Kind gentle William, had his years locked un-aging in his Garden of Eden warped his mind? William and his man had survived on nothing but aging wine for years. They were the world"s oldest winos. That way of life could surely twist even a holy man. I assumed that William was still the leader of these rogues. It was then, right then, that the obvious hit me. You, the reader, not personally involved, probably have already put it together. The old man Joffy's story in the Knights Edge of the rogues who terrorized the town about every eight-five years and lived on Hamelton property, must be the men lead by William Hamelton himself trying to reclaim his property. Saving that man's life is the last documented record of our existence that I knew of.
I have talked of fear before. However, the cold doomed feeling that over took me at that point made me stop and shake. Our companions were now or would soon become a murderous bunch of time traveling rogues with a desire to repay a debt to mankind for their own self imprisoned isolation. I stopped and turned to Jeff and the girls and said with a cracking in my voice, "We need to get out of here as fast as we can. I can't explain everything now. But trust me. Our lives are in big danger. We need to grab Handy and take him back to our own time now." We all hurried back to the Hidden Six. When we arrived, Handy and William were sitting under a tree talking.
Not wanting to give my plan away, I engaged in idle conversation. Before I could find a way to detour Handy away, William said, "I feel that you four do not have your heart into the God given task that must be completed. I had wanted your help because of your combined knowledge of the future. But it seems that you are lying to your own friend about the affair that Handy's best friend and fiancé are having. I had given instructions to my men not to harm the men or enjoy the women. But now that I know that you all cannot be trusted, I am forced to withdraw my offer of partnership and immunity. I am a fair man, even to those who have crossed me. Since you are now in our camp as guests, I will continue to guarantee your safety for an hour. After that point, I will give you no more consideration than those thieving townspeople."
That was indeed a lot to unload on us all at once. I looked around and saw a horse off to the side of the Hidden Six. John the Friar plainly sent a message to William of my interference, and now William wanted to get us out of his way.
Playing naive I said, "Okay, Handy let's go." Handy only smiled sarcastically.
"Handy!" I said, "I just saved the life of a man that John the
Friar was going to kill."
William and Handy looked at each other smiling and Handy said, "Like a Friar is going to kill someone."
I tried again, "Handy, I swear on our friendship... that now is the time to leave with me."
Handy's face got small and upset. "Like you swore William said that he didn't plan to leave for good into the Garden of Eden. That was a lie. William said himself that he did plan to return that night, but could not get back. Ask him. Ask him now in front of me. He will tell you. Ask him!"
I looked into William's face and saw the look of a man who had just won a game and I said, "I don't need to, I know what answer I will get. I will leave now. I would like to ask you, William, what are your real intentions to recover your fortune?"
William still with a pleased look on his face said, "I will arm my men and reign terror amongst the thieving scoundrels until they put together the money to buy back my property for me. We have no intention to kill, just scare. Your time is wearing thin, I suggest you leave soon or you will find yourselves on the wrong side of my blade." He raised his arm and several of the men around him approached and stood silent and ready.
Never before or since have I been asked so strongly to leave anyplace before. The four of us retreated backwards from the statuesque armed men. As soon as we walked out of sight, we turned and ran toward the mansion. We stopped in the garden out of sight outside the back kitchen. We talked briefly to verify that we were all in agreement. The facts were simple; our lives were in danger if we stayed. Handy may not be with us, but our backs were against the wall. It was time to go home or die. Now that I look back at that moment, I still feel that there was no other choice than the one we made.
We slipped back into the house, found our way back to my room and we traveled back to our own time. The one note that I can say about the trip this time is that we all felt depressed because Handy was not with us. When I opened my eyes I looked straight over toward the bed. My suitcase was where I left it in the twentieth century. The room was dim, the time was around dusk.
We all sat up and looked at each other for a moment in still silence. I wanted to rejoice over coming home and cry over my loss of my best friend at the same time. I think we all felt the same way. "Now what?" I said to them and myself at the same time. No one had an answer. "Fall back and regroup?" I suggested, "Let's find out what is going on."
We walked into the entryway and I yelled for Maggie. Walking into the kitchen still calling her name, Maggie emerged from the direction of the servant quarters. "How long? How long were we gone this time?" I asked her as she walked toward us.
"Three days. How did it go?" She asked as she put water on to boil.
I told her, "Not well. I need to have all the information that you know about this thing. No more hiding facts, no more games." With that I sat firmly at the table and looked at her.
She smiled and said, "You know I can't tell you the past or it may not happen."
I even more firmly said, "Edward Mulligan was saved from an attacker on the road to Hamelton. I know that part of the past. I need to know what happened to Handy, he didn't make it back."
She froze as she noticed that Handy was not with us. She stumbled her words "What... or where did..."
"No!" I interrupted her, "I'm asking the questions for now, if you don't mind. What do you know? Where is that paper that you hid from me before?"
