deserting, for I ll put 
 you on parole. I tell you, lads, I m a bad one to foul, 
 but you ll find I have an easy helm and never miss stays 
 if handled honestly. Now choose betwixt this hole and 
 the deck, and choose in a hurry! If you are to save neck 
 and freedom, throw down your knives as a sign; I ve 
 no more time to waste/ 
 
 The two who had spoken looked askant each at the 
 other, and the knife of the original spokesman fell to 
 the deck. As the hand of the Yankee sought the sheath 
 the third man spoke, unfolding his arms and scowling 
 like thunder as he gave vent to his words. 
 
 " Ye two be domned fools to be trustin a rebel an 
 runnin yez head into th noose. Be yez a couple o 
 babbys not to -mark his firearm is useless wi th wet? 
 Ee s in our ands! Wot s to inder our takin the craft 
 an gettin th price that lies on the ead of this ere 
 
 He got no further. I strode up to him and snapped 
 my fingers in his face, then, thrusting my eyes close to 
 his, I thundered: 
 
 " On deck with ye, ye blatherskite! I ll see that ye 
 sing a tune with old iron in it ere sunrise to-morrow! 
 On deck, I tell ye!" 
 
 Notwithstanding the din already existing in the 
 forecastle, my voice rose far above it, its violence and 
 the suddenness of my move making the man shrink back 
 as though frightened. But he was not cowed. Gather 
 ing himself, he uttered a curse and sprang past me, plac 
 ing himself twixt me and the ladder; then whipping out 
 his knife, he called aloud to his companions:
 
 A SMALL TRAGEDY. 237 
 
 " Take th chance, lads, while yet we ave im! Twill 
 be th makin o us, an tis fifty puns to each! Stand by, 
 bullies! we ll make meat o th cussed spy! Up, Larry, 
 an close the atch on im! I ll old the gangway." 
 
 His action and outspoken hostility was so sudden as 
 to take me by surprise, and, had the others responded 
 to his call, it would surely have gone hard with me. 
 But instead of springing to the succor of their mate, 
 they remained standing as though the quick shifting 
 of the situation had for the moment dazed them. The 
 earnestness of the fellow s purpose showed in the rapid 
 change that came over his face. From a sulky expres 
 sion it had altered to one of wide-awake ferocity, and 
 the listless droop of arms and shoulders given place to 
 tense muscles and rounded chest, through the hairiness 
 of which the perspiration stood out in beads. 
 
 Even with this menace before me I could but think 
 what a simple fool the man was. Instead of quietly 
 following my lead and getting me at a disadvantage, 
 he had chosen to beard me against the odds of my cut 
 lass and the lukewarmness of his mates. At the same 
 time, it was no case for argument, nor would it do to 
 temporize an instant. Ere the promise of reward for 
 my capture or the easy chance to regain control of the 
 schooner could act upon the slowly moving minds of the 
 well-disposed seamen, I had nipped the mutiny (if it 
 could be so called), and had the ringleader begging for 
 mercy. 
 
 "Without drawing my cutlass, I advanced upon the 
 fellow as though to close with him. I mind me now 
 that he was left-handed, and, as the fist holding the 
 knife swayed aloft and came down, I seized its wrist and 
 with a violent turn whipped his elbow out of joint as 
 one twists the leg from a well-cooked fowl. As my hand 
 stayed his he clutched my throat with his right, but as 
 his joint parted he gave a howl of agony, dropped the
 
 238 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 knife and my collar at once, and sank to his knees roar 
 ing like a bull. 
 
 Physically the man had been no match for me, and 
 I might have hammered the life from him and met with 
 little opposition or resistance. Holding him for a brief 
 space, that my power might impress his companions as 
 well as himself, I dropped him, and he sank to the deck 
 with a moan that made me almost regret my act. 
 
 But the demands of war, self-preservation, pride, and 
 the safety of others leave little latitude for the sentiment 
 of pity in time of action. Had I in anger alone dis 
 jointed the groaning man my conscience (which, thank 
 God, has never been seared into inactivity) might have 
 upbraided me, but now I felt no great pang of remorse 
 as I sprang up the ladder, calling the two to follow. 
 
 If the plucky resistance of the disabled seaman had 
 impressed the others, such impression seemed to have 
 disappeared as they came with me into the air above. 
 Like owls suddenly brought into sunshine, they blinked 
 in the now broadened light, and, hanging on to the hal 
 yards of the foremast, gazed with plain interest at the 
 tumult about them. Sailors though they were, I would 
 have wagered that never had they faced such a sight 
 from so small a craft, and this was made certain when 
 the man named Larry bawled at me, while for a moment 
 I gripped the same rope with him: 
 
 " Barrin an ease o breath, ye might as well ha left 
 us below. The craft can t live long this here way. Tis 
 a matter o wind or Davy Jones, an ye had better whistle 
 for the first, let it come high or low. Belay all, an* 
 stand by! " 
 
 His exclamation was caused by a sudden jerk of the 
 schooner, followed by a sidelong dip, and a whole green 
 sea came aboard over the starboard bow. The full force 
 of it was broken by the house of the forecastle hatch, 
 but the bulk swept over all obstacles like a cascade, and,
 
 A SMALL TRAGEDY. 239 
 
 rising to our hips, drove us clear of the deck in a twin 
 kling. In a bunch we hung on to the halyards until the 
 rush subsided and let our feet come to the planking 
 once more. I saw the flood sweep aft and foam over 
 the break of the poop, while torrents poured down the 
 galley and into the forecastle. It was the worst drench 
 ing the craft had yet experienced, and a few more such 
 visitors would send enough water into the hold to make 
 her logy, and that would have been the last straw, as I 
 guessed the pumps to be useless for want of care. Had 
 I had a full crew, nothing could have been done to ease 
 our state or render our condition less perilous. The 
 fact that the seas were now more boisterous though the 
 calm had lasted above an hour, told me that a vicious 
 force was still at work over the breast of the ocean. 
 Though the sun might have been fairly up by this, there 
 was no certainty of the fact, for the light was a greenish 
 gray, and the clouds hung low and in furrows, fold on 
 fold, to where the horizon was blotted out in a thick 
 foglike haze. No land was in sight, and all about, noth 
 ing showed save the hellish turmoil of the sea and the 
 lowering menace of the sky above. 
 
 How long the schooner might have lived thus there 
 can be no surety, and even to me, knowing as I did the 
 soundness of each beam, rib, and treenail, it was a won 
 der she had thus far held her spars and timbers so 
 bravely. 
 
 But she was no longer to test a broadside battering. 
 Having at present nothing to fear from the men (for 
 even had they been given to plotting it were against 
 human nature for them to strike at me while death 
 threatened all), I was about descending into the cabin 
 after ordering the two to take the limp surgeon forward 
 and stow him in a bunk. For a moment I stood and 
 watched them careening along the deck with their bur 
 den, wondering if it were wise to allow them to come in
 
 240 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 contact with their disabled mate. I saw the passage 
 made in safety and turned to go my way when, on cast 
 ing my eye over the taffrail, I beheld a wall of spray 
 tearing along the sea off the starboard quarter. The 
 line of its advance was as clear as that of a thunder gust, 
 and I had barely time to cast loose the main sheet and 
 raise my voice when the squall struck us. Terrible as 
 was its appearance, it had not the weight of the blast 
 that had opened the ball the night before, but it heeled 
 us far on to our beam s ends, while sea after sea planted 
 themselves against the bilge and rolled on deck until 
 I feared we would founder under the sheer pounding 
 of the brine. Like lightning the boom had flashed to 
 larboard, and that spar with most of its canvas lay on 
 the waves. I had grasped the wheel and hung on for 
 my life. It seemed that we would never right again, and 
 I was watching the flood pouring over us when, with a 
 clap like the discharge of a cannon, the staysail burst, 
 a cloud of rags blowing away to leeward like wads from 
 a gun. The very angle of the vessel saved her from 
 carrying the tons of water that had beaten in, and, as the 
 headsail let go, as an animal goaded to desperation, the 
 Phantom rose and, gathering way, fled before the gale. 
 We fled before the gale, and like the spinning spoon- 
 drift picked up by the wind and scattered broadcast 
 without form or consistence so also fled my notice of 
 details. Of the three terrible days during which this 
 storm lasted I mind me only of a few poignant facts 
 standing out against a background of remembered mis 
 ery. The second stage of the tempest was fiercer by 
 far than was the first, and the wind came from a quarter 
 almost exactly opposite the point from which it broke 
 on the night of August llth namely, southeast. And 
 with it came rain a pent-up deluge that laced the sea 
 and sky with parallel lines like strings of polished steel 
 wire. While we held the wind astern it was endurable,
 
 A SMALL TRAGEDY. 241 
 
 but later, when we bore into the gale, one s face could 
 not suffer long exposure to the blast that drove the 
 liquid pellets before it like volleys of buckshot. 
 
 We had not held our way for long when it became 
 plain that to escape by running was impossible, as the 
 following seas reached a height and speed that threat 
 ened to poop the schooner at any moment. It had 
 finally come to laying to or being wrecked out of hand, 
 and every opening in the vessel was closed as tightly as 
 possible in preparation for the move. 
 
 It was an anxious moment when the maneuver to 
 come about was made. Each one was lashed to his post, 
 and, when I gave the order to jam down the helm, I 
 knew that salvation or destruction might lie in the 
 coming brief minute. 
 
 The wind with which we had been fleeing fell as we 
 struck the trough of the seas, the mountainous billows 
 making a fair lee to the deck. I had closed my eyes as 
 the wheel flew over, and when from an instant of com 
 parative calm the gallant vessel rose and I felt the solid 
 blast in my face instead of on my back, I shouted a 
 thanksgiving, and in the ecstasy of my relief from long 
 nervous tension shook hands with the sailor by my side 
 as though he had been my lifelong friend instead of an 
 enemy on whose death I had determined the night 
 before. 
 
 Even though we were safely hove into the wind the 
 gale so increased in force as to make it impossible to 
 longer carry even a double-reefed mainsail, and there 
 were no means at hand for further reduction of canvas 
 saving to take all in. I met the difficulty by making 
 a sea anchor of the wreck of the top hamper, binding 
 the mass together and heaving it overboard with a line 
 attached, then, by stripping the vessel of its last rag, 
 to this drag we rode across the fearful billows with less 
 straining, now pointing squarely into the wind s eye.
 
 242 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 But though the Phantom s antics were reduced in 
 violence and we existed in comparative comfort, the 
 schooner was far from being secure, since the whole 
 seas that rose and combed over the bows threatened 
 again and again to swamp the craft, for, ere her scup 
 pers could relieve her of the terrible weight of water 
 from one wave, another would follow and tear aft, at 
 times driving her bow fairly under. There was nothing 
 to do but knock away great sections of the bulwarks 
 to give free drainage to the flood, and, this done, we 
 could but stand and wait for what Fate had in store. 
 
 It was when we were thus driven to inaction that 
 one life was lost. I was standing by the wheel, drenched, 
 exhausted, and fast falling into my former state of dull 
 apathy. The galley doors had been fastened to keep 
 out the water, and the forecastle hatch was closed, 
 though not secured. Larry and the New Bedford man 
 were close to me, crouched in the lee of the cabin house. 
 To go forward was to court death, and, though the 
 quarter was no place for a seaman off duty, all attempts 
 at discipline and sea etiquette had given way before the 
 common danger, and both men kept aft to be clear of 
 the rush of the sea. 
 
 In a half-dreamy way I was conning the horizon 
 dead ahead when I saw the forecastle door open and the 
 man who had defied me stepped to the deck at an in 
 terval when for a moment the deluge had subsided. 
 He was suffering agony from his wrenched arm, for his 
 face was working, and he held the wounded limb in his 
 right hand. The pain of it had probably driven him to 
 desperation, or reduced his spirit into getting aft and 
 seeking possible relief to his torment. Behind him ap 
 peared the head and part of the body of the now sobered 
 surgeon, at whose advice he had doubtless taken the 
 reckless step of leaving the forecastle. The man in 
 advance seemed dazed, for he hesitated and almost fell
 
 A SMALL TRAGEDY. 243 
 
 as the head of the schooner rose to a billow, but with 
 an effort he turned toward me and staggered a step 
 forward. At that instant I saw a huge sea lifting ahead, 
 its ridge tottering to a fall, its fine crest rent by the 
 wind, blowing to leeward like smoke, and as I marked it 
 I threw up one hand and shouted for the man to get 
 back. Whether he understood or not I shall never know, 
 for ere he had gotten abreast the foremast the vicious 
 roller boarded the schooner with a roar and at once 
 the fellow disappeared. I saw him a second later borne 
 swiftly along the deck toward the bulkhead passage, 
 and before one could shout " Man overboard ! " he was 
 swept into the sea as a bucket of water would have swept 
 away a chip. Again I marked him drifting sternward 
 on the crest of a wave, with one hand in the air as, in 
 appeal, his set, white face looking like paper as he gave 
 a last terror-stricken glance at me and a shout unheard 
 save by his Maker. 
 
 To lift a finger for his rescue was beyond all but 
 divine power, and, though he was no more than the 
 boom s length from me, he was as fairly seized by death 
 as though clutched by a fatal malady.
 
 CHAPTEE XXV. 
 
 A RESPITE. 
 
 IT was a tragic episode, but I had seen so much 
 tragedy crowded into my life for the past few days that 
 this quick and probably painless passing of a human 
 soul made in my state but little impression. I looked 
 for the doctor, but saw the doors of the forecastle fast 
 closed, and afterward found that the force of the water 
 had slammed them on him, knocking him from the 
 ladder to the deck below. A pity it was that there and 
 then it had not been he instead of my plucky enemy 
 who had first planted foot to come aft. Better for my 
 subsequent happiness would it have been if, instead of 
 the sailor, that red-laced drunkard had choked in the 
 element he so despised. 
 
 The heaving into the wind and the drowning of the 
 seaman were the only events which roused my blood to 
 a heat that make the details stand out in memory. I 
 might tell of the sufferings of Ames and Gertrude King, 
 and of their utter indifference and total abandonment 
 to what appeared certain destruction, but it would be 
 useless. The greatest agony of either sprang from sea 
 sickness and its attending miseries. There was not one 
 of us who thought of food, which was probably fortu 
 nate, as our stock brought on board was brine-soaked and 
 ruined. Even my toughened self and the tougher sailors 
 lost heart and stomach in the deadening nausea that 
 gradually seized us and kept its hold. The doctor, im- 
 
 244
 
 A RESPITE. 245 
 
 prisoned forward by the seas, and too cowardly to show 
 his head after his one attempt to come aft, might have 
 been in another world for all we heard or saw of him. 
 The last drop of stimulant had gone, and with it had 
 gone the last of even fictitious spirits. An unshakable 
 apathy clutched our little company, and, save that one 
 lurch of the vessel was of greater violence than another, 
 nothing marked the events of hours. Fear had passed; 
 anxiety was dead; day and night were meaningless 
 terms. We were only waiting the final stroke; a wrench, 
 an open seam, and then the blessed end. 
 
