Complete weird tales of.., p.149
Complete Weird Tales of Robert W Chambers, page 149
Astonished at her bitterness, I found not a word to answer. A man-servant in purple livery opened the door. Mrs. Hamilton turned to me with perfect composure, returning my bow with the smile of an angel, and tripped lightly into her house.
The post-chaise had driven off into the mews when I returned to the street, but Jack Mount was waiting for me, patting Warlock, whose beautiful head had swung around to watch for my coming.
“Well, Jack?” I asked, wearily.
“The ‘Wild Goose Tavern’ is ours,” he said— “good cheer and company to match it.”
I walked out into the paved street, leading Warlock. Mount swaggered along beside me, squaring his broad shoulders whenever we passed a soldier, and whistling lustily “Tryon County Men,” till the stony streets rang with the melody.
We now crossed into Treamount Street, passed Valley Acre on our right into Sudbury Street, then northwest through Hilliers Lane, crossing Cambridge Street to Green Lane, and west again along Green Lane to the corner of Chambers Street, where it becomes Wiltshire Street and runs due north.
There was enough of daylight left for me to see that we were not in an aristocratic neighbourhood. Warehouses, ship-chandlers, rope-walks, and scrap-iron shops lined the streets, interspersed with vacant, barren plots of ground, rarely surrounded by wooden fences.
The warehouses and shops were closed and all the shutters and doors fast bolted. There was not a soul abroad in the streets, not a light to be seen save from one long, low building standing midway between Chambers and Wiltshire Streets — an ancient, discoloured, rambling structure, with a weather-vane atop, and a long, pillared porch in front, from which hung a bush of sea-weed, and a red sign-board depicting a creature which doubtless was intended for a wild goose.
“Lord, Jack!” I said, “Shemuel’s ‘Bear and Cubs’ appeared preferable to your ‘Wild Goose’ yonder. I’m minded to seek other quarters.”
“Never trust to the looks o’ things,” he laughed. “God made woodchucks to live on the ground, but they climb trees, too, sometimes. Do I think on the hog-pen when I eat a crisped rasher? Nenny, lad. Come on to the cleanest tap-room in Boston town and forget that the shutters yonder need new hinges!”
I led Warlock into the mews to a clean, well-aired stable, where an ostler bedded and groomed him, and shook out as pretty a handful of grain as I had seen since I left Johnson Hall.
Then Mount and I went into the tavern, where half a dozen sober citizens in string-wigs sat, silently smoking clay pipes with stems full three feet long.
“Good-evening, the company!” said Mount, pleasantly.
The men repeated his salutation, and looked at us sleepily over their pipes.
“God save our country, gentlemen,” said Mount, standing still in the centre of the room.
“His mercy shall endure,” replied a young man, quietly removing the pipe from between his teeth. “What of the Thirteen Sisters?”
“They sew that we may reap,” said Mount, slowly, and sat down, motioning me to take a chair in the circle.
The men looked at us curiously, but in silence, although their sleepy, guarded air had disappeared.
After a moment Mount asked if there was anything new.
“Yes,” replied the young man who had spoken before; “the Lawyers’ and Merchants’ Club met at Cooper’s in Brattle Square last night to receive instructions from the Committee of Safety. I do not know what new measures have been taken, but whatever they may be we are assured that they will be accepted and imitated by every town in Massachusetts Bay.”
“Who were present?” asked Mount, curiously.
“The full committee, Jim Bowdoin, Sam Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, Will Phelps, Doctor Warren, and Joseph Quincy. Paul Revere called a meeting at the “Green Dragon” the same night, and the Mechanics’ Club sent invitations to the North End Caucus, the South End Caucus, and the Middle District, to consider the arrival of British transports from Quebec with the Tenth and Fifty-second regiments.”
“What! more troops?” exclaimed Mount, in amazement.
“How long have you been absent from Boston?” asked the young man.
“Since April,” replied Mount.
“Would you care to hear a few facts that have occurred since April, gentlemen?” asked the young man, courteously including me in his invitation. Mount called the tap-boy and commanded cakes and ale for the company, with a harmless 377 swagger; and when the tankards were brought we all drank a silent but significant toast to the dark city outside our windows.
