by L. E. Waters
“We’ll switch camps at nine. See you all along the path later,” I say.
Kelly shouts, “Leave some poteen for us, would you!”
Cahir says, “Let’s see if I’m in a charitable mood!”
A stick comes flying toward us on our way out the path. The house is close, maybe a half mile from the main camp. On the way, Art comes up right next to me, and I can hardly make out his face.
“I can’t see a stim in this darkness,” Art says as he knocks his boot’s toe on a rock and nearly falls. I laugh, and I’m glad to have broken the silence between us since Muirin’s passed. “Listen, Redmond, I’m sorry to have talked to you that way—”
“No need to apologize. You were right. I should’ve gone and will think about it for some time.”
“I should’ve known you would’ve gone if you could’ve, and I’m sorry for taking it all out on you. ’Twas just so terrible having her ask for you ’til—”
“So we’re good now, then?” Will he just stop talking about her!
“Always have been.” He puts his arm behind my back for the rest of the way there.
There’s a small clearing with very little farmland; just a space cleared for the house, and the woods surround it. It has a small bedroom and a large keeping room with a huge stone hearth. We start a fire, and the room heats up nicely. We all get our own seat, and Captain goes right to getting a jug open and hands mugs out. Bawn grabs up Cahir’s flute and attempts to screech out an unrecognizable tune that burns our ears.
“Aw, that's the tune the old cow died of.” Cahir snatches back his flute to all of our relief and begins to play some happy music as we pass the pipe around, listening to Captain tell story after story.
Art interrupts, “Did anyone hear that?”
“Not with Cahir tootin’ away,” William says.
Cahir stops, and we freeze to listen. We all pull out our rich gold watches—quite a humorous sight—and I say, “Too early for the switch. It’s only 8:30.”
“I bet they’ve crawled in early.” Cahir picks back up his song.
“Keep a calm sough, boys,” I say, stopping Cahir again. “I definitely heard voices near the front door.”
The front door is off a long hallway leading to the bedroom first and then out into the keeping room. As we all have our ears perked, we jump at the violent sound of the door being kicked in.
“Quick, the candles!” I say, grabbing for my pistols. “Art, shovel ash on the fire!”
As I make my way to the doorframe they’re about to come through, Cahir opens a window and tells Síofra to go get help. She drops out the sill. Art turns a table over, and he takes cover behind it with Captain, William, and Bawn. Cahir’s busy at the window covering Síofra’s escape in case we’re surrounded.
They kick in the bedroom door and one of the intruders whispers, “Layout?”
Dempsey now is on the other side of the doorframe, and when we hear them coming, I shoot both pistols and reload as Cahir shoots both of his. Whenever we hear movement, we send another volley down, but we have to be careful since we’ve a small supply of ammunition. From the sharp cries, we figure we’ve wounded at least five men and have managed to slow them down a bit.
They yell, “Charge!” and ten at once rush down the hall together, and Cahir and I can only get two shots off.
As soon as the mass comes near, Cahir ducks behind the door and slams it with all his might while they’re running in the darkness. Cahir manages to catch someone’s hand in the process, causing that person to scream in great agony. Cahir opens the door slightly for the miserable fellow to remove his crushed hand and then slams it again. As we brace the door, William and Art move a tall dresser in front. After ’tis in place, they all get behind the large oak table as I scatter the chairs around for the intruders to trip over in the dark.
The soldier keeps shooting at the door, and splinters of wood come flinging through the air.
Cahir turns to me. “If Síofra doesn’t fly there, we’re fish in a barrel once they’re through.”
“Once they’re through, we keep firing one at a time so we can reload. If you run out of ammunition, then throw anything you can.”
There’s a gaping hole blown in the door that a man tries to dive through. I send a shot out and hear it hit him somewhere. Seeing the hole’s a bad idea, someone cries, “Push!”