 Mechanically I placed rain-soaked cloths on the 
 wounded ribs of my friend and on the gashed head of 
 his sister, and offered to them rain water squeezed from 
 a square of clean canvas. It was not because my inter 
 est in either ran high; friendship for one and love for 
 the other had fallen with my nerve force into a latent 
 state, and I barely responded to their needs to my 
 own I responded not at all. Mechanically I went to the 
 deck, only to meet the same lead overhead and the same 
 towering majesty of water, neither of which impressed 
 me (for I was far past being impressed) more than I 
 have since been by a flat calm. The pitiless rain in my 
 face and eyes would rouse in me a dull sense of discom 
 fort, just as a sleeping child unconsciously resents dis 
 turbance, but that was all. I would go below, meeting 
 the lack-luster eyes of the sailors, who had also sought 
 shelter in the cabin, and the deathlike forms of the 
 two on the floor, and feel that we were all sinking into 
 the languor of starvation and prolonged strain. 
 
 By the end of the third day the Phantom was prac 
 tically a floating wreck, though for all I could see not a 
 line had parted, nor a spar, other than the topmast, been 
 displaced. But there was no longer a buoyant lift to her 
 bows, and the seas ran dangerously near the level of 
 the deck a fact that plainly spoke of water in the hold,
 
 24:6 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 it having drained from above or leaked between her 
 strained planks. There had been no attempt at pump 
 ing, for no man could have stood at the brakes in the 
 deluge that came aboard, and now we were settling, 
 helped mightily by the nature of our cargo. But the 
 knowledge of it gave me no trouble, nor was there a 
 comment made on the fact, though to three of us at 
 least the conditions were clearly apparent. 
 
 On the night of August 1-ith I went below, fully ex 
 pecting that but a few hours would elapse ere we went 
 to the bottom. Once in a while my vitality would assert 
 itself, and a quick apprehension, a living sensibility, 
 would shoot through me like the running flash of driv 
 ing sparks in burned-out tinder, but without enough 
 heat or force to rouse me to action. I slept heavily, as 
 one sleeps in the fumes of burning charcoal, dead to 
 harm or .happiness, and was waked from a dream of 
 feasting by the sound of a report like that made by a 
 bursting sail. Half conscious I crawled to the deck to 
 see what had happened. The dawn was well forward, 
 a strip of bright sky of pearly clearness heralding the 
 sun which was already scattering the clouds aloft. 
 Patches of the deepest blue flecked with fine vapor like 
 clotted cream sailing far above the rapidly dissolving 
 storm wrack, foretold fine weather. The Avrnd had sunk 
 to almost a calm, and was blowing a soft warm breath 
 from the west. The sea was a vast series of hills and 
 valleys, their crests no longer like teeth, and so rhythm 
 ical was their run that the half-submerged vessel swung 
 with the regularity of a pendulum, only at times a 
 swollen surge brimming over the bows, sending a cas 
 cade to the deck. Just visible to the north was a clear, 
 dark, indigo-colored lift of land, which I instantly knew 
 to be Montauk Point, and even my dull senses responded 
 to the knowledge of the wonderful drift we had made. 
 
 I noted these details with a slow, dreamy satisfac-
 
 A RESPITE. 247 
 
 tion, but, on turning my gaze southward, I became fully 
 alive to the fact that the awakening day had put a 
 period to our misery. There on our larboard quarter, 
 two cable lengths away, lay a schooner twice the size 
 of the -Phantom, her sides pierced for guns, and for 
 ward of her foremast the brine-tarnished brass of her 
 pivoted rifle stood out against the horizon. She had 
 luffed into the gentle breeze, and all her sails were shiv 
 ering and swinging as she bowed to the swells. From 
 her main peak blew out the flag of the United Colonies, 
 and over her taffrail was drifting the tawny smoke of the 
 shot that had aroused me. 
 
 For a space I stood like a man of stone, my look 
 fixed on the ensign so long a stranger to me. As I 
 gazed at the gorgeous bunting my heart rose in my 
 throat, the tears welled from my eyes, the frost which 
 had long bound me suddenly thawed, and, putting all 
 my remaining power in my voice, I gave vent to a wild 
 shout, threw both arms above my head, and staggered 
 below. 
 
 That night, under her own remaining canvas, the 
 Phantom sailed into the harbor of Holmes Hole and 
 dropped her spare anchor. We had been rescued by the 
 American privateer Jenny, of New London, out of that 
 port bound home with prisoners and booty after a four 
 months cruise. 
 
 With my story told, there had been enough help 
 offered to have equipped me for a voyage to the Indies, 
 but I asked for only provisions, water, fuel, and a couple 
 of hands, determined to gather to myself the glory which 
 had well-nigh slipped my grasp. We were freed from 
 the load of water taken in during the storm, the Jenny 
 standing by and lending men to the work until the 
 pumps " sucked," and then, promising not to lose sight 
 of us until we entered Vineyard Sound, stood for her 
 home port.
 
 248 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 a word did I say about the two sailors whom 
 I had captured, and who had served me well. The doc 
 tor I had found half dead from fright, the effects of his 
 debauch, starvation, and seasickness, and I determined 
 to hold him myself still as a prisoner on parole. I had 
 no idea of transferring Ames or his sister, for I doubted 
 if the Jenny crowded as she was, would prove more 
 comfortable than the Phantom. The remainder of the 
 trip would be short; at my own home there would be 
 the best of nursing, and my surgeon prisoner would 
 make a fair attendant if he could be kept sober, a mat 
 ter I would take in my own hands. 
 
 There were other reasons why I would not consent 
 to be separated from my friends even had they been 
 willing (which they were not), the weightiest of which 
 not being the danger of transshipment, but one I deemed 
 unnecessary to mention, and which as yet I would not 
 fully acknowledge to myself. 
 
 Knowing nothing of the march of events, I con 
 fided to the captain my fears of General Sullivan s 
 safety, and told him what I had learned of Clinton s 
 intended movement to the relief of Pigot, hoping he 
 would be able to transmit a warning to the American 
 general in time to prevent surprise. I did this that, 
 should my own future attempt prove abortive, the mes 
 sage might arrive at the patriot camp from another 
 quarter. , 
 
 Thus suddenly relieved of care, we sailed away under 
 mainsail, foresail, and jib, and had made the remainder 
 of the voyage without incident. It was with emotions 
 almost boyish and uncontrollable that I marked the 
 mingled reds, yellows, and blues of the great clay fore 
 land of Gay head, doubly brilliant in the light of the 
 westering sun. By then our consort was well to the 
 northwest, but I now feared neither the British nor the 
 devil, for, if closely pursued by the former, I should
 
 A RESPITE. 249 
 
 have run the Phantom ashore and taken to the woods, 
 even though it broke my heart to do it. 
 
 But no further necessity for heroic action presented 
 itself, and we slipped into the haven of Holmes Hole and 
 dropped the only anchor we had left, creating a flutter 
 among the inhabitants of the hamlet, who were mightily 
 alarmed at seeing a schooner bearing no flag sail up 
 within gunshot of the shore and round to as though 
 for a broadside. Heretofore they had not been molested, 
 but perhaps it was an inward sense of trouble impend 
 ing which made them quake at the mysterious action of 
 the Phantom, for barely a fortnight was to elapse ere 
 Grey, the " Hand of Iron," sailed up as I had done, and 
 under the guns of the fleet demanded the usual tribute 
 of blood and an unusual one of forage. 
 
 But now, saving a few fishermen drawn up on the 
 beach, there was not a craft in the harbor. The peace 
 of the evening, the quiet beauty of the green land, and 
 the feeling of safety fell on my spirits like a benediction 
 after an impressive sermon, and I breathed as one 
 breathes on waking from the horrors of nightmare. War 
 and danger had vanished as had vanished the storm clouds 
 of the day before, and, indeed, so far as the events of 
 the past few days had affected me, they had been but 
 as a nightmare or as had been the storm to the land, 
 leaving but few marks to tell of its fearful reality. 
 
 In a week I had recovered from the terrible strain 
 to which I had been subjected, noticing only that my 
 head had taken on a few white threads I had never seen 
 before, but my nerves, which have been my mainstay 
 through life, were neither loosened nor frayed by the 
 desperate tune circumstance had thrummed upon them. 
 
 I had suddenly shot from an era of conflict to one 
 
 of peace, I thought, nor did I dream I should be aroused 
 
 again unless I voluntarily took the field. I became a 
 
 hero, too, nor was my notoriety a cheap one. From 
 
 IT
 
 250 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 Edgartown to the heights of Gay s Head the fame of 
 my achievement spread, even the half-breed Indians, 
 whose ground lay about the latter point, being unstinted 
 in their sober congratulations to the " big Thorn," as 
 I was called by them. 
 
 Seafarers and those drawing their subsistence from 
 the sea are stolid to apparent indifference as to the for 
 tune, be it good or bad, Fate deals out to them. They 
 become inured to the fickleness of the great element 
 which is at once a threat and a mainstay, and the rack 
 of uncertainty on which they are stretched for most 
 of their lives makes wild demonstration impossible, be 
 their joys mighty or their griefs deep. 
 
 And so when I appeared before my mother, who, 
 as I had feared, had given me over as dead, there was 
 no violence of emotion; only a stunned, ghost-seeing 
 look on her white face as I entered her presence and 
 opened my arms to her, and the single articulate cry 
 of "My son! my son! " as she fell into them. It was 
 but little more from my sister, who had been brought 
 up in the same stoical school, and by the time my long 
 story had been told, much as I am telling it here, the 
 quiet round of daily life had been regained, the sick 
 and wounded transferred to the small house overlooking 
 the Sound, and the doctor, full of protestations as to his 
 good intentions, and yet surly withal, installed medical 
 attendant. 
 
 After my arrival my earliest business was to clear 
 my mind of two responsibilities weighing thereon: the 
 first to get word to General Sullivan of the intended 
 move of Sir Henry Clinton, as I feared that by some 
 slip my first message through the Jenny s captain might 
 have miscarried; the second, to have the Phantom s 
 cargo delivered at Xew London. 
 
 The news of the arrival of Howe and the departure 
 from Newport of the French to fight him had already
 
 A RESPITE. 251 
 
 reached the Vineyard, but I was not deceived by this 
 into thinking that Clinton had worked ahead of his 
 expressed intention of relieving Pigot in the course of 
 two weeks. It would be too unlike the man to act with 
 such promptness, and there had been no force landed 
 to succor the beleaguered royalists. Lord Howe s ma 
 neuver had been a move to open the gates for re-en 
 forcement, and it had been successful. The doughty 
 British general to whom I had offered personal violence 
 would hardly have altered his plans because they had 
 been breathed into the ear of one who, according to re 
 port, had never escaped to transmit a warning, and who 
 now presumably lay dead at the bottom of the ocean. 
 With his mistress he doubtless felt a villainous satisfac 
 tion on hearing that the Phantom, with Beverly Ames 
 on board, had not followed the Sprite into New York, 
 but had foundered in the great storm. I to this day 
 wonder as to their thoughts regarding Gertrude King 
 (who to them had entirely disappeared). To the man 
 she must have been the sword of Damocles, which 
 dropped at a time when he had gotten to live in the fan 
 cied security of believing it would never fall. 
 
 If my conjectures regarding Clinton s movements 
 were right, I had something like a week in which to act, 
 and, as luck would have it, there staggered into the 
 harbor a privateer sloop-of-war, storm scared, under a 
 jury mast, and in a sinking condition, with half her 
 men lost in the tempest. And hardly had her anchor 
 reached bottom when she suddenly tilted and followed 
 it, taking with her most of her remaining crew, and 
 to-day her oaken ribs lie petrifying in the salt sands 
 just east of West Chop, from whose bluff the red eye 
 of the lighthouse now winks its warning. 
 
 Her captain, whom I well knew, was a Providence 
 man, though his ship hailed from New London (as did 
 most of the privateers cruising to the east), so to him
 
 252 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 I committed the Phantom and my message to Sullivan, 
 and within three days, from the pine heights abreast of 
 the house I saw my schooner disappear west of Naushon, 
 and felt that my duty had been done. 
 
 I never saw the Phantom again. She discharged her 
 cargo and lay neglected at New London, too strained 
 for further service without repairs, while I, becoming 
 active in other quarters, waited for more auspicious 
 times before again cruising in a defenseless trading 
 schooner. And there she continued to lie, a partly dis 
 mantled hulk, like an old sailor sinking to sleep with 
 the scars of old actions and the peace of old memories 
 to comfort him, until two years later, when Arnold 
 made his famous or infamous raid up the Thames. 
 Then, while the town of New London was burning and 
 the battle of Fort Griswold was at its height, the schoon 
 er caught fire, and in a shroud of flame reeled to the 
 bottom, where her bones still rest. 
 
 But that was later. Now the waning summer s days 
 were as a dream of perfect tranquillity. There was 
 nothing to mar the lassitude that came over me as the 
 quiet I had so long unknown stole into my very vitals, 
 until I wondered how I had ever been active. There was 
 not even anxiety for those who had suffered so severely 
 during the flight from New York, for, though the life 
 of Ames was for awhile overshadowed by uncertainty, 
 his youth plucked him from death, and he began to 
 mend, soon being beyond danger. 
 
 His sister showed little of the effects of her ordeal. 
 It was determined that shock, her fractured collar bone 
 and lacerated scalp were the extent of her injuries, and 
 after a season of rest, nourishment, and a sense of per 
 fect safety, she appeared as radiant as an arm in a sling 
 and a bandaged head would allow. In something like a 
 week her head was well, and clad in proper feminine 
 garb, the contributions of neighbors (though we had
 
 A RESPITE. 253 
 
 no near ones), she shone with a light unknown to the 
 plain-visaged damsels of the island. 
 
 We of the Vineyard are a hardy race, but make no 
 boast of our beauty. Health runs riot among us, but 
 the strong salt air, the stronger winds, and the glitter 
 ing sun, though they make broad chests and deep lungs, 
 fail to fine the skin or give the delicacy of color and 
 grace of figure possessed by the woman I had rescued, 
 and who in my eyes stood for a model of both courage 
 and feminine perfection. 
 
 I can not give McCary much credit for the recovery 
 of his patients. Not but that he gave them sufficient 
 attention (he gave the girl too much, to my mind), but 
 neither case was one demanding either instruments or 
 medicine; the air, the nursing (done by my mother and 
 sister), and the sweet, strong elixir of youth and vitality 
 leaving little necessity for other assistance. 
 
 But the doctor troubled me somewhat.. He never 
 came from seeing Gertrude without a wildness about 
 him for which I could not account (poor fool that I 
 was!), and at those times he regarded me as though 
 I was something to be barely endured. Gertrude plainly 
 disliked him, though she always treated him very re 
 spectfully. He was light-hearted at times, but never 
 when I was about, and his marked sullenness to me 
 became greater as the days wore on. Clad only in his 
 gaudy uniform, he had created as much curiosity and 
 animosity when he was taken on shore as though he 
 had been an extra brilliant red rag flourished before 
 a herd of bulls of doubtful temper. And from the day 
 of his landing until I saw the last of him he never en 
 tered the village again or ventured east of the low 
 woodland bounding our farm in that direction. 
 
