Forever Young Birth Of A Nation, page 45
“I’ll need a compass and a heading.”
What about your string of horses?”
Caught by surprise, Cosette smoothly lied, saying “I have pastured them some eight miles south of here and I stayed off the road from there onward. I thought British dragoons might be ahead. Anyway, they will be fine there. We had better get going now. I don’t want to be out on the sound when the sun rises if possible. The Brits might want to haul me aboard and ask why I am out there” she said as she thought we vampires do not like open water in small vessels on sunny days.
The two departed in the darkness then, and Priscilla who was outside listening intently knew what was happening. Handing Cosette his compass, he said “The heading would be three four zero if it was calm, but with this southwesterly wind, you will want to bear three zero zero. Your goal is ten miles west of Bridgeport at the shore itself. A mounted rider with his own number will meet you. If he’s not there, you must try to find him or stay concealed until you see him looking for you.”
In minutes Cosette had bid him farewell and had cast off, heading across the sound. Not more than two minutes after she had cast off, a figure approached her in the water, swimming as fast as a dolphin. Cosette heard the approach and saw Priscilla reaching up toward the gunwale to clamber aboard. She was up and in like a flash, laughing as she said “I’ve never sailed before, Cosette.”
“You won’t like it if the sun rises and we are still on open water. I can take it, but I don’t know if you can. Can you be absent long enough if we have to return through Connecticut by land?”
“Yes. Three days.
“All right then. I’m glad for the company.”
“What do you think is so important that they would take a chance like this?”
“I don’t know. I only get the ones that need to get here fast. There is another who carries the bulk of the packages.”
In fact, what neither Cosette nor Priscilla knew was that they were carrying details of a plot to capture General George Washington himself.
Chapter 86
Ian and Moon Owl had come to where the two rivers met and now were proceeding more slowly, knowing that the Shawnee village was somewhere in the vicinity. Eventually they caught the faintest scent of smoke and began to follow that to its source. The village was in a large level place alongside of the river itself and the two kept approaching it from downwind to be certain that if dogs were present, they would not catch their scent. They both cached their rucksacks and hats in the bushy foliage of a low growing tree near the river so as not to be so easily noticed as intruders in the darkness. Each took one flask and drained it quickly for energy.
Silently climbing a tree they looked out over the scene, trying to see where the captives might be in the darkness. There were no sentries as the people felt secure, being deep inside of their tribal lands. Ian whispered “We will have to go straight into the place now and begin to search for them. It’ll be slow.”
Silently they both bounded out of the treetop and glided like two shadows toward the village. They glided past the back of a longhouse to a large central cooking fire that had burned down to a sizable pile of glowing coals and approached another long house, one of nine. Ian whispered “You go in and search this one, and I will take the next. We will meet back here. Look for a group who might be bound. If we’re lucky they’ll still be all together.”
The two of them then searched through the first two longhouses and met some ten minutes later and then split up again to try two more of them. Ian glided silently through the place, stopping only now and then to peer intently at larger groups of people. In each longhouse there was a central hole in the roof for smoke to escape from the fire. It being well past midnight, the fires in each of the longhouses were well burnt down to only glowing embers and provided only dim light in the gloomy interior. Again they came out and met having not seen them. This was repeated until they approached the last two longhouses.
Moon Owl glided silently into one and shortly after entering she was startled to see a brave stand up and start her way in the dim light. He did not seem alarmed so she feigned being one of them and just lay down among a small group where she had been standing. The brave passed her by and went outdoors to go and relieve himself. As quickly as he had gone out of the door, she was up and immediately she noticed a gap of some twenty feet or more between the others and one group at the very back of the longhouse.
Gliding closer she saw that there were nine women and two little girls all bound. Quickly she moved among them and lay down near them, posing as if she was bound and watching the door for the brave to return.
Soon enough he did and went straight to his place after looking in her direction. She waited a bit and then she clamped her hand over the mouth of one of the women and whispered to her “We are here to free you. Be silent.” Then she cut her bonds and moved to the next one. It took several minutes to free them and until she did, she could not even look to see if she could try to cut a way out of the place. She saw a place that looked promising so she began to quietly work at it, cutting the elm bark and rawhide ties to see if a hole might be made.
As she worked she was startled to see a hand come through the little hole and wave at her. She wriggled her way to where she could put her ear to the hole and Ian whispered “Stop that. They’ll hear you. I’m going to make a distraction on the other side of the village and then you can make all of the noise you want. Say ‘yes’ if you understand.”
“Yes” she whispered.
Ian glided away and found his way to the rear of the furthest long house from the one where the captives were and in under a minute had taken a pot near the fire and dumped its contents, using a stick to rake a sizable amount of hot coals into the thing. Soon enough he had a fire started at the rear of the longhouse, and had added some tinder to it. He silently glided back to the one where Moon Owl and the captives waited and whispered through the hole to her. She put her hand through it and he kissed it and whispered “Be ready now. As soon as the hollering starts, I will cut a big hole here.”