With a loud rumbling, the dresser moves halfway, and Cahir shoots out through the crack. A blast from a musket comes toward us and hits the leg of the table, busting it to pieces. Bawn fires a shot off, followed by Captain, and then another huge blast from them that shakes the table. The room flashes like a terrible thunderstorm. Each time a shot rings out, we can see where a soldier is, and we shoot. It makes the soldiers shoot less, since we all fire right after the musket shot, making it a dangerous task. Glass, splinters, and blood flies everywhere. The bodies on the floor are piling up, but they keep coming down the hall. Must be a whole patrol out there. This isn’t just some random Tory hunting.
Luckily, as I’m reloading my last round, we hear someone cry, “Retreat!”
I turn to check if anyone’s hurt and see William’s holding his arm. He grits his teeth and says, “I think it missed the bone, though.”
“Give me your ammunition, then. You stay behind the table.”
I turn to my other side to see Dempsey pulling out a large splinter from his head. “Ugh! Mother of all splinters!”
“This beautiful, gorgeous table,” Bawn says as he kisses it. ”I’m keeping her.”
Captain has crouched to the window that’s shot open. “Shhhh! It’s not over yet. Boys, be at the ready!”
Glass bottles hit the roof, and we hear the horrible whoosh of fire catching.
William gasps. “They’re smoking us out!”
Cahir quickly crawls to the back window and pokes his head up, but a musket fires and shatters the glass above his head. He comes back over. “We can’t get out; they’ve got us surrounded now.”
We look up and see thick smoke coming down from the roof, made all the worse by the dampness of the thatch. We’re getting steamed within minutes, and the rafters catch fire.
Captain smirks at the impossible situation. “Got a plan for this too, O’Hanlon?”
“Sure, pray!” I say as a large beam collapses.
“Here, put the table back up so we can get under it!” William commands. The smoke’s so low, we all start trying to breathe through our coats.
Captain locks eyes with me. “Pleasure working with you, O’Hanlon.”
“There’s nothing so bad that it couldn’t be worse,” I say, coughing. “’Tis not over yet.”
“Oh, I think ’tis,” Cahir says as another beam falls right next to the table, totally engulfed in flames.
Art says, “This is it, Redmond. I’d rather hang than burn in a fire.” He starts crawling out from under the table and looks back to us. “Come with me! I don’t want to watch you all burn here.”
Bawn begins to move out. “Hanging’s my choice too. Good luck!”
We watch as they crawl down the hallway.
“I never thought I’d die like this.” Captain watches a badly burned beam above us.
There’s a commotion around the house—muskets firing suddenly from the woods. We crawl to the window and see the redcoats running from a surprise assault from behind. We immediately drop out the window and flee to the woods to save our bacon. Ned and Hogan gallop up.
Ned cries, “Run to the woods! We’ll cover you.”
“Where’s Bawn and Art?” Hogan asks, looking back at the burning structure once we reach the woods.
“They might be at the door or may have turned themselves in by now.”
My eyes well up, watching Síofra, Ned, Hogan, Berragh, Kelly, and Liddy all riding around chasing down the redcoats and making them turn and run. They come trotting proudly back, and to my great joy I see Bawn and Art there with them, still coughing.
“By the time we
found the door with all the smoke, we heard the ambush, so we waited until ’twas safe to come out,” Bawn says with a ring of soot around his thin mouth.
Cahir gasps at Síofra. “How on earth did you get there so blazing fast?”
“You still doubt my powers, even now?” she says with a charming grin.
“You sent your fairies out?” he asks in awe.
She laughs hard. “No, you fool, I nabbed your flute from you when you were opening the window.” He feels his pockets for the flute. “So then I only walked in the woods a little and blew to kingdom come for them to hear me.”
Cahir just stares at her in amazement, and I say, “That’s why we keep you around, cleverer than all of us combined I think.”
“And maybe a bit of help from the fairies.” She gives Cahir a wink.
We turn to walk back to our rock home, and hearing the crashing sound of the house caving in, Captain says, “We all better chip in for some repairs.”
Our laughter could’ve been heard for miles.
