Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1897-11-05
THE MEDDLING HUssY.
The Adventure of Sergeant Major John
Champe of Major Harry Lees

remember my man was SNUG faced,
appearing to all the world the reputa-
BILE citizen, round, fat, most polite
snd noncommittal fellow, and won
dered whether l might not have gone
wrong. But the direction was plain,
"Philip Roland merchant, 3 Pearl
street, back of Frances tavern, and
here was the man in his shop, looking
at me narrowly over the gold rims of
his spectacles. The Guards band was
playing ON the Bowling ireen, for
though November, it was warmish
Indian summer evening, while he gloat-
ed over the letter, regarding me ever
and anon in the dim light of the Ian
tern that stood on the counter. He was
a dealer in women's gewgaws and es-
teemed as good an American as any man
in New York. l had heard, indeed so
much to this effect that now l was I'M
easy to think perhaps l had but put my
neck in the moose Had not the general
been mistaken in the man? Why did he
pause so long? l moved nervously, while
before the window passed some people
returning from the play at the Theater
Royal on John street.
The royalist handles had refitted that
little red theater, closed by congress
with a view to improving the public
morals, and plays had been writ for it
- by Major John Andre. shuddered as
thought of him, for it was not so long
since the scene at Tappan and, for all
l had experienced in the last few days,
causing me to regret my mission, my
softness hardened at that name. AS it
happened as if to emphasize the thought,
a link bSS passed just then before Mis-
tress Susannah de Lancey and Major
Williams of the artillery, who had been
Andre iCtimate.
My vis-a-vis noted my uneasiness out
of his cunning eyes.
There be spies and spies" said he.
"But you, sir, surprise me. There lay
every reason why you should return to
the cause, and yet you risk your neck
apparently as merrily as a boy after a
bird s nest
"Eh yes" said I, gathering heart at
his voice. And 1 propose to have the
bird tonight at Il when he walks in
docs he walk then in the garden?"
said he peering at me.
Eyes, an uneasy conscience -
"Ah, has he that"
eff he have not, my friend, l pro-
pose to make him uneasy, should you
have your boat at the foot of the lane
exact at IL. l loosed part of the paling
at the end of the garden, and there be-
hind the boards which he now can
wrench off i'll a trice, is Jem Hawkins.
You know him.
And you, sergeant said he curl
ously and looking about lest the walls
had ears
Il, master, will stroll out of the
tavern as debonair as you please. shall
knock our traitor over the head Jem
will break through the paling, and to-
gether we will carry him to your boat. +"
SHOULD you be stopped"
''Humph! We have but to say we are
sailors from the Anne Marie taking a
drunken comrade aboard Once in the
boat we shall pull for Hobock, where
Major Harry expects us l."
l thought exRltantly of this point in
the programme, so well outlined, could
it be carried out. For it meant my res
toration to the old esteem among my
comrades, who now must be holding me
the most dastardly deserter.
"You have glib tongue" my
shopkeeper said doubtfully when 1 had
ended.
ut has persuaded Sir Henry, my old
friends and their brevet brigadier trail
tor Arnold " boosted. "Now it wants
but your boat. -
He reached forward, as if with sud
den enthusiasm out of keeping with the
former suspicion.
"You risk death and so do l, should
we be seen together. The boatman shall
be there at IL. "
was sure of him now, this person
no one suspected, but who was one of
those agents by whom Washington was
kept conversant with occurrences in
New York. l relied implicitly on the
other man, Hawkins, who was hostle1
at Fraunces' tavern, for he had proved
his honesty by seeing that my letter
had reached the general, telling him
exactly who had been implicated with
Arnold in that damnable plot, and now
all that was left of the mission was tC
catch the traitor.
This was my fifth evening in guise
of American deserter and kings man,
and it, 1 said, should not pass without
my putting my hands ON him for whose
wretched 3varice Andre had suffered.
Y l. H.
ner past one of Mayor Matthews watch,
sickened of the attempt for the hun,
dredth time. 1 thought of how much
they had left me to do, how great q
sacrifice of good name l already had
made, and how little wit l, indeed, has
to redeem it.
Before the ruins of Trinity church,
standing out sepulchrally in the darkest
November night, went in to sit on
one Of the benches that had been built
there at General Pattison's suggestion,
shortly after the great fire, for the Brit.
ish policy was to gain favor by making
the town life agreeable for those who
could be caught by pleasure.
There in the dark / ran over the
whole unpromising phases of the enter
prise-how five days before my com.
mandant, Major Lee, had summoned
me to tell me that the general had ask.