Forever Young Birth Of A Nation (21 page)

The next time that Ian took Moon Owl to
town, he dropped by Revere’s shop and gave him the information he
had. Revere thanked him and vowed to get it to someone in Boston
who would want to know about it.

The rest of the winter passed in like
fashion with either James or Ian always being in Boston and the
other always hunting for Henry Knox’s column.

It was a rowdy night at the Red Eye Tavern
in New York City. Stefan and Yvonne sat quietly at a table,
observing the idiotic behavior of some of the clientele. Earlier
the place had buzzed with speculation regarding General
Washington’s handling of the siege of Boston. Later though the
drinking had made the crowd rowdier and now some wag got out his
violin and struck up a tune which several of the patrons seemed to
know quite well.

“
Did ye hear ‘bout poor Colonel
Grundy

At Grover Park one day.

He thought he’d bring two swords and some
friends

To frighten a banker away-hey!

The banker was there already

With a friend and a pretty lass.

Before it was over the banker had showed
her

How to spank poor Grundy’s ass-hey!

Poor Colonel Grundy

He ain’t sat down in a week.

They say the only time he’s comfy

Is when he is taking a leak-hey!

Oh Ian McCloud,

Come spank a redcoat today.

If ye spank enough of ‘em, maybe they’ll go
away-hey!

Oh if ye spank enough of ‘em, maybe they’ll
go away-hey-hey!”

As the room erupted in laughter and some
scattered applause, Yvonne and Stefan stiffened as if they had been
hit with an electric shock. Wide-eyed they looked at each other,
speechless. Leaning toward Stefan, Yvonne said “We need to separate
and question the patrons. Surely someone here can tell us more
about Ian McCloud and who knows where that can lead? We need to
find out who this ‘Grundy’ character is too.”

***

Ian had arrived late that afternoon and had
been met by Moon Owl as she had seen him coming toward the house.
As always she had run to him and as always he had lifted her up
like a child and whirled her about, finally kissing her long and
tenderly. They went to the house and made love then, and waited for
James to come home.

Later when James had arrived, he was excited
to share some news he’d learned just the night before from Melissa.
It seemed that a friend of Melissa had spent time several evenings
with a certain redcoat who had complained of his new commanding
officer, one Captain Grundy. It turned out that this fellow was in
payroll and he let it slip that a payroll ship by the name of ‘Lady
Dunston’ was expected to arrive that Thursday.

“James, are you thinking what I am
thinking?”

Grinning from ear to ear James said “I have
been able to think of nothing else. Yes, I think we should look
into robbing their payroll. It will be profitable and it could be
great fun as well!”

Laughing softly, Ian said “We need to sit
down and draw up a plan, my friend. And it
will
be fun!”

“I hear that those Hessians we saw the day
we arrived in New York were shipped here. It is only a small
number, but the rumor is that they are being drilled near Boston to
make them more compatible with British soldiering. Apparently this
first bunch speaks English. The fellow that told me thought that
the idea is that they will train more of their fellows when they
get here.”

“You know, while at the Christmas dance at
Faneuil Hall I met a man who thought that King George would bring
in thousands of them to fight. If we can find out where this bunch
is being quartered, we might steal two of their uniforms and make
it appear that Hessians robbed the payroll.”

James threw back his head and laughed
heartily, slapping his thigh repeatedly saying “Oh I love that
idea! I will ask Melissa to see what she can find out from her
friends.”

***

Robert Milliken pored over the packet of
letters that Ian had sent. He immediately dispatched a courier to
carry all of the correspondence for the Lafayettes and paced his
office as he pondered the intelligence encoded in the economic
reports. Ian and James were wanted men and had safely hidden the
startup funds and were themselves living near Boston. The hiding of
them beneath cemetery monuments and markers was clever and who
would be disturbing a grave anyway?

Being in hiding meant that no correspondence
sent Ian’s way would get to him, which meant that not only did he
not know that Cosette was there, but he would not know that two
vampires were there looking for him either. Until Cosette had sent
word back to him, he would not know how to contact her either.
Frustrated he paced about the room, seeking a solution or a
shortcut and finding none.

About then a courier packet was brought in
for him by his assistant and he eagerly opened it, scanning its
contents at vampire speed. In seconds a smile spread across his
face. Henri and his people had set things in motion over in France
and the investigator looking for Henri was himself the object of a
widespread surveillance operation even now. Every single person he
contacted while in France would be thoroughly investigated and all
intelligence related to him would be shared with Robert when the
man reported back to London to those vampires who had hired him. He
knew that Henri would make no mistakes in handling his end of the
affair.

Satisfied that the intricate framework of
their trap was being built properly he resolved to tell Margaret
everything that evening. She had been eager to stay abreast of all
happenings since this thing had begun and had been a source of
encouragement. He gazed out the window then, idly wondering what it
was like in the New World.
What are you and James up to,
Ian?

James and Ian approached the Hessian
compound under cover of darkness, easily seeing and avoiding the
sentries. They were quartered on the extreme north side of Boston
in a setting that was still by and large of a rural nature. Three
patriot families had been evicted from their homes to make room for
the small detachment and the two British Captains. The place was
dedicated to teaching the Hessians British battlefield tactics and
commands so that they could train the ones to follow.

In minutes the two vampires had circled the
entire place, and had discerned where the barracks were. Like two
puffs of windblown smoke they bounded to the rooftop effortlessly,
gliding silently from the faint starlight into the gloom of an
attic dormer window which James had found unlocked. The scents and
sounds of humans sleeping came to them as they descended to the
2
^nd
story of the large home.

In only ten minutes they had each found a
uniform which fit them correctly. The hallmark extra-tall Hessian
hats were included in the booty they stuffed into their ruck
sacks.