The young man who had acted as spokesman for his company now produced a small leather book, which he said was a diary. Pipes were filled, lips wet in the tankards once more, and then the young man, who said his name was Thomas Newell, opened his little note-book and read rapidly:
1774, May 18. — Man-o’-war Lively arrived with Gen. Gage. Town meeting called. A. sent Paul Revere to York and Philadelphia. H. very anxious.
May 17. — Gage supersedes Hutchinson as Governor. S. A. has no hopes.
June 1. — Three transports here with redcoats. Thirteen Sisters notified.
June 14. — The Fourth Regiment (King’s Own) landed at the Long Wharf and marched to the Common. No riot.
June 15, a.m. — Stores on Long Wharf closed. Forty-third Regiment landed. We are already surrounded by a fleet and army, the harbour is shut, all navigation forbidden, not a sail to be seen except war-ships.
July 1. — Admiral Graves arrived with fleet from London, also transports with Fifth and Thirty-eighth Regiments.
July 2. — Artillery landed with eight brass cannon. Camped on Common. S. A. notified Thirteen Sisters.
July 4. — Thirty-eighth Regiment landed at Hancock’s Wharf, with a company of artillery, great quantity of ordnance, stores, etc., three companies of the Royal Irish Regiment, called the Eighteenth Foot, and the whole of the Forty-seventh Regiment. Also bringing news that the Tenth and Fifty-second Regiments would arrive in a few days! S. A. sent riders to York and Philadelphia. Much hunger in town. Many young children dying.
Newell paused, glanced over the pages again, then shut the little book and placed it in his breast-pocket.
Mount sat grim and silent, twisting the scarlet thrums on his sleeves; the others, with painful, abstracted faces, stared at vacancy through the mounting smoke from their long clay pipes.
Presently the landlord came in, glanced silently around, saluted Mount with a quiet bow, paid his respects to me in a similar manner, and whispered that we might sup at our pleasure in the “Square Room” above.
So, with a salute to the company, we rose and left the tap-room to the silent smokers of the long pipes.
The so-called “Square Room” of the “Wild Goose Tavern” was a low, wainscoted chamber, set with small deep windows. It was an ancient room, built in the fashion of a hundred years ago, more heavily wrought than we build in these days; and although the floor-beams had settled in places, and the flooring sagged and rose in little hillocks, yet the place suggested great solidity and strength. Nor was it to be wondered at, for this portion of the tavern had at one time been a detached block-house pierced for musketry, and the long loopholes were still there above the wainscoting.
Spite of its age and fortified allure, the “Square Room” was cheerful under its candle-light and illuminated sconces. Rows of framed pictures hung along the walls, the subjects representing coaching scenes in England and also many beautiful scenes from the sporting life of country gentlemen.
Relics of the hunting field also adorned the walls, trophies of fox-masks, with brush and pads, groups of hunting-horns, whips, and spurs, with here and there an ancient matchlock set on the wall, flanked by duelling-pistols, powder-horns, and Scottish dirks.
The furniture was of light oak, yet very clumsy and old-fashioned, being worn shiny like polished Chinese carvings. Pipe-racks of oak were screwed into the wainscoting under long shelves, well stored with pewters, glass tankards, punch-bowls, and tobacco-jars.
There were a few small square tables scattered along the walls, but the centre of the room was taken up with a long table, some three dozen chairs placed, and as many covers spread for guests.
To this long, tenantless table our host conducted us, seating us with a silent civility most noteworthy, and in sharp contrast to the majority of landlords, who do sicken their guests with obsequious babble.
“Well, Clay,” said Mount, hitching his heavy chair closer to the white cloth, “I left brother Jim in good spirits at Pitt.”
The landlord bowed, and seemed gratified to hear it.
“You should know,” said Mount, turning to me, “that our host is Barclay Rolfe, brother to Jim Rolfe, of the ‘Virginia Arms’ in Fort Pitt.” And to the landlord he said, “Mr. Cardigan, late ward of Sir William Johnson, but one of us.”
