Shoulder-Straps: A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862

by Henry Morford

  CHAPTER XVI.

  TWO MODES OF WRITING ROMANCES--MORE OF THE UP-TOWN MYSTERY--A WATCH, ANESCAPE, AND A POLICE POST-MORTEM ON A VACANT HOUSE.

  The question may have been asked, before this point in narration, bysome of those who have been induced to follow the progress of thisstory--What has become of some of the prominent characters firstintroduced, Dexter Ralston, the stalwart Virginian, and the girl Kate,who seemed at that time to be so closely identified with the movementsof the "red woman." The curiosity is a natural one, whether there reallywas such a secret of disloyalty, hidden away either in the house onPrince Street or that on East 5--, as justified Tom Leslie and WalterHarding in their long ride at midnight and their subsequent interviewwith Police-Superintendent Kennedy. To some extent this question can beanswered, at this point; but there will still remain some mysteriesunexplainable until the end of this narration, and even some impossibleto elucidate until the close of the war and the re-union of Northern andSouthern society on the old basis, makes it possible to reveal all thatmay have occurred during the conflict.

  There are two modes in which romances can be written. The first, andperhaps the more popular, is that in which no bound whatever is set byeither probability or conscience--in which the narrator assumes to knowwhat never could be known except to an omniscient being, and to describesuch circumstances as never could have occurred in any world under thesame general regulations as our own. To this writer, no doors arebarred, and from him the secret of no heart can be hidden. He has nodifficulty whatever in retracing the path of history, back to the daysof Michael Paleologus or Timour the Tartar, and describing the viandsset upon their tables and the thoughts that may have entered theirbrains; while in events of the present day he finds no more trouble indescribing circumstantially the last moments of a traveller dying aloneat the North Pole or in the midst of the most trackless waste of Sahara.The manner in which he became possessed of the facts narrated, is heldto be a matter of very little consequence; and if he lacks theopportunity of calling other witnesses or surrounding circumstances tocorroborate him, he at least is removed from the fear of anyauthoritative contradiction. The reader, of course, would sometimes begrateful for a little insight into what is so impenetrably hidden; andif the links binding the narrator to his subject were made a littleplainer to the naked eye, perhaps more general satisfaction might begiven. When, for instance, in the "Legend of the Terrible Tower," SirBronzeface the Implacable is shown as threatening the Lady Charmengardewith the most cruel tortures his slighted love and growing hate candevise--when the very words of that atrocious monster are set down ascarefully as if they had been taken from his lips by the rapid pencil ofthe stenographer--and when in the context we learn that in the midst ofhis threatenings, the thousand barrels of gunpowder secretly stored inanother part of the castle for the purpose of arming a million ofretainers to make a deadly onslaught on the stronghold of his hatedrival the Lord of Hardcheek, suddenly takes fire, and the castle, withboth the interlocutors and all others who could possibly be present, isseen hurled into infinitesimal fragments,--there is some unavoidablecuriosity in the mind of the reader, at this juncture, to know preciselyhow these very words and actions became known to the narrator, as wellas how the gunpowder was manufactured in the year of grace nine hundredand eighty-four.

  For corresponding knowledge of events in the actual present, thebelievers in clairvoyance may be able to offer some explanation; but,unfortunately or the reverse, the believers in effective clairvoyanceare in a very meagre minority; and the world will cling a littletenaciously to the belief that what cannot be seen, heard, or otherwiserealized by the recognized natural senses, cannot be definitelyascertained. Let it not be for one moment supposed, meanwhile, thatromances constructed on such bases will be less popular than those whichhave more reason and probability at the bottom; for the majority ofnovel-readers desire to be frightened, mystified or idly amused; andperhaps that writer who makes _thought_ a condition of reading andunderstanding what he writes, commits the most silly of crimes againsthis own pocket and reputation.

