Gabriel took the clean shirt from Mr. Greenwood and stuck out his feet. His shoes had holes in them in several different spots. “Those look well traveled, I’ll say that,” said Artemas. “Good shoes are a necessity to staying healthy. If General Washington doesn’t send you back to New York, we will have to look into finding you a cordwainer. Do you have any coin left?” Gabriel looked down at his disheveled shoes and shook his head.
“No shillings, then?” said Artemas. “You made it all the way from New York to here with nary a farthing?”
“No, I had saved up, but, well . . . I, uh . . . lost it,” responded Gabriel.
Jonathon turned to his father to explain. “Gabriel told me last night his coin pouch was swept away when he slept next to a river that flooded in the middle of the night.”
“That’s a story we have yet to hear,” Nathaniel chimed in. “I still haven’t figured out why you were standing next to the Charles River when Artemas was thrown from his horse. How did you end up so far off the road to Boston, anyway? That was a dense wood to be walking through.”
Gabriel had been hoping no one would ask this question. He hadn’t even told Jonathon about his search for Thomas Tew’s treasure or how he’d thought he saw the ghost. He thought for a moment and then responded, “I was lost.”
Nathaniel looked at him quizzically, “Lost . . . Well, how did you get lost?”
Gabriel still didn’t want to tell Nathaniel or Artemas about how he’d left the road in search of Captain Tew’s treasure. They might think he belonged in a hospital for the insane instead of the Continental Army. Still, he had to tell them something. “I . . . uh . . . I just decided to follow the river when I heard it next to the road.”
Nathaniel was growing impatient, “Gabriel, we can be here all morning if you continue to give me half answers. Now, I would like to know the whole story as to why you were standing along that river when Artemas here came floating down.’
“I wasn’t exactly floating,” said Artemas. “It was more like tumbling.”
Nathaniel gave a smirk to Artemas and then said even more impatiently “Floating, flailing, tumbling…whatever it was, why were you there?”
Gabriel knew there was no way to go on giving veiled answers, so he blurted out, “I was looking for Captain Thomas Tew’s treasure. I didn’t have any more coppers and was desperate. A man at a tavern in Marlborough told me he was Thomas Tew’s grandson. He said Captain Tew hid part of his treasure along the Charles River after being chased down by bandits.”
Gabriel waited for Nathaniel’s reaction. There was a moment of sustained silence as Nathaniel Greene sat across the fire, straight-faced. Then there was a slow grin and a slight chuckle. After that, Nathaniel Greene burst out laughing. Artemas soon joined in.
“What’s so funny?” asked Gabriel
“That crazy legend is as old as the hills.” Nathaniel laughed. “I can just picture some old cantankerous devil of a man sitting in that tavern telling you the story of how those bandits chased after Thomas Tew and how he must have buried the treasure someplace before being shot by the bandits. Did he tell you Captain Tew had a peg leg and a parrot on his shoulder, too?” With this snide comment, Artemas and Nathaniel nearly rolled over laughing.
“What about the ghost? Did he tell you Captain Tew’s ghost still prowls the river with his sword drawn, looking for the bandits?” chimed in Artemas, barely able to breathe from his laughter.
Gabriel sat watching in disgust. He was angry at their response. Thomas the Terrible was real, and the ghost of Thomas Tew seemed real to Gabriel at the time.
Finally beginning to catch his breath from laughter, Nathaniel said, “Gabriel, my lad, you’ve got to learn not to be so trusting of strangers. There is no such thing as Thomas Tew’s treasure.”
Gabriel couldn’t hold his tongue, “How do you know?”
“I know because I grew up in Rhode Island. Captain Tew was a real Rhode Islander, all right, but he was a pirate and nothing more than that. He was a thief who stole valuable property from others. His son wasted whatever treasure was left on his own greedy lusts. Lies about what he did with his treasure have filled Rhode Island, and apparently all of New England, with wild stories, including the one you just told us.”
Artemas contained his laughter and caught his breath. “Now, wait a minute, Nathaniel. If Gabriel hadn’t followed that crazy pirate tale, he wouldn’t have been at the river’s edge, and I likely wouldn’t be here today.”
Despite Artemas’s words, Gabriel still felt embarrassed and defensive. Much of what Thomas the Terrible had told him at the tavern was true. There had been a waterfall, a rocky cliff, and a trail around it, and there was an old oak tree with a hollow where a bag full of gold and silver might have been hidden, but none of that mattered now. What mattered were the words of Thomas the Terrible, and the search for Thomas Tew’s treasure had led him here in a turn of events that he could never have even dreamed.
“I can understand why you were taken in,” continued Nathaniel. “However, I would strongly suggest you not mention this search for treasure to General Washington, unless he specifically asks you. He’s a Virginian and no doubt has never heard of the legend of Thomas Tew. He’s liable not to find as much humor in it as do we.” Nathaniel gave one last chuckle as he turned toward the Vassall House to see Washington. As Gabriel rose to follow, Jonathon patted him on his shoulder and gave an encouraging smile.
Gabriel, Artemas Greenwood, and Nathaniel Greene walked toward the large house by the river. Gabriel’s stomach was churning. He said a silent prayer that things