 After his patients were beyond the necessity of his 
 attention, he turned to leading a half-nomaflic life, 
 passing much of his time with a borrowed gun in the
 
 254: A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 stunted forest (which was then well-nigh as wild as 
 when Columbus discovered America), or wandering into 
 the Chappaquiddeck territory and hobnobbing in a 
 patronizing way with the lords of that soil, who in their 
 degeneracy paid profound respect to his scarlet uniform 
 and called him (knowing him to be a prisoner) " Cold 
 Blaze," or " The Fire that s Out." I hardly wondered 
 at his withdrawal from the immediate vicinity of the 
 farm, as it was only by so doing that he could enjoy the 
 open air and escape the curiosity of the visitors who 
 flocked to catch a glimpse of a genuine red-coated in 
 vader of America. He was a rara avis to the quiet 
 islanders, and caused as much comment as though he 
 had been a freak of Nature or had dropped to earth 
 from a distant planet.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 McCAEY UNCOVERED. 
 
 BUT his fire was not out, though there was nothing 
 cheery in its sparkle. The lurid heat within him lay 
 hidden among the cold ashes of his calm exterior, only 
 flaring up at me at times. I thought this was due to his 
 sullen disposition and his natural resentment at feeling 
 himself a prisoner, and perhaps it was, but when I told 
 him I was ready to deliver him to the Massachusetts 
 authorities to be placed in the regular lines of exchange, 
 he begged me, after the fashion of a man given his 
 choice between being hanged or shot, to let him bide 
 where he was, though liberty might be longer in finding 
 him. I knew very well that he hated me, but his hate 
 was so tinged by cowardice that he cringed like a dog 
 when I was by, and, though I never doubted his will 
 to bite, I little dreamed he had either the courage or 
 would ever have the opportunity. 
 
 So I let him roam in, out, and about, thinking that 
 mayhap he might be needed for his skill, yet hoping 
 that my official notification of his being on parole would 
 ere long end in his being taken off my hands. I might 
 have suspected (but did not) that something was amiss 
 when one day Ames bade me look in his pocket for cer 
 tain important papers he told me had been taken from 
 Mrs. Badely s desk by his sister. It was the first I 
 knew of his possessing documents of any kind, and, 
 though I searched high and low for them, they were 
 
 255
 
 256 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 gone. This led me to suppose that they had been taken 
 from him at the time he fell and was overhauled, but 
 he assured me it was impossible, Gertrude having had 
 them sewed in her vest until two days before, and he 
 declared they had been stolen, though by whom he 
 could give no guess, they being of no value to any one 
 save himself, his sister, Mrs. Badely, and Sir Henry 
 Clinton. I told him I would probe the matter, but, as 
 nothing further was said, I forgot the thing, especially 
 as Gertrude thought little of the loss, saying she had 
 the contents of the documents at her tongue s end, 
 though, of course, the originals were preferable to any 
 copy she could make. I remembered then that when 
 Mrs. Badely burst into Clinton s presence and fainted, 
 she had prefaced her collapse by crying, " He has been 
 
 back and taken all those " going to the door ere 
 
 completing the sentence. Gertrude now informed me 
 that these papers were meant, and from that remark 
 of her guardian s she had known it was her brother 
 whose escape was referred to. 
 
 " It was not Beverly, but I who took them," she ex 
 plained laughingly, " and if they are lost, it will do Sir 
 Henry no good, as I have them here." And she tapped 
 her white forehead with her white finger. 
 
 A few days after, Ames again spoke of the writings, 
 and asked me to give McCary an overhauling, a thing 
 I promised to do the next day. 
 
 I mind me well it was the last of August when he 
 made this request and I the promise. I had become 
 anxious at the nonappearance of the Phantom, and had 
 taken the habit of going to Gay Head, looking over 
 the immense expanse of the ocean, and hoping, as one 
 will, to hasten the coming of a longed-for object by con 
 stant watching. Each clay I returned home disappointed 
 yet buoyed by a doubtful encouragement in believing 
 she must heave in sight the next.
 
 McCARY UNCOVERED. 257 
 
 The great bald headland was now no longer the 
 bleak uplift of a once submerged clay bank. The wide 
 sweep of meadow, the rank grass and tufts of low, bushy 
 growths, the patches of heatherlike blossoms, which 
 accentuated the melancholy loneliness of the immense 
 field topping the cliff, had now a meaning, a poetry I 
 had never marked before. The quick notes of the birds 
 rising by twos and threes from the seed beds and flut 
 tering away to the blue line of woods to the east, caught 
 the ear sharply. The chirp of the kitydid seemed a 
 perpetual protest against the tremendous desolation of 
 the place, and its constant cry broke the otherwise uni 
 versal hush. The wind bent the tall grasses and whis 
 pered as though the upheaved land was close to heaven, 
 and became sacred ground therefore. 
 
 And to me it was sacred, or at least removed from 
 common earth. More often than not I was accompanied 
 hither by Gertrude (who had gradually gained strength 
 for the somewhat long trip), and her presence it was 
 that threw enchantment over all things an enchant 
 ment which only a secret lover knows or can know. 
 . From this height even on the cliff s edge no sound 
 of the surf reached us unless the sea was heavy, though 
 far below the thin, white line of its froth lay like a 
 writhing bar of snow. And here had I often wandered 
 apart from the girl, that I might watch her as she stood 
 looking out over the sea, her skirts swept backward or 
 perhaps only trembling in the breeze, which in varying 
 force was here always blowing. Long would she stand 
 there, and as long would I gaze (with my soul in my 
 face doubtless), her tall, graceful figure cleanly cut 
 against the blue of the background, and a half-melan 
 choly and wholly abstracted expression in her eyes; and 
 then by and by she would turn and come toward me 
 with a bright smile that was like an apology for her 
 momentary forgetfulness of my presence.
 
 258 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 Gods! may the memory of the sweetness of those 
 days never dim! The rush of the free salt air is still 
 in my nostrils, the sweep of the sea comes to me like 
 a vision, the purring of the wind is yet in my ears, and 
 by these I know that, though my body is now withered, 
 the ancient ichor of youth lies somewhere in the depths 
 of my nature; and even now my old heart throbs quicker 
 as I call up the picture of those hours when to my 
 self alone I admitted I was worshiping Gertrude 
 King. 
 
 I knew then why the landscape was no longer bar 
 ren; why there was music in the homely sounds of bird 
 and inesct life; why there was beauty in the plainest 
 growing thing, and magic in this seeming forsaken bit 
 of God s footstool. 
 
 But on the day I gave Ames the promise to touch 
 the doctor on the matter of the missing papers I was 
 alone. The sky was threatening, and it was getting 
 late before I started for Gay Head, and Gertrude had 
 remained with her brother. I had grown to think my 
 walk but an irksome duty when she was not with me, 
 but perhaps her absence on that day fell out for the 
 best perhaps otherwise. 
 
 As I walked up the gently sloping cap of the cliff 
 which suddenly breaks away to the sea in an almost sheer 
 precipice, by the bit of scarlet on its edge I knew I was 
 not to remain alone. Seated on a tongue of projecting 
 earth, with his gun betwixt his knees, sat McCary, ap 
 parently looking seaward with such intentness that he 
 heeded not my approach. I had seen him thus many a 
 time, often sprawling out on the turf as in an excess of 
 laziness or half dozing, and sometimes as rapt as a poet 
 nursing a fancy. But whatever his mood, he had hither 
 to sighted me before I was well upon him, and pre 
 vented closer companionship by scrambling to his feet 
 and making off until out of my sight. A surly dog, I
 
 McCARY UNCOVERED. 259 
 
 thought, and mightily obliged was I for the room he 
 gave me. 
 
 However, to-day he was far gone at wool-gathering, 
 or I thought so until I gained the edge of the steep, when 
 I saw that he was intently watching a man halfway 
 down the cliff, who was making his way to the beach 
 below by a dangerous path known only to those who 
 have haunted the headland and dared the perils of its 
 face. By creeping along the narrow clay terraces, drop 
 ping in some spots, and in others sliding through the 
 ragged, rain-washed gullies with which the front of the 
 height is seamed, one might from the point on which 
 the surgeon was sitting reach the level of the beach in 
 safety. But woe to him who by mishap or misstep loses 
 control of himself, as the chances are that he rolls to 
 the bottom and is dashed to death against the huge 
 bowlders which at the inner edge of the beach make to 
 this gigantic clay bed an effective sea wall against the 
 encroachments of the ocean! 
 
 Gay Head cliff, like most of Nature s stupendous 
 efforts, is to be admired from a distance, and nothing 
 can be more awe-inspiring than from its top to view the 
 perpendicular strata of reds, yellows, blues, and whites 
 which by some power and at some time of inconceivable 
 remoteness have been heaved from the bed of the ocean 
 and cast upon end. 
 
 I had never hazarded the cliff from here, but a quar 
 ter of a mile northward there was a safe descent along 
 a broad and easy sloping buttress, and I wondered why 
 a man should take the dangerous route to the level 
 below. 
 
 But I ceased to wonder when, on looking closely, I 
 discovered the fellow was a half-breed. There are no 
 better sailors in the world or men more daring on sea 
 or shore than those who have a strain of Chappaquid- 
 deck blood. To this day the few of the tribe spared by
 
 260 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 rum and disease are wreckers and life-savers, although 
 the negro blood predominates. They vary their water 
 life with the less dangerous one of making pottery from 
 the party-colored clay of the headland, and, though now 
 they are less venturesome than their fathers, their light 
 boats go skipping about like water spiders on a smooth 
 pond, going far asea, but I never heard of a drowning. 
 
 That the fellow below was at home on the clilf I 
 could plainly see, for he made his way so easily and skill 
 fully, always with face downward, that he reached the 
 white level of the beach and disappeared among the 
 bowlders ere I could identify him. One of the com 
 panions of the surgeon mayhap, I thought, for I had 
 often marked him wandering with them, though mostly 
 he was alone, and then it came to me that his growing 
 intimacy with these people might bode no good, for, 
 like many of their betters, they had curious notions of 
 right and wrong, and might be bought body and soul 
 for a sovereign and McCary had plenty of money. 
 
 This flashed through me as the half-breed disap 
 peared, and then it was that the surgeon looked up and 
 saw me near him. With unusual alacrity he got him 
 self to his feet and turned away without a word; but 
 minding me of my promise to Ames, I had no notion 
 of letting him beyond my reach, and, as there could be 
 no better time or place for unfolding the matter of the 
 documents, I hailed him, making my way toward him. 
 
 He halted and wheeled about at the sound of my 
 voice, and now stood with the gun in the hollow of his 
 elbow as he waited my coming. I think I had never 
 disliked the man as I did the moment I neared him. 
 There was something about him so dogged, so cold and 
 calculating, yet so sullenly defiant, and withal so crafty 
 and cowardly, that I felt like striking him in the face. 
 The sight of him changed my softer mood completely. 
 The little charity (or perhaps it was pity) I felt for him,
 
 McCARY UNCOVERED. 261 
 
 blew away in the brisk wind, and what policy I had 
 intended using in my manner went with it. His dim 
 gray eyes were bloodshot and betokened a free use of 
 liquor, though where he could have gotten it was past 
 my wits to fathom. He held himself as though await 
 ing a simple question to which he would fling his an 
 swer as one flings a dog a bone, and then go his way; 
 but if this was in his mind, I must have given him a 
 shock, for with no attempt at gracefully coming to the 
 point, I shot the question at him. 
 
 " Dr. McCary, where are the papers you stole from 
 Beverly Ames ? " 
 
 His red eyes blinked as though crossed by a flash 
 of lightning, and the butt of the fowling-piece dropped 
 to the ground in the start he gave. If I had held doubts 
 before, I knew now that he was the thief, and following 
 up my instinct that he had not dared to secrete the papers 
 about the house, I took a stride toward him and ven 
 tured: 
 
 " They are upon your person, and here and now you 
 will hand them to me! " 
 
 Some kind of a sound came from the man s throat 
 as he recoiled from me as though fearing an assault, 
 and the gun slipped to the ground. The thud of its 
 fall drew his attention to it, and it was doubtless to 
 cover his confusion and gain time to frame an answer 
 that he stooped to raise it. But partly to bring the 
 matter to a head and partly in fear that the weapon 
 might be loaded, and in his desperation he would use 
 it on me, I advanced quickly and, placing my foot on 
 the barrel, looked him squarely in the eye without 
 speaking. 
 
 If he had intended an attempt at hoodwinking me 
 by a smooth answer, my action brought his villainous 
 temper to a pitch past restraint, and, drawing himself 
 upright, he gave me a return look so full of venom that
 
 262 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 if looks could kill I would have fallen dead at his feet. 
 Then he spoke, or rather exploded: 
 
 " An ye are a black-hearted rehel to beset a man 
 in your power with such a charge! Am I the likes 
 of a thief? What would I want with his papers? Am 
 I not under your thumb, and have I done aught but me 
 best by the boy an girl? Tis a thankless job to have 
 wasted me skill on such a lot! By the powers, ye in 
 fernal weed, twill not be long ere ye will be beggin 
 mercy at the hands of Dr. McCary, for once beyond ye 
 I ll do me endeavors to haunt ye down to hell! Lave 
 me alone, man, an thank God for the free time ye have 
 left to ruin the silly girl yonder! Tis short enough! 
 Never will I forget the way I was trated aboard the 
 schooner by ye, or the slight of her overbold looks to ye 
 to pay for all I did for her. Go your way, and damn 
 me no more with your talk of stolen papers. They be 
 gone for good an all. Scammell took them; he showed 
 them to me. Go to him, an ye dare, an call him 
 thief." 
 
 The fury with which he threw these words at me is 
 past all telling. His face, usually of an unhealthy pal 
 lor, flushed until its color matched his bloodshot eyes. 
 His lean fingers clutched into his palms, and he shook 
 as though palsied. His anger was so real, his indigna 
 tion at having his honor impugned so apparently genu 
 ine, that I believe I should have offered an apology and 
 let the matter drop had it not been for two things: 
 First, the insult he had offered Gertrude King; and, sec 
 ond, his last words. The former roused me as though 
 I had been struck, while the latter exposed the studied 
 falsity of the man (a falsity justifiable, perhaps, in one 
 in his position), for Ames had assured me there was 
 nothing in his pockets at the time he was shot. 
 
 But my anger was nearly as high as his as he finished 
 speaking. As he completed his speech, he gave a wave
 
 McCARY UNCOVERED. 263 
 
 of his fist and turned to leave me with an air of con 
 tempt, but like a shot I leaped for and laid hold of him. 
 Catching him by the collar, I twisted him about with 
 one hand and with the other smote him across the 
 mouth; then diving into his breast pocket, I pulled 
 forth a mass of papers before he could check my move 
 ment, and with a finishing push thrust him from me. 
 He staggered backward for several paces in fruitless 
 effort to save himself, then pitched to the ground, while 
 I, having uttered no word in return to his tirade, hastily 
 ran off the small sheaf of papers I held in my hand. 
 
 By the time he had gotten to his feet and pulled 
 himself together I had found what I wanted four ob 
 long sheets folded and tied with a string, all addressed 
 to Henry Clinton, Esq., or General Henry Clinton, show 
 ing that the correspondence antedated his knighthood. 
 They were signed George Germain. I presumed these 
 were the papers I sought, as they were indorsed " F. B." 
 (which I took to mean Florence Badely) in fine writing, 
 and the word " private " was under the initials of each 
 document. The rest of the papers, together with Mc- 
 Cary s wallet, were his own private matters as I saw at 
 a glance, and throwing them to him, I placed the ab 
 stracted writings in my pocket and picked up the gun 
 at my feet. 
 