Maggie now very obedient went into her room and returned with a piece of rolled leather and handed it to me. I took the string off the leather and opened it to reveal several brown papers. I read over the papers as Maggie poured coffee and set out muffins in front of us. Maggie stood by the stove with her hands near her mouth. Jeff and the girls read over my shoulders.
There were a lot of papers in that leather roll that had no importance to me. I will now quote Edward Mulligan's account of how I saved his life, "I was transporting three good mares back from the auction when I came upon five men and two women standing in the road. The large man demanded I give him the mares. When I refused, he knocked me over with the power of an ox. I returned the attack but I was repelled like a young child. The large man did not seem to be satisfied with his victory. He prepared to kill me. I'm a brave man, but I could not move. One of the other robbers stood in front of me and challenged the large man. The large man could have easily done in the young man. The young man stood his ground. The large man backed down. The young man paid me very well for the animals that I had just lost. The young man was hard to understand, he must be from a place I know not of. The large man and two men went with my mares. My saver, another man and two women went into the bushes. My family and I owe the young man who calls himself Chris Blake, my life." The story went on about other bad deeds that the rogues did to others.
"How did you know that this Chris Blake was me?" I asked Maggie.
Maggie replied, "I had always supposed that William Hamelton had something to do with the rogues. My grandfather"s friend read William's book up in the library and told my grandfather about William thinking he could go to other worlds. When I heard your name and thought how hard it is to understand you yanks, I made the connection. I thought little about it until you started to ask about William's work. Then when Hanna went riding with you, I thought she may be the second girl on the road, so I gave her time off just in case I was right. That's all I know. I promise. If anything happened to your friend Handy because of me, I'll never forgive myself, never forgive myself." She turned to hide her face.
I said to her, "Yes, Handy is in bad
trouble. I don't think anything you did caused it. In fact I think we were just playing out history. What you could help me out with now is ideas. Let us go over everything from the beginning, then we will see how to solve this mess," I told her the entire story with my sheath and small sword on the table.
Jeff, Cindy and Hanna seemed to enjoy recalling our adventures almost seeming to forget the predicament. Maggie was fascinated that we saw the mansion before it was ever rebuilt. After many long hours in discussion we were all tired. Maggie suggested we all sleep on it and perhaps we would discover a solution by morning.
XV
Maggie woke me by banging on my bedroom door. "We have much work to do, get up," she was calling at each door.
I got ready and went into the other rooms to gather my friends. We went downstairs as a group. In the kitchen, Maggie had a large breakfast waiting for us. I tried to talk about Handy, but she kept saying, "There will be time for that later."
After that wonderful meal, she said she had a surprise for us. She led us into the library. As the door opened I could hear the voices of men talking then silence. Inside was a room full of about twenty-five men. The ones that were standing sat as we entered. I turned to Maggie and she broadly smiled as she nodded.
One man walked up to me and proclaimed, "My name is Daniel Mulligan. I'm Maggie's brother and the owner of the stables in town. My sister called me late last night and said the weirdest thing to me. She said that my ancestor owes your ancestor the debt of risking his life to save my ancestor's life. She said I can't ask how she knows it. My sister has never misled me. I'm in your debt to repay your ancestor. I hear that you are in some kind of trouble. Behind me stand some of my relatives and good friends. I think you yanks would call us the „cavalry". We are at your disposal. Please allow us to help?"
One man in the back called out, "In this part of the world, we repay our debts, in full."
"I cannot hold you people responsible to repay a debt that is two hundred and fifty years old", I said shaking my head.
"Then we offer the help freely, as your ancestor offered it to mine", suggested Daniel.
I looked around the room; the only person I recognized was George from the bar. They all stood motionless staring at me. I asked, "Is it understood that no questions are asked about what is going on and never can you tell anyone anything that we did?"
The men all nodded or said, "Yes."
George called out, "We all swear to God to keep your secrets!" Again the room was filled with nodding and sounds of agreement.
I walked in front of them, and sat on a table. I tapped my fingers on the table for a few minutes as I thought and looked out at the small army I had that would follow me blindly. Sitting up straight I took charge, I had a plan. "At this point I don't want to explain it, but I need to prepare to fight the rogues who have been terrifying your town for years. This means that you are not only helping me, but also taking revenge for your ancestors and protecting your descendants." If it could be possible, I had even more of their attention then I did a moment before. "The first step is R & D, research and development. This room will be headquarters. Everyone separate into groups of five men teams; elect a leader of each team to report back to me. I want every bit of information about William Hamelton and the rogues... and what was happening in the world at each of the times they appeared brought to this room. My plan is scheduled to happen in less than a week. Of course I can postpone it, but eventually I must act. If our work is not done by then, all may be lost. Any questions?"
