TimeTravel Adventures of The 1800 Club: Book 12

by P McAuley, Robert

  Bill smiled and said, “Whoa, slow down, Dave. The club has everything that you need.”

  Dave sat back down shaking his head. “Tell me what I have to do.’

  “I suggest that you go home and get some sleep then come back tomorrow and we can go over the mission. Okay?”

  “Okay, that sounds good. What time?”

  “Want to come in for lunch?”

  Dave almost leaped out of the chair and grasped Bill’s hand as he said, “Thank you, Bill. Tonight has been the best night . . . ever! See you tomorrow for lunch.”

  Bill pressed a button on his desk and Matt’s voice came on, “Yes, sir. How may I be of assistance?”

  “Matt, will you bring Mister McKinnon down to the changing rooms and then the front door?”

  “Right away, sir.” Two minutes later Dave and Matt left Bill and Samson alone in his den. Bill wrote up a list of items that Dave would need for the mission and e-mailed it to Matt.

  “Time for a shower and bed, Samson,” he said as he headed towards the bedroom.

  At 10 a.m. Matt opened the long drapes of Bill’s bedroom windows that allowed the warm sunlight to bathe the room. “10 a.m. sir and as requested, breakfast is ready.” Matt rolled the food tray over Bill’s slowly moving form.

  “Good morning, Matt. It looks like a nice day out there.”

  “Indeed it is, sir. Samson and I just returned from a short walk and he is sniffing about in the garden at the moment.”

  Bill sat back and attacked his breakfast of eggs, bacon, fried tomatoes and buttered rye toast. “Matt, as usual you have outdone yourself again.”

  “Thank you, sir. Now for lunch: shall I put out cold cuts for sandwiches or something less casual?”

  “No, cold cuts sound just right.”

  “Very well, sir and I have most of the items that you requested in last night’s e-mail. I should be able to have the rest by lunch time.”

  “Outstanding, Matt! Outstanding!”

  “Then I shall leave you for now. I’ll ring when Mister McKinnon arrives.”

  Bill finished his breakfast, washed up and sat at his laptop reading up on the Battle for Atlanta. His cell phone rang and seeing John Brand’s name pop up, he answered, “Good morning, John. What’s up?”

  “Hey, Bill. I was wondering how it went with Dave last night?”

  “Actually, John, it was one of my hardest sells. I could tell that he had a hard time wrapping his head around time travel. In the end he seemed to accept it, but like I said, it took some time before he grasped it.”

  “He’s okay with traveling back?”

  “I’d have to say yes. But it did take him more time than any other club member to buy it.”

  “Did he see the hologram?”

  “No. He’s coming over today for lunch and that’s when I’ll give him the full treatment. I can’t let a guy go back if he’s not ready for it.”

  “Yeah. I just got off the phone with Rocko and wondered if you want us there to help push him along?”

  “No, not yet. After today I’ll know if he’s got what it takes.”

  “Okay, Bill. Remember, if you need us, just call.”

  “Thanks anyway, John. I’ll let you know how it goes.”

  “Good. Talk to you soon.”

  “Right, buddy.” Bill went back to his laptop.

  At 12:15 Matt knocked on Bill’s door.

  “Come on in, Matt.”

  “Matt opened the door and said, “Sir, Mister McKinnon is here. He’s in the living room.”

  “Thanks Matt, I’ll be right there.”

  Bill left a few moments after Matt and put his head in the living room and said, “Hi Dave, come on and join me in the alcove. They shook hands and Dave followed him into the alcove where they sat at the bay window that gave them a fantastic view of south New York City, Brooklyn and parts of New Jersey.

  “Wow!” Dave quipped, “What a view.” He looked around the room and added, “And once again this room would fit nicely in any mid-1800 home decorating catalog.”

  “Thanks. Dave. This is one of the rooms that I had a hand in decorating . . . along with my fiancé.”

  “Your fiancé? Have you set a date?”

