The iroh chain ps-2 Read online

  The iroh chain

  ( Patriot spy - 2 )

  Jim Defelice

  Jim DeFelice

  The iroh chain

  Chapter One

  Wherein, our heroes encounter difficulties before proper introductions can be made.

  June, 1777

  You will honor me, sir, by raising your hands. You need not touch a particular cloud, but you will stretch in that direction or suffer the most dire consequences."

  "And what consequences might those be?" harrumphed Claus van Clynne, settling his hands alongside his baggy russet coat as his gelding took a short, nervous pace to the side.

  "I should not like to shoot you." The man locked his knees astride the gray-dappled horse blocking the path and flicked his coat back to reveal a well-polished flintlock pistol, cocked and aimed in the Dutchman's direction. "I must say, though, you would be an easy target, with so large a belly."

  "Even the robbers take airs these days," complained van Clynne, who still made no movement to comply with the stranger's command.

  Jake Gibbs, sitting on a black mare next to him, silently cursed his companion's obstinate nature. On the one hand, van Clynne's prickly sense of honor, not to mention his stubbornness, often proved valuable in difficult situations. On the other, it occasionally led him to annoy people at entirely the wrong moment, with difficult consequences.

  "Claus," said Jake, holding his long arms out in a show of complying with the stranger's directions, "perhaps the gentleman wants to discuss the state of affairs in the countryside." He stretched his hands so high that his shoulders strained the rough gray-brown cloth of his coat.

  "At gunpoint? I tell you sir, as a practitioner of the conversational arts, gunpowder makes for very poor grammar."

  Jake smiled apologetically at the stranger, and moved his left hand down to shade against the late afternoon sun. The man had come upon them at the juncture of two narrow and extremely obscure lanes northeast of the old New York road in southern Westchester. Van Clynne's irritation was undoubtedly compounded by the fact that he had boasted a few minutes before that not more than three people in the entire province knew this shortcut to White Plains, and that he and Jake were as likely to meet an African unicorn as a criminal.

  The country here was euphemistically known as the Neutral Ground, meaning that in addition to being patrolled by both American and British forces, robbers and thieves felt any traveler was fair game. Which specific category the stranger fell into remained to be seen, but was in certain important senses irrelevant.

  "We are merely travelers like yourself," said Jake smoothly, easing his hands down. He brushed a piece of dust from his brown breeches to emphasize his nonchalance, and kept his tone as calm and friendly as if a baker had happened upon him and asked if he wanted bread on the morrow. "Were you waiting for someone?"

  Jake guessed from the stranger's handsome pistol and horse, as well as his aristocratic manner and clothes-not fine, but fresh and unstained, which was the significance — that he was allied to the British; generally the people with money here chose the king's side of the conflict. But this was not necessarily inevitable, and while the man was obviously waiting for some confederate whose identity was unknown to him, there were a thousand explanations possible.

  And no time to hear any of them? the faint click of hoof beats sounded in the distance, and Jake realized there was as good a chance as not their interlocutor might decide to shoot them when he learned they were not his appointed guests.

  "I will ask the questions," said the man. "Who are you seeking?"

  "We don't seek anyone," said Jake. "We have concluded a piece of business in New York, and now are traveling toward some friends."

  "You are rebels, then," said the stranger, who by using the word rebel as good as told Jake that he was loyal to King George.

  "By whose definition are we rebels?" asked van Clynne indignantly. His loud voice drew the stranger's attention and momentarily loosened his aim.

  God, thought Jake as he slid forward on his horse, grabbing the pistol hooked into the front of his saddle in the same motion, I've been with the Dutchman so long I actually know what he's thinking.

  However frightening that was — and the reader would have had to spend a solid week listening to van Clynne's complaints to truly appreciate the fear — it was not an emotion the patriot spy dwelled upon. The weapon in Jake's holster was kept loaded and ready; a smooth, simple gun without ornamentation, it was nonetheless accurate and deadly, even when fired from its sling. It could not actually be called sweet, as its kick was surprisingly heavy for its size. But this heaviness was in direct proportion to the speed and power of the round ball it discharged — a ball that struck the stranger square in the throat.

