The horseman’s wild laughter echoed through the night.
A whip cracked. Tillotsen screamed with pain and dropped down to his knees, clutching at his face. Eyes rolling, the black horse reared up before them and the whip cracked once again. It snaked around Chilton’s throat and pulled him to the ground. Crenshaw turned to run, but suddenly a dark figure was before him. A club flashed and Crenshaw fell, unconscious. Drakov swung the club again and Johnny Long crumpled to the street. A moment later, Chilton joined him, and then Tillotsen was struck down
The next morning. all four men were discovered hanging from the stout boughs of the Liberty Tree in Boston Common. Pinned to the chest of each corpse was a placard reading. “Hellfire to the Sons of Liberty!”
4
For a change, no one interfered with the sheriff when he went to cut the latest display down off the Liberty Tree. Boston’s mood was suddenly subdued. There had been riots, there had been looting and destruction, men had been beaten bloody and senseless, but this was the first time men had died.
Lucas, Finn, and Andre stood apart with Hunter on the fringes of the silent crowd that had gathered to watch Greenleaf and his men remove the corpses Andre wore male clothing and to look at her, no one could tell she was a woman. She looked like a young boy of eighteen.
“It’s started.” Hunter said. “I had a feeling it would come to this.”
“Hellfire to the Sons of Liberty,” said Lucas. He glanced at Hunter. “That mean anything to you?”
Hunter shook his head. “I haven’t been associating much with Tories. I’m one of the Sons of Liberty, you know.” He reached inside his shirt and pulled out a small silver medal on a chain. It was stamped with an image of the Liberty Tree. “They all wear these,” he said. “They were contributed by the silversmith, Paul Revere.”
Ben Edes spotted Hunter and approached them. “A grim sight for a spring morning; he said tensely.
“Aye, that it is,” said Hunter. “You know anything about this?”
Ben Edes shook his head. “A few of the people in the crowd are saying that the horseman did it.”
“The horseman?” said Delaney
Edes glanced at them. “It seems that Boston has a ghost, sir. One who rides a black horse and has no head. Forgive me. but I haven’t had the pleasure of making your acquaintance.”
“Oh, my apologies,” Hunter said. “These are old friends of mine. Ben. Allow me to present Mr. Finn Delaney, Mr. Lucas Priest, and young squire Andrew Cross. Mr. Delaney’s ward. This is my good friend. Benjamin Edes, editor and publisher of the Boston Gazette.”
They shook hands. “Would that we could have met under more fortunate circumstances.” Edes said.
“You’re new to Boston?”
“We only arrived yesterday,” said Lucas, “from New
York.”
“I hear that there are many Tories in New York.” said Edes, watching them closely for their reactions.
“Yes, but we have had our share of demonstrations, too.” said Finn. “Of course. General Gage and his troops are quartered there, and they have largely kept events under control.”
“Yes, so I have heard.” said Edes. “I understand that Governor Bernard has requested aid from General Gage. He thinks that Boston should have troops. Would they have prevented this? I wonder. They say the horseman rode the streets last night and that this is his grisly handiwork
“No one saw anything?” asked Hunter. Edes shook his head. “A watchman saw Chilton and the others in the street last night.” he said. “He said they were all drunk as lords. You heard about the Liberty affair? Hallowell seized Hancock’s ship for smuggling. The Romney’s crew towed it out into the harbor, where it is protected by the Romney’s guns A crowd gathered, but they were too late to prevent the ship being seized, so they turned their anger against Hallowell and his agents. Hallowell was beaten senseless. Harrison also, though he managed to escape. His son, Dick, was badly beaten and dragged through the street by his hair. Thomas Irving was set upon, as well. An ugly spectacle. Yonder you see what’s left of Hallowell’s boat. The mob dragged it from the water and burned it on the Common. They stoned Harrison’s and Hallowell’s homes, as well. Chilton was one of the mob’s leaders, or at least so he claimed. They say he was boasting that it was he who broke Ben Hallowell’s head for him and led the riot. He claimed to be a Son of Liberty, but Sam swears he had nothing to do with what occurred last night.”
