by Jim Musgrave
“Good day,” I said to the gathered assemblage of about fifteen people, made up of both gentlemen and women, and three children. I walked over to a statue nearby. When I saw who it depicted, I immediately thought about Becky and her conversations with me about there being no coincidences, and that I must attempt to associate all reality I experience to the task at hand. The name of the personage was “Johann C.F. von Schiller,” the author of, among other works, the historical play, Don Carlos. I turned back around to face my audience.
“Hello, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. My name is Walter McKenzie, and I am happy you are here to see the final stage in my extraordinary accomplishment. In just one month, I was able to lose over 100 pounds. I was, in point of fact, a slovenly 315 pound gorilla when I began my journey. There were three stages total that I had to complete. The first was what I call the ‘Edgar Allan Poe Stage.’ I ate nothing but French bread and drank French wine while reading from the sad poetry of the great bard who suffered for the loss of his loved ones. I lost 25 pounds in three weeks. The second stage took place at the famed weight clinic of the Mount Sinai Hospital. I like to call it my ‘Disappearance at Mount Sinai.’ There, under the supervision of the excellent staff, I lost another 25 pounds. Finally, I was able to lose the rest of the weight while inside this pressurized compartment you see over there. I like to call her ‘Joan the Grabber’ because she grabbed a total of 75 pounds of ugly fat from my frame!”
The faces of my listeners did not change. Instead, I saw them raise their heads up to gaze at the sky above us. One of the gentlemen seemed to know what was happening. I could hear the sound of a whirring motor, and then I saw a gigantic shadow pass over the faces of these people, and the sun was momentarily eclipsed.
I, too, looked up. In the sky above us was the largest, most frightening balloon I had ever seen. It must have been five hundred feet long, and one hundred feet high. It had a huge gondola beneath the balloon portion that was probably fifteen yards from end to end, and there were gigantic cannons pointing out of the windows of this gondola. The balloon itself was entirely black, and upon its surface, which seemed to be some kind of thick cloth or canvas material, was the lettering in bold red: World Scientific Advancement Society for Progress.
“Manette must be collecting again,” one of the gentlemen said.
“The ships are from France, I believe,” said another man. “It’s become part of the gamble that is played each week.”
“Gamble? What do you mean?” I asked.
“Where you been keepin’ yourself, Mister?” One of the lower class men, wearing gabardines and suspenders, addressed me. “All ships’re at risk when they enter the harbor. After the pirates’ submarine sank a big merchant ship last year, all the pirates do now is threaten the ships, and then big Bertha up there comes in and takes what she wants.”
“The fewer ships that come into the harbor, the more power these rogues have. President Grant placed a battery of big guns out to shoot down the balloon last month. They were Whitworth artillery, but they never hit anything. The balloon was so high it was never even touched by the shells,” the gentleman said.
“What is happening with these pirates?” I asked.
“They are gaining strength each day. We do not know where they come from, or how many there are, but they haunt our streets, steal our valuables, and threaten our women and children. They wear outrageous costumes of brass and leather, and they employ theft machines with steaming engines to wreak havoc upon our stores and plunder our merchants. They move so fast and apply their weapons so vigorously that no army or police can defeat them.” The gentleman raised his fist at the balloon in the sky. “They shall take over New York before long, and they exist because Tammany permits it!”
“Be quiet! You’ll be arrested. There are spies all around,” whispered the lower class man.
“Let’s go down to the river and watch,” said one of the children.
“Watch what?” I asked.
“Watch the pirates take up their loot from the ship!” the boy said.
I knew what that was. It was the vision from little Seth’s spyglass peek into the future. He had seen the airship I was looking at right now. I watched as all the people who had assembled left me. Some of them ran and others walked at a brisk pace east toward the Hudson. I did not have to see the balloon take on its cargo right now. I had to use this opportunity to retreat back to 1868.