With that the men jumped to work at my directions. The room was arranged so that upstairs was the main organizing area, with my desk overlooking the working area. The far end of the room, within one hour, had all the phone lines of the mansion brought into it. From the line of desks, five men were calling every member of the old families in town to gather their old papers of the time. Five men went to the local town library to look for related books. Five men drove off to go door to door to pick up related papers and deliver them to us. Ten men researched the mansions library and read, reviewed and summarized the information being brought in. Daniel, Jeff, and Cindy had desks put next to mine and helped coordinate. Maggie and Hanna brought finger food around to the workers. I remember standing against the rail and thinking that even the queen doesn't have a diligent group like this.
One of the first facts that were brought to my attention was the years that the rogues showed up and a unique mathematical equation that someone figured out:
William disappeared Edward is mugged by rogues Rogues steal livestock Rogues steal livestock
Today"s date
1641
96 years later 1737
87 years later 1824
79 years later 1903
71 years later 1974 It turned out that if you subtract ninety-one % from each of the reductions in time which the rogues showed up, the timing worked roughly correct. Small corrections because the month was not always known which could account for the minor change. None-the-less, the constant shortening of the years distinctly showed a pattern. Calculating it one step further to project the next visit the timing worked out to be the 1974. And why not? I have been ripping the fabric of time myself. It would make it easier for William to get here now. Why wouldn't time, with its unknown properties, tie in the two times that the gates were opened, and the subsequent breaks between be mathematically figured. By opening a gate in 1974 I had caused some mathematical countdown to when William could return. This seemed to go along with what I'd been thinking.
I saw the course of the things that had already happened, like William avoiding the king for me, and how I saved Maggie's ancestor"s life. These events were history before I was born. All I was doing was living out my destiny. Does this mean that the answer to the age old question “do we control our own life or is it already written for us?”, if this example is the norm, is that we have no control over what will happen?
When I last left William, he was preparing to overthrow the town of Hamelton, however, there is no record of this attempt, only isolated incidents of theft and destruction. Why did they give up on their desire for revenge? Why did the rogues disappear again? Why did they continue to travel through time? In the visit of the rogues, they seemed to be more interested in stealing livestock and killing those that got in there way than preparing for revenge, why? Did they spend the years between appearances in that hell William created which he calls the Garden of Eden or did they jump around in time as I did? If they returned to the Garden of Eden, why didn't they return with a wealth of gold and buy the mansion instead of resorting to stealing? If Handy spent about 87 years in the Garden of Eden would he be sane?
As far as wondering if I would go back or not, I realized that William's short sword as a dagger was on his belt for eternity. Sitting on my bed and hanging on my bedroom wall was also it twice. There were three of them. I must go back again and leave my sword or it could never end up on my wall. What of Handy? He was carrying William's sword, where is that sword? I turned to Daniel and said, "William Hamelton had a custom made sword for him at his birth, see if we can find a record of it. I need two men armed with guns." I sent the two armed men to the Hidden Six with orders. "Don't enter the large room but keep your eyes on it from the hall until relieved."
Later I found that the rogue, who was killed, died in 1824 and was buried in the far corner of the cemetery. I had decided to take a break from the library for awhile anyway, so I went with one of the men to the church cemetery.
The head stones were all interesting to me. Remember in California when they talk about ancient history they mean a hundred years ago. In England six hundred years ago is still referred to as recent. Seeing the headstones of men who lived and died hundreds of years ago can give a person the feeling of unimportance.
We found the headstone we were looking for. On it were the words, "May God have mercy on this man gone bad. Handy 1824". I fell uncontrollably to the ground into the overgrown ivy that covered
the grave of my best friend. I cried without stopping. Something about the surprise of seeing the one hundred and fifty year old marker of the man I talked to yesterday caught me off guard. The driver, who I did not really know who drove me there, knelt beside me and held me. He could not know why I was crying, but apparently knowing that I needed help was enough for these good people of the town of Hamelton. Once I composed myself, we drove back to Hamelton mansion.
I thought of Handy's headstone. It was mentioned to me before I ever traveled that there was a dead rogue in the cemetery. That means that Handy's death was history before we ever arrived. Now I wondered if I could indeed change history. Could I go back with knowledge of what happened and change something and possibly save Handy's life? Maybe even get him home?
I decided that I would go back by myself the next time. There were several reasons for that decision. First, Hanna, Cindy and Jeff did not want to go, they were willing, but they were scared for their lives. I had no need to watch over others anyway. Second, I thought that one person, well armed with history and weapons, could be elusive and more effective. If the first attempt did not work, I could probably get a large volunteer army to go with me next time from these good people that were helping me.
I realized that the rogues would be coming to 1974 soon and I wanted to get back to either the last time I was in or the time that Handy was to die so I could change things before it was too late. I told Jeff that I would travel tomorrow morning. I had ordered a small gun and a holster to be made for me that could be hidden within my shirt. A backpack had been set up with provisions so I would be equipped this time. No news had come about William's sword that was being carried by Handy last time I saw him. The patrol of the Hidden Six was ordered continued until further notice. It was time for me to get a good night"s sleep. I walked around the library and shook hands with the men that were still studying late into the night.
Hamelton (Dr. Paul) Page 11