He glanced uncertainly at Lucas, Finn, and Andre, as if suddenly afraid that he had said too much.
“It’s all right.” Hunter said. “They’re with us in the cause.”
Edes nodded. “Forgive me, but these are troublesome times.” he said. “A man cannot be too careful. The council is meeting even as we speak. Hancock has lodged a formal protest against the seizure of his vessel and a delegation is to be sent to Governor Bernard, requesting that the Romney be removed from port. Meanwhile, the customs agents have left their homes and taken refuge in Castle William. Nor can I blame them. No one ever wanted it to come to this.”
“What has Sam said?” Hunter asked.
“He has called a special meeting at the Long Room.” Edes said “I was just now on my way there.”
“Would it be possible for my friends to come, as well’?” asked Hunter. “Or would that be an imposition?”
If they are patriots, sir, and you vouch for their discretion, then they are indeed welcome. And I am sure our friends would want to know how things are going in New York. Come. I will take you there.”
They went down Treamount Street, then turned into Dock Square. From there, they took Ann Street for a block or two until it became Fish street. The same streets in Boston often had different names from block to block; the better to enable citizens to orient themselves since there was, as yet, no organized system of house numbering. Fish Street became Ship Street after a few blocks, running close by Clark’s Shipyard. They passed The Castle and The Mitre taverns and turned into the Salutation, a tavern on the corner of Salutation Alley and Ship Street whose devotees were fervent Whigs. It was not a fashionable tavern, catering mostly to the North End shipwrights, caulkers, and mast-makers, but its sign depicted two gentlemen bowing to each other, which resulted in the tavern being nicknamed “The Two Palaverers.” It was not as rowdy or notorious a tavern as ‘Ole Bunch of Grapes, but it was here where the North Caucus met in its private room.
Sam Adams belonged to all three of Boston’s caucuses, the North, the Middle, and the South. It was Deacon Adams who had first organized these clubs, the word having grown from “caulker’s club.” since the majority of the original members were all in the shipbuilding trade. Here, in the smoke-filled private chamber known as the Long Room, much of the business of the Boston Assembly was actually conducted around a bowl of punch, with a roaring fire in the hearth. There were some sixty members in the North Caucus, but today, the group that gathered here were the members of the original Loyal Nine and the leaders of the Sons of Liberty.
There was Sam Adams’ young cousin John from Braintree, plump, boyish-looking, and quick to speak. Hunter pointed out Dr. Joseph Warren and Dr. Benjamin Church; William Molineaux, the hardware merchant; Bill Campbell, the owner of the tavern; John Pulling, whose fame was to be eclipsed by Paul Revere’s., though it was he who would hang the lanterns in the Christ’s Church steeple to give Revere the signal that the British troops were coming; the gargantuan silversmith. Benjamin Burt, who weighed almost four hundred pounds and required the room of two men at the table; James “Jemmy” Otis. the flamboyant orator whose reason was slowly slipping away, rendering him unpredictable and temperamental, given to frequent emotional outbursts that often made no sense at all; young Josiah Quincy; the Cooper brothers, Samuel, the pastor of the Brattle Street Church, and William, the town clerk; Thomas Dawes: John Winslow and Thomas Melville, still only in his teens and fresh from Harvard, whose grandson Herman would one day write the immortal epic Moby Dick. The silversmith, Paul Revere, was also in attendance, stocky, square-faced, with his brown hair unpowdered, and his simple homespun looking shabby next to the slender Hancock’s tailored finery. And. of course, there was Sam Adams, portly and rumpled, looking like someone’s absentminded uncle, yet the real power behind the coming revolution. He called the meeting to order.
“Gentlemen, your indulgence, please,” he said, rapping on the table with his knuckles. The room grew silent. Adams looked around. “I see that most of us are here. However, I note a few unfamiliar faces.”
“These are Reese Hunter’s friends, recently arrived from New York,” said Edes. “Mr. Lucas Priest. Mr. Finn Delaney, and young Andrew Cross. They’ve come to observe events in Boston for themselves and report back to our
