I could tell by the way the vapor singed my nasal membranes that this was from a potent batch. I neglected to tell Creighton to go slow. As I took a respectful sip, he tossed his off. I watched him wince as he swallowed, saw his face grow red and his eyes begin to water.
"Whoa!" he said hoarsely. "You could etch glass with that stuff!" He caught Jasper looking at him sideways and held out his glass. "But delicious! Could I have just a drop more?"
"Help yourself," Jasper said, pouring him another couple of fingers. "Plenty more where this came from. But down it slow. This here's sippin' whiskey. You go puttin' too much of it down like that and you'll get apple palsy. Slow and leisurely does it when you're drinking Gus Sooy's best."
"This isn't yours?" I said.
"Naw! I stopped that long time ago. Too much trouble and gettin' too civilized 'round here. Besides, Gus's jack is as good as mine ever was. Maybe better."
He set the jug on the floor between us.
"About that Jersey Devil," I said, prompting him before he got off on another tangent.
"Right. The ol' Devil. He used to be known as the Leeds' Devil. I'm sure you've heard various versions of the story, but I'll tell you the real one. That ol' devil's been around a spell, better'n two and a half centuries. All started back around seventeen-thirty or so. That was when Mrs. Leeds of Estellville found herself in the family way for the thirteenth time. Now she was so fed up and angry about this that she cried out, 'I hope this time it's the Devil!' Well now, Someone must've been listenin' that night, because she got her wish. When that thirteenth baby was born, it was an ugly-faced thing, born with teeth like no one'd ever seen before, and it had a curly, sharp-pointed tail, and leathery wings like a bat. It bit its mother and flew out through the window. It grew up out in the pine wilds, stealing and eating chickens and small piglets at first, then graduating to cows, children, even growed men. All they ever found of its victims was their bones, and they was chipped and nicked by powerful sharp teeth. Some say it's dead now, some say it'll never die. Every so often someone says he shot and killed it, but most folks think it can't be killed. It gets blamed for every missing chicken and every pig or cow that wanders off, and so after a while you think it's just an ol' Piney folk tale. But it's out there. It's out there. It's surely out there."
"Have you ever seen it?" Creighton asked. He was sipping his jack with respect this time around.
"Saw its shadow. It was up on Apple Pie Hill, up at the top, in the days before they put up the firetower. Before you was born, Kathleen. I'd been out doing some summer hunting, tracking a big ol' stag. You know what a climb Apple Pie is, dontcha?"
I nodded. "Sure do."
It didn't look like much of a hill. No cliffs or precipices, just a slow incline that seemed to go on forever. You didn't have to do much more than walk to get to the top, but you were bushed when you finally reached it.
"Anyways, I was about three-quarters the way up when it got too dark to do any more tracking. Well, I was tired and it was a warm summer night so's I just settled down on the pine needles and decided I'd spend the night. I had some jerky and some pone and my jug." He pointed to the floor. "Just like that one. You two be sure to help yourselves, hear me?"
"I'm fine," I said.
I saw Creighton reach for the jug. He always could handle a lot. I was already feeling my two sips. It was getting warmer in here by the minute.
"Anyways," Jasper went on, "I was sitting there chewing and sipping when I saw some pine lights."
Creighton started in mid-pour and spilled some applejack over his hand. He was suddenly very alert, almost tense.
"Pine lights?" he said. "You saw pine lights? Where were they?"
"So you've heard of the pine lights, have you?"
"I sure have. I've been doing my homework. Where did you see them? Were they moving?"
"They were streaming across the crest of Apple Pie Hill, just skirting the tops of the trees."
Creighton put his tumbler down and began fumbling with his map.
"Apple Pie Hill...I remember seeing that somewhere. Here it is." He jabbed his finger down on the map as if he were driving a spike into the hill. "Okay. So you were on Apple Pie Hill when you saw the pine lights. How many were there?"
"A whole town's worth of them, maybe a hunnert, more than I've ever seen before or since."
"How fast were they going?"