  Bill smiled and said, “In a couple of years. She travels a lot and has a few projects to finish before we settle down.”

  Matt entered with a covered dish, which he set on the table then took another three covered dishes from a sideboard and placed them on the table. “If you need anything, sirs, please call.” He left the room and Bill removed the covers to reveal rolled meats, cheeses, mustard, mayonnaise, white, whole wheat and rye bread.

  “Please Dave, dig in.”

  Both men made a sandwich and Bill poured two large glasses of dark, fizzling, Manhattan Special sodas. They ate and chatted about the club and its members. Finally Bill asked, “Dave are you okay with the club’s secret of time travel?”

  He wiped his mouth with a white linen napkin and said, “Bill, I am so okay with it that I can’t think of anything else.” He sat forward and went on, “When I first joined the 1800 club it was because of my love of the simple times of the 1800s. I was already in re-enacting and thought that that was the closest anyone could get to being in that time period. Can you imagine how I feel now knowing that I can go back and visit that time period and actually become a part of it? Become a part of history? It’s fantastic!”

  Bill, now knowing that he had the right person for the mission, sat back a relaxed man. “That’s great to hear. After lunch I have a hologram to show you.”

  Forty-five minutes later Bill watched as Dave stared at the finished hologram on the coffee table. “Would you like to see it again, Dave?”

  Still looking at the still hologram Dave just answered, “I can’t believe that he never had his men clear the house and surrounding terrain before using it as a spotting post to direct his army.” He looked at Bill and went on, “Is this the mission? Am I to go back and warn him about the enemy in the area?”

  Bill nodded. “As Ms. Shuntly said at the beginning of the hologram, this effectively ends his ‘March to the Sea’ and besides prolonging the war in which thousands of men on both sides die, the nation settled for a separation of north and south.”

  “So,” asked Dave, “what am I supposed to do: just walk up to him and tell him to stay away from that hill?”

  Bill shrugged and answered, “Sort of. But, I doubt very much that he would take the word of a private. If it was that easy I could have gone back already. No, Dave, you were selected because you have a special talent that no other club member has: you are a cartographer. Attached to Sherman’s army was a group of cartographers headed up by Captain Bill Merrill. He ran his group of mapmakers well and had them spread out and find the best way to live off of the land. They mapped the best rout to take as well as to avoid so the army always stayed on the move and General Sherman always had fresh maps before him at breakfast time.”

  Dave sat up straight and snapped his fingers as it came to him. “That’s right! General Sherman decided to take his army off the roads and cover a sixty miles wide front, which meant that he severed his supply line. He told his men to feed off of the land. In order to do this he used maps he acquired from some of the best map makers of the north.”

  Bill smiled and said; “Now you see what I mean?”

  “But, how do I get close to him? I mean as you pointed out I’m a private in the re-enacting group and I don’t think a general will even notice me.”

  Bill shook his head, “No, you will be given the uniform and papers of a captain just as your ancestor was. Not only a captain but a captain in the army’s cartographer unit.”

  “A captain? But I’ve never played a captain in the re-enacting group.”

  “As a member of the 1800 Club you are acting the moment you change from today’s clothes into the 1862 uniform. If you can portray an 1862 Union private in the re-enacting group, I’m sure you can go back and portray a Union Captai
n.”

  “So, how do I get the general’s attention?”

  Bill scratched his chin as he thought, Sheesh! I have to wonder if he’s the right man for this mission. He’s full of doubts while other club members would be chomping at the bit for a chance to go back and meet General Sherman.

  He looked Dave in the eyes and said, “Dave, you have to be fast on your feet and able to improvise on the fly. Telling a little white lie might give the general a moment to think and have his men secure the hilltop before using it as an observation post. Here’s the deal: You go back and present a letter that we will provide you with to Captain Bill a partMerrill. The letter will be a recommendation from the office of Edwin Stanton, Lincoln’s Secretary of War and it introduces you as a very talented cartographer. It goes on to ask if Captain Merrill’s group might be able to use you.”