 Though barely three minutes had elapsed since I 
 thrust my hand in the surgeon s coat, I had regained 
 command of myself by the time I completed the survey. 
 My finding the missing papers probably had much to do 
 in saving the scoundrel from chastisement for the insult 
 he had offered the lady. In my hands he was so puny 
 an individual that I should have regretted further vio 
 lence toward him, and when I considered that I myself 
 had both lied to and robbed Clinton, and that the papers 
 in question bore witness to thieving from another quar 
 ter, it would be hardly consistent for me to put too
 
 264 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 fine a point on the conduct of the man standing before 
 me. 
 
 But my temper at that moment was none of the 
 sweetest, nor was my charity for him made broader 
 because our sins (if sins they were) had been similar. 
 As he held away from me, his face now turned from red 
 to white, and his eyes full of impotent rage, I held some 
 thing more than mere dislike for him, but I said quite 
 calmly: 
 
 " Dr. McCary, you have evidently forgotten that you 
 are a prisoner on parole, sworn not to act against the 
 United Colonies until regularly exchanged. Though 
 you have forfeited consideration, I shall not press you 
 too hard, but, sir, if you dare again to darken my door, 
 I will see to it that you regret the intrusion. From 
 now on find your own food and shelter. Go your way 
 to your fellows, if you wish but let me not be cursed 
 by the sight of you again! " 
 
 And with this I turned my back upon him, threw the 
 gun over my shoulder, and walked off without even look 
 ing around to see what might be his next move.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 WHAT HAPPENED OX GAY HEAD. 
 
 THAT night, as I tossed the papers to Ames and 
 noted with what satisfaction he received them, I told 
 him the story of their recovery, and laughed as I drew 
 a word picture of the discomfited redcoat as he stood 
 despoiled and disheveled on the brow of the cliff. But 
 the lad took a mighty serious view of the matter, and, 
 though he did not question my right to lay hands on 
 McCary, and considered my having forbade his return 
 to the house a stroke of wisdom, he was far from treat 
 ing lightly the threat the doctor had made, and told 
 me he feared I had not seen the end of the business. 
 It set me thinking, too, when he asked me what pos 
 sible motive the fellow could have had in preferring to 
 remain in this out-of-the-way spot when, by taking my 
 offer to send him to the mainland, he might have by 
 this obtained his exchange, or at least found a society 
 more to his liking. The question was beyond my abil 
 ity to answer, and I asked him in turn what his ideas 
 might be; but the lad gave me no satisfaction, only 
 casting at me a queer look and turning in his bed, as 
 though my stupidity tired him. 
 
 The next day, after a fruitless and lonely trip to the 
 headland, I started beating up the woods for a couple 
 of stray cattle. Gertrude and my sister stood in the 
 low porch of the doorway waving me a farewell, and, 
 just as I was looking back at them from the edge of the 
 18 265
 
 26G A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 home lot, the horse I was riding suddenly shied vio 
 lently, the cause being my late antagonist and an Indian 
 companion, who rose from behind a clump of bushes 
 and walked away in the most innocent manner pos 
 sible. I had it in my mind to hail the doctor and ask 
 him why he was venturing so close to forbidden ground, 
 but then I thought the fellow miserable enough if he 
 had taken to living with the Indians (who were, indeed, 
 the only ones likely to welcome him), so held my tongue 
 and rode on. 
 
 I saw him again the next afternoon, and, God wot, 
 it came nigh being the last time either saw aught again. 
 It was the 28th of August, and as glorious a fall day 
 as ever presaged a season. The air was suggestive of 
 the coming glory. The crisp, cool shadows of the trees 
 swung over the grass, and the heat, so long oppressive, 
 gave way to a life-giving temperature. A sprightliness 
 was in and on all about, and, had I not been beset with 
 peculiar conditions of heart and mind, I should have 
 responded to the spirit of the weather with a boyish lack 
 of dignity. There was a freshness of life and motion 
 everywhere, and the beauty of it all was made perfect 
 by the deep blue of the sky, the piled-up masses of snowy 
 cumuli banked against the western horizon, and the 
 lusty sparkle of the sound in the distance. The strong, 
 livening breeze blew fair from the west, and if ever the 
 belated Phantom was to appear, it should be on this 
 day of days. 
 
 This was in the morning, and by that night it had 
 been the day of days to me, at least. 
 
 I went to the great headland that afternoon accom 
 panied by Gertrude. The day was as fine as ever, though 
 its character had changed as the sun passed the merid 
 ian, and out on the wide, moorlike meadows of Gay 
 Head the march of the season was more marked. Xow 
 the distant woodland and the hollows were veiled in a
 
 WHAT HAPPENED ON GAY HEAD. 267 
 
 smoky haze, and the faded herbage of the field showed 
 a rustiness that spoke of the coming change. The few 
 poor stalks of golden-rod were already hanging their 
 withered heads, the katydid s note was sharper in its 
 complaint, and the trailing vines of the thorny dew 
 berry threw out a blood-red leaf here and there, as 
 though to attract attention to its shrunken and seedy 
 fruit. The bold blue of the morning sky had gone and 
 given place to a brooding tenderness, while over all the 
 land hung the nameless pathos of the coming autumn. 
 The waning day held the beauty of Indian summer 
 without its dreamy stillness, for the wind on the height 
 piped merrily in my ears, though below at the sea s level 
 it was but a zephyr. 
 
 I wandered along far from hurrying now filled 
 with the spirit of the surroundings, and filled yet more 
 with a passion which I knew ere long must burst its 
 bounds and hurry me on its flood to happiness or dis 
 appointment. We could be talkative enough in our 
 walks in other directions (though I had hard work to 
 guard my words at times), but on the long and lonely 
 trips to this point there was little said by either the 
 girl or myself, though to me my dumbness held more 
 meaning than any flow of words. I dared not speak, 
 and yet I was afraid of my silence ay, afraid my eyes 
 would shout what my tongue shrank from whispering 
 afraid that the rest, the blissful content I was now en 
 joying, the spirit of her presence, which had become a 
 part of me, might be blown away by a single word. And 
 I would rather dream on like a coward than suddenly 
 be waked and find I was no mate for this girl, who, 
 though treating me familiarly as a friend and equal 
 (from gratitude, perhaps), would scorn an alliance with 
 one so far removed from her in birth, if not in breeding. 
 I feared the passing days, for I knew this state could 
 not endure forever. I feared- -God knows what only
 
 268 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 they were the fears of every lover whose love is too deep 
 to babble lightly like a shallow brook, and whose passion 
 lifts, a mighty stream, finally bursting all bounds. 
 
 And mine was near the bursting point that day. 
 For the most part I walked at Gertrude s side, and, when 
 we reached the foot of the long incline which raises 
 until it meets the brow of the cliff, I tried to talk, but 
 said less than though I had not spoken. The folly of 
 it struck me, and I left her, going a few paces in advance 
 to kick away the brambles, that they might not catch her 
 trailing garments. Thus we pushed up the slope, Ger 
 trude sauntering behind, looking into the bushes as she 
 passed or picking some belated flower, and I with my 
 eyes now on the level just beyond, hoping to catch a 
 view of the ocean as it opened over the edge of the head 
 land. I looked back and asked if she was tired and 
 wished help, but she said " No," and that she would 
 follow slowly, bidding me hasten if I was impatient. 
 So I turned away. A few more steps brought the blue 
 of the sea before me, and I gave a shout as I sprang 
 forward, for there in the distance lay the Phantom or 
 her ghost. 
 
 The few hundred feet that intervened betwixt me 
 and the edge of the cliff I passed on a run, but when I 
 readied a point where the sea presented a clear field, 
 my joy was turned to consternation. If the distant 
 schooner was indeed the Phantom, she was a prize in the 
 hands of the enemy, for as I reached the brow of the 
 promontory and looked away I saw lying before me, 
 wafted by the light west wind, the British fleet strung 
 out, vessel after vessel, for miles. The heavy ships of 
 the line and the transports lay off against the haze of 
 Cuttyhunk and ISTaushowena,but the lighter fore-and-aft 
 rigged craft hung on their flanks like skirmishers, and 
 one was so far inshore to the Vineyard that I had my 
 doubts of its clearing the Devil s Bridge, a reef that
 
 WHAT HAPPENED ON GAY HEAD. 269 
 
 pushes its way for half a mile or more northward from 
 the foot of Gay Head. 
 
 As a spectacle the sight of those ponderous moving 
 forts was magnificent. More than a score of the enemy s 
 ships with every sail set and drawing were creeping east 
 ward, and the significance of their presence here threw 
 me into a state bordering on panic. It was so unlooked 
 for, so foreign to the peace of the island, its full mean 
 ing so uncertain, that I stood and looked without realiz 
 ing that such an expedition bound along the Vineyard 
 Sound could have no such small game for its object as 
 our poverty-stricken island. The fleet was already east 
 of every port of importance on the southern coast, and 
 then it came to me that its destination could be no less 
 a point than Boston; its object, the French flotilla which 
 had there taken refuge. 
 
 There was no possibility of mistaking the cum 
 brous English build, rig, and rake, and had there been, 
 there was no mistaking the small crimson speck hang 
 ing from the main or mizzen peak of each vessel. 
 
 As I looked keenly at the craft I took to be my own 
 schooner, I saw it was not she, but I had scarce come 
 to that conclusion and settled in my mind that this 
 scowl of war was not directed toward Martha s Vine 
 yard, when from behind me I heard a piercing shriek, 
 and, turning, saw Gertrude throw herself into a clump 
 of low bushes about a hundred feet from where I was 
 standing. Even before she fell the spot was blotted out 
 by a puff of white smoke, and at the same time I heard 
 the horrible humming of a bullet mixed with the re 
 port of a rifle, and my hat was lifted from my head and 
 sent over the precipice. 
 
 For the briefest instant I was dumfounded, but 
 for the briefest instant only. That I had been marked 
 for assassination and had been missed was the idea 
 quickly leaping to my brain, but all thoughts of self and
 
 270 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 all uncertainty as to the identity of my assailant were 
 immediately dispelled as I saw the scarlet-coated figure 
 of a man rise from his concealment and try to shake 
 off the girl who was clinging to him as a woman clings 
 to an opponent. 
 
 Even in the whirl of the struggle I recognized 
 McCary, and before I could get halfway to him he had 
 torn himself loose and thrown Gertrude to the ground, 
 where she lay without moving. For a breath or two he 
 stood over her as though at loss how to act, but seeing 
 me approaching unhurt and at full speed, he shook his 
 fist at me and with a yell bounded over the body of the 
 prostrate maiden, and, taking a course diagonal to mine, 
 ran northward and toward the cliff. 
 
 For a few more steps I followed the dictates of my 
 heart and continued toward the girl, but knowing that 
 further harm could not come to her, I altered my direc 
 tion and put after the flying royalist, casting aside coat 
 and waistcoat as I ran. 
 
 He had the start of me, and his long legs carried him 
 swiftly over the ground; but if he was spurred by fear, 
 I was goaded onward by vengeance, and the latter is 
 the sharpest prick known to the heart of man, remorse 
 excepted. He threw a backward look at me with nearly 
 every leap, .and with every leap I gained upon him. 
 My blood was on fire; pity had gone from me as though 
 that virtue was yet unborn; to kill was a spirit as strong 
 in me as it was in him. 
 
 I soon saw how he had mapped his flight. He was 
 pointing himself toward the tongue of earth which 
 marked the top of the perilous path to the beach, and 
 if he took it I would follow, though we both went to 
 the bottom together. 
 
 As he flew on it evidently became plain to him that 
 if he continued his course in that direction he would 
 be headed. I had clung to a line parallel to the preci-
 
 WHAT HAPPENED ON GAY HEAD. 271 
 
 pice, and was cutting him from his goal, when he sud 
 denly veered and made for the safer descent farther on. 
 It was a foolish move, for now I felt that I would soon 
 have him. Hard living and harder drinking had sapped 
 his strength, and hy the way his legs dragged I knew the 
 end of the race was at hand. Suddenly he veered again 
 and ran straight for the edge of the cliff, stopping short 
 as the sea with its host of vessels met his vision. As he 
 halted I could hear the blast of his breath as it came 
 and went. Bending, he looked over the brink as though 
 to fathom the depths below, then glanced up at me. 
 
 I was within three rods of him, but he still hung 
 like one driven distraught betwixt the choice of death 
 below and death above. As I neared him he made his 
 decision, and with desperation flaming from his eyes he 
 flew to meet me. Without a word he sprang on me, 
 gripping me by the throat ere I could prevent him, and 
 twining his supple leg about mine -as though his were 
 jointed in a dozen places. Like a devil leech he hung, 
 striving with all his power to push me over the abyss 
 behind, his teeth set in his nether lip, and the veins 
 on his forehead standing out like marline. 
 
 But it was fruitless. He little knew my power or 
 the spirit that had turned me to iron. With a violent 
 wrench I tore him from me, and, staggering to a fall, I 
 shifted about, bore him backward and hurled him over 
 the cliff, the exertion bringing me to my knees on the 
 brink of the height from which I had flung him. 
 
 The spot where McCary went over was on neither 
 the steepest nor loftiest part of the headland, but it was 
 a fearful fall. Here in a vertical line the height was 
 perhaps a hundred and fifty feet, though on account of 
 the pitch of the face of the wall a body would pass over 
 fully two hundred before reaching the level of the beach. 
 As I sunk to all-fours, I watched his flight to the bot 
 tom. He struck the first terrace, which was but ten or
 
 272 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 fifteen feet below, and with a desperate effort tried to 
 cling to the narrow clay shelf, his hooked fingers, like 
 talons, digging into the friable earth, while his body 
 hung over the greater drop beneath. But the season 
 had been dry, and the substance of the cliff turned to 
 powder under his hands. Slowly though surely his fin 
 gers slid, his upturned face was horrible in its despair, 
 and, as his eyes met mine peering over the edge of the 
 brink above him, he cursed me as only a hopeless soul 
 can curse. As the last words left his lips his failing sup 
 port crumbled away, and he shot downward to the next 
 step or terrace, off which he bounded, glancing into a 
 washed-out gully, the passage of his body and his exer 
 tions to check his flight starting an avalanche of loose 
 stuff in his wake. He made a magnificent fight, but it 
 was seemingly to little purpose. Greater and greater 
 grew his speed as he bounded from one step to another, 
 until when more than halfway down he was rolling 
 helplessly along, a confused mixture of clay dust and 
 flying legs and arms merged into the effect of a scarlet 
 ball shooting toward the beach. In the end his body 
 came to a rest betwixt two huge bowlders, and there 
 it lay motionless, though the track of his fall was yet 
 marked by a stream of bounding lumps of clay which 
 followed hyn. If he had not broken his neck in the 
 wild progress of the latter portion of his descent, he was 
 still alive, for he had, fortunately for him, missed strik 
 ing the natural sea wall on the beach. 
 