He had no sooner said that than they all heard a cry of “Fire! Fire!” quickly other voices began to cry ‘fire’ too and those in the long houses awakened and began to run to their doors.
Moon Owl watched intently from her place as the people nearly to a man ran out the door and she said in a low voice “Now, Ian!”
He took his sword and put it through the hole and lifted mightily, holding the blade at an angle, ripping the wall as he pulled and sawed through the rawhide and bark. After getting a slot some three feet tall, he sheathed his sword and grabbing one side of the opening he ripped it back away from the other as Moon Owl did the same with the other side. The little girls came through first and then the women began to come through one by one.
The whole camp was in an uproar by now and the braves and women both were carrying vessels back and forth from the river to try to extinguish the blaze. A brave came running back into the longhouse to wake everyone and roust them to help. His eyes met those of Moon Owls and she instantly made them glow brightly. He was stunned for just a second to see a demon with glowing eyes taking the captives through the hole and before he could raise the alarm, she had unsheathed her sword and rocketed some forty feet in the blink of an eye decapitating him. The Shawnee women and children screamed and ran out of the door in a panic as Moon Owl vanished through the hole in the wall.
She and Ian each picked up one of the two little girls and he said to the women “Follow us now or die!” They ran to the darkness of the forest then and went for some four hundred feet before veering off to the north for the river. Ian and Moon Owl leaped the river with the children and setting them down on the far bank they leaped across and took two of the women and did that again. By then the others had entered the water and swam across.
Picking up the two little girls, the two led the women to the north around a quarter mile before stopping near a rock outcropping some thirty feet tall. Ian rocketed back to the village and bounded over the river downstream from the place, rocketing to the low tree where he had cached his and Moon Owl’s hats and rucksacks. Retrieving those he paused to look at the pandemonium in the village. By now the blazing longhouse was lighting up the scene and the people had scattered away from it, and were standing around in groups while watching it burn, but even now there was a general alarm as more braves listened to the hysterical women who were trying to drag them to the longhouse where they had seen a demon kill a brave. Ian stood behind the tree, pondering what to do and making up his mind, he bounded away, leaping the river and rocketing off to the north toward Moon Owl and the captives. “You stay with them here. I am going back there to discourage any of them from following us.” Leaving their hats and rucksacks there he rocketed away to the village.
Circling the burning longhouse he had an idea and when he found an end where no one was standing he rocketed toward it and leaping high he came down in the middle of the flames and immediately jumped out of them in a single bound landing right in front of the greatest number of the braves with his eyes glowing. To most at that moment it appeared as if he had literally materialized from the burning structure itself and a great cry of fear arose from all as they shrank back in terror. The few who thought they saw him bound in and then out of the flames were as terrified of the sight of him as anyone else, but the majority of them were convinced at that moment that he had indeed materialized from the inferno itself.
His eyes blazing Ian shouted in the Iroquois tongue “I am Night Stalker of the Seneca. I have come to take back our people. We leave you in peace tonight, but if you follow us, we will kill you.” He whirled then and bounded back into the inferno and then bounded back out the other side of it where he had entered. A great cry went up then, as to most it appeared as if he might have jumped back into the blazing long house itself and just disappeared. The few who did see him running out of the fire saw him heading southward into the forest, away from the river.
Within only a few minutes after that he had circled back to rejoin Moon Owl and the others. Organizing them into a column he led them northward slowly through the night, Moon Owl trailing to listen and watch for pursuit. Ian and she each carried one of the little girls. They walked nearly a half mile before leaving the noise of the confused villagers behind them.
Chapter 87
It was evening in Paris and the family all sat in the opulent parlor of the Laforge suite on the Champs Elysees as Celeste began. “Ian is now in Pennsylvania and has just now rescued some of the Seneca women and children who were carried away.. James and Melissa are now with Cosette in New York City and have leased a house. They will help her to watch the coven there that Yvonne started. Stuart’s still working at the Millhouse Tool Company in New York City and the two of them are still living with the Millhouses.”
“Is there any chance that Ian will come to New York” asked Aimee.
Marie said “Cosette left a note in James and Melissa’s home that she was alive and waiting in New York at the Millhouse home.”
Henri said “If he goes to Boston, he’ll surely find that note. Didn’t we hear that he goes there to get James before they report to wherever the American Army is spending the winter each year?”
“Yes. That’s been his habit.”
“Oh good” said Aimee, as Jennifer put an arm around her and gave her a kiss. “He’ll finally find her then! Oh this is such good news, everybody!” Several of them nodded agreement and several positive comments were made then as Marie caught Celeste’s eye and each gave the other a meaningful look.
Sophia caught that look between the two and wondered about it thinking there is more to this than they are telling us now. What could it be?
Henri said “We now have wanted posters all over Paris and Marseille seeking one Arnaud Moreau for sedition. He won’t dare try to establish another coven very soon now.”