"Different speeds. Different sizes. Some gliding peacefully, some zipping along, moving past the slower ones. Looked like the Turnpike on a summer weekend."
Creighton leaned forward, his eyes brighter than ever.
"Tell me about it."
Something about Creighton's intensity disturbed me. All of a sudden he'd become an avid listener. He'd been listening politely to Jasper's retelling of the Jersey Devil story, but he'd seemed more interested in the applejack than in the tale. He hadn't bothered to check the location of Apple Pie Hill when Jasper had said he'd seen the Jersey Devil there, but he'd been in a rush to find it at the first mention of the pine lights.
The pine lights. I'd heard of them but I'd never seen one. People tended to catch sight of them on summer nights, mostly toward the end of the season. Some said it was ball lightning or some form of St. Elmo's fire, some called it swamp gas, and some said it was the souls of dead Pineys coming back for periodic visits. Why was Creighton so interested?
"Well," Jasper said, "I spotted one or two moving along the crest of the hill and didn't think too much of it. I spot a couple just about every summer. Then I saw a few more. And then a few more. I got a little excited and decided to get up to the top of Apple Pie and see what was going on. I was breathing hard by the time I got there. I stopped and looked up and there they was, flowing along the tree tops forty feet above me, pale yellow, some ping-pong sized and some big as beach balls, all moving in the same direction."
"What direction?" Creighton said. If he leaned forward any farther, he was going to fall off his stool. "Which way were they going?"
"I'm getting to that, son," Jasper said. "Just hold your horses. So as I was saying, I was standing there watching them flow against the clear night sky, and I was feeling this strange tightness in my chest, like I was witnessing something I shouldn't. But I couldn't tear my eyes away. And then they thinned out and was gone. They'd all passed. So I did something crazy. I climbed a tree to see where they was going. Something in my gut told me not to, but I was filled with this wonder, almost like holy rapture. So I climbed as far as I could, until the tree started to bend with my weight and the branches got too thin to hold me. And I watched them go. They was strung out in long trail, dipping down when the land dipped down, and moving up when the land rose, moving just above the tops of the pines, like they was being pulled along strings." He looked at Creighton. "And they was heading southwest."
"You're sure of that?"
Jasper looked insulted. "Course I'm sure of that. Bear Swamp Hill was behind my left shoulder, and everybody knows Bear Swamp is east of Apple Pie. Those lights was on their way southwest."
"And this was the summer?"
"Nigh on to Labor Day, if I 'member correct."
"And you were on the crest of Apple Pie Hill?"
"The tippy top."
"Great!" He began folding his map.
"I thought you wanted to hear about the Jersey Devil."
"I do, I do."
"Then how come you're asking me all these questions about the lights and not asking me about my meeting with the Devil?"
I hid a smile. Jasper was as sharp as ever.
Creighton looked confused for a moment. An expression darted across his face. It was only there for a second, but I caught it. Furtiveness. Then he leaned forward and spoke to Jasper is a confidential tone.
"Don't tell anybody this, but I think they're connected. The pine lights and the Jersey Devil. Connected."
Jasper leaned back. "You know, you might have something there. Cause it was while I was up that tree that I spotted the
ol' Devil himself. Or at least his shadow. I was watching the lights flow out of sight when I heard this noise in the brush. It had a slithery sound to it. I looked down and there was this dark shape moving below. And you know what? It was heading in the same direction as the lights. What do you think of that?"
Creighton's voice oozed sincerity.
"I think that's damn interesting, Jasper."
I thought they both were shoveling it, but I couldn't decide who was carrying the bigger load.
"But don't you go getting too interested in those pine lights, son. Gus Sooy says they're bad medicine."
"The guy who made this jack?" I said, holding up my empty tumbler.
"The very same. Gus says there's lots of pine light activity in his neighborhood every summer. Told me I was a fool for climbing that tree. Says he wouldn't get near one of those lights for all the tea in China."
I noticed that Creighton was tense again.