Chapter 21
In the morning, after our thrill from cheating death has faded, I decide to go talk with Alister about what he might’ve learned about last night. When I walk into the tavern, he’s there in the snug as I expected. I wave to Sean and walk over to my spy right away.
He looks me up and down. “Not a scratch or burn! I’m beginning to doubt you’re human.”
“Oh, I almost found out.”
“Well, you’ve got a wolf in sheep’s clothing I think there, Redmond.”
“I know, Alister, I know.” I lean back. “So, what have you heard?”
“I found out only an hour before they left that Lucas was going after you at that house. I couldn’t do nothing for you then.”
“So that means they probably didn’t know much ahead, then, right? Which makes sense, since Captain didn’t invite us but around noon.”
“Can you remember who was with you from that time forward?”
“Yeah, I was at camp and Captain, Art, William, Cahir, Síofra, and Ned never left to go anywhere.”
“So, then, who was there at noon that left and came back?”
“Berragh, Liddy, Hogan, Bawn, and Kelly, they all went for lunch after.”
“And who was not there at the house at the time of the ambush?”
“Berragh, Liddy, Hogan, and Kelly.”
“Well, this morning I asked around and heard that they had inside information from within your camp. And seeing the ambush failed, I was expecting someone to come and talk with Lucas—”
“Did you see something?” I say, losing patience.
“I saw a young boy come in but an hour ago and stayed for a bit and left. I followed him back to the woods where he disappeared.”
I felt the heat of my anger surface. “I know who ’tis Alister.” I rush to get up.
“Well, tell me, then?”
“It’s a young new recruit that’s been hanging around our camp the last few weeks—” I pause and throw my head back. “Of course! He started coming around right when I realized someone was leaking.”
“I’ll let you go deal with him, then.”
I take out a pouch, give it under the table, and nod good-bye to Sean. I reach the campfire in a complete rage. I pull Art, Cahir, and Captain aside and tell them of what I learned from my source.
Art says, “The little snitch has gone to the river fishing. Let’s go.”
We see his skinny form at the banks, bent over, taking a fish off his hook. He gets up nervously, and seeing Art’s fierce look, he tries to turn and run. I jump off my horse to chase and leap on him to bring him down. He tries to kick and punch me off, but Cahir’s quickly over me, tying his hands and feet. He’s about to gag him, but I say, “No, I need to ask him some questions.”
I stand him up, tie him to a tree, and stare into his black eyes. His face’s so narrow and thin he could kiss a goat between the horns. “What’s your name, boy?” I say in a low, slow voice, trying to keep my head.
“Rory.”
“Rory, sir!” Art demands. “This one suffers from a double dose of original sin.”
Rory stares up, confused by our assault, and says meekly, “Rory, sir.”
“Did you go talk to Lieutenant Lucas yesterday?” I ask.
He looks nervously at Art, who’s brimming over with anger.
“Tell him where you went boy!” Art yells.
His eyes dart around and he starts shaking. Art slams the trunk above his head and causes the boy to duck.
Rory immediately cries, “Yes, I met with Lucas yesterday.”
“Have you gone there before?” Captain asks with a serious glare with one eye closed tighter.
“Yes, twice before, sir,” the boy mutters.
“Are you responsible for telling Lucas where to find me?” I ask, beginning to shake.
He pauses a moment. “Yes, but—”
Art flies into a rage and takes something from his pocket, and what happens next happens so fast I couldn’t have stopped it. Art shoves the knife into the boy’s mouth, and in one sweep, removes a large part of his tongue. Horrified, Cahir and I take a few steps back as the boy gurgles and screams.
I look at Art and say, “Why did you do that?”
“I lost it, Redmond! We all almost died last night because of this rat!”
Captain defends him with, “It is said that he who keeps his tongue keeps his friends, so it should also stand that he who loses his friends loses his tongue.”
Cahir and Captain untie the traumatized boy.
“I’m not saying he didn’t deserve it, but I would have liked to have gotten more out of him, like if Lucas knows our main site or if he’s working with anyone else!”