  The jolt of a gun being fired so close to her head was too much for Jake's mare. The poor beast bolted down the road as if the devil himself were after her.

  The patriot spy, off balance, fell to the side, an arm just missing a good smack from the horse's foreleg. Jake's six-foot-two frame twisted across the back and side of the animal, desperately trying to adhere, while his long hair flew madly above, a guardian angel suddenly jostled from its post

  The horse's speed had been an asset earlier in the day as Jake and van Clynne rode north through East Chester, dodging British patrols and outposts. Now it was a distinct liability. The animal followed the winding roadway, dodging and cutting back with its curves as Jake swam against the wind and the mare's momentum to bring her under control.

  The patriot had never been reckoned a horseman in his youth — his priorities were elsewhere — but he had acquired a certain proficiency during the last two years of war. That and his natural strength won out in the end. When the mare felt the strong hands once more pulling evenly on her reins, she began to calm. They had traveled more than a quarter mile in her madness, but Jake's only new injury seemed to be the loss of the ribbon that tied his hair into a ponytail — his tricornered hat had been lost nearly a week before.

  As for old injuries, both his shoulder and knee vied for attention. They had been hurt the previous day in New York City, and thus warranted some indulgence — he rubbed both before setting back up the road to see where van Clynne was.

  As it happened, the Dutchman was not far from where Jake had left him, though under somewhat different circumstances: He found himself in the middle of an altogether uncomfortable parlay with two horsemen who had galloped up from the rear and ordered him to dismount.

  "I thank God for your arrival," said van Clynne, "for otherwise I should be as dead as my friend." His attitude was in remarkable contrast to his previous manner; he practically bolted from his animal and made a great show of being agreeable.

  There is nothing so agreeable as a Dutchman being agreeable.

  Van Clynne took off his large, Quaker-style beaver hat and twirled it around in sympathetic gestures as he praised the two horsemen. Each was equipped with a heavy musket, a deadly weapon, granted, but not terribly accurate from the back of a horse. The Dutchman took no obvious notice of this drawback, praising both as timely saviors. He bowed and scraped until even the king of Araby would have been impressed.

  "A tall man, obviously a villain, ambushed us and demanded our money," said van Clynne when he finally decided he had sweetened the dough enough to insert a piece of meat. "My brave friend resisted — and now we see the sad consequence of valuing gold above all else." Frowning, one of the gunmen jumped down to inspect the prostrate body. "It's Johnson," he said to his companion. "Johnson, yes," said van Clynne. "A fine man. Noble and of a philosophical nature. A great loss." The man on horseback deepened his frown. "How do we know you didn't kill him?"

  "Kill a friend? Didn't you see the criminal rid
e off? You were upon us so quick, I half assumed you were avenging angels, here to take the killer to hell."

  "John, if he was riding with Major Johnson-"

  "Let's let our guest explain himself, Esmond, before we jump to any conclusions. The woods are filled with traitors."

  "Esmond, now there is a handsome name," said van Clynne, holding his silvery gray hat to his chest. "Is it Dutch, by any chance?" "Not that I know." "A pity," he said. "Step away from your horse."

  Van Clynne took the rein in his hand. "I merely want to make sure he stays with me. A fine animal, but not too trustworthy. A bit like a rebel, no?"

  "And how do you know we're not rebels?" demanded John.

  "Come, sir, I would think our loyalties are above question." Van Clynne reached for one of the bags tied to his saddle. "I have always sworn firm allegiance to the king. If you wish, I have some papers that will clear me of any suspicion. Though I would hardly think that necessary under the circumstances. Indeed, there was a time when a Dutchman's wink, let alone his word, was his guarantee — " "Shut up and show us your pass before I fill your mouth with my musket." "If he was with Major Johnson — " "Quiet, Esmond. What is your name, criminal?"