 Though possibly alive, he would soon have choked 
 in the smother of powdery stuff piled upon him had 
 it not been that other eyes than mine had marked his 
 terrible tumble. As I rose to my feet, awed though not 
 subdued by what I had seen, I noticed a man running 
 along the white sands below, and then marked for the 
 first time an Indian s boat drawn just beyond the snowy 
 line of the surf. I had no dream of collusion in the
 
 WHAT HAPPENED ON GAY HEAD. 273 
 
 attempt on my life at this time, but I was soon led to 
 suspect and then know of something approaching it. 
 The running man I recognized as a Chappaquiddeck, 
 and as he arrived at and bent over the body of McCary, 
 scraping away the clay under which he was half buried, 
 I turned and hurried to where lay the motionless form 
 of Gertrude King.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THE DAY OF DAYS. 
 
 BEYOXD her disordered garments, there was nothing 
 to denote the violence with which she had been handled, 
 for she lay on her back, her white face, clear and un- 
 bruised, turned upward as peacefully as though marked 
 with death, and, indeed, my first thought was that death 
 had claimed her. 
 
 The horror that smote me as I saw her lying there 
 so still was all the punishment I needed for any wrong 
 . I might have done the surgeon, but as I bent over her 
 with a groan, and then felt the clear yet feeble beating 
 of her heart, the reaction coming upon me was the final 
 force which broke the barrier of my feelings. I forgot 
 everything, my own late peril, the murderous redcoat, 
 the struggle, and his meteorlike fall over the cliff; the 
 off-sailing fleet, which might have run ashore and sent 
 a host swarming up the height for all it would have 
 troubled me then; the sky, the earth, the past and future 
 all these were lost to mind as I lifted my beloved and 
 poured into her deaf ears the passion I had so long held 
 dammed within me. Ay, more: I dared profane her 
 lips with mine, and never dreamed of the unfairness of 
 the thing I did. 
 
 I confess to having been irrational, but not more so 
 than any man of strong feelings placed in a like posi 
 tion. I was deeply in love (for which I havs no excuse, 
 
 274
 
 THE DAY OF DAYS. 275 
 
 and need none), and if for a time my heart got the better 
 of my head, in extenuation I have only to plead the 
 depth of my passion, its repression, and the sudden re 
 action on discovering that the girl was yet alive. I can 
 not recall what I said, but as 1 chafed her cold hands 
 and spoke as a man will speak but once in his life, her 
 eyes opened, and with a smile, half weary and half con 
 tented, she closed them again and relapsed into her 
 faint. 
 
 As though caught in a flagrant act, my tongue ceased 
 its clamor and I felt the blood creep -to my face in the 
 fear that she had been sensible of at least part of my 
 outburst. But I recovered both my natural color and 
 my confidence when a few minutes later she reopened 
 her eyes, and, lifting herself quickly from my arms, sat 
 up and gazed wonderingly about in the bewildered way 
 of one suddenly awakening from a deep sleep. She 
 looked at me steadily for a moment, as if to gather her 
 wits, I silently returning her gaze, and then her lip 
 trembled and her soft dark eyes filled with tears. 
 
 "Ah, my friend!" she said tenderly though very 
 calmly after a space of silence " ah, my friend, I was 
 in time then! You are unhurt? Where is is 
 
 And here she looked about as if expecting to see the 
 body of the man who had laid in ambush. With a rush 
 the past came back, and my heart set hard for an in 
 stant as I answered: 
 
 " He lies on the beach below. I threw him from the 
 cliff." 
 
 She shuddered visibly and put both hands to her 
 face, and then for the first time I saw that it was prob 
 ably through her action that my life had been saved. 
 I was on the verge of prostrating myself before her and 
 again opening my heart, but, great idiot that I was, I 
 let the moments speed until in very shame at my own 
 weakness I dared not loose my tongue. I had more
 
 276 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 courage in the face of death than in the face of the 
 woman I loved, and so let the opportune minute pass 
 until my confession was then made impossible, for, 
 dashing away her tears with a defiant movement, she 
 held out her hand for me to assist her to rise. The 
 time had gone. 
 
 No schoolboy ever felt more awkward than did I 
 as we stood together, neither speaking, she shaking out 
 the folds of her garments, and I, like a clown, looking 
 on with my soul in my eyes, my heart a lump and my 
 tongue a useless block. A sudden change had come over 
 her. The frank friendship of the hour before had given 
 place to a distant preoccupation, and I was smitten with 
 the consciousness that my fears of her having heard 
 my wild outburst were well founded, and that she was 
 mildly resenting my daring. But I soon comforted 
 myself with the knowledge that no fainting woman can 
 hear, and then I warmly enough asked her if she had 
 been injured in the scuffle with McCary. 
 
 To this she answered quickly though quietly, as if 
 glad to break a silence which was rapidly becoming 
 strained: "No, Donald, not greatly. I think he may 
 have wrenched the lame shoulder, but, as in my former 
 accident, it is nothing worse nothing unless, perchance 
 there be an internal hurt. Come, shall we not return 
 home?" Then hesitating a moment as she cast a side 
 glance at me, " Did you Is is he dead? " 
 
 " Dead, Gertrude," I returned, " I know not. I 
 had not thought of him! Your need was the greatest, 
 or at least I you I will go and 
 
 " Nay, not yet. Tell me what happened. Tell me 
 all that happened." 
 
 She stood half facing me, her eyes downcast, her 
 short, bright hair now freed from its stain, loosened 
 and falling a mass of tangled ripples, one hand grasping 
 her skirts and the other pressed to her heart as to sub-
 
 THE DAY OF DAYS. 277 
 
 due its beating, though there was no apparent agita 
 tion. 
 
 Then I told her of my sight of the British off the 
 coast, of hearing her shriek and seeing her throw her 
 self onto the would-be assassin, of the shot, the chase, 
 the short struggle, and the fall of McCary, and so on 
 up to my return to her side. She listened with a won 
 dering look, which was turned away from me, and when 
 I had finished she flashed one glance into my eyes and 
 said: 
 
 " Donald, is that all all?" 
 
 I felt my cheeks turn to fire and my pulses jump, 
 but, without seeming to mark it, she continued, her 
 countenance growing tender even as the clouds grow 
 tender under the light of the rising sun: 
 
 "Have you no more to tell? Donald! I thought 
 you brave! Have you only courage while in the grip 
 of a murderous monster and and over the body of a 
 lifeless woman? My poor boy my hero oh, my love, 
 why will you make me help you?" 
 
 Think her not unmaidenly. If she was, then it is 
 unmaidenly for a maid to love then it is unwomanly 
 for a woman to stoop for the happiness she sees lying 
 at her feet. I thought not of this then. For all my 
 strength, I had been but a weak and tongue-tied child 
 as I stood before her, but her last words turned me into 
 a giant. The hand she held out to me lifted me off the 
 earth. Sparks flashed before my eyes, and I choked 
 with the violence of the emotion that rose and over 
 whelmed even the recollection of what I said and did. 
 In the end I only know I held her where she belonged 
 and she was answering a question: 
 
 " Shamming? No or not at first. Was it sham 
 ming, I wonder? In the beginning I fancied I was 
 dreaming, and then I gradually thought it was true, 
 though 1 lay still; but at last I was sure, and
 
 278 A COLONIAL FREE-LAXCE. 
 
 Donald! I am a woman, and I loved you. When, after 
 opening my eyes, you became dumb, I felt my heart 
 would break then I think I grew a little resentful and 
 then when I saw your face as we stood together I 
 I my dear love, I know not which of us is the greater 
 coward." 
 
 And so it came about that on that glorious day on 
 the glorious heights of Gay Head I found a content 
 beside which my past content was turmoil. The dangers 
 we had endured together sank away; the future lay 
 ahead unknown, unfeared. In the happiness of success 
 I shrank from nothing; storm and sunshine would be 
 all one to me; the horn of plenty had been emptied for 
 my salve, and Fate could hold nothing from which I 
 would quail, save death; not mine, but my love s. And 
 yet, for all my inward boasting, it was well I knew 
 naught of the terrible tempest I was so soon to face, or 
 that the spark which started a fire that well-nigh con 
 sumed me was fanned to activity when I threw the mur 
 derous surgeon from the cliff. 
 
 How long we remained exchanging our mutual con 
 fidences is a matter of conjecture only, but finally I be 
 came sane enough to be interested in knowing the de 
 tails of Gertrude s finding the bidden royalist. And 
 he had been well concealed. At the spot in which he 
 had lain in ambush awaiting my usual visit (and he 
 had timed me surely) there was a ring of low bushes 
 which made an excellent cover for one lying on the 
 ground. When I had run to the cliff Gertrude was some 
 distance out of my track and to the rear of me, and 
 possibly my enemy knew nothing of her proximity to 
 him. As she wandered aimlessly along, she came full 
 upon this patch of shrubbery, and saw a man lying on 
 his stomach taking deliberate aim at my figure, which 
 was clearly outlined against the sky beyond. I made 
 a fair mark and one not easily missed, and had her
 
 THE DAY OP DAYS. 
 
 arrival on the spot been delayed but a few seconds, I 
 should doubtless have fallen a victim to the doctor s 
 venomous hatred. 
 
 The sight of the redcoat and the poised rifle, with 
 the knowledge of the story of the missing papers re 
 claimed two days before (together with other matters 
 unknown to me at that time), opened her eyes to the 
 sinister purpose of the prostrate scoundrel, and, as her 
 only resource, she had given vent to the scream I had 
 heard. At the same moment, in the desperation of 
 knowing the man she loved was in danger, she had 
 thrown herself upon the villain before her just as he 
 fired. He had probably been too intent on his intended 
 victim to notice Gertrude s approach, but her shriek, 
 given at the instant he applied pressure to the trigger, 
 slightly disturbed his aim, and he had missed me by a 
 hair. 
 
 Her recital (somewhat internipted by unnecessary 
 punctuation and the violence of my thanks for her time 
 ly intervention) brought to mind the fact that even a 
 fallen enemy demands attention at the hands of his 
 conqueror, and that I was both hatless and coatless. 
 Xothing could induce Gertrude to accompany me to the 
 edge of the height to see what disposition the Indian 
 had made of the body of McCary. With all her nerve, 
 there was nothing morbid in her curiosity, and, though 
 she was willing and even eager to have me know the 
 fate of the surgeon, she recoiled at the idea of seeing 
 his carcass. 
 
 I left her, therefore, and took my way to the cliff. 
 The fleet was still holding along the Sound, but its dis 
 tance was so great and the wind so light as to make it 
 appear to have made little progress. When I advanced 
 to an elevation commanding a view of the sea inshore, 
 though I could not yet see the beach below me, I was 
 nonplused at the action of the schooner I had before
 
 280 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 marked as sailing dangerously near the land. She had 
 hauled fairly southward, and with only her mainsail 
 trimmed for her altered course was creeping slowly along 
 parallel to the face of the cliff, and at about a quarter of 
 a mile from the sands. I could have planted a rifle 
 bullet on her deck with ease, and was wondering what 
 motive she could have for thus abandoning the fleet, 
 when I reached a point allowing me a view below. Then 
 her motive was plain enough. The body of McCary 
 was gone from where I had seen it settle, and, instead 
 of being laid out on the beach or elsewhere, that indi 
 vidual was in the Indian s boat, and, under the lusty 
 strokes of its owner, was being carried out to the hover 
 ing vessel. 
 
 I marked him plainly as he sat low in the stern, 
 anon lifting aloft his red coat as a signal to those aboard 
 the schooner, though from the feeble way he raised the 
 garment and the suddenness with which his arm dropped 
 I took it that he was fairly well shaken by his fall. 
 Neither his neck nor any other bone was broken, I im 
 agined, for, though I could not at that distance mark 
 the details of his actions, they were far from those of a 
 seriously injured man, as it took him scarce thirty sec 
 onds to transfer himself from the lesser craft to the 
 greater, and that without any assistance. The boat 
 hung to the side of the schooner for a space, and then 
 it shot away toward the Indian village on the northern 
 shore. I hastily called Gertrude, and by the time she 
 joined me the schooner had swung into the wind and 
 gone about, laying a course for the distant fleet. It may 
 have been imagination, but I thought McCary was on 
 the quarter-deck, surrounded by a group of red-coated 
 officers, pointing to the figures of Gertrude and myself 
 as we stood boldly prominent on the height above. If 
 he was so looking, and held a modicum of feeling, he 
 must have been awed by the aspect of the declivity down
 
 THE DAY OF DAYS. 281 
 
 which he had rolled, for below its full extent shows to 
 a greater advantage than from above. 
 
 It was with a mixed feeling of disappointment and 
 relief that I noted the escape of the fellow disappoint 
 ment that he had slipped from me without adequate 
 punishment, and relief that I had none of his blood on 
 my hands. His coming off as he had was a miracle at 
 first thought, but it ceased to be as I considered how his 
 struggles to restrain his fall had broken its severity. 
 Though the latter part of his descent had been uncon 
 trolled, it was a declivity down which he had shot, and 
 not a sheer drop, and, as the face of the height, stupen 
 dous as it is, is made up of soft clay in which there is 
 not a stone larger than a pebble, and he failed to strike 
 the sea wall at the bottom, I could easily understand 
 how he had, with the help of the Indian, escaped with 
 his life. Doubtless he had been stunned by his bounds 
 from terrace to terrace, and was well bruised and twisted, 
 but with assistance he had recovered his senses and 
 prevailed on his dusky friend to take him to the vessel, 
 which by some chance was sailing near the land. 
 
 This was the way I accounted for the matter, and, 
 saving the detail anent the Indian, I was right. 
 
 The next day I knew that the Chappaquiddeck below 
 had waited by appointment for the appearance of 
 McCary, having been hired to take him to Newport, 
 where he was to join Pigot, the perilous voyage to be 
 made in an open boat. There was no tale of murder to 
 be done, but the surgeon had borrowed the fellow s gun 
 and promised to meet him on the beach at the very hour 
 he did, though great was the astonishment of the inno 
 cent red man to see his patron keeping his appointment 
 and approaching down the face of the cliff like a falling 
 star. He had not marked the struggle aloft, and he had 
 been in collusion with McCary only as I have explained. 
 The advent of the British fleet was evidently as great a 
 19
 
 282 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 surprise to the surgeon as to me, and the schooner, " a 
 night o luck " (as Lounsbury had once expressed it), 
 the villain little deserved. 
 
 The clew leading to all this was gained through the 
 abandoned rifle I picked up on our way home. It was 
 a common grade of firearm, but its stock opened the way 
 to the truth, for on it was carved a rude semblance to 
 a fish s head, and still more rudely cut was the name 
 of " Tummasee," a full-blood Chappaquiddeck I had 
 known since a lad. Realizing the power of money wher 
 ever applied, I little wondered that the Indian could 
 have been hired to aid the prisoner in an escape, but I 
 hardly think he could have been brought to act as an 
 accomplice to the murder of an old and well-known in 
 habitant of the island. His innocence of any conscious 
 ness of wrongdoing was clear in the open way in which 
 he claimed the rifle when I showed it to him, he even 
 going so far as to exhibit the gold piece McCary had 
 given him.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 A BIT OF HISTORY. 
 
 FOE one week I lived in a trance, a state of delirious 
 beatitude which a man of character would not wish for 
 ever to endure, and which in later days I have tried to 
 recapture as one tries in vain to hold on awakening, the 
 spirit of an entrancing dream. Even when enjoying a 
 more tangible happiness have I turned and sought for 
 the mood possessing me during the first days of my be 
 trothal to Gertrude King. But it was as futile as is my 
 present attempt to hale back the lost spirit of my youth. 
 Like a flash of lightning or the unreal shadow cast by 
 the Will-o -the-wisp, it comes for the briefest space, and 
 flits away before I can grasp it. An old sight, an old 
 odor, an old tune throws me for a moment under the 
 old spell, but quickly the fire of the past dies out and 
 I see its ashes in the present. 
 