As I walked back to the time machine, I thought about what we needed to do once I returned. We obviously had to think about developing some way to stop the giant airship. However, we had no idea as to when this balloon would show up. We do know it would be here before April, 1870, and we also knew there would be the sinking of the merchant ship before this date. It may be even more advantageous to attempt to stop the sinking of that ship. Without the threat of certain death, the pirates held no power over our harbor and its shipping. Like most businesses, these big shipping companies had simply worked the losses from pirates into their calculations for profit. They had decided that the loss of money from one ship was worth “the gamble,” as one of the citizens called it.
But what about the pirates who raided New York City and its people? Tammany Hall seemed to be allowing this skullduggery to take place without putting up a fight! I could see why this would happen. It was all about profit, and the leaders of the pirates had probably worked out a mutually beneficial deal with The Ring to see that everybody in the theft business got paid handsomely. We did not know when these pirates would first appear and how many there would be. What weapons would they have? Where were they coming from? All these questions needed to be discussed at length and addressed by proper groundwork and planning. These were all mysterious circumstances the likes of which could cause the possible collapse of New York City!
I entered the time machine and pulled the hatch shut. I was again entombed in my fearful device. I stood in front of the panel and looked over the gauges and the levers. I knew the steps I had to take, but I was still most profoundly afraid of what might result. Perhaps I could go into the future, but what would now happen when I attempted to travel backward in time? How could this not affect my physical appearance? I could become warped the way that space-time was being shaped. I could be crippled for life, or look like a freak exhibit in a P.T. Barnum display.
Just as I had finally gotten my courage up enough to begin pulling the first lever to activate the machine, I saw somebody outside. He was moving swiftly, albeit awkwardly, toward me from the top of the hill. As he clambered down the hill, I saw that he had a weapon in his arms! It appeared to be a large rifle of no type I had ever laid eyes upon during my years with the army.
I knew I needed to act quickly or this man would be upon me. However, this man’s curious gait attracted me. He had a strange, herky-jerky motion as he ran. He resembled a mechanical man! That was it! He was the same man who had been spying on us in Valley Forge when I was visiting Professor Lowe. Could he be one of the pirates? How much did they know about what we were doing to combat them? Who had sent him here?
In my panic, I forgot the steps I needed to take to get the gauges properly aligned to return to 1868! I had to pull the lever, but then what? My assailant was almost upon me. I could see him clearly through the crystal globe, although his shape was warped by the thickness of the capsule. He appeared to be a ghastly ogre holding a blunderbuss. He was fifty yards away and moving swiftly.
I pulled down the lever. The machine began to vibrate, and I could see the light beams fill the compartment. He was stopping in his tracks and raising his rifle! I watched as the polarized neutrons began to enter my line of sight. They bounded before my eyes as if I were looking into a child’s kaleidoscope. Differently colored shapes of blues, violets, reds, yellows and greens spun and swirled. Since I had kept my eyes shut the first time, I had not been aware of this magnificent light show. I was now forced to perceive because my assailant was about to pull the trigger on his weapon!
I could see a cloud of steam rising out of his weapon. No bullet had discharged. His gun needed to prepare itself. I set the first gauge for January 28. I then set the second gauge as the space-time warp speed gained momentum. 1868. There was an explosive burst from the end of his gun! The projectile was coming, and it was large enough to destroy my time machine!
Somehow, during that split second between the firing of the gun and my machine’s warping into the space-time continuum, I had a vision. I was back in Ireland, and my mother was holding me in her arms. I was a small boy again, and I was hungry. This hunger would eventually kill my mother, but at this moment she was feeding me, and I could see the bread going into my mouth in slow motion. My adult consciousness, however, spanned space and time, and I was able to envision a long string of bread, going back and forth across the millennia, filling the mouths of hungry children all over the world. Sustenance. The staff of life. Entering the cavern of darkness to be chewed and enjoyed, heading down into the gloom of the pit of existence. To exist another day! To live on, without fear of hunger. That was the objective of all mankind.