“I owe your brother much,” said I, “more than a bill for a chaise and four. Possibly you have heard from him concerning that same chaise?”
“I have heard through Saul Shemuel,” he said, gravely. “I guess my brother was tickled to death to help you out of that pickle, Mr. Cardigan.”
“He shall not lose by it either,” said I. “My solicitor, Peter Weaver, of Albany, has sent your brother full recompense for the carriage and animals.”
The elder Rolfe thanked me very simply, then excused himself to go to the kitchen where our dinner should now be ready.
It was truly a noble dinner of samp soup, roast pork, beans, a boiled cod, most toothsome and sweetly salt, and a great wild goose, roasted brown, with onion and sage dressing, and an aroma which filled the room like heavenly incense.
With this we drank October ale, touching neither Madeira nor sherry, though both were recommended us; but I wished not to mix draughts to set that latent deviltry a-brewing in Jack Mount, so refused all save ale for himself and for me, though I allowed him a hot bowl with his hazel nuts.
We now withdrew to one of the small tables in a corner of the room, a servant bringing thither our nuts and hot bowls, and also some writing materials for me.
These I prepared to use at once, pushing the nut-shells clear, and seized the pen to cramp it in my fist and set to work, tongue-moistening my determined lips:
“October 28, 1774.
“Thos. Foxcroft, Esquire,
Solicitor, Queen Street,
Boston.
“My dear Sir, — At what hour this evening will it prove convenient for you to receive the undersigned upon affairs of the 380 utmost urgency and grave moment concerning Miss Warren whose interests I believe you represent?
“The instant importance of the matter I trust may plead my excuse for this abrupt intrusion on your privacy.
“Pray consider me, Sir,
“Yr most obliged and obedient Servt
“Michael Cardigan.
“At the Wild Goose
near Wiltshire and Chambers Streets.”
Sealing the letter, I bade the servant take it and bring an answer if the gentleman was at home, but in any event to leave the letter.
Mount had taken a pipe from the stranger’s rack, and now lighted it, peering out of the window, and puffing away in vast contentment.
Northward, across the water, the lights of Charlestown glimmered through a thin fog. Nearer, in mid-stream, rose the black hull of a British war-ship, battle-lanthorns set and lighted, stabbing the dark tide below with jagged shafts of yellow light, cut by little black waves which hastened seaward on the sombre ebbing tide.
As for Boston, or as much of it as we could see over the shadowy roofs and slanting house-tops, it was deathly dark and still. Fort Pitt, with its hundreds of people, which Boston could match with thousands, was far more stirring and alive than this dumb city of shadows, with never a stir in its empty streets, and never a light from a window-candle. Truly, we sat in a tomb — the sepulchre of all good men’s hopes for justice from that distant England we had loved so well in kinder days.
Somewhere, deep in the dim city’s heart, a fire was burning, and we could see its faint reflection on chimneys in the northwest.
“Doubtless some regimental fire on the Common,” muttered Mount, “or a signal on Mount W — d — m, where the Light Horse camp. They talk to the war-ships and the castle from Beacon Hill, too. It may be that.”
Musing there by the window, we scarcely noticed that, little by little, the room behind us was filling. Already at the long table a dozen guests were seated, some conversing, 381 some playing absently with their glasses, some reading the newspapers through round horn-rimmed spectacles.
Many of them glanced sharply at us; some looked at Mount, smiled, and nudged others.
“Do you know any of these gentlemen, Jack?” I asked, in a low voice.
He swung around in his chair and surveyed the table.
“Ay, all o’ them,” he said, returning their amused salutations; “they all belong to the club that meets here.”
“Club? What club?” I asked.
“The Minute Men’s. I meant to tell you that you’re a member.”
“I a member?” I repeated, in astonishment.
“Surely, lad, else you never could ha’ passed these stairs. I am a member; I bring you, and now you’re a member. There’s no oath to take in this club. It’s only when you go higher into the secret councils like those o’ the three caucuses, the Mechanics’, and some others I shall not mention, by your leave.”
Mount watched the effect of his words on me and grinned.