  "Claus van Clynne, Esquire, at your service," said the Dutchman, taking the bag in hand as he bowed and waved his hat in a grand gesture of introduction.

  Van Clynne's tone had suddenly turned from sincere to sardonic, but the Tory on horseback had no time to respond — a bullet whizzed from the nearby woods and caught him on the side, pushing him forward on his horse.

  The author of the shot was none other than Jake Gibbs. The Dutchman had caught sight of him creeping into position in the woods, and endeavored to attract the strangers' attention with his prattle while Jake prepared his assault. But even the most elaborate tactical plan carries with it a flaw, and here the shortcoming was quickly apparent — Jake was armed with only one pistol, and having fired that one, was defenseless as the dead man's partner turned and confronted him with his musket at close range.

  The man was so intent on pulling back the lock to shoot that he hardly noticed van Clynne still fussing behind him with his hat and bag. As he settled his aim, the Dutchman dropped the leather sack and flung one of the items it had contained — an Iroquois tomahawk — head over handle. With the sharp flap of a hawk descending for the kill, it flew directly into the Tory's head, slicing it asunder.

  Chapter Two

  Wherein, the American lines are reached and crossed.

  You see now, sir, that fashion can have its utilitarian side," said van Clynne. "My hat distracted them sufficiently for me to remove my weapon unobserved. You could not have done that with your customary tricorner."

  "The only distraction that mattered was my shooting them," Jake said testily.

  "Hmmph," said van Clynne. "I was ready to attack well before then, but waited for you out of courtesy. It would have been impolite to deprive you of a share of the glory."

  "Uh-huh."

  "I should remind you that there were two tomahawks in my bag. Frankly, I could not understand your delay in firing; I thought my tongue would rot with its praise of that villain King George."

  "I was waiting for you to torture them with an explanation of your economic theories, Claus. They would have run for their lives and I wouldn't have had to waste the powder."

  "Mark me, sir." Van Clynne's round face grew bright red, his cheeks puffing above the thick yet somehow scraggly beard that grew beneath his mouth and chin. His nose pinched and pointed northward, and his thick brows furrowed above his eyes. This was a sign that he intended to speak with great seriousness, as was the velocity of his finger as it rent the air. In truth, the Dutchman would declare that he always spoke with great seriousness, but as he always spoke, some pronouncements were naturally more serious than others.

  "The philosophy of Adam Smith will be revered for generations to come," van Clynne declared. "You, sir, should have sympathy with his theories, as they are most fitting for a democracy, and provide the basis for the overthrow of this heinous taxation system imposed by the mother country."

  "Revolutions are things of the heart, Claus, not the head. A man feels he must be free before he can explain it."

  The Dutchman sniffed at the rebuke and followed his usual tactic when checked, which was to change the subject. "You fuss with those dead bodies so much I would think you an undertaker's son, rather than a druggist's."

  "If I had a shovel and we were across American lines or better armed, I'd bury them properly," said Jake, standing back from the fence where he'd propped the three dead men. In truth, the tableau was a shade grotesque; if not for their gaping wounds and blood-stained clothes, the men might be sitting down to a roadside tea. He unrolled his sleeves and despite the lingering heat of the spring day pulled his coat back over his shoulders. "We'll have to send the first patrol we meet to do so. Even a thief deserves to be properly buried."

  "We'd best continue on our way before we're in need of the same service," warned van Clynne from his horse.

  None of the dead men carried a shred of paper indicating who they might be or what they were about. Under other circumstances, Jake might have decided to spend some time finding out. He suspected that Johnson was a British or Tory agent, waiting for other traitors; capturing their accomplices would be a good day's work. But Lieutenant Colonel Jake Gibbs, secret service agent assigned temporarily to the Northern Department of the Continental Army, had more pressing responsibilities. He was to return to Albany in six days and report to Major General Philip Schuyler, commander of the Northern Department of the Continental Army, that General Sir William Howe had no immediate plans to come north on the Hudson River.