  The other mode in which romances can be written, is that in which thewriter only details that which he has enjoyed an opportunity to know,embodying with them such speculations and reflections as seemlegitimately to grow out of the subject. This mode is unquestionably anunprofitable one to employ; but unfortunately this narration can beconducted on no other. Actual events and conversations _only_ are given,and no speculations as to _what might have been_ can be indulged. Itmight have been very easy to depict a disloyal or "secesh" household inthis city, and a club of fashionable people with pro-slavery sympathies,meeting periodically, with grips, signs and passwords, and exercising aninjurious influence on the National cause by holding clandestinecorrespondence with rebels in the revolted States. That such householdshave existed in this city during the entire struggle, and that suchcombinations of disloyal men have been doing their worst to cripple thegovernment and distract the nation, no rational man doubts for a moment.But _no loyal citizen has been admitted behind the curtain, in either ofthe supposable instances_. No one could have been, and still remainedloyal, without making such public revelations in the interest ofpatriotism, that any pretended _private_ revelation must necessarilyhave become a farce. No one, especially, would have held any such secretfor months, and then divulged it in the ambiguous mode of a romance,while arbitrary arrests and unexplained imprisonments were making theonce free States of the Old Union a second Venice. Suspiciouscircumstances have been observed, and suspicious persons put underwatch; but if anything more than mere suspicion has been reached, thedisloyal persons themselves, and the government, are the only partieswho possess the information.

  All this, to say that the materials for this narration have not beengathered from disloyal sources or found in disloyal company, and that,as a consequence, it does not enter within doors closed to true men, byany magic key of the mind or the imagination. And if any mysterysuggested, from that cause remains even partially unsolved, truth andloyalty, and not a desire for mystification, must supply theexplanation.

  And now to detail, very briefly, what is further known of the house onEast 5-- Street, and its occupation.

  It has already been related that Superintendent Kennedy, in spite of hisslighting replies to the two young men, did not really undervalue theirinformation, and that two vigilant detectives, with assistants, wereentrusted with the duty of watching the two houses. "L---- and anothergood man" had been ordered to take charge of the house on East5--Street, and they entered upon their duties at once. Not as ordinarypolicemen, of course, for such a plan would necessarily have defeatedany chance of successful observation. It was as a very modest privategentleman, elderly, with a cane and a slight limp, that L---- managed tolounge by the house repeatedly within the space of an hour; while hisassistant, dressed in the clothes of a glass-mender, and with a box ofthe proper cut strapped on his back, haunted that street and invitedbusiness with a cry which the boys irreverently designated "glasspudding!" During the two hours thus spent, no person entered or left thehouse, nor was there a sign of life at any of the windows,--though whateyes may really have been watching from those closed blinds, it is quiteimpossible to say. Enough that they kept their watch closely until thecoming on of the same heavy thunder-storm which burst upon the visitorsto the sorceress in Prince Street; and that when the first drops of thatshower were falling, conceiving themselves very unlikely to be repaidfor a thorough wetting, they temporarily withdrew to the Station-house,or, as the act would now be expressed, "raised the blockade" for a verylimited period.

  Within five minutes after their departure, and when the wind and therain had fairly begun to play together at rough gymnastics in thestreet, there was evidence that eyes probably _had_ been observing theelderly gentleman with the limp, walking past the house a little toofrequently. At all events, a man of tall figure, wrapped in an oil-skincoat, and with a round black hat and umbrella, emerged from the frontdoor and dashed rapidly up the
street. He was gone but a few minutes,and returned in the very height of the storm, in a carriage which drewup at the door. Perhaps ten minutes more, and some of the neighbors, whohad been observing these singular movements, saw the same tall man, withan elderly lady and two younger ones, come out and enter the carriage,which, after taking on two large trunks, drove away at ordinary speed.The conclusion to which these good people came, was that the party wereobliged to go out in the storm for the purpose of catching one of thelate evening trains out of the city; and they may have been very nearlycorrect in the conjecture.

