In the Days of Poor Richard

  2

  He kissed her and bade her good night and returned to his many tasks.He had visited the forts and batteries. He had communicated with everyoutpost. His plan was complete. About midnight, when he and Solomonwere lying down to rest, two horsemen came up the road at a gallop andstopped at his door. They were aides of Washington. They reportedthat the General was spending the night at the house of Henry Jasper,near the ferry, and would reach camp about noon next day.

  "Thank God for that news," said the young man. "Solomon, I think thatwe can sleep better to-night."

  "If you're awake two minutes from now you'll hear some snorin',"Solomon answered as he drew his boots. "I ain't had a good bar'footsleep in a week. I don't like to have socks er luther on when I wadeout into that pond. To-night, I guess, we'll smell the water lilies."

  Jack was awake for an hour thinking of the great happiness which hadfallen in the midst of his troubles and of Thornhill and his message.He heard the two aides going to their quarters. Then a deep silencefell upon the camp, broken only by the rumble of distant thunder in themountains and the feet of some one pacing up and down between his hutand the house of the General. He put on his long coat and slippers andwent out-of-doors.

  "Who's there?" he demanded.

  "Arnold," was the answer. "Taking a little walk before I turn in."

  There was a weary, pathetic note of trouble in that voice, longremembered by the young man, who immediately returned to his bed. Heknew not that those restless feet of Arnold were walking in the flamesof hell. Had some premonition of what had been going on down the rivercome up to him? Could he hear the feet of that horse, now gallopingnorthward through the valleys and over the hills toward him with eviltidings? No more for this man was the comfort of restful sleep or thejoys of home and friendship and affection. Now the touch of his wife'shand, the sympathetic look in her eyes and all her babble about thecoming marriage were torture to him. He could not endure it. Worst ofall, he was in a way where there is no turning. He must go on. He hadbegun to know that he was suspected. The conduct of the scout, SolomonBinkus, had suggested that he knew what was passing. Arnold had seenthe aides of Washington as they came in. The chief could not be farbehind them. He dreaded to stand before him. Compared to the torturenow beginning for this man, the fate of Bill Scott on Rock Creek in thewilderness, had been a mercy.

  Soon after sunrise came a solitary horseman, wearied by long travel,with a message from Colonel Jameson to Arnold. A man had been capturednear Tarrytown with important documents on his person. He hadconfessed that he was Adjutant-General Andre of Sir Henry Clinton'sarmy. The worst had come to pass. Now treason! disgrace! the gibbet!

  Arnold was sitting at breakfast. He arose, put the message in hispocket and went out of the room. _The Vulture_ lay down the riverawaiting orders. The traitor walked hurriedly to the boat-landing.Solomon was there. It had been his custom when in camp to go down tothe landing every morning with his spy-glass and survey the river.Only one boatman was at the dock.

  "Colonel Binkus, will you help this man to take me down to the Britishship?" Arnold asked. "I have an engagement with its commander and amhalf an hour late."

  Solomon had had much curiosity about that ship. He wished to see theman who had gone into the bush and then to Smith's with Arnold.

  "Sart'n," Solomon answered.

  They got into a small barge with the General in the cushioned rearseat, his flag in hand.

  "Make what speed you can," said the General.

  The oarsmen bent to their task and the barge swept on by the forts. AYankee sloop overhauled and surveyed them. If its skipper hadentertained suspicions they were dissipated by the presence of SolomonBinkus in the barge.

  They came up to _The Vulture_ and made fast at its landing stage wherean officer waited to receive the General. The latter ascended to thedeck. In a moment a voice called from above:

  "General Arnold's boatmen may come aboard."

  A British war-ship was a thing of great interest to Solomon. Onceaboard he began to look about him at the shining guns and their gearand the tackle and the men. He looked for Arnold, but he was not insight.

  Among the crew then busy on the deck, Solomon saw the Tory desperado"Slops," one time of the Ohio River country, with his black pipe in hismouth. Slops paused in his hauling and reeving to shake a fist atSolomon. They were heaving the anchor. The sails were running up.The ship had begun to move. What was the meaning of this? Solomonstepped to the ship's side. The stair had been hove up and made fast.The barge was not to be seen.

  "They will put you all ashore below," an officer said to him.

  Solomon knew too much about Arnold to like the look of this. Theofficer went forward. Solomon stepped to the opening in the deck rail,not yet closed, through which he had come aboard. While he was lookingdown at the water, some ten feet below, a group of sailors came to fillin. His arm was roughly seized. Solomon stepped back. Before himstood the man Slops. An insulting word from the latter, a quick blowfrom Solomon, and Slops went through the gate out into the air anddownward. The scout knew it was no time to tarry.

  "A night hawk couldn't dive no quicker ner what I done," were his wordsto the men who picked him up. He was speaking of that half second ofthe twenty-fourth of September, 1780. His brief account of it wascarefully put down by an officer: "I struck not twenty feet from Slops,which I seen him jes' comin' up when I took water. This 'ere ol' sloopthat had overhauled us goin' down were nigh. Hadn't no more'n come upthan I felt Slops' knife rip into my leg. I never had no practise inthat 'ere knife work. 'Tain't fer decent folks, but my ol' Dan Skinneris allus on my belt. He'd chose the weapons an' so I fetched 'er out.Had to er die. We fit a minnit thar in the water. All the while hehad that damn black pipe in his mouth. I were hacked up a leetle, buthe got a big leak in _him_ an' all of a sudden he wasn't thar. He'dgone. I struck out with ol' Dan Skinner 'twixt my teeth. Then I seeyour line and grabbed it. Whar's the British ship now?"

  "'Way below Stony P'int an' a fair wind in her sails,' the skipperanswered.

  "Bound fer New York," said Solomon sorrowfully. "They'd 'a' took mewith 'em if I hadn't 'a' jumped. Put me over to Jasper's dock. I gotto see Washington quick."

  "Washington has gone up the river."

  "Then take me to quarters soon as ye kin. I'll give ye ten pounds,good English gold. My God, boys! My ol' hide is leakin' bad."

  He turned to the man who had been washing and binding his wounds.

  "Sodder me up best ye kin. I got to last till I see the Father."

  Solomon and other men in the old army had often used the word "Father"in speaking of the Commander-in-Chief. It served, as no other could,to express their affection for him.

  The wind was unfavorable and the sloop found it difficult to reach thelanding near headquarters. After some delay Solomon jumped overboardand swam ashore.

  What follows he could not have told. Washington was standing with hisorderly in the little dooryard at headquarters as Solomon camestaggering up the slope at a run and threw his body, bleeding from adozen wounds, at the feet of his beloved Chief.

  "Oh, my Father!" he cried in a broken voice and with tears streamingdown his cheeks. "Arnold has sold Ameriky an' all its folks an' gonedown the river."

  Washington knelt beside him and felt his bloody garments.

  "The Colonel is wounded," he said to his orderly. "Go for help."

  The scout, weak from the loss of blood, tried to regain his feet butfailed. He lay back and whispered:

  "I guess the sap has all oozed out o' me but I had enough."

  Washington was one of those who put him on a stretcher and carried himto the hospital.

  When he was lying on his bed and his clothes were being removed, theCommander-in-Chief paid him this well deserved compliment as he heldhis hand:

  "Colonel, when the war is won it will be only because I have had menlike you to help me."

  Soo
n Jack came to his side and then Margaret. General Washington askedthe latter about Mrs. Arnold.

  "My mother