 For seven days I lived apart from all common things, 
 a dreamer, a visionist, but on the eighth day I became 
 a man. 
 
 In the meantime had come the news of the relief of 
 Xewport by General Clinton. He had arrived just in 
 time to see Sullivan retreat in safety, and his rage was 
 boundless. I know not which of my messages reached 
 the American camp, but I do know that I received no 
 credit for the warning given. Sullivan admitted that 
 he was forewarned, but by whom or through whom was 
 a subject on which he forever remained silent. 
 
 283
 
 284 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 The British general, baffled by the turn of affairs on 
 Rhode Island, started for Boston to try his strength on 
 the French, who had deserted Sullivan in his hour of 
 need. It was his fleet I had seen, and my surmise as 
 to its destination had been correct. It turned out, how 
 ever, that our allies also had word of the coming of 
 Clinton, and on his arrival he found the hereditary 
 enemy of England drawn up to receive him in such an 
 advantageous position that he hurried away from the 
 vicinity of Boston and returned to Long Island Sound, 
 his temper not having been improved by this second 
 setback. 
 
 That the expedition might not be fruitless, he next 
 planned an attack on the town of New London, but here 
 the Almighty interposed. For three days a strong north 
 wind blew down the river Thames, preventing the entry 
 of the fleet, and by the time an attack was possible the 
 town was prepared to make a brave defense. The ad 
 ministration of Clinton showed that he was never quite 
 ready for a pitched battle on even terms, and, as it was 
 no longer possible to surprise the old harbor town, he 
 withdrew his forces. But he had by this been long 
 from New York and Mrs. Badely, and, as neither his 
 health nor his temper could brook opposition or fail 
 ure, he turned the expedition over to General Grey, and 
 placing most of his fleet at the disposal of this able 
 though cruel lieutenant, ordered him to ravage Buz 
 zard s Bay and Martha s Vineyard, while with a few 
 vessels as an escort he fled to the ease and comfort of 
 New York. 
 
 The wanton destruction of defenseless points now 
 took the place of dignified warfare. What Grey did is 
 well known. After the almost complete destruction of 
 New Bedford and the adjacent coast (which was accom 
 plished on the Sabbath and in the space of twelve 
 hours), he turned his attention to Martha s Vineyard.
 
 A BIT OF HISTORY. 285 
 
 Historians all agree as to the extent of the robbery 
 (contributions under pain of death) which took place 
 on that quiet island, but they do not agree as to the 
 shedding of blood. I myself doubt any official sanc 
 tion of violence (the suddenness of the descent and the 
 character of the inhabitants making resistance impos 
 sible), but the annals of the house of Thorndyke prove 
 that violence was done, that blood was shed, and that 
 immediate vengeance was taken therefor. Ay, and more 
 that was not immediate a blood vengeance which ran 
 through the rank and file of the British army during 
 the following two years, and finally a bloodless venge 
 ance which struck the head and front of the host Sir 
 Henry Clinton himself. It smote him in a way that 
 bowed him low, and, though the hand dealing the blow 
 was hidden from the public, he of all others knew who 
 had cut loose the sword so long suspended above him. 
 
 Four days from the time I saw the British fleet sail 
 ing eastward I saw it return and sail westward. No news 
 had then arrived as to its mission, but whatever that 
 mission had been I knew no general action had taken 
 place, for every spar was entire, and not a hole showed 
 in the white cloths that bellied in the wind. Ship after 
 ship they trailed away like a flock of birds, finally melt 
 ing into the haze toward Long Island Sound, and I 
 thought that was to be the last of them. 
 
 On the morning of the 5th of September my mother 
 was too ill to rise from her bed. This was alarming, 
 for I could hardly remember the day she had ailed, and 
 with a strange, depressed feeling, which, however, soon 
 wore away, I tore myself from Gertrude, and, putting 
 the ancient horse to the more ancient chaise, set off to 
 Edgartown for the doctor. 
 
 John, or Bow-peg Phillipse, as the doctor was gen 
 erally called (the nickname referring to his extremely 
 bandied legs), was a man for whom as a practitioner I
 
 286 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 had mighty little respect, nor is it saying much for him 
 in admitting that he was the best physician on the island. 
 We had little use for doctors in those days, and have 
 not a great deal even now. The rust of years had ob 
 literated most of this man s learning, and, beyond the 
 knife and a bolus, he had but few remedies on which to 
 rely in case of need. As a man, however, he stood well, 
 and for his opinion on two subjects, if nothing more, 
 I held him in high regard those of admiration for the 
 character and person of my lamented father, and the 
 British, whom he hated. The doctor, a sturdy, hard- 
 fisted, soft-hearted, rather excitable man, with a figure 
 as gnarled and twisted as a root, had served in the Eng 
 lish fleet during the .French War, and bad been a wit 
 ness at the depopulation of Acadia, the inhumanity of 
 which act being at the bottom of his detestation for all 
 things emanating from England. Moreover, he was no 
 coward (though he overflowed with policy), and had not 
 a bullet in his leg and seventy years prevented, he would 
 have been far from the last to serve his country in its 
 present trouble. 
 
 But as a physician he was my only resort, and I 
 went for him more for his opinion as to the ailment of 
 my mother than in belief that he could cure her if her 
 malady should prove to be of a serious nature. I started 
 for him on the Sabbath, and the quiet of the day was 
 in the air and over all the land. Not but that it is al 
 ways quiet here, but even to me, used as I was to the 
 stillness of the place, there was an unusual hush, a 
 breathless calm, and one portentous had I but known 
 it. It was a good eighteen miles drive to Edgartown, 
 and, after giving the horse a rest, I returned with Phil- 
 lipse in the chaise by my side, not arriving at home until 
 somewhat late in the evening. 
 
 That night he lay in our house, and that night Xew 
 Bedford was burning and the fleet was creeping toward
 
 A BIT OF HISTORY. 287 
 
 us through the darkness, and not a soul on the island 
 knew what was in store. 
 
 The next morning the doctor made his examination 
 of the patient, and then took me aside. 
 
 " Nothing ails your mother, Donald," he said, " sav 
 ing the disease we are all bound to take if we be not 
 cut off too soon. I mean old age. She has been beset 
 with worry, but we ll give her a draught to mend the 
 feebleness, and then all she needs is quiet and the will 
 o God. You may have her with you for yet awhile, but 
 she s tender, lad." 
 
 I had lived years enough to be prepared for this, and 
 it scarcely came as a blow, only it pressed me hard to 
 have thus clearly brought to me that my dear mother, 
 who all her life had been the embodiment of tenderness, 
 was at last nearing the threshold of her long home. 
 Peacefully she lay in her bed, looking through her great 
 horn spectacles at the early sunlight streaming across 
 her chamber floor, and alas, poor soul! (should it be 
 poor soul?) none of us dreamed how nearly it was sunset 
 for her, and I stooped and kissed her, comforted in 
 thinking that the end might still be in the future the 
 indefinite future words always soothing to a fearful 
 heart. 
 
 Setting at rest the anxiety of the household, I put 
 a bottle of rum before the doctor, and, bidding an adieu 
 to Gertrude, started off on horseback to the village to 
 obtain a supply of simples the physician had prescribed. 
 
 But I did not go to the village that day nor for many 
 days thereafter. I had gone no more than three miles 
 on my way (and the store was off six at least) when, as 
 I cleared some woods on the top of a hill, and was near- 
 ing the farm of neighbor Ashcroft, over the stretch of 
 open country I beheld his barn burning merrily. With 
 a shout I pressed forward, but not for a great way, for 
 as I drew nearer I saw his cattle running madlv about
 
 288 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 a field, chased by a number of men wearing scarlet coats, 
 and then as plainly as though it had been told me I 
 fathomed the whole business. The British had landed 
 on Martha s Vineyard. 
 
 For only one minute did I halt, and then turned 
 about and regained the cover I had but just left. 
 
 The certainty of invasion came like a bolt from the 
 clear blue above, and knowing of this mode of warfare 
 used by our enemies, and the extent to which it had 
 been pushed in Norwalk, Danbury, and at other points, 
 my heart sank within me. I fancied their place of land 
 ing must have been at Holmes Hole, the most central 
 and by far the most convenient point from which to 
 start a raid, and, though my own home was well re 
 moved from the anchorage of the fleet, I little doubted 
 it would receive attention from the raiders, who were 
 evidently bent on replenishing the commissary by rob 
 bing the island of its cattle and flocks even if they went 
 to no greater length. 
 
 As I stood under the shelter of the woods, I was 
 sorely troubled how to act. To gather a force and repel 
 the enemy was impossible, for the Vineyard was as help 
 less as a stray chick under the swoop of a hawk. Even 
 successfully to defend one s own house from the hands 
 of the spoilers was out of the question, as to defeat one 
 squad would be but to bring on another more deter 
 mined. I knew not the strength of the landed force, 
 but I did know that from Tryon up and down they took 
 few chances through being weak in numbers. Ravish 
 ing an undefended and prostrate coast line would figure 
 well in a general s report if he spoke not of the weak 
 ness of the section, but dwelt heavily on the immense 
 number of troops (which presumed an immense opposi 
 tion) required to subdue it. 
 
 I was therefore in a quandary as I strained my eyes 
 on the distant farmhouse and its blazing barn, but my
 
 A BIT OF HISTORY. 289 
 
 mind was somewhat hurried as I marked a wagon with 
 two horses turn from the home-lot lane into the road 
 and slowly climb the hill toward me. Mightily hurried, 
 indeed, when I saw that the vehicle contained a number 
 of redcoats, and caught from a musket barrel a quick 
 flash of sunlight, as though the weapon had been ex 
 ploded. 
 
 Then I turned and started toward home. The old 
 horse must have been astonished and outraged at the 
 way he was urged onward, but I gave him little chance 
 to draw an easy breath until I reined up at the kitchen 
 door. 
 
 The unusual sound of a galloping steed brought out 
 black Sam and the servant Cathy in a panic, and their 
 panic was increased as I shouted to the man: " Drive 
 the cattle deep into the woods! The British are com 
 ing! Waste not a second! " at the same time dismount 
 ing and hurrying him into the saddle. His not too bril 
 liant intellect w r as quickened at the dread word " Brit 
 ish," and he was oft ere I gave him a chance to ask a 
 question. 
 
 Running through the house, I tore up to my moth 
 er s room, expecting to find Gertrude, but she was not 
 there. My sister sat by the invalid, and, quietly beckon 
 ing her from the room, I told her the news. She nearly 
 fainted as she listened, and it was all I could do to get 
 from her that my love was with her brother. Bidding 
 her be careful to hide her agitation, I hurried to Ames s 
 room, only to find him alone. He was greatly stirred 
 as he heard the short story I blurted out, cursing his 
 own inability to act, but of his sister he could only say 
 she had left the house for a walk to beguile the time 
 against my return, but in what direction she had gone 
 he knew not. 
 
 The fear I had was not one I dared to express to 
 him, but deep in my heart it was that she, himself, or
 
 290 A COLONIAL FREE-LAXCE. 
 
 myself might be recognized by some of the group which 
 was undoubtedly making our farm the objective point 
 of their drive. If Gertrude was in the forest and would 
 remain away, I should have little to fear for her, and, 
 as there were many preparations to make, I could not 
 desert my plain duty and go in search of her, especially 
 as I knew not in which direction to first turn. 
 
 My next move was te find the doctor. That worthy 
 was drowsing beneath the north porch in blissful con 
 tent with the world, but the way the old gentleman fired 
 up when I retailed what I had witnessed was a comfort, 
 albeit his plans to meet the difficulty were hardly prac 
 ticable. He would barricade the house and defend it 
 as if a fort. He swore no redcoat should invade the roof 
 covering him, be it his roof or no, and live a minute. 
 In short, he acted in a way to drive me wild, inasmuch 
 as he was unreasonable in his rage; not a feasible plan 
 had been laid or even suggested, and there was not a 
 moment to lose. In the end a council of war was held in 
 Ames s room between him, the doctor, my sister Rachel, 
 and myself, in which it was clearly shown that force, save 
 as a last resort, would be foolhardy; flight out of the 
 question, as neither my mother nor Ames could be moved 
 to the woods on such short notice; while a tame sur 
 render of person and property would be cowardly, and 
 was not to be more than mentioned. It was true that 
 the doctor might withdraw, and so might I, leaving none 
 but noncombatants about the house, but to me this 
 looked to be little less than desertion on my part, a 
 cowardly contrivance; and the doctor swore in strange 
 oaths, for which he apologized to the lady, and at once 
 repeated, that he was not to be driven off by a pack of 
 lobster-colored, sheep-stealing rogues while the son of 
 his old friend was in straits. I think the stubborn- 
 headed practitioner little dreamed of danger to himself, 
 but he won my eternal gratitude for his stanch deter-
 
 A BIT OF HISTORY. 291 
 
 ruination to stand by me and by the way he bore him 
 self when put to the test. 
 
 The result of our conference was that policy (other 
 wise deceit) should be used, and it was agreed that the 
 doctor should pose as the head of the house, with Ames 
 as his son, my sister and Gertrude (should the latter ap 
 pear) as his daughters, while my mother would unknow 
 ingly take the part of the dying wife of the old gentle 
 man, who under his own name and in the company of 
 Eachel and the servant would receive the visitors in the 
 kitchen. 
 
 As there was more than a chance that I would be 
 recognized if I presented myself, it was arranged that 
 I should lie concealed in the woodhouse off the kitchen, 
 that I might be at hand if violence or an open rupture 
 ensued. 
 
 With the recapture of the schooner, my rifle, sword, 
 and pistols had been rescued, and, loading the firearms, 
 I gave one pistol to the doctor for use in an emergency, 
 and one to Ames, who was removed to my mother s 
 room, the privacy of which, out of respect for her sup 
 posed condition, might not be violated. I had my 
 doubts about any part of the house being safe from 
 search, but I could see no other, disposition to make of 
 either my mother or my friend, and trusted the doctor 
 to disarm any suspicion that the house was aught else 
 than the abiding place of a peaceable and harmless fam 
 ily with Tory proclivities. 
 
 Then I turned attention to my own hiding place. 
 The woodhouse, a flimsy, pent-roofed structure, was 
 built against the gable end of the house itself, that fuel 
 might be obtained therefrom without exposure to the 
 terrible storms of winter. It opened into the kitchen 
 on one side, and near this door was a small, square win 
 dow, sashed, glazed, and curtained with thin muslin. 
 On the opposite side of the room, if room it could be
 
 292 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 called, was another door leading into the yard, and close 
 by it an immovable window, matching in size those of 
 the house, this being likewise glazed, and protected on 
 the inside with solid wooden shutters. 
 
 The first thing I did was to nail up the outer door 
 and bar the shutters. By so doing I was protected at the 
 rear, and, as the only light now entering came through 
 the small window on the kitchen side, the place was so 
 darkened that a man standing in the corner, though 
 uncovered, might not easily be seen by any one entering 
 the apartment, though he could command a view of all 
 going on in the kitchen itself.
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 THE ATTACK. 
 