"Where's this Gus Sooy's neighborhood?" he said. "Does he live in Chatsworth?"
Jasper burst out laughing.
"Gus live in Chatsworth? That's a good un! Gus Sooy's an old Hessian who lives way out in the wildest part of the pines. Never catch him near a city like this!"
City? I didn't challenge him on that.
"Where do we find him then?" Creighton said, his expression like a kid who's been told there's a cache of M&M's hidden somewhere nearby.
"Not easy," Jasper said. "Gus done a good job of getting himself well away from everybody. He's well away. Yes, he's well away. But if you go down to Apple Pie Hill and head along the road there that runs along its south flank, and you follow that about two mile and turn south onto the sand road by Applegate's cranberry bog, then follow that for about ten-twelve mile till you come to the fork where you bear left, then go right again at the cripple beyond it, then it's a good ten mile down that road till you get to the big red cedar–"
Creighton was scribbling furiously.
"I'm not sure I know what a red cedar looks like," I said.
"You'll know it," Jasper said. "Its kind don't grow naturally around here. Gus planted it there a good many year ago so people could find their way to him. The right people," he said, eyeing Creighton. "People who want to buy his wares, if you get my meaning."
I nodded. I got his meaning: Gus made his living off his still.
"Anyways, you turn right at the red cedar and go to the end of the road. Then you've got to get out and walk about a third of the way up the hill. That's where you'll find Gus Sooy."
I tried to drive the route across a mental map in my head. I couldn't get there. My map was blank where he was sending us. But I was amazed at how far I did get. As a Piney, even a girl, you've got to develop a good sense of where you are, got to have a store of maps in your head that you can picture by reflex, otherwise you'll spend most of your time being lost. Even with a good library of mental maps, you'll still get lost occasionally. I could still travel my old maps. The skill must be like the proverbial bicycle – once you've learned, you never forget.
I had a sense that Gus Sooy's place was somewhere far down in Burlington County, near Atlantic county. But county lines don't mean much in the Pinelands.
"That's really in the middle of nowhere!" I said.
"That it is, Kathy, that it is. That it surely is. It's on the slope of Razorback Hill."
Creighton shuffled through his maps again.
"Razorback...Razorback...there's no Razorback Hill here."
"That's because it ain't much of a hill. But it's there all right. Just cause it ain't on your diddly map don't mean it ain't there. Lots of things ain't on that map."
Creighton rose to his feet.
"Maybe we can run out there now and buy some of this applejack from him. What do you say, Mac?"
"We've got time."
I had a feeling he truly did want to buy some of Sooy's jack, but I was sure some questions about the pine lights would come up during the transaction.
"Better bring your own jugs if you're goin'," Jasper said. "Gus don't carry no spares. You can buy some from the Buzbys at the general store."
"Will do," I said.
I thanked him and promised I'd say hello to my mom for him, then I joined Creighton out at the Wrangler. He had one of his maps unfolded on the hood and was drawing a line southwest from Apple Pie Hill through the emptiest part of the Barrens.
"What's that for?" I asked.
"I don't know just yet. We'll see if it comes to mean anything."
It would. Sooner than either of us realized.
4. The Hessian
I bought a gallon-sized brown jug at the Chatsworth general store; Creighton bought two.
"I want this Sooy fellow to be real glad to see me!"
I drove us down 563, then off to Apple Pie Hill. We got south of it and began following Jasper's directions. Creighton read while I drove.
"What the hell's a cripple?" he said.
"That's a spong with no cedars."
"Ah! That clears up everything!"
"A spong is a low wet spot; if it's got cedars growing around it, it's a cripple. What could be clearer?"
"I'm not sure, but I know I'll think of something. By the way, why's this Sooy fellow called a Hessian? Mulliner doesn't really think he's–?"
"Of course not. Sooy's an old German name around the Pine Barrens. Comes from the Hessians who deserted the British army and fled into the woods after the battle of Trenton."
"The Revolution?"