  “But, what if Captain Merrill checks up on me?”

  Bill grinned and answered, “This is a tactic that I have used many times. I am relying on the usual fog of war to delay messages arriving at the Secretary of War’s office in time for him to look into it and then sending back a reply. I strongly believe that by the time any message is sent back the crises will be over.”

  Dave had a frown on his face and shook his head as he asked, “That doesn’t answer my fear of not being able to stop the general from going up that hill.”

  “Dave,” answered a tiring Bill, “Do you believe that you are better than any cartographer of over one hundred and fifty years ago?”

  Dave shrugged, “Well, sure. I mean the tools we have now are so much more accurate.”

  Bill took a leather saddlebag off the top his desk, opened it, and handed Dave a stack of maps. “Take a look at these, Dave. They will be your passes into joining Captain Merrill’s cartography unit.”

  Dave shuffled through them and said excitedly, “Wow! These are maps of the entire area that Sherman’s Army covered on its march to the sea.” He looked up, “These are authentic: the correct paper and drawn by hand using pen and ink. Where did you get them?”

  Bill nodded, “They are maps that were created 100 years later to commemorate the anniversary of the end of the war. A drone that we sent back for your cover story copied them. They are much, much better than any that were handed to General Sherman, and if he saw them he would be astounded. The computers of our friends in the future have added much more to these old maps. Now they are more than just maps showing hills, valleys, lakes and pine area, these also show where the best farmland is, where drinking water from lakes might be found so that his army could eat off of the land. They show areas like little known roads and paths that his troops might use while heading towards the sea. In a word, they show the road to victory.” Bill paused a moment as Dave looked at the maps.

  He then continued, “Your cover story is that after graduating cartographers school and a few years before the war you charted the entire area that the maps show. You did this on your own and planned to put the maps in a book. Your hope was to map the entire United States and put out a book with the maps spaced throughout. When the war started you joined and rose to captain on special duty in charge of guarding the ports of New York. You became friends with a woman who happened to be related to Secretary Stanton and she told him of your map-making project and that’s when the secretary had you sent to Captain Merrill. Your job is to get close to Captain Merrill and tell him that there is a hill that, because it’s a fantastic observation post, the general will be drawn to it and from all that you have observed the area is infested with enemy troops. You feel that it must be thoroughly swept before he uses it as an observation post.”

  Dave nodded, “I imagine that if I were to show these to General Sherman he would take my advice and make sure the area is safe before going up that hill.”

  “Exactly! But you would have to go through the chain of command and show them to Captain Merrill first. From all that I’ve read about him he is an honest man who gives credit where credit is due and at the bottom right hand side of each map is a sign-off box where you’ll put your name.”

  Dave smiled, “This does seem to ease the mission somewhat. When do I go back?”

  “As soon as possible.”

  “I can take vacation right away and go tomorrow. Is that good?”

  “Perfect. I’ll call Matt and he’ll take your measurements and supply you with clothes and other items for the trip. Then you can come back in the morning and depart about ten o’clock. Okay with you?”

  Dave had a big grin as he said, “Yep! It’s okay with me.”

  Thirty-minutes later Matt escorted Dave to the front door.

  The sun had gone down one hour ago as Bill, John Brand and Rocko Perna sat in the alcove eating hamburgers and French fries and washing it down with bottles of cold Ballantine beer.

  Bill took a pickle and said to his two time traveling friends, “Thanks for joining me on such a short notice, guys.”

  “Hey, if Matt’s serving burgers like this we’ll be here any time you call, buddy and when did he buy the Ballantine beer?”

  ”1962. He also went to pick up a Crumb cake from the Seventh Avenue bakery in Park Slope.”

  Rocko held up the Ballantine beer opener and said as he pointed at the beer’s three-ring logo, “Okay guys, trivia time! What do the three rings have printed on them?”

  Both Bill and John answered simultaneously: “Body, Purity and Flavor.”