As time sped backward, the ball of fire from the assailant’s gun began to slowly dissolve in the air, like a large ball of bread! First, it crumbled, little pieces falling from it like light particles from an exploding sun. Then, in a single, vaporizing burst, it disappeared, and I was back inside the basement of Temple Emanu-El. It was five minutes later than when I had first pulled the lever to go into the future!
The door opened, and I stepped back into the light of our sanctuary, as if I were being born all over again. All my friends were standing there, mesmerized by my appearance. I took a deep breath and pinched myself to be certain this was real.
Doctor Adler was smiling, as was Seth, his protégé. Becky’s eyes were filled with tears, and McKenzie and Maguire looked frightened. Only Bessie seemed to have the courage to walk up to me and put her hand to my face to touch me. Yes, I was real, and I had returned.
“We need to do some work,” I said. “I saw the balloon. The pirates will be taking over New York unless we can discover their mysterious presence and learn how they were able to gain their power over us.”
Chapter 4: Our Heroes are Encumbered with a Frantic Race Against Time
“What did you see, Patrick?” Becky Charming rushed at me and led me over to a chair. “You need to rest, Patrick,” she said.
I sat down and began to address my group of eager listeners.
“First of all, the time machine worked perfectly, Seth; you’ll be happy to know.” The lad smiled as if he had no doubt that would be the result. “I also seem to have been able to travel unscathed, outwardly at least. As far as my mental faculties are concerned, I may have preferred to wage hand-to-hand combat with an Apache warrior out West. I am still attempting to understand what happened to me.”
“Could I watch you fight the Indian?” Seth asked, his face again taking on the excited glow of an eight-year-old.
“Yes, I shall invite an Apache to journey with us when I take you on your first balloon flight,” I joked. “It would certainly prevent the boredom of long flights.”
“Out with it, me boy-o! What did ya see?” said McKenzie, puffing out his mammoth chest. “Who do we need to crush?”
“I am afraid it won’t be as easy as that, Walter. In only two years, New York City will be under the control of a group calling itself the Steam City Pirates. They have gigantic airships that can fly out of the reach of any artillery the army has, and they also have the support of the crooks of Tammany Hall. The citizens I met in Central Park told me about being invaded on land by these pirates, so they must have quite a group of them.” I cleared my throat. “I also believe they have spies that can report what we are doing. Just as I was attempting to depart in the time machine, a man I had seen once before, when I was at Professor Lowe’s farm in Valley Forge, ran at me brandishing a large rifle of a sort I had never before laid eyes upon.”
“How did you escape?” Bessie asked.
“The time machine was a bit quicker than his gun. I never said anything about our time machine when I was at Professor Lowe’s farm, so this man could not have overheard what we were planning. Perhaps the evil mazikeen was invisible down here in our sanctuary?” I was thinking aloud.
“No, she never could have entered a space where I was located. We mazikeen are like the opposite poles of a magnet. We repel each other when we get too close together,” said Seth.
“Yes, well then that means this machine-like man was in Central Park when I arrived. Perhaps these Pirates have an outpost in the park. That would explain why he was there,” I said.
“The park is certainly large enough to accommodate them,” said Becky. “But one would suppose they would attract attention. The only one who can become invisible is the mazikeen, correct?”
“Becky, you should know there are more ways to become invisible than actually vanishing. I use disguises all the time,” I pointed out.
“I believe the only way to solve this little mystery is to search the park ourselves,” said Doctor Adler.
“Thank you, Doctor. That shall be one of our first orders of business in this case. If we can find out where they are located, then we can plan an attack. Seth, you must also inform us if any visions come to you that might give us clues as to where these pirates may be hiding,” I said.
“Yes sir! I must, however, reiterate; I only receive these visions, and I cannot see more than one would see using a spyglass,” Seth said.
