Mister Slaughter

by Robert McCammon

PaRT SIX: a Meeting of Night Owls Chapter Thirty-Two

 

  On a bright, breezy afternoon in the middle of November, a flat-bottomed ferry barge from Weehawken tied ropes at Van Dam's shipyard, and discharged its passengers onto the wharf after an hour's trip across the Hudson.

  a wagon pulled by a team of horses rumbled off the boat and onto the boards. Its driver then steered the horses into the town's traffic along King Street and turned to the right on the busy Broad Way, while the boy sitting next to him took in the sights, smells and sounds of New York.

  The wagon was passing the intersection of Beaver Street and the Broad Way, heading south toward the Great Dock. Three men engaged in conversation in front of a tallow chandler's shop fronting the Way paused in their snide remarks concerning the bilious green of Lord Cornbury's new hat and took view of the wagon. One of them, a little barrel-chested gent standing at the center, caught his breath. He said, with a smudge of disgust, "Choke a duck! Corbett's back!"

  With that, Dippen Nack took to his heels in the direction of City Hall.

  Matthew heard several people shout to him from the sidewalks, but he paid them no mind. as much as he was glad to be back-as much as he'd thought he would never be back-the place seemed foreign, in a way. Different. as alien as Walker's village had seemed, at first. Had there been this many houses and buildings when he and Greathouse had left, more than a month agoi This many people, carts and wagonsi This much clatter and bustlei He wondered if part of Walker had not returned with him, and he was seeing New York through an altered vision; he wondered if he would ever see it the same way again, or feel he truly belonged here among citizens who had not witnessed such vicious murder, violence and evil, or who had not killed a woman with an axe and fired a bullet into a man's body.

  He had returned home, but not as he'd left. For better or for worse, he had blood on his hands. as did the boy beside him, but if Tom suffered any qualms about his part in the death of Tyranthus Slaughter, he kept them locked up in the ironclad vault of his soul. The most he'd professed about it to Matthew was that he viewed it as an execution, and lawful or not it was done so it wasn't worth speaking of any more.

  But Matthew was sure Lillehorne was going to have a lot to say about it.

  "Matthew! Hey, there!" Running up alongside the wagon was his friend, the blacksmith's apprentice John Five, newlywed in September to Constance Wade, now the happy Mrs. Five.

  "Hello, John," Matthew answered, but he kept the team moving.

  "Where've you beeni"

  "Working. "

  "You all righti"

  "I'll be all right," Matthew said.

  "Folks were wonderin'. When your partner came back last week, and you didn't. I've heard what he's been tellin', about the redskins. Some were sayin' you'd had it. "

  "almost did," Matthew said. "But I gave it back. "

  "You up to comin' to supper one nighti"

  "I am. Give me a few days. "

  "Okay. " John reached up and slapped Matthew's leg. "Welcome home. "

  Not much further along, a well-dressed middle-aged woman with an exuberant, sharp-nosed face waved at him with her handkerchief and stepped forward. "Oh, Mr. Corbett!" she called. "So good to see you! Will we be reading any more of your adventures in the next Earwigi"

  "No madam," he told Mrs. Iris Garrow, wife of Stephen Garrow the Duke Street horn merchant. "Definitely not. "

  "But surely you won't deprive us!"

  "Some things are best left to the imagination," he said, for he'd decided that the spicy element of sausages once sold at Sally almond's to patrons just such as Mrs. Garrow need not be revealed. He knew that High Constable Farraday in Philadelphia felt the same about keeping the lid on the grisly box, for there was not enough water, wine, ale or hard cider in the colonies to wash that taste out of people's mouths.

  "are you somebody special 'round herei" Tom asked.

  "Just a citizen," Matthew said, as they left Mrs. Garrow behind. "The same as anyone. "

  It was no surprise to Matthew that Hudson Greathouse had returned to New York, because he'd already known it to be true. after Nathaniel Powers had given him and Tom this wagon and some money to get back on, Matthew had turned off the Philadelphia Pike on the very same road by which Slaughter had directed his captors to Fort Laurens. Tom had remained silent as they'd passed the New Unity cemetery and Reverend Burton's cabin. On reaching the treacherous slope that led down to the ruins of the fort and beyond it the Seneca village, Matthew had seen that the wagon afforded him and Greathouse by High Constable Lillehorne was gone.

  Matthew and Tom had left their wagon at the top of the hill and walked the rest of the way. Passing through Fort Laurens onto the path to the village, their progress was soon accompanied by the noise of cawing crows and barking dogs from the depths of the woods. When the first feathered brave finally showed himself, Matthew called out, "English!"

  again, there was a merry circus among the tribe as Matthew and Tom were escorted in, but after Matthew stuck out his chest and hollered, "English!" a few more times he was taken to a forbidding-looking, solemn man who at least could understand a little of the language and speak it enough to be understood in turn.