"Sure. This sand road we're riding on now was here three hundred-odd years ago as a wagon trail. It probably hasn't changed any since. Might even have been used by the smugglers who used to unload freight in the marshes and move it overland through the Pines to avoid port taxes in New York and Philly. A lot of them settled in here. So did a good number of Tories and Loyalists who were chased from their land after the Revolution. Some of them probably arrived dressed in tar and feathers and little else. The Lenape Indians settled in here, too, so did Quakers who were kicked out of their churches for taking up arms during the Revolution."
Creighton laughed. "Sounds like Australia! Didn't anyone besides outcasts settle here?"
"Sure. Bog iron was a major industry. This was the center of the colonial iron production. Most of the cannon balls fired against the British in the Revolution and the War of 1812 were forged right here in the Pine Barrens."
"Where'd everybody go?"
"A place called Pittsburgh. There was more iron there and it was cheaper to produce. The furnaces here tried to shift over to glass production but they were running out of wood to keep them going. Each furnace consumed something like a thousand acres of pine a year. With the charcoal industry, the lumber industry, even the cedar shake industry all adding to the daily toll on the tree population, the Barrens couldn't keep up with the demand. The whole economy collapsed after the Civil War. Which probably saved the area from becoming a desert."
I noticed the underbrush between the ruts getting higher, slapping against the front bumper as we passed, a sure sign that not many people came this way. Then I spotted the red cedar. Jasper had been right – it didn't look like it belonged here. We turned right and drove until we came to a cul-de-sac at the base of a hill. Three rusting cars hugged the bushes along the perimeter.
"This must be the place," I said.
"This is not a place. This is nowhere."
We grabbed our jugs and walked up the path. About a third of the way up the slope we broke into a clearing with a slant-roofed shack in the far left corner. It looked maybe twenty feet on a side, and was covered with tar paper that was peeling away in spots, exposing the plywood beneath. Somewhere behind the shack a dog had begun to bark.
Creighton said, "Finally!" and started forward.
I laid a hand on his arm.
"Call out first," I told him. "Otherwise we may be ducking buckshot."
He thought I was joking at first, then saw that I meant it.
"You're serious?
"
"We're dressed like city folk. We could be revenuers. He'll shoot first and ask questions later."
"Hello in the house!" Creighton cried. "Jasper Mulliner sent us! Can we come up?"
A wizened figure appeared on the front step, a twelve gauge cradled in his arms.
"How'd he send you?"
"By way of the red cedar, Mr. Sooy!" I replied.
"C'mon up then!"
Where Jasper had been neat, Gus Sooy was slovenly. His white hair looked like a deranged bird had tried to nest in it; for a shirt he wore the stained top from a set of long johns and had canvas pants secured around his waist with coarse rope. His lower face was obscured by a huge white beard, stained around the mouth. An Appalachian Santa Claus, going to seed in the off-season.
We followed him into the single room of his home. The floor was covered with a mismatched assortment of throw rugs and carpet remnants. A bed sat in the far left corner, a kerosene stove was immediately to our right. Set about the room were a number of Aladdin lamps with the tall flues. Dominating the scene was a heavy legged kitchen table with an enamel top.
We introduced ourselves and Gus said he'd met my father years ago.
"So what brings you two kids out here to see Gus Sooy?"
I had to smile, not just at the way he managed to ignore the jugs we were carrying, but at being referred to as a "kid." A long time since anyone had called me that. I wouldn't let anyone call me a "girl" these days, but somehow I didn't mind "kid."
"Today we tasted some of the best applejack in the world," Creighton said with convincing sincerity, "and Jasper told us you were the source." He slammed his two jugs on the table. "Fill 'em up!"
I placed my own jug next to Creighton's.
"I gotta warn you," Gus said. "It's five dollars a quart."
"Five dollars!" Creighton said.
"Yeah," Gus added quickly, "but seein' as you're buying so much at once–"
"Don't get me wrong, Mr. Sooy. I wasn't saying the price is too high. I was just shocked that you'd be selling such high grade sipping whiskey for such a low price."