“Sorry, Redmond, I just lost it.” He cleans his knife with his shirt.
Cahir says, “Well, you can nod, can’t you? Did you talk of our main camp?”
The boy nods. Art fumes, “I’m going to kill this little traitor!” I have to hold Art back.
“I’ve an idea.” Captain goes to his saddlebag and brings back a quill, ink, and paper. He wets the point and puts the quill in the boy’s hand. “What have you told Lucas of our camp?”
The boy stands there crying with his coat sleeve in his mouth. I say, “If you answer this, we’ll take you to a doctor.”
The boy made an x on the paper—a sign of illiteracy.
I ask him as Art stares him down, “Are you working with anyone else?”
He stares back for a moment but shakes his bloody face back and forth.
Cahir looks to me. “What’ll we do with him now?”
“Take him to the doctor, say he got in a fight with an outlaw. Here.” I hand him a pouch from Ghost’s saddlebag. “Pay the doctor and give the rest to the boy.”
Captain says, “We better find a new main camp, though, since we can’t be sure what he’s told.”
“Right, Cahir, meet us all back at the south camp. Rory’s never been there.” I watch as Cahir lifts him up and holds him still tied on his lap as he rides out.
We all gather at the south camp, and I explain what happened with the boy.
“I can’t believe he was giving Lucas movements. I thought he was a good kid,” William says, shaking his head.
Kelly nods in approval to Art. “Well, having your tongue cut out for snitching seems justified. I would have done the same.”
Liddy and Berragh nod as well.
“It’s all over and done with now. But I’ve learned a good lesson now. With the stakes getting higher, we need to stop bringing in recruits of any kind. We can only trust those that have earned our trust.”
Everyone nods in agreement.
“Let’s quit talking about this boy now, and talk about where we’re headed tonight,” Cahir says.
William sits up. “Two days ago, I got wind of a wealthy merchant due on the five o’clock ferry. Pockets and chests full of coin from selling an estate in London.”
Captain perks up at this. �
�Sounds like a job for me. Redmond, why don’t you take this one with me?”
“Sure would be nice to have a distraction. I’ll meet you at the dark bend on Newry at half past four. I want to check in at the tavern to see if Sean has any messages. William, come with me, and you rest go out and see to your business.”
“I can’t, Redmond. I have a dinner party to throw, inviting all of the wealthiest of Armagh. After tonight, I’ll have some good information to share.”
“Fine work, William. So, Liddy, you come along then.”
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
I walk inside the tavern, but I’m surprised to see someone I don’t know at the bar. “Where’s Sean?”
“You O’Hanlon?” the man asks.
“That depends, who’s asking?”
“I’m Sean’s cousin. He told me to say his ma’s in trouble. She’s facing eviction in an hour, and he’s gone to try to stave it off. He said to ask you to go help him.”
“Do you know how much she owes?”
“£40, or else their taking all her furniture in repayment and putting her out on the streets.”
I turned to Liddy. “What time is it now?”
He looks at his watch. “Ten minutes to four.”
I sigh. “Okay, Liddy go back to camp and tell Cahir to go in my place. I won’t be able to get there in time if I go to help Sean.”
“Sure thing, Redmond, if it’s a stash you’ll be needing, I left £50 in a hole behind the church.”
“Thanks for that. Now get going; you’ll just have time if you leave now.” I watch his tall form walk away with his shoulders hunched, his lanky arms swinging and his feet flopping out like he was wearing shoes three sizes too big.
I get to Sean with the monies right before the bank shows up and meet back at south camp at 5:30. We all sit around waiting to see how much Captain and Cahir pull in. We hear someone run up, and I call and hear one hoot back. Cahir runs through the bushes, out of breath.
“What’s wrong, Cahir?” Síofra leaps to her feet.
“It’s Captain! He was taken. ’Twas a setup! It wasn’t a gent with his pockets full. The carriage was full of soldiers. All undercover! Captain had me stand cover in the woods, and he went up to take the gent, but as soon as he stopped the carriage, he had seven muskets pointed at him.”