have better ways to spend my days than whoring among the rabble.”
His men looked down at the table.
“ I would like very much to talk with you sometime,” said Jake, bowing — and in the process loosening Harris’s grip. “But it will have to be another time. I was on my way to see a patient here.”
“ In the tavern?” asked Harris.
“ There are benefits to consulting in such a place,” said Jake, taking a step back. “The patient tends to be more at ease.”
“ I would like to ask you about certain papers,” whispered the major, “what are no longer in my possession.”
“ What type of papers?” asked Jake in a loud voice.
Harris’s face suddenly turned red. He could not say in front of this company, certainly not in front of the general, without volunteering himself for a court-martial. But the matter being opened, it needed a satisfactory closing.
“ Oh, the copies of the Gazette,” said the patriot. “But I thought you wouldn’t mind. They had that excellent article making fun of Washington — I’ve already sent them to my father and sister. Those are the papers you mean, aren’t they?” Jake added. The look of innocent puzzlement he expressed would have fooled the king.
“ It took only a half look around the table to convince the major that, yes, that was precisely what he was talking about.
“ You will call for dinner Sunday,” Bacon commanded. “Promptly at one.”
“ Thank you, sir; I will be there.” Jake gave a little salute with his head — a bit too much flourish, but such gestures were never wasted on knights. “In the meantime, gentlemen, let me warn you that an epidemic of a newly discovered strain of the flue, “Greene Disease,” we doctors call it, is expected this spring. I should recommend a good dose of mercury to get your systems in order before it strikes.”
Having prescribed poison for them all, Jake effected an escape, ducking from the front room into the hallway. AS he reached the threshold, a loud screech emanated from upstairs.
A cow being harpooned made a more harmonious sound. Jake’s first reaction was to cover his ears; his second was to listen more carefully. It did not sound like it came from van Clynne, but in truth it did not sound like it came from any human being.
Had Jake stumbled onto one of Bacon’s notorious torture chambers?
Any consideration for his own safety vanished as he leaped up the stairs, determined to rescue his friend. By the time he reached the top of the first flight, the cries had become low moans of pain. He realized they were coming from a closed closet on the next floor up, just off the railed landing. Two leaps and he made the top of the steps. Another strike and he was halfway to the middle of the threshold to confront the damnable British.
One of whom had passed out at the table, the other of whom was producing those hideous sounds by moaning loudly into a large bowl filled with beer.
“ It’s about time you showed up,” said van Clynne, rising from the table. “I was beginning to think I was going to have to find you myself.”
“ What happened here?”
“ The English simply cannot hold their liquor.” Van Clynne reached back and took a last gulp from his tankard.
It took several blocks for van Clynne to detail his encounter with the sergeant. Night had now progressed far on her path; the stars twinkled above the dusty glow of the streetlamps and the moon attempted to peek through the clouds.
“ It seems General Howe is not content with amusing himself with the mistress Sultana,” van Clynne said, relating what the soldiers had told him once they’d started drinking. The reference was to one of Mrs. Loring’s less vulgar nicknames. “He went out to the ship for a rendezvous with a certain Miss Elva Pierce this evening, and awaits a Miss Melanie Pinkleton tomorrow. Apparently, he can’t decide if he likes blondes or redheads.”
How did van Clynne know the hair color of Mrs. Loring’s new rivals?
“ Because, sir, I know both families. The Pierces are of no account, being English, but Pinkleton — I daresay the girl bounced on my knee once or twice as a child. Her father was a good Dutchman, God rest his soul, but you see what comes from marrying a Scots woman.
“ Red hair?”
“ And much worse.”
“ Would she recognize you?”
“ Claus van Clynne is not a man easily forgotten.”
“ The guards expect you in the morning to deliver the bullet?” Jake said.
“ I’ll not go on the ocean if my life depends on it,” said van Clynne. “Not this evening, not in the morning, not ever. We’re better off trying our luck at Roelff’s. I know a handy way from King’s Bridge.”
Jake weighed the options. Howe being aboard ship would make escape a difficult contingency, especially since the mistress would complicate things. And the Dutchman’s remarkable cunning in disposing of his two guards this evening might not be so well received among the British as it was with Jake.
“ Are you sure the officers will stay in the inn, and not in the camp?”
“ It is all they ever do. I don’t understand the attraction myself, but apparently they are enamored of Roelff’s daughter.”
“ All right. Assuming Roelff has convinced them to stay, you’ll arrange with him to be placed in the same room as Herstraw. You go in ahead of him so he can’t block the door against us. After he falls asleep, you let me in and I’ll exchange the bullets.”
“ Why must I take the harder assignment? Why don’t you?”
“ We’ll take our horses near the opposite shore,” said Jake, ignoring the question. “I know a place we can tie them north of the British armory, and get a rowboat besides.”
“ A rowboat!”
“ We can’t risk going back by King’s Bridge. It’s too far north, and besides, they’ll be suspicious of any night traveler, especially if word has gotten out about the sham battle we fought this afternoon.”
“ I would rather reconsider this entire operation from the point of view of dry land,” said van Clynne.
Chapter Twenty-seven
For about half the distance across the East River, the trip was idyllic. A nearly full moon hung in the sky, shadowed occasionally by clouds but throwing ample light for Jake to steer by. The stars stood ready to offer navigational assistance. The only sound besides the measured rowing was the howl of a wolf somewhere in the distance.
And the gentle trickle of water lapping against a piece of wood.
Unfortunately, the wood in question was part of the interior floorboard of the boat. The leak did not become apparent until they were midstream, but thereafter it progressed with such speed that they were more in the water than in the boat.
Remembering his experience coming in the other direction, van Clynne stood as the water approached his lap, figuring he had only to stand and walk out of this predicament. Unfortunately, rivers are rarely symmetrical.
“ Help!” shouted the squire as he sank beneath the waves.
Jake threw his shoes to shore and dove into the river just as the boat gave up all pretense of floating. The icy grip of the river closed quickly around his chest. The water tasted bitter as well as cold. It splashed into his eyes, stinging and making it hard to see.
Van Clynne was gurgling and splashing somewhere nearby. Jake stroked in the direction of the sounds, but found nothing.