Li said “So we can expect him to show up either at the Marquis de Sade’s home or in London at Miles Edwards’ home?”
“Correct. And that is why we are going to Lacoste soon.”
“You think he’ll go to the Marquis now?”
“No. but if he does, don’t we all want to have someone there to catch him?”
Heads nodded as eyes glowed, and Henri continued saying “Aimee, I know that I told you this but I wanted to say it in front of everyone here. Marie and I are very proud of you and how you took care of the children in Marseille and how well you pretended to be human while those others were here.”
Aimee beamed then as Jennifer laughed and pulled her close, kissing her. Sophia noticed Marie seemed detached and wondered yet again what was bothering her.
Marie sat thinking when Ian finally goes to New York City it will only be the beginning of sorrows.
***
Cosette and Priscilla ran at a ground-eating pace and were in southwestern Connecticut by the following evening. During the night the two bathed and hunted. They had made their way west to the Hudson valley north of Manhattan by the next morning. Approaching the river, Cosette stopped them, seeing a British war sloop anchored there. She peered closely at it and saw the name HMS Vulture painted on its bow. Turning to Priscilla, she said “Something is amiss here. That ship is vulnerable sitting here in patriot territory. Let’s prowl around and see what we can learn.”
Within an hour, the two had been on both sides of the river twice and had seen no one about. Cosette pondered the enigmatic circumstance of a British War ship being this deep in American territory and finally she said “This ship must have brought some British here for some sort of espionage. We need to report this. I am going upriver toward Tarrytown. You go south toward Manhattan and see if you can find any militia or American regulars about. If you do, tell them what is here. We will meet back here late today, say at sundown.”
“Mightn’t we attack the ship ourselves? We could swim to it and take those on deck quickly enough.”
Staring out at the ship Cosette said “We could, but this might be some of the British deserting to our side. Best if we get the American Army involved. I will see you here this evening.” Turning she ran to the north as Priscilla ran to the south, both paralleling the Hudson valley road.
Cosette had come some six miles upriver when she spied two men talking. One had the uniform of an American officer and the other wore a British officer’s uniform. She strained her hearing and twice heard the names ‘Andre’ and ‘Arnold’ as the two talked. They left that area then and went toward a small town which Cosette learned was West Haverstrom where the two entered a house near sundown.
She rocketed away to the south and was back at the war sloop a bit after sundown. After hunting nearby and getting two rabbits, she drained and refilled two of her flasks and settled down to wait for Priscilla.
A half hour later, Priscilla arrived, coming to the brushy place where Cosette waited when she hissed at her. The two exchanged information and Cosette learned that Priscilla had found some American regulars and had told them about the war sloop. They had been quite excited and quickly had sent word to a Colonel James Livingston.
“Well, Prissy; we can do no more good here. You had better be getting back to New York City now. Just follow the river to Manhattan. Where it divides, just bear east, toward your left. I am going back upriver to watch that house where those two went. Something is amiss here and I’m curious.”
“I want to stay, but you’re right. I’ll go” she said as she came and hugged her. “Goodbye.”
“Goodbye, Prissy. Be safe and keep your wits about you.”
***
Early the next morning Cosette saw the same two men talking and walking about. Suddenly came the sound of cannon booming to the south of them, off in the distance. Cosette was sure that the Americans had come to fire on the war sloop. Whatever the case, the two men looked agitated and both went inside for some fifteen minutes. The two emerged again, but this time the British officer was wearing ordinary clothing. The two shook hands then and he departed on the road south to Tarrytown. Cosette figured that the officer knew that his transportation was not waiting for him at the river and hoped to make it back to New York City in disguise. Still, it could be that he was a defector and acting as a double agent just like Priscilla was. She decided to run ahead of him and alert any militia or American regulars she might see.
As she neared Tarrytown she spied three men armed with muskets walking north toward her. Walking up to the three she introduced herself and related what she had seen. Enthusiastically the three listened to her information. The one who seemed to the better educated of the three identified himself as John Paulding and wanted her to stay and identify the man. It was clear that they might even try to take her into custody if she refused, so she agreed to remain in hiding nearby with Paulding to watch for the man.
The two had no more gotten hidden than the British officer came riding into the outskirts of Tarrytown, heading for the Hudson valley road to go south. The other two of Paulding’s companions stopped him and had him dismount. Paulding and Cosette both walked out of the bushes alongside the road and approached the man who had identified himself as John Anderson. After talking to him a bit, Paulding turned to Cosette and asked her if she knew this John Anderson.
“I do not. I only heard the names ‘Arnold’ and ‘Andre’ mentioned, and I took it to be that this one was Mr. Andre and the other one was Mr. Arnold.” The three then searched the man and his saddlebags. Finally Paulding had the man remove his boots and there were several sheets of paper with drawings of West point and all of the cannon placements and the size of the garrison as well as information on supplies on hand. The man was arrested and taken to the Continental Army headquarters near Tappan.