 WHILE I was thus busied in fortifying my retreat, 
 Rachel had been posted in the garret watching for both 
 the coming of the enemy and any signs of Gertrude. 
 Since I had met her this was the first time I wished 
 my love would remain away from me, and, as my trip to 
 the village, had I made it, would have consumed at least 
 three hours, I hoped she had taken the notion to stay 
 from the house until my expected return. My fear now 
 was that she had gone to meet me and would fall into 
 the hands of those in the wagon. 
 
 They were evidently taking the/ir time or had lost 
 their way, for I had finished my preparations, had 
 pointed out the liquor closet to the doctor, and was try 
 ing to get through the thick wits of Cathy that whatever 
 happened or was said she must pretend to be dumb, 
 when Rachel came flying downstairs with more color 
 in her face than I had seen for years, and announced 
 that the team with its burden of royalists had just 
 cleared the edge of the woods, where the redcoats had 
 left the vehicle and were advancing toward the house on 
 foot. There were five men, one apparently an officer, 
 she said, as he carried a sword in lieu of a musket, and 
 walked ahead of the others. Gertrude she had not 
 seen. 
 
 With a ready wit that commanded my respect, the 
 doctor at this whisked the spinning-wheel into the cen- 
 
 293
 
 29-t A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 ter of the room and bade Rachel seat herself and work; 
 then, pointing to the half-dying fire, told Cathy to clean 
 the hearth, after which he sat himself in my mother s 
 rocker, stretched out his legs, and, throwing a kerchief 
 over his face, to all appearances was fast asleep. He 
 was the very man for the part selected if he would but 
 keep cool. 
 
 Stripping myself of coat and waistcoat, I buckled 
 my sword to my side, and, taking both rifle and fowling- 
 piece, stepped into my quarters, closed the door, and 
 fastened its latch by jamming a slip of wood into the 
 loop of the fall. Then I stood with my face at the 
 window, through the thin drapery of which I could see 
 quite plainly. 
 
 The silence as I waited seemed intense, though there 
 was the ticking of the clock and the low humming of 
 the wheel. A fly which had blundered betwixt the pane 
 and the curtain set up a thunderous buzzing over the 
 window, as if drawing attention to my place of conceal 
 ment, and the time dragged (or appeared to) to such 
 an extent that I was about to call through the partition 
 when I heard footsteps on the path without, and then 
 a voice in a tone of command bidding two men to repair 
 to the rear of the house and allow no one to leave it. 
 
 I heard the guard pass the window at my back, and 
 presently there was a shuffling of feet, followed quickly 
 by the entrance of the officer. 
 
 As his shadow fell athwart the door-sill the door 
 itself was blocked by two marines, who, however, did 
 not at once follow their superior across the threshold, 
 and, as he boldly advanced into the room without a rap 
 to herald his coming, I nearly fell backward, for before 
 me stood Captain Scammell! lie was as sleek as on 
 the day I first saw him, though his face now bore the 
 desperate look a man puts on when he is about to do 
 a desperate deed. His drawn sword was in his hand,
 
 THE ATTACK. 295 
 
 and a single pistol stuck in his belt. Driving the point 
 of the former into the planking of the floor, he said in 
 a loud tone: 
 
 " For giving shelter to the enemies of the King, in 
 the name of his Majesty the inmates of this house are 
 prisoners. I demand the bodies of one Gertrude King, 
 one Beverly Ames, and one Donald Thorndyke, out 
 lawed by proclamation, and known to be concealed, suc 
 cored, and comforted under this roof." 
 
 This well-rehearsed bit of formality had not been 
 half delivered when the doctor pulled his kerchief from 
 his head and opened his eyes as though waked from a 
 deep sleep, his face indicating profound astonishment. 
 Rachel half rose to her feet, and the servant stood in 
 open-mouth wonder. 
 
 For one instant after the completion of the speech 
 the scene was a tableau not a soul stirring; but Phil- 
 lipse recovered from his feigned surprise, and before 
 Scammell could move or speak again he bounded from 
 his chair with the exclamation: 
 
 . " What! A King s officer! Thank God for a sight of 
 his Majesty s colors! You are welcome, sir, thrice wel 
 come! " at the same time advancing and holding out 
 his hand as he continued: " I can at last speak out with 
 no danger! God knows how I have prayed that his Maj 
 esty would establish his authoritv on the island! Come, 
 sir 
 
 "Who are you, sir?" was the stern demand of the 
 officer as he ignored the hand extended to him and eyed 
 the doctor suspiciously. " Who are you? I wot not of 
 one of your description. Is this not the house of Thorn- 
 dyke? 
 
 "Ho! ho!" returned the wily physician, "and are 
 you seeking that arch -rebel? Curse me not with the 
 suspicion that nay roof ever harbored one of his breed. 
 I am Dr. John Phillipse, an honorable practitioner, a
 
 296 A COLONIAL FREE-LAXCE. 
 
 man loyal to his Majesty. You have mistaken your 
 road. The house of Thorndyke lies two miles to the 
 south. If you came by Holmes Hole, you passed the 
 proper turn as many miles back. Is that villain to be 
 brought to book at last? " 
 
 At these words Scammell s face lost its desperate 
 cast and took on a look of perplexity, and it was plain 
 that he was both disappointed and uncertain how to act. 
 It showed in the way he pulled his sword from the floor, 
 sheathed it, and removed his hat out of deference to the 
 lady, who had reseated herself at the wheel. Then he 
 said with some hesitation: 
 
 " Is it possible that two farms can be so alike? This 
 house answers in every detail." 
 
 " You may find many on this plan," quickly inter 
 posed the doctor, " the difference being in a chimney, 
 window, or door only. We of this section are prone to 
 build alike. It is a peculiarity holding good throughout 
 the colonies." 
 
 " True enough," returned Scammell. " Who have 
 you in your family? " 
 
 " This is my daughter Euth, my eldest," returned 
 the physician, lying with the greatest of ease and 
 smoothness as he indicated Eacliel by a wave of his 
 hand. " My youngest is away. I have also a son a 
 boy whose wit is lacking the Lord smites his children, 
 sir. My wife is nearing her end, and the youth is with 
 her upstairs. I hope you will respect her condition, 
 but if you insist, you may search the house." 
 
 " I have no intention of intruding on the privacy of 
 a loyal man," returned the Tory, " but I was plainly 
 directed to this house, and noticed no turn in the way 
 as I came along. You, sir, must know of this Thorn- 
 dyke. He was on the island a week agone; is he still 
 at home? Are those he brought still with him?" 
 
 " Indeed, I know not," was the ready reply. " I
 
 THE ATTACK. 297 
 
 hold no intercourse with his family, but I have heard of 
 a lady and her brother having returned with him barely 
 three weeks since. He also has one of his Majesty s 
 naval surgeons, taken somehow and put on his parole. 
 My dear, bring out a bottle and some glasses. Will you 
 not drink the King s health before you move on? I 
 would be your guide, sir, but a bullet in my leg gotten 
 in the King s service in front of Louisburg, prevents." 
 
 The plausibility of Phillipse s speech, backed by his 
 open manner, could not do otherwise than deceive the 
 Tory, who was upon strange ground, and, bowing to 
 my sister, who had risen and placed upon the table a 
 bottle of liquor and the glasses, he seated himself with 
 his back toward me and so close to the window through 
 which I was looking that but for the partition I could 
 have driven my sword through him without moving a 
 step. 
 
 " It seems, .sir," he began as he tipped the bottle, 
 " that I owe you an apology for this intrusion and 
 thanks for your good will. I fancy I can now find the 
 house I wish. Two miles back, you say, and to the 
 south. I must hurry, else he will get wind of us. The 
 King s health, and yours, madam, and yours, doctor." 
 And lifting his glass to his lips he drained it, then ris 
 ing, prepared to depart. 
 
 " After all, you will have more than your own force, 
 captain, or major; I know not your rank, sir," volun 
 teered the doctor. "There is the surgeon, who will 
 
 " No, indeed, sir," was the laughing reply. " McCary 
 took himself off a week ago, and it is through him that 
 I am posted. Regarding Thorndyke," he continued, 
 walking to the door, " I confess to personal enmity, but 
 McCary s extends through the whole household. It is 
 perhaps fortunate for you that the capture of this fel 
 low is my sole mission. I may be followed by others less 
 considerate than myself, but, as you lay out of the track 
 20
 
 298 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 of the regular highway, you may escape. I wish you 
 good day, sir the same to you, madam." 
 
 Now this looked to be a fair ending to the matter, 
 for a time at least, and I was congratulating myself that 
 we would gain several hours and be prepared for their 
 return, when the hall door opened and Gertrude entered 
 the room. Her face was flushed, as though she had just 
 been awakened from a nap as, indeed, she had her 
 hat was in her hand, and she was about to raise it to her 
 head when she caught sight of the group upon the 
 threshold. With pretty embarrassment she glanced from 
 the party to my sister, and exclaimed: " Why, Eachel, 
 
 what is the matter? What is " but suddenly stood 
 
 like one paralyzed as she recognized her ci-devant lover. 
 
 My heart gave a terrific bound and stood still. For 
 a moment Scammell returned her stare, then the light 
 broke on him, for his sword flashed out as he thundered: 
 
 " Aha ! I have it ! Xearly tricked, by God ! For 
 ward there! " and he sprang toward the girl, who, seeing 
 his approach, uttered a scream, and turning fled through 
 the door by which she had entered the room, slamming 
 the portal behind her. 
 
 The action now became as quick as it had hitherto 
 been slow. 
 
 As Scammell turned to follow the fleeing maiden, he 
 wheeled on the doctor, who was now across the room, 
 and, drawing his pistol, fired. The shot brought the 
 old man to his knees, though he was on his feet again 
 before his assailant had gotten from the room. At the 
 same moment Eachel sprang to the closed door, placing 
 her back against it, and, as the officer threw down his 
 pistol and shouted, " Let none escape! " one of the ma 
 rines ran to my sister and, seizing her with one arm, 
 dragged her roughly from her position, while his com 
 panion bounded through the now opened door, followed 
 by Scammell.
 
 THE ATTACK. 299 
 
 The noise of the scuffle brought one of the outside 
 guard into the kitchen, only to be grappled by the doc 
 tor as he entered, and the two were at once sprawling 
 on the floor in close embrace. As my sister strove in 
 vain to release herself from the grasp of the marine, she 
 shrieked my name, and in my hurry and excitement I 
 broke the light slip of wood in the fall of the latch, and 
 could neither unfasten or force the door. 
 
 But rescue for Eachel came from an unlooked-for 
 quarter. Still tugging desperately at the jammed latch, 
 with my eye yet at the window as I worked, I saw Cathy 
 run to the hearth, snatch a brand from the fire, and dash 
 it into the face of the soldier. With a yell of pain he 
 released the girl with whom he had been struggling, 
 throwing her violently to the floor, and, turning upon 
 the old servant, he shortened his musket in his grasp 
 and with an oath drove the bayonet into the heart of 
 the faithful woman. Without a word she fell backward, 
 while I, goaded to madness at having unwittingly made 
 myself a prisoner, dashed down the sash in front of me, 
 and from my fowlingpiece poured a charge of buckshot 
 into the head of the villain who looked up, his atten 
 tion attracted by the noise of the splintering glass. Like 
 lead he fell across his victim. 
 
 It was a terrible moment for me. The room without 
 was already a shamble, and every soul in it was on the 
 floor. The opening through which I had fired was far 
 too small to pass me, one door was jammed, and the 
 other nailed. But there was the second window. Hasti 
 ly throwing back the shutters, with a log I shattered 
 the sash in half a dozen blows, and, snatching my rifle, 
 jumped out. 
 
 The crashing of glass evidently brought on the 
 fourth marine, or else he was running for help, for as I 
 doubled the corner of the house we collided with terrific 
 force, the blow sending me staggering against the side
 
 300 A COLONIAL FEEE-LANCE. 
 
 of the building, while he bounded off and fell to the 
 ground motionless, probably stunned by the shock. 
 
 As I recovered and ran through the kitchen door 
 I saw the doctor s opponent had gotten the mastery and 
 was astride the physician s prostrate form, striving to 
 hold him, and at the same time endeavoring to reach 
 the old man s pistol which lay just beyond his grasp. 
 Without a word I brought the edge of my rifle s stock 
 down on the bared head of the redcoat. I marked the 
 wood sink into his skull, but saw nothing more, for, 
 stopping only to deliver the blow, I ran through the 
 room into the hall and up the stairs, whither I knew 
 Gertrude must have fled and been followed.
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 TO THE BITTER END. 
 
 As I tore along, short as was the distance, there was 
 ample time for my head to be filled with a tangle of 
 horrid thoughts as to what had happened above that 
 served to make the way seem endless. As I reached the 
 top the sound of loud voices directed me to my mother s 
 room, and in a moment I was at the door. My mother, 
 who until the violent invasion of her apartment had 
 probably not dreamed of danger, having partly lifted 
 herself from her pillow, was calling for me in a weak 
 and tremulous voice. Ames leaned against the wall at 
 the foot of the bed, and in front of the bed itself, as 
 though to defend those behind her, stood my brave girl 
 with a cocked pistol in her hand. Confronting her 
 brother was the marine who had followed Scammell, 
 and opposite Gertrude, held away by her pistol, stood 
 Scammell himself, with his back toward the open door. 
 Above the feeble noise of my mother s calling I caught 
 the words that Gertrude had given in answer to some 
 question or demand of the officer: "Never alive, sir! 
 Settle with him! I am the promised wife of Donald 
 Thorndyke!" and then I was upon them. 
 
 Unnoticed by either of the royalists, I deliberately 
 aimed my rifle at the marine and pulled the trigger, but 
 the priming had been dislodged by the blow I had given 
 the man below or it had become wet with his blood, for 
 only sparks flew from the descended flint. Casting the 
 
 301
 
 302 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 now useless gun aside, I drew my sword, and with the 
 cry of " Turn, you villain, turn! " I smote Scammell 
 across the shoulders with the flat of the blade. 
 
 Such an insult he had never received, and, wheeling 
 about, he confronted me on even terms for the first time. 
 I never saw such rage on a human countenance as on 
 his when his look met mine. A flame appeared to shoot 
 from his eyes, and as our swords crossed with a crash he 
 shouted: " Shoot him down! Kill the damn villain as 
 he fights! " 
 
 He had swung himself around to bring his back to 
 the light, thus throwing me face to face with the sea 
 soldier. Though I was well engaged with my opponent, 
 I saw the man raise his musket, and at that instant Ger 
 trude fired, presumably at him, as he staggered against 
 the wall, his musket falling to his side. With apparent 
 effort he struggled to retain his position, and, again 
 lifting his gun, he now pointed it toward the heroic 
 girl and fired, falling to the floor at the same in 
 stant. 
 
 In the close room the crash of the explosion was 
 deafening, but through it I heard the shriek given by 
 my love, followed by a deep groan. I heard Ames 
 spring around the bed and utter an exclamation, but I 
 dared not shift my eye from the man before me. For 
 me the blow had fallen. My heart turned to stone, my 
 nerves to bands of steel, my muscles to iron. Even 
 then I felt the glory of perfect and invincible strength, 
 and knew for what purpose it had been given me. Xow 
 that my darling had fallen, I should kill this man who 
 had been the cause of her murder had it been ordained 
 that I should suffer in hell for the act. 
 
