“
No hint at all?” asked Jake.
“
I heard nearly every city mentioned, but only in passing. Which if any is Howe’s target, I could not say. I heard of a letter being drawn to the citizens of Boston,” Anthony added, “but whether it is significant or not, who is to say?”
Jake nodded. Howe’s knot remained untied. Had the British general concocted an elaborate charade for them, or was he truly attacking Boston?
Washington had told Jake to use his imagination, to create a solution. It was the sort of thing the general was always expecting, but in this case, Jake’s Muse seemed to have taken herself off to another part of the continent.
Neither Anthony nor any of the other prisoners could be trusted. The same man who had informed on Anthony, — and perhaps it had been Anthony himself — might now be among them.
Such doubt is the currency of a spy, who in constantly fooling others must always fear being fooled himself. Jake stood politely for a few minutes as Culper continued to ask Anthony questions about Clinton and his arrest, then excused himself to get something to eat.
As he might have predicted, he found Claus van Clynne holding court in the great room with several key members of the spy ring, commenting at length upon the quality of the small beer they had liberated from a Tory brewer.
“ The hops are inferior, that is the problem,” explained the squire in an authoritatively scientific voice. “These are ordinary hopes. A true beer hop is a work of art, created over long generations by careful husbandry. It is a specific sort of creature, prepared by a knowledgeable craftsman.”
“ A Dutchman, no doubt,” suggested Jake, who was well used to these arguments. The others were held in too rapt an attention to comment — and besides, they were busily investigating the quality of the liquid for themselves.
“ It is not necessary to be Dutch to nurture a proper hop,” allowed van Clynne. “But it helps.”
“ Dare I ask you how you came to be in New York?”
“ I have already told you: I sensed you would require my assistance. Alas, in providing cover for you journey, I ran into a rather misguided fellow, whom I had to pretend to be beaten by in order to speed my arrival in New York.”
“ Pretend, eh?”
“ You, sir, should be well acquainted with the ways of us secret agents, especially those of the Dutch stripe. We are continually pretending to e beaten, so that we may rise again. It is but one of our many tricks. And while we are on the subject, I wonder if you could assist me in preparing a write for my misplaced notes. The sum is trifling, indeed, as far as Congress will be concerned, but there is a certain, shall we say, nostalgic value for me, especially as I am still bereft of my land.”
“ Exactly how much money did you lose?”
“ It is diffcult to calculate a final sum,” said the Dutchman. “But using British currency as a reference, I believe it would approximate fifty-seven pounds, two shilling, sixpence.”
Jake smiled. “You’re talking the loss rather calmly.”
“ I am a calm man, reasonable to the core. I realize my losses will be made good.”
“ How much of the money was counterfeit?”
Donatello could not have painted a better picture of indignation. “I trade in only genuine currency. Four of my purses were stolen. Fortunately, my metal had been secreted away prior to the confiscation, or I would be beyond revival.”
“ You lost only paper money?”
“ One takes certain precautions in difficult times,” fussed van Clynne. “And money is money, let us not forget.”
“ Come, Claus, you seem to have an unquenchable supply of notes. What about the ones in your shoe? Or the lining of your vest?”
“ Do you think me an alchemist, sire, who can conjure money from thin air?”
“ No,” said Jake. He left off the argument for two reasons: one, experience had shown it was useless to argue with the Dutchman when his mind was set, and two, Culper had dismissed Anthony and was signaling him from across the room. “Excuse me,” he said.
Van Clynne rose so quickly behind him that he nearly upset the table.
“ Claus, go on investigating your beer.”
“ We are an inseparable team,” said the Dutchman, pulling his beard. “A machine that works as a set of wheels turning together. If it were not for me, how would you have escaped from the jail.”
“ I suspect I would have run after the others.”
“ Balderdash, sir, pure balderdash.”
Van Clynne continued to bluster so much that Jake tacitly conceded. Culper, however, had taken a dislike to the squire and demanded to know who precisely he thought he was and what he was doing.
A mistake, surely.
“ Sir, I will have you know that my family’s disdain for the British exceeds that of any other clan on the entire continent. Compared to Claus van Clynne, Patrick Henry is a poodle of flattery, a veritable fawn toward George and his German forbears.”
“ I’ll not have a member of Congress insulted,” thundered Culper.
At length, Jake was able to calm the situation by making van Clynne promise to keep his mouth shut in return for being allowed to stay. Neither the Dutchman nor Culper entirely agreed with this arrangement, but as Jake impressed on them that time was of the essence, they eventually placed their mutual enmity on the shelf with the blankets.
Or perhaps with the pots, as it rattled in Culper’s mouth as he told Jake the prospects for finding Howe’s direction were limited. All the members of the spy ring who had been liberated from prison must undergo a severe vetting before they could be trusted again.
“ The evidence does point toward Boston,” conceded Culper. “Such as it is.”
“ We need much more for the general,” Jake said. “If he marches north, Philadelphia will be without protection. And if Howe were to show up off the Carolinas, the entire South would be lost to him.”
“ I have had the various city suppliers interviewed,” said Culper. “But we have not gained anything.”
“ My friend Mr. Clayton Bauer would know,” said Jake. “I should have gotten the information from him this morning.”
“ Bauer might know,” said Culper, “if he has set up a network for Howe there. But he always has his guard with him. You did well to escape alive.”
“ His sister might help us,” said Jake.
“ How?”
“ If I might offer a suggestion,” started van Clynne.
“ You may not,” snapped Jake before turning to Culper. “She lost her son at Princeton. I doubt she would agree to tell us willingly, but she would do much to get information about him. We might be able to cobble together a deception.”
“ Too risky. Would Bauer be loose-lipped enough to tell his siter the greatest secret of the British army? If he even knows it? And then how would you use her to get to him? It’s too complicated, Jake. There must be another way.”
In any event, the mansion was a well guarded as any British headquarters; even if Jake would welcome a chance at gently persuading Lady Patricia to change her allegiance, there would be a host of men nearby to argue for loyalty. He ought to be able to puzzle out a plan to convince her — yet none would materialize in his brain, and it was much too dangerous to just knock on the door and count on his wits to carry him to an answer.
“ There has to be someone in the city, not under constant guard, who would know where Howe is going,” Culper said. “Someone who has been overlooked.”
“ If I — “