  From what Matthew could gather, Greathouse had regained enough health to walk out on his own two legs, with the help of a hickory stick. In the time he'd been there, he had earned respect from the medicine sisters because, if Matthew comprehended this correctly, he had wrestled with Death in the wilderness beyond and returned grinning like a wolf. It seemed, from what the solemn Indian was able to make clear, that Gray Wolf had sat before the fire with the elders and drank a cup of rattlesnake blood with them, which much impressed everyone. also, he was quite the good singer, which Matthew would never have guessed.

  The Indians had previously brought in the two old nags that had pulled the wagon, intending-from what Matthew could gather-to kill them and use them as food for the dogs, but prevailing wisdom had dictated that the dogs should not suffer such an indignity. So they were allowed to graze and serve as playthings for the children until the day came that Gray Wolf was ready to leave. Then the horses were taken back up the hill, the wagon was pushed to the top and turned in the direction of the English world, and Gray Wolf set off for his home.

  Matthew would have been interested to see how Gray Wolf had talked himself across the Raritan river ferry, having no money, but maybe he'd offered a song for his passage.

  Before he'd left, Matthew had turned around and found that He Runs Fast had come out of the crowd. He Runs Fast spoke to the interpreter, and the question directed back to Matthew was: "Where soni"

  "The Sky Road," Matthew said.

  The interpreter didn't understand this. Matthew tried again: "Tell him his son did a great deed, his son was a true son, and now his son has gone to walk with the spirits. "

  The message was relayed and an answer given. "You say deadi" asked the brave, speaking for He Runs Fast.

  "Dead, yes. "

  He Runs Fast had been silent for a moment, staring at the ground. Then he spoke quietly, and the interpreter said, "He wish spirits make sense. " But after saying that to the interpreter, He Runs Fast had turned away, and had broken into a trot in the direction of the lake.

  Matthew's wagon had reached the Great Dock, where it appeared another merry circus was in progress, with a number of ships being loaded and unloaded. Crates and barrels were being carted up and down gangplanks, dock workers rushed around to the orders of their supervisors hollering through the sawed-off horns of bulls to amplify their voices, ropes were being coiled up, chains rattled, horses stamped nervously at their wagons and as usual the higglers were shouting to sell their roasted chestnuts, hot cider and corncakes.

  "always like thisi" Tom asked.

  "Pretty much. " Matthew halted the team. "I'll be right back. I have to find the next ship leaving for England. " He set the brake and got down, then went aro
und to the rear of the wagon. In the back were two duffel bags that Powers had afforded them, holding a supply of clean clothes for their return trip to New York, and a smaller brown canvas bag.

  Carrying the canvas bag, he walked along the dock until he saw a hook-nosed, bewigged man in a light gray suit who was marking in an account book with a pencil. He didn't know the individual, but reasoned he was one of the dock managers. He approached, got the man's attention from the confusion of commerce, and inquired about the ship he sought.

  The man turned a page. "The Golden Eye. Care to sign upi"

  "No, thank you. Where is iti"

  "Two down, wharf nine. Leaving on the next tide. It'd be a grand adventure. "

  "Thank you all the same. "

  Matthew set off for wharf number nine, the numerals painted in white on the pilings. He was almost there when he heard the quick clack-clack-clacking of shoes on the timbers behind him, nearly running, and before he felt the black cane with its silver lion's-head tap his shoulder none too gently he heard the sharp voice say, "Corbett! What the devil is thisi"

  Matthew stopped and turned to face Gardner Lillehorne, who wore a sea-blue suit, a tricorn the same aquatic hue, and a waistcoat striped blue-and-ebony. Behind him smirked Dippin Nack, who was always eager to watch Matthew receive a verbal thrashing.

  "Where is the prisoneri" Lillehorne demanded. On the narrow, pallid face his carefully-trimmed mustache and goatee seemed to bristle.

  "Thank you, sir," Matthew answered calmly, "for your appreciation of my return. I can tell you that it was an iffy proposition. "

  "all right, all right! I'm gratified you've returned! Now where's Slaughteri"

  "and speak up!" Nack added, to which Lillehorne shot him a warning glance.

  "I'm actually very glad you're here, to witness the transfer. " Matthew motioned toward the ship on its moorings at wharf number nine. "I understand," he said, "that the Golden Eye is the next vessel sailing for England. Come with me, won't youi" He started for it, and heard the clack of Lillehorne's boots following.