  The reason he had no such plans will be familiar to those who have followed Lieutenant Colonel Gibbs's previous exploits. Gibbs and van Clynne had just succeeded in foisting themselves off on Howe as messengers from General Johnny Burgoyne, telling him Burgoyne did not wish him to proceed north. While this was directly contrary to Burgoyne's grand plan for ending the war, the American agents had managed to completely convince Sir William. As the elaborate stratagem has been described in detail elsewhere, we will skip over it here, saying only that had Jake and van Clynne failed, General Schuyler would have abandoned Albany. Indeed, he would have had little recourse but to give over the entire Hudson Valley to the British, thereby splitting the states in two, and leaving New England and the Revolution to be strangled on the vine.

  While the author has grown reflective, Jake and van Clynne have mounted their horses, taken the others in tow, and continued north on the road toward White Plains. Jake has retied his hair with a spare piece of black cloth found in one of his companion's copious pockets. There was mention of a rental fee amounting to two pence per day, with interest compounded on the fortnight; the reader has fortunately missed the lieutenant-colonel's somewhat scatological retort.

  Jake soon had more considerable matters to ponder. He noticed that his mare's right foreleg was giving her difficulty; she had strained herself during her panicked flight. After switching to the gray-dappled stallion so lately owned by Johnson, the two patriots moved forward at a slower pace, hoping the mare could be saved.

  Van Clynne in the meantime expressed various opinions, mostly in the form of complaints, about the state of the American economy, which had become subject to wild inflation and artificial shortages, cheating honest businessmen and providing opportunity only for scoundrels. Why the Dutchman fit into the first group when he so easily and consistently made profits the second would envy was not adequately addressed by his theories, though Jake would be the last to point this out — it would only encourage van Clynne to speak at greater length

  Within fifteen minutes — at about the point where the squire was running down the beaver trade — they came upon a party of American pickets, who had set up a post on a wooden bridge over a tributary of the Bronx River. The men wore tattered hunting shirts; if these had been originally cut from leat
her, they had long since transmuted into a thinner and foreign cloth. Their breeches were not in much better shape, well worn and in a few cases patched; in others, simply torn. Their hose was nonexistent, and it would cause a grave injustice to the language to call the items on their feet shoes. But their weapons were in good repair, and the soldiers themselves cheery enough, as soon as Jake identified himself and his companion as patriots in search of the men's captain.

  The troops were Rhode Islanders from Colonel Israel Angell’s regiment. Angell was an old acquaintance of Jake's. This information was warmly welcomed by the captain, an amiable sort found bending over a kettle a few yards away. The man had built his fire by the roadside, announcing his post with a simple stick mounted by a blue ribbon. He had a stump for his desk, and a log for his seat, but nonetheless exuded the air of one naturally born to lead.

  "Can I offer you some Liberty Tea, gentlemen? I've added a few herbs I found by the roadside to the usual sassafras. I think it has quite a unique flavor."

  Jake and van Clynne exchanged a glance.

  "I make it a habit never to drink Liberty Tea after the early morning hours," blustered the Dutchman. "I, er, it keeps me awake."

  "I'm not thirsty, thank you," said Jake.

  "You're missing a treat." The captain poured the water and its steeped herbs into a crude tin cup and held it to his mouth. He took a sip, winced, then set it down. "Too hot," he said doubtfully. "I'll have to let it cool. Now, gentlemen — your business."

  "We are messengers," said Jake, producing a piece of blown and colored glass the Sons of Liberty had given him in New York as an identifier.

  The captain fingered the clamshell-shaped glass briefly, then handed it back. "And your destination?"

  "I can say only that I am working for General Schuyler. Ordinarily, I am assigned to General Greene."