“I know. But we must be ever vigilant. Unless we can find a way to prevent these pirates from developing their weaponry, we will never stand a chance at saving New York from ruin. Walter, I want you to tell your men to be on the prowl for anybody who acts suspiciously or who might know anything concerning these pirates. Becky, you must also tell your ladies the same thing. I doubt these people would be mingling that closely with the local populace, but one never knows. It only takes one mistake by them for us to get a hot lead on their whereabouts,” I said.
“My pleasure, O’Malley. My men will see pirates in their sleep!” said McKenzie.
“If these rogues end up in bed with one of my ladies, they will regret it,” said Becky, smiling.
“I am going to begin my investigation by questioning Police Superintendent and Provost-Marshal of New York, John Alexander Kennedy. I still believe he knew about Hester Jane Haskins’ ability to time travel. The authorities did not prosecute him for being involved in the Taijitu business group, but I think he knew much more than he let on.
“Please be careful, Patrick. That woman is dangerous. Remember the death machine she was using on those orphans. Just the thought of it makes me sick to my stomach,” said Bessie Mergenthaler.
“That reminds me. Seth, when they kidnapped you, did you overhear anything that might divulge information about these pirates and their whereabouts?” I was referring to the Jane the Grabber case, and I wanted to make certain the lad had not forgotten anything.
“No, we were kept away from the adults. The only thing I overheard was when they were deciding who they were going to send to the Sisters’ Row Hotel. That’s when I borrowed Cassie’s identity, and I eventually met you,” said Seth.
“Right. I just wanted to be certain. Walter, would you come with me to visit Kennedy? I want to visit him at his home, and I think your presence might keep his memory sharp.” I walked over to my friend and placed my arm around his wide shoulders. “You still know how to sharpen a man’s powers of recollection, don’t you, old friend?”
“The memory’s a strange thing, me boy-o. The more a man wants to hide somethin’, the more he needs to get his memory jogged a wee bit,” McKenzie laughed.
“We must remember that we have to find out information soon. In order to prevent these pirates from attacking our city and sinking the ships in the harbor, we will need to first discover what technology they’ll be using. In order to do that we need to find out where they hide out. We shou
ld all meet back here at sundown. We can then compare our notes and decide what we can do tomorrow,” I said, walking toward the door.
Walter McKenzie followed me. “Maguire, you go out into Central Park and see if you can spot that wee mechanical lad,” he said.
“You want me to wind him up and send him back to you, Boss?” Maguire smiled.
“No, just see if you can find out where he goes to meet his mates. We can then figure out how to pay ‘em all a visit,” said McKenzie.
“Now you have the right idea,” I said. “We must get our defenses ready before we go on the offensive. Preparation is the key, and the best offense is a good defense,” I added.
* * *
It was after five when we arrived at Superintendent Kennedy’s mansion on Fifth Avenue. He was about two blocks from Missus Mergenthaler’s mansion, so he had certainly made a lot of money from his investments, including the Taijitu Corporation’s endeavors. I must admit, he had me completely fooled until I saw that he owned one of those Taijitu symbol business cards. This clue led to me uncovering the entire conspiracy going on in New York City that involved Jane the Grabber, John Allen and Lord knew how many more business “investors” who had no idea what evil was being perpetrated with their money.
This Kennedy had information that was very relevant to solving that case, and that’s why he pretended to want to help us when I initially approached him about it in his office downtown. He did not want us to suspect he knew anything. This visit today, however, was going to be highly personal in nature. I had a strong feeling that he could point us in a direction we needed to go in order to find Jane the Grabber. If we were able to locate the time-traveling Madame who had been the major criminal behind the Taijitu Orphanage conspiracy, then we should also be able to find these pirates.
“These folks have stepped up in the world,” said McKenzie, huffing and puffing his way up the 20 marble steps leading to Kennedy’s front door. “Me? I prefer living on the flat land,” he added.