  "What game are you playing at, Corbetti Don't you realize that John Drake, the Crown's constable, has been staying at the Dock House Inn for nearly three weeksi and who do you think is shouldering that costi New York, that's who!"

  Matthew waited for a couple of men to pass lugging a huge trunk, and then he went up the gangplank. Lillehorne was right behind him. Matthew stopped at the end of the plank. He opened the canvas bag, uptilted it, and upon the deck fell two polished black boots, somewhat scuffed in their tumble down a roof.

  Lillehorne looked at the boots and then, incredulously, at Matthew. "are you absolutely madi"

  "I seem to remember, sir, that you said in our office, 'I want the prisoner's boots on the next ship leaving for England, and good riddance to him'. Isn't that what you saidi"

  "I don't know! I don't remember! But if I said that, I meant for him to be in the boots! and these could be any boots you found between here and wherever you went. Now I know what happened to Greathouse, and I regret that but it was his own greedy fault. "

  "Greedy!" Nack crowed, standing behind Lillehorne.

  "Drake's come to take the prisoner into custody!" Lillehorne plowed on. "Where is the prisoneri"

  "Tyranthus Slaughter is buried on the grounds of Lord Kent's tobacco plantation in the Carolina colony," Matthew said. "If you wish to know the details, I suggest you visit Nathaniel Powers, or ride to Philadelphia for a meeting with High Constable abram Farraday. Or Drake can go, I don't care. all I care is that Slaughter's boots are on the next ship leaving for England, which was your stated requirement. " Matthew glared holes through the high constable. "and good riddance. "

  "Sirs!" came a bellow from the deck. "Either move your asses out of the way or start loadin' freight!"

  The suggestion of physical labor put naked fear on the faces of Lillehorne and Nack, but Matthew was already descending the gangplank. He strode back along the dock toward his wagon.

  Lillehorne hurried to catch up with him, while Nack brought up the rear. "Corbett! Corbett!" Lillehorne said, as he got up beside Matthew. "I'll hear the details from you! This minute!"

  Where to begini Matthew wondered as he walked. If Greathouse had already related the incidents leading up to the exploding safebox, that was to the good. He could pick up the story with Walker, he thought. Of course, sooner or later he was going to run into the part about Mrs. Sutch, and he wasn't sure Lillehorne was ready for that. Certainly it was not something Nack needed to hear, and then go flapping his red rag about town.

  He wondered what they would think of Tom's story. That, to him, was the most amazing part.

  Tom had spent about eight hours at the house of the Reverend Edward Jennings and his wife in Belvedere. When he had slept enough to get some strength back, he had simply gotten up in the dark just past midnight and gone out the door. He had reasoned that Slaughter was following the road south to Caulder's Crossing, which he himself had passed along on his journey north. Nothing in the world mattered so much as finding that man and killing him, and in the cold resolve of Tom's voice Matthew felt as if Slaughter had come to stand for many tragedies in the boy's life, or maybe Evil itself. In any case, Tom was bound to follow Slaughter no matter how far the killer travelled or how long it took, and so he'd left Belvedere on the same route that Matthew and Walker had followed.

  Not knowing about Slaughter's attempt to steal a horse and his subsequent jaunt through the woods, Tom had kept to the road. Just before dawn he'd slept about two more hours, but he'd never needed much sleep anyway. Then, further on and as the day progressed, he'd sighted tracks coming out of the forest. One traveler wearing boots, two wearing moccasins.

  They led him to a house he'd stopped at before, on his journey north. Where the family had been kind to him, and fed both him and James. Where the girl named Lark was so very pretty, and so kind as well, and where the boy, aaron, had shown him a bright variety of colored marbles in a small white clay jar. He and aaron had spent more than an hour shooting marbles, and it had amazed Tom that there was still a boy to be found somewhere inside him, because by this time he'd already killed a man in self defense down in the Virginia colony.

  He had gone into the house, he'd told Matthew. He had not shed a tear, he'd said, since his father had died; he was done crying, he'd said. But these murders, of these innocent and kind people, had shaken him to his soul. Of course he knew who'd done it. and he'd found himself looking at aaron's marbles scattered across the table, and picking up four or five in his hand, and thinking that if he ever needed anything to keep him going, to push him on when he was tired or hurting or hungry, all he had to do was touch these in his pocket and think of that day a good family had let him be young again.

  But he was not young anymore.

  He had taken some food from the kitchen table and a knife from a drawer. He didn't think they would mind. He had found the broken boards in the back of the barn. Had found the tracks going up the hill. Had followed four travelers who were following one, deeper into the forest. But he was still weak, he'd told Matthew. Still in pain from his injuries. He was going to kill Slaughter, yes, and he didn't want Matthew or Walker to stop him, or stand in his way. That would be a problem. He figured he was going to have one chance to kill Slaughter. Just one. He would know it when it came.