  Rocko grimaced, “Okay that was an easy one.” He took a pull of his beer and said, “That was some hologram, Bill. And you’re right. If Dave is captured the ‘March to the Sea’ won’t happen.”

  John nodded, “We must prevent him from being captured, especially if it’s the end of the Union. As two separate groups of states, neither of us will become the powerhouse that the world knows.”

  Rocko reached for a pickle and asked, “Is Dave chomping at the bit to go, Bill?”

  “Boy, I wish I could say yes, but as much as he says he is, my gut tells me that he’s not as excited about going back as any of us would be.”

  John wiped his mouth, “Tough one.”

  “Yep!” said Bill, “This just might be the first mission that I have to send someone else back after it fails.”

  “Bill,” offered John, “do you want me or Rocko to go back and watch over him?”

  Bill shook his head, “Naw, thanks anyway. But if he sees you he might panic or something. No, best that he goes alone and hopefully does the right thing.”

  “Hey, maybe he’s not the kind of guy that tells a lie easily,” said Rocko.

  Bill and John laughed, “You might be right about that, Rocko,” said Bill, “When you think about it, when we go back we’re all telling a big lie. We are telling the real people of 1864 or whichever year we are visiting, that we are from the same time frame as them. Now, that is a whooper of a lie!”

  “Well,” said John, “I predict that it’ll click with him. Something will happen and his club training will kick in. Just remind him before he leaves to ‘stay in club time’ and he’ll be alright.”

  “Thanks guys. I just needed some reassurance, that’s all.”

  Two hours later Bill saw his two friends to the door and as he shook their hands said, “Once again, guys, thanks for going over this mission with me. I’ll let you know how it goes as soon as possible.”

  The next day Matt tapped on the door to Bill’s den, opened it and said, “Sir, Mister McKinnon is sitting in the library.”

  “Fine, Matt. I’ll be right there. Will you join us?”

  “Yes sir. I’ll be but a moment or two.” He left the den and Bill finished his hot chocolate before following.

  Bill opened the pocket doors and entered the room filled with floor-to-ceiling, full bookcases. Dave stood as Bill entered and the two men shook hands.

  “Dave! Good to see you again.”

  “Same here, Bill.” He looked around the sun filled room at the full bookcases and said, “What a library! This is a fanta
stic room. You must spend hours in here.”

  Bill shook his head, “Not enough, I’m afraid.”

  “Then again,” said Dave with a shrug, “why read about it if all you need to do is step out the door and become a part of it.”

  Bill grinned and said with a shrug, “You’ve got that right, Dave. Are you set to go back?”

  “I am. And I’ve worked up a story to tell Captain Merrill when we meet.”

  “As long as you stay flexible with your cover story as things change so fast that your story demands flexibility.”

  Matt entered carrying a blue uniform over his arm and a leather grip, which he set on a hassock. He lifted the uniform on a hanger. It was a single buttoned three-quarter officer’s jacket with a pair of captain’s bars on its shoulders. The jacket would be worn over a blue three-buttoned pullover shirt. A wide brown leather belt would keep a scarlet cummerbund that was to be wrapped around the wearer’s waist, in place. The end of the cummerbund hung down the left side to the wearer’s knee. The blue trousers would be tucked into the high black riding boots. Matt held up a blue, wide brimmed campaign hat with a unit crest on the front and a scarlet sweatband. He took a pair of brown leather riding gloves from the grip and placed them on the hassock. He then took out a folded range coat that would button from the wearer’s neck to shins as protection against any inclement weather. Next came a pair of long underwear, six pairs of socks and another plain uniform for work in the field.

  As Matt started to repack everything, he asked, “I imagine, sir, that you have your own personal weapons?”

  “I do.” He pointed at a package in the corner and added, “A pistol, rifle and a sword and scabbard.”

  “Dave,“ said Bill stepping in, “I meant to tell you that the club has a strict rule when you are back in time: No killing.”