 But he was not so easily made way with. Through 
 the smoke that spread in the room I could see his devil 
 ish face with its bared teeth, as though he was smiling 
 at my agony. I pressed him close, giving him no open-
 
 TO THE BITTER END. 303 
 
 ing, and as we shifted, now with his back toward the 
 door and mine to the bed, he suddenly made a furious 
 lunge which I parried, but ere I could counter he turned 
 and fled from the room and down the stairs. 
 
 Without a look toward those I loved best on this 
 earth, I followed him. His move was so sudden that 
 he was at the foot of the stairs as I reached the top, and 
 he was at the outer door of the kitchen when I arrived 
 at the one leading from the hall. Whether he meant 
 to elude me and escape, being frightened at the look 
 on my face (as well he might have been if it exhibited 
 my feelings), or whether he hoped to gain the assistance 
 of one of his men below, I know not. Mayhap he only 
 wished for a more open space in which to play his 
 sword. 
 
 However, if flight had been his hope it was nipped 
 by a sudden frost, for as he cast a backward glance at me 
 he ran fairly into the embrace of black Sam, who threw 
 his arms about the Tory, pinning his elbows at his sides, 
 and causing the officer to drop his sword. Struggle as 
 he might, he could not loosen the powerful grip of the 
 farm hand, and when I reached them they were totter 
 ing over the smooth turf, the negro calling on me to 
 " kill the Britisher! " even as Scammell had called on 
 the soldier to kill me. 
 
 Standing a pace or so away, I ordered the black to 
 release his prisoner, which he at once did, stepping aside 
 and eying me as though I had suddenly gone mad. 
 
 So far as possessing any Christian quality, I had 
 gone mad; and, likewise, so far as possessing more than 
 a modicum of any feeling (save hate for the man before 
 me), I was dead. I may have held a faint glimmer of 
 honor in my mind, else I would have stabbed the miser 
 able royalist while he was held by the negro, though this 
 scrap of consciousness was, after all, but pride. I am 
 glad I gave him a chance.
 
 304 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 "Hand him his sword!" I shouted fiercely. The 
 black did as ordered, and then I spoke to Scammell for 
 the last time: 
 
 " Now, you hound, defend yourself! Strip off your 
 coat and be a man. A I outrance you once said, and now 
 a I outrance it shall be! If you run again, I will stab 
 you in the back, and I care not for foul blood! If you 
 slip, it means no quarter. Here ends it! I will not 
 waste time in giving you that once promised beating, 
 but, as for my contempt, let this show." 
 
 So saying, I advanced toward him with my sword 
 down, and with the palm of my left hand struck him 
 across the cheek and quickly sprang on guard. 
 
 The blood flew to his face and out again. Driving 
 the point of the weapon into the ground, he tore off 
 his scarlet coat, tossed aside his hat, and, grasping his 
 sword, without a sound came toward me with a rush. 
 
 I had a taste of his style of fence by this, but I 
 dared not try my own trick while his anger was at such 
 a height that he would not mark the fine opening I 
 meant to show him. At first he fought wildly but too 
 well for me to try to force his guard, and, in order to 
 cool him, I gave ground, that he might gain encourage 
 ment. Not for a fraction of a second did I shift my 
 eye from his, though somehow I was conscious that we 
 were being watched from the door, though no one inter 
 fered. Not for a fraction of a second did I fear this 
 man, who, far from smiling now, was working earnestly 
 to wipe out the last insult and my life together. It gave 
 me a fierce joy to mark his rage (and the depth of it 
 was plain enough), though not a word was spoken. He 
 played my wrist as if to test its strength, and found it 
 steel; he feinted, he tried both inside and outside of my 
 guard, our blades biting and snapping together as though 
 alive. 
 
 The glory of that fiery moment comes back to me
 
 TO THE BITTER END. 305 
 
 as I set this down, but it is dulled by years agone. I 
 hear the smooth sibilance of the sliding steel and the 
 sharp ring of the parry. I see the clear sky above me, 
 and feel again the hot air of that early autumn noon, 
 and know my age is that of the flesh and not the spirit. 
 Oh, for my lost strength! God! for eternal youth! 
 
 I drew the fellow foot by foot, still holding away 
 until his fruitless efforts to undo me had made him des 
 perate, and then I threw my wrist out of line and my 
 point fell off. Like lightning he took the bait, and like 
 lightning I stepped back. The next second his sword 
 was spinning through the air. Before the whirling steel 
 reached the ground I had passed my blade through 
 Scammell s throat and saw the awful spasm on his face. 
 And then I turned away before I heard his body strike 
 the sod. 
 
 When I looked again he was lying on his back with 
 arms and legs spread wide, his half-closed eyes turned to 
 the sun, as dead as a man with a severed jugular 
 could be. 
 
 I came back to the world then, and looked broadly 
 about me for the first time since my enemy had entered 
 the house. The doctor, with his kerchief about his 
 head, came running from the door, followed by Sam, 
 but with no greeting to either I turned my thoughts to 
 those upstairs and started in. As I neared the door I 
 marked the man I had run into still lying prone upon 
 the ground, but I gave him only a passing glance. 
 
 When I re-entered the kitchen the room was rilled 
 with a smoke and the smell of burned cotton, which I 
 had not noticed as I came through. Rachel was no 
 longer there, but on the floor was the soldier I had 
 killed first, lying athwart the body of his victim, while 
 the one I had brained with the rifle stock lay where he 
 had fallen. 
 
 The doctor hurriedly explained that the ball from
 
 306 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 Scammell s pistol had but grazed his temple., and, after 
 having been relieved from his assailant, he had discov 
 ered that the brand picked from the hearth by Cathy 
 had fired the rag carpet and the flooring beneath, and 
 his efforts to extinguish the flames and save the house 
 had prevented him from joining me above. Rachel, he 
 said, had recovered and gone upstairs. 
 
 I listened to him dully and went on, fascinated and 
 repelled by the horror of what I had seen and expected 
 yet to see. 
 
 The scene that met my eyes as I cast my first fear 
 ful look into my mother s room occasioned such a re 
 vulsion of feeling that I stood still. 
 
 On her knees in the center of the apartment was my 
 sister, weeping as though her heart would break, and by 
 her side, bending over to comfort her, stood Gertrude. 
 On the floor lay the marine she had shot, and by the 
 bedside was Ames, looking down at my mother. The 
 room was blue with smoke. 
 
 Quickly leaving the weeping girl, Gertrude flew to 
 me, throwing her arms about my neck, her face and free 
 dom of motion showing she was unhurt. There was no 
 hysterical outburst from this noble woman, who had now 
 twice saved my life. She simply looked wonderingly at 
 me and drew me across the room, whispering: 
 
 " She is dead! Donald! and the shot was meant 
 for me! " 
 
 There on the bed lay the body of my mother, the 
 ball intended for my love having struck her fairly in 
 the temple, killing her instantly. 
 
 Was I shocked? Ay, but only for the moment. 
 The peace of her face was the peace which passeth all 
 understanding, and, beyond the dark stain on the pil 
 low, there was naught about her to indicate that she was 
 not hearing the music of which she had often dreamed. 
 
 I bent over and kissed the transfigured countenance,
 
 TO THE BITTER END. 307 
 
 and then my rage grew boundless as I realized that she 
 had gone without a word to those she loved. Lifting 
 up my voice, I swore a vengeance which should not 
 cease until my country was rid of the butchers invading 
 it or I had been struck down. And Ames in silence 
 reached out his hand and pressed mine. It was in no 
 unchristian spirit I thus swore, but the spirit abode 
 with me, and now the charity which has come with age 
 is broad enough to cover the curse of England s hatred 
 for her own children because they demanded their 
 rights. 
 
 Though my heart was sore as I stood by the corpse 
 of my mother, I felt it was no time for mourning then. 
 I was beset with a fear that others would soon follow 
 after Scammell, and evidences of our successful defense 
 against the first incursion were too plain not to bring a 
 bloody reprisal. Of the five men who had left the 
 wagon, four were dead and one was a prisoner. I say 
 four were dead, but the fellow whom Gertrude had shot 
 and whose wavering aim had caused him to misdirect 
 his bullet lived for more than an hour after. 
 
 We gathered the bodies of the slain enemy and hid 
 them in the barn. The remains of my mother and 
 Cathy were placed tenderly in the wagon that had 
 brought our assailants, the evidences of the fray cov 
 ered as hastily and thoroughly as possible under the 
 circumstances, and we fled to the woods. 
 
 The prisoner was the man with whom I had col 
 lided. He had been found by Sam, the negro having 
 returned from driving off the cattle just as the man was 
 recovering consciousness. With little ado he had 
 knocked the fellow in the head with his own musket, 
 turning and running to the kitchen door in time to 
 intercept Scammell. The marine was fairly well sub 
 dued by the two concussions he had received, and when 
 he again recovered his senses there was little of the
 
 308 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 fighting mood left in him. He was bound by the hands, 
 put under the eye of Sam, and taken with us. 
 
 The tragedy of the day, which had been precipitated 
 by the untimely entrance of Gertrude into the kitchen, 
 might have been entirely avoided had we but known 
 in the beginning that, instead of going into the forest 
 for a walk, the girl had gone to her room and slept, hop 
 ing thus to easily be rid of the time which would inter 
 vene before my return from the village. It is true that 
 i the course of events had been thrown into another 
 channel we know not what might have happened, but 
 what God wills is not to be questioned. Her entrance 
 into the kitchen was the signal for the ending of the 
 greatest episode of my life, just as her appearance in 
 the companion way of the Sprite was the beginning 
 of it. 
 
 For the two days the British remained on Martha s 
 Vineyard we hid, living in a disused shed deep in the 
 heart of the forest. I have but a misty recollection of 
 the details of that time, only remembering in a general 
 way the scouting done by Sam and the wholly inade 
 quate preparations made to beat off the enemy, were we 
 discovered. There was no lack of arms now, and we 
 were desperate enough, but there came no occasion for 
 more fighting, though had we been found we might 
 easily have been taken. 
 
 On the second evening, under cover of darkness, I 
 returned alone to the house, surprised to find it still 
 standing and showing no evidences of having been en 
 tered since we had fled from it. There I constructed 
 two rude coffins, and my mother and the brave old serv 
 ant were buried side by side in the woods near the edge 
 of the home lot, Dr. Phillipse doing the last offices. 
 The time was mid night, and the land was being drenched 
 by a sudden thunderstorm, the whole party standing 
 through it while we filled in the shallow graves in a
 
 TO THE BITTER END. 309 
 
 darkness only broken by the glare of .the lightning. 
 To me the peals of thunder were a salute to the dead, 
 the pouring rain a proper winding sheet, and the aisles 
 of the forest, roaring with the voice of the short tem 
 pest, a grand cathedral, and one well fitted for the silent 
 forms there committed to earth. 
 
 And there they still rest, marked by a stone I have 
 lived to see begin to crumble under the hand of Time.
 
 CHAPTEE XXXII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 MY tale is nearly clone. I know it has been almost 
 wholly in the line of my own adventures (thus laying 
 me open to the charge of egotism), but I have told it in 
 a fashion that best suits myself, be the reader s conclu 
 sion what it may. It was not written for self-glorifica 
 tion, but for the purpose of showing how my love was 
 sanctified in a baptism of blood, and how a man s self- 
 interest and his patriotism may be so solidly welded as 
 to be a single thought. 
 
 The day when I was first threatened by Lounsbury 
 had been a day of promise (though I had known it not), 
 and the run of my life for the following three months, 
 which I have here set down, but a trial of my worthi 
 ness. That I was weighed my story has truly shown; 
 that I was not found wanting is proved when I swear 
 that I won the sweetest, bravest wife God ever gave a 
 man. 
 
 Of those who threw themselves between me and my 
 fate but little need be said. On the 8th of September 
 the British left Martha s Vineyard, after extorting a 
 heavy price for the peace its inhabitants had enjoyed. 
 They went, laden low with the spoils of their invasion, 
 leaving many aching hearts behind. That day we re 
 turned to the house. That day, in the sands of the 
 beach, we buried the repulsive bodies which had been 
 hidden in the barn. Even while we worked to hide them 
 
 310
 
 CONCLUSION. 311 
 
 forever, I marked the ships as they streamed away to 
 New York, and in fair view of them filled in the ditch 
 holding Scammell and the three marines. 
 
 I know not if that officer ever made his peace with 
 Clinton, hut the fact that he accompanied the fleet when 
 it descended on the coast leads me to think he had, 
 though I know not to this day how the dragoon came 
 to be doing sea duty. Nor do I know of any search hav 
 ing been made for either him or his fellows. His was 
 an irregular expedition, born of spite and requiring no 
 report. 
 
 Of McCary I never heard again. Two months after 
 the death of my mother Gertrude and I were married, 
 and then my wife told me a secret I never would have 
 guessed, and which cleared up the animus of the sur 
 geon s hate for me. 
 
 One week after our rescue by the Jenny, and while 
 the girl was convalescing, he had asked her to be his 
 wife, promising to throw aside his commission and 
 guaranteeing a free pardon to herself and her brother 
 from the King. His possessions in the old country were 
 considerable, and these he laid at her feet. He wooed 
 her well, excusing himself for his impetuosity on the 
 plea of the depth of his passion and the surrounding 
 circumstances. At her flat refusal his love had turned 
 to indignation, and he had openly damned me as his 
 rival, restraining himself at last, and begging in ab 
 ject terms that she would keep the matter from me. 
 And she had promised. 
 
 As for the blow that humbled Clinton, it worked 
 slowly, though none the less surely. Immediately after 
 her marriage Gertrude began a correspondence with a 
 distant relative in England, one close to the British min 
 istry, inclosing the papers (or copies of them) which she 
 had taken from Mrs. Badely. 
 
 It finally resulted in the recall of the British general,
 
 312 A COLONIAL FREE-LANCE. 
 
 who was placed at the bar of Parliament charged openly 
 with cowardice only, since to question his right to his 
 knighthood would be striking too near the King him 
 self. I know from more than hearsay that his bitterest 
 enemy, and the man who in all England he most feared, 
 shook the hateful papers in his face and swore his ruin. 
 Did not Clinton then know who had made good her 
 promise and dealt the blow? From that day, after a 
 lame excuse which any man may now read, the ex-gen 
 eral in chief was a broken political reed, and with him, 
 from the public eye, sank his paramour. 
 
 And this is all. With the ending of the war and 
 our dependence to the British crown, the properties of 
 both Gertrude and her brother were restored to them. 
 They were fair days. Within six months after my mar 
 riage Ames and I again entered the fight, still as irregu 
 lars. What we went through side by side is not a part 
 of this tale, but Gertrude herself buckled on our swords 
 with streaming eyes, and with streaming eyes she took 
 them off when we returned after the great day at York- 
 town, but not till then. 
 
 And the pledge made by her brother and myself 
 under the stars that night at Turtle Bay, still abides, 
 for he still lives. The oath spoken over the body of my 
 mother, and indorsed in the hand clasp of my more 
 than brother, was made in no unholy spirit. And it was 
 carried through coolly, as though we were but instru 
 ments of that mighty prophecy which is written in that 
 book of books: " Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. 
 I will repay." 
 
 THE END.
 
 
 
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