“You didn’t know that I am one of the Minute Club’s messengers? That’s why I went to Pitt. Did you think I went there for my health? Nenny, lad. I had a message for Cresap as well as you, and I gave it, too.”
He laughed, and moistened his lips at the hot bowl.
“Paul Revere, the goldsmith — he who made the print of the Boston Massacre — is another messenger, but not of the Minute Club. He is higher — goes breakneck to York for S. A., you know.”
“What is S. A.?” I broke in, petulantly. “You all talk of J. H. and S. A. and the Thirteen Sisters, and I don’t understand.”
“S. A. is Sam Adams,” said Mount, surprised. “J. H. is John Hancock, a rich young man who is with us to the last gasp. The Thirteen Sisters mean the thirteen colonies. They’re with us, too — at least we hope they are, though York is a hell for Tories, and Philadelphia’s full o’ broad-brims who may not fight.”
“But what is this Minute Men’s Club?” I asked, curiously.
“Headquarters for delegates from the Minute Men and 382 all alarm companies in Massachusetts Bay. You know that every town, village, and hamlet in the province is organized, don’t you? Well, besides the regular militia we have alarm companies, where half of the men are ready to march at a minute’s notice. One officer from every company throughout the province is delegated to attend the Minute Club here, so that he can keep his company in touch with the march of events.
“Besides that, the club has a corps of runners, like me, to travel with orders when called on. I’m in for a rest now, unless something pressing occurs.”
“And — what am I in this club?” I asked, smiling to see how well Jack Mount had kept his secrets since I first knew him.
“You? Oh, you are a recruit for Cresap’s battalion,” said Mount, much amused. “We recruit here, for certain companies.”
“Is Cresap coming here?” I asked, eagerly.
“He marches in the spring with his Maryland and Pennsylvania Rangers — to pay his respects to Tommy Gage? Nenny! To help turn this pack o’ bloody-backs out of Boston, lad, and that’s the truth, which you should know.”
I sat silent, pondering on the strange circumstances of these months which had brought me so swiftly, from my boyhood’s isolation, into the thick of the tremendous struggle between King and colony, a struggle still bloodless, save for the so-called Boston Massacre of some years past.
That Mount had coolly recruited me without my knowledge or consent disturbed me not at all: first, because I should have offered my poor services anyway; second, because, had I been free to select, I should have chosen to serve with Cresap’s men, knowing him, as I did, for a brave and honourable young man.
I told Jack as much, and his face brightened with pleasure. He insisted on presenting me to the company — which was now fast filling the room — as one of Cresap’s Rangers; and he further did most foolishly praise me for my bearing in certain common dangers he and I had shared, which made me red and awkward and vexed with him for my embarrassment.
The gentlemen I met were all most kind and polite; some appeared to be gentlemen bred, others honest young men — over-silent and sober for their years, perhaps, but truly a sturdy, clean-limbed company, neatly but not fashionably attired, and the majority characterized by a certain lankness of body which tended to gauntness in a few.
All were officers of alarm companies belonging to the numerous towns of the province; all were simple in manner, courteous to each other, and thoughtful of strangers, inviting us to wine or punch, and taking no offence when I prudently refused, for my own sake as well as for Jack’s.
Two soldiers of the Lexington militia entertained me most agreeably; they were Nathan Harrington and Robert Monroe, the latter an old soldier, having been standard-bearer for his regiment at Louisburg.
“For years,” he observed, quietly, “the British have said that all Americans are cowards, and they have so dinned it into their own ears that they believe it. It is a strange thing for them to believe. Who was it stood fast before Duquesne when Braddock’s British fled? Who took Louisburg? What men have fought for England on our frontiers from our grandfathers’ times?”
“Ay,” broke in Harrington, “they tell us that we are yokels without wit or knowledge to fire a musket. Yet, to-day, two-thirds of the men in our province of Massachusetts Bay have served as soldiers against the French or the savages.”
“That we are under the King’s displeasure,” said Monroe, “I can well understand; but that he and his ministers and his soldiers should wish to deem us cowards — we who are English, too, as well as they — passes my understanding.”
“Mayhap they will learn the truth ere winter,” observed Harrington, grimly.