  Gunshots and shouts in the night had given him direction. The next morning he'd sighted Matthew and Walker on the trail, had seen that the Indian was badly hurt, and had ducked down when he knew Walker had gotten a glimpse of him.

  There was nothing he could have done at the ravine, where Matthew went over the fallen tree. Tom had watched Lark and her mother jump, but he had also seen the arrow go into Slaughter. Then, at the watermill, Tom had seen Slaughter getting the better of Matthew, had seen Matthew's face about to go into the gears, and the only thing he could do to help was to throw a handful of marbles. He'd hidden when Sla
ughter had gone rampaging through the woods, and had thought Matthew was swept over the waterfall.

  Tom had followed Slaughter into Hoornbeck, had watched him come out of the doctor's house freshly-stitched and go to the Peartree Inn. Tom had hidden all night where he could see the place, and waited for Slaughter to emerge. Early in the morning, Slaughter had come out with another man carrying some boxes, set them in the back of a wagon and headed off. Tom had had to find a horse to steal, in a hurry.

  Not far from Philadelphia, Tom had pulled his horse off the road as he'd watched the wagon pull off ahead. Slaughter and the other man sat talking, and then they had gotten down and Slaughter had clapped him on the back as they'd walked into the woods on the side of the road. In a few minutes, Slaughter had returned, climbed up on the wagon and continued on his way alone. Tom had found the corpse in the brush, the throat cut, and had also discovered a few coins in the dead man's pocket, enough to buy him food and drink for the next few days if he couldn't beg or steal anything.

  In time, Tom had shadowed Slaughter to a hog farm north of a town called Nicholsburg. He was amazed there to see Matthew appear, and creep into the cellar. The hulking man who had brought a coffin in the back of his wagon and hauled a dead body out of it was clearly up to no good. Matthew hadn't come back out, but it appeared no one had found him yet because the coffin-robber emerged lugging a damp and nasty-looking bag just as easy as you please. So Tom figured the pickaxe in the back of the wagon could be put to some use, and Matthew would have a chance to do whatever he was doing and get out with his skin on.

  Slaughter had ridden away. Tom had followed, still waiting for his one chance to strike.

  a black suit. a black horse. a black night. Tom had lost Slaughter at a crossroads. Had gone a distance in all directions, but the man was gone. Not lost, but gone.

  "You came back and decided to follow mei all that wayi" Matthew had asked. " Whyi"

  "'Cause," Tom had answered, with a shrug. "I knew that if you were alive, you'd keep tryin'. "

  Now, as Lillehorne and Nack followed Matthew to the wagon, Matthew said, "I'll tell you the whole story later. I want to talk to Hudson first. "

  "Well then, who's thisi" They had reached the wagon, and Lillehorne was motioning at Tom. "I send you after a killer and you bring back a boyi"

  "Tom helped me. I couldn't have done it without him. "

  "Oh, I'm sure," Lillehorne sneered. "Tom whoi"

  "Bond," said the boy.

  "Where are your parentsi"

  "Got a grandpa in aberdeen. "

  "No one elsei" He waited, but Tom just gave him a blank stare. "What are we supposed to do with himi" Lillehorne asked Matthew. "add him to the orphanage rolli"

  "No, sir," Tom said. "Not an orphanage. " He climbed down and took his duffel bag from the back. "Say you found the next ship leavin' for Englandi"

  "Put your bag down," Matthew told him. "We've come a long way. There's no hurry for that. "

  "Got a long way yet to go," Tom answered. "You know I'm one to keep movin'. "

  "I should say so. " Matthew thought he ought to try again, since he wanted to at least buy Tom a good meal at the Trot and introduce him to the regulars there, but he knew it would be a waste of breath. When this boy made up his mind to do something, it was done. "Wharf nine. The Golden Eye, leaving on the next tide. I hope you don't mind that Slaughter's boots are lying on the deck. " He reached into the pocket of his waistcoat for some of the money Powers had given him. "Here. I want you to-"

  "No charity," Tom interrupted. "I'll work my way over, if they're hirin'. " He aimed his intense gray eyes along the row of masted vessels, and he gave the faintest hint of a smile as if he sensed the opportunity for a grand adventure. "Figure I ought to learn somethin' about ships, anyway. " He held out his hand. "So long. "

  Matthew shook it. The boy's grip was as hard as his grit. "Good luck. "

  Tom swung the duffel bag over his shoulder and moved on. True to his nature, he never looked back.