Soon they were flitting away at a
mind-numbing speed and on their way south toward the Boston Harbor
area. Within the hour if it had been possible to see in the
starlight, a small skiff might have been seen, seeming to propel
itself out into the harbor. If one could even have seen that skiff
from a closer vantage point, two dark figures might have been seen
towing it along at a speed far faster than would seem possible. The
skiff moved steadily toward a recently anchored ship, Lady Dunmore,
and paused there. A black lump separated itself from the inky water
of the harbor and seemed to flow up the aft anchor rope and shortly
after that another one did likewise on the bow anchor rope.

Two sentries were on duty, one telling the
other about the physical attributes of a tavern wench he had
recently met by the name of Melissa. A black shape hurtled out of
the darkness from behind the two, and two hands like iron clamped
over their mouths as they were dragged down. Another dark shape
joined that group and the two sentries were soon unconscious as the
two vampires had clamped their arms around the carotid arteries of
the two. They were stripped to their regulation long underwear,
bound and gagged and dragged to the port gunwale, and secured under
a tarpaulin found folded near a cargo hatch.

Gliding silently the two descended into the
bow cabin and began to creep forward, assessing the situation.
There were seventeen men asleep there and their muskets were racked
neatly along a wall. The two silently gathered the muskets and
taking them to the main deck they bundled them and lowered them
over the side into the stolen skiff. Returning they silently
gathered their uniforms and disposed of them likewise, even
including their boots.

James found a barrel of lard near the door
to what had to be the galley so the two easily and silently moved
it to where they could wedge it between the door to the front cabin
and the cramped passageway outside. The men in there would have to
dismantle the door by breaking it into pieces with only whatever
was in the room because otherwise only two strong men could get
them free from the passageway side of the door.

Shortly they were at the stern cabin where
they found two midshipmen and a third one who was older, presumably
the captain. All were asleep. They silently stole their uniforms
and quickly tossed them over the side including their boots and
even their sabers. Two officer’s pistols were taken and put into
the skiff along with three extra muskets.

Returning to the starboard gunwale, Ian used
a spare lanyard coiled there to descend silently to their stolen
skiff. Shortly he had retrieved their rucksacks and the two donned
the Hessian uniforms in complete silence, leaving their buckskins
pants and shirts and boots in their rucksacks. Ian lowered those to
the skiff and the two glided back to the stern cabin where they
silently bound and gagged the two midshipmen, leaving them in their
bunks. Ian turned up the barely burning oil lamp as James woke the
captain.

The man cried out in alarm when he was
awakened and Ian slapped him sharply across his face, demanding
silence in perfect German. Then using English with his best German
accent he demanded to be taken to the payroll chests. The officer
looked at him, eyes wide and shook his head. Ian gagged him then
and the two dragged him to a table where James held his right hand
on the table top. Ian took the oil lamp from its wall mount and set
it on the table top and produced his hunting knife. He took it and
clamped a grip like iron on the man’s hand and pressed the knife to
the first joint of his little finger. Watching the man’s suddenly
widening eyes, Ian began to press down the knife, drawing blood.
The man screamed against the gag and shook his head so Ian stopped,
but still held the knife to his finger as James removed the gag.
Again Ian demanded to be taken to the payroll chest using English
with a heavy Germanic accent. As he spoke he again applied pressure
and the finger began to bleed profusely. The man cried out to stop
and nodded his head rapidly saying “All right! All right!”

As it turned out, the payroll chest was two
strong boxes and they were both quite heavy. They were also locked
and sealed with a symbol that was unmistakably that of the British
Crown. Their contents had been audited and verified in London
before being brought to America. Tying the captain again, Ian and
James dragged the chests out of the cabin, not letting the three
men see their great strength. Once out of the cabin, the two
quickly shouldered the two chests as if they were just two bed
pillows and streaked to the starboard gunwale.

Rigging the lanyard into a double loop they
lowered one to the skiff and then James swarmed down the rope to
free it so that Ian could lower down the other one. James hissed
when both chests were secure in the skiff. He swarmed back up the
rope then and both he and Ian went to the stern deck and began to
stomp about over the top of the cabins trying to make it sound as
if a group of men were up there doing something. The two talked
loud using only German words and sentences, but kept their talk
plausible for fear that someone among the crew would understand
that language. They talked of land they had seen that they would
buy and how they were only too happy to leave the German army under
any circumstance. The pair repeated that general performance
outside of the stern cabin so that they could be heard through that
doorway too and then again they repeated that at the bow cabins for
the seventeen men secured in there.

Finally Ian came back to the captain’s cabin
and demanded to see the payroll ledger. The captain pointed to it
on his desk and Ian broke the seal, opening it. The total was
listed at over 11,000 Pounds, a hefty sum, and very little of it
currency. Taking a quill he dipped it in the inkpot on the desk and
wrote in perfect German “Danke schein, Georgie.” This was written
in large scrawling letters across the bottom half of the last page,
beneath the last entries. After that he took the captain to the
main deck and loosened his bonds. Using his thick German accent he
then said that he was going to beat him so that his superiors could
see that he resisted them. In some twenty seconds he carefully
struck the man about the face, splitting his lip and giving him a
black eye and several bruises. He took him back into the cabin then
and proceeded to do the same to the two midshipmen, battering them
and marking them well. Then still using his best German sounding
accent he said “We have allowed you to live seeing as you and we
are soldiers after all, and were comrades in arms once. The story
you tell your superiors is up to you now.” Ian loosened their bonds
a bit then so that they could eventually free themselves. As he
turned to go, he again used a German sounding accent and said in
English “America is a big country and who could be blaming you if
you deserted after this?”