  The storm passed over, and the summer evening came on. The twodetectives came back to their places, varying their disguises for theevening. The house seemed all quiet, as before, and L---- came to theconclusion that there was either no one within or that the inmates weredisposed to lie very close, as they did not even open the front windowsto admit the clear evening air, cooled by the shower, or to look at thesplendid sunset sky. So time passed on until nine o'clock, when the twodetectives agreed to adopt the "ride-and-tie" principle--one keepingstrict watch until midnight and the other until morning. Thisarrangement was duly carried out; and L----, who had taken the turn tillmidnight, again resumed his place at six o'clock. All was quiet--no onehad entered or left the house, and L---- became thoroughly satisfiedthat it must be unoccupied. He might have haunted the house in onedisguise or another, retaining the same correct opinion, until doomsday,had not one of the neighboring houses contained one of those inquisitivegentlemen (sometimes depreciatingly called "meddlers") who can never becontent without knowing the business of all others, better than theirown.

  This person, partially an invalid, and much confined to the house and tovery short walks in the neighborhood,--had observed the surveillance ofthe day before, still continued that morning; and he had also observedthe episode of the carriage in the midst of the thunder-storm, of whichthe officer was as yet happily oblivious. Putting all the appearancestogether, he concluded that there had been some accusation, a watch andan escape; and about nine o'clock that morning he strolled out to thesidewalk; accosted the detective; informed him, with a knowing wink ofthe eye, that he understood the whole matter; and finished by advisinghim that "the birds had flown," and of the particular time when theytook wing. As appendiary matter, he also informed the detective that thehouse was a furnished one belonging to a wealthy grocer who had justgone to Europe with his family--that it had been rented for a few weekspast to some very odd people--and that he had wondered at their being noattention paid to it before, as he was satisfied it was a receptacle forstolen goods.

  To say that L---- was surprised at the first part of this intelligence,would be to say nothing; to say that he was mortified and enraged atbeing obliged to make such a report to the Superintendent, would be toput the case very mildly; and to say that he felt like amputating thehead of a large-sized nail with his teeth, would only being doingjustice to his feelings at this juncture.

  The communicative neighbor finally informed him that he doubted whetherthe house was fastened, from the suddenness of the departure the daybefore; and on the hint the detective acted. The front door was found tobe secured, but only by the latch-key bolt; and the area door wasentirely unfastened. They entered and explored the house. It was aneatly furnished modern building, with everything in its place andnothing to mark any hasty departure of occupants, except a dinner-tableleft setting in the dining-room, with food on the plates and evidencethat the meal had been left unfinished.

  No clothing or other articles that could have belonged to the lateinmates had been left behind, except half a dozen books, one of whichwas Simms' "History of South Carolina," another a copy of that oddjumble of short sketches published three or four years ago by MissMartha Haines Butt, and a third one of Marion Harland's novels--"TheHidden Path." Part of a letter was found, the signature gone and all oneside burned off, as if it had been used in lighting a cigar or agas-burner, but still showing the date; "Richmond, Va., C.S.A., May28th, 1862," and apparently written by a young officer in theConfederate army to his sister in this city. No other traces were found,though these were quite enough to increase the chagrin of thedetectives, in the knowledge that they had allowed persons to escape whocertainly must have been in correspondence with the rebel capital; andwith this the crest-fallen L---- and his subordinate prepared to maketheir report to a superior not much in the habit of excusing failure ormaking allowance for extenuating circumstances.

  It is to be believed that the inquisitive and communicative neighborenjoyed the best night's rest he had known for a twelvemonth, on thenight following, after this conference with a couple of detectives andthis peep into a house that had really excited his curiosity. It isdoubtful, meanwhile, whether the grocer landlord, informed by his agent,by the next mail, of the exodus of his tenants without liquidation, sawthe matter in so enjoyable a light.

  Of course, with the fugitives given some fifteen hours start and the useof modern railroad facilities, any thought of pursuit would have beenfolly, even had there been any conclusive data upon which to foundproceedings for their apprehension. And with such meagre andunsatisfactory results closed that portion of the supposed secessionmystery--at least for the time. After events showed that the "red woman"disappeared from Prince Street on the same night, whether in companywith her former acquaintances or alone. What after-glimpses were caughtof any of the other persons concerned, will be shown at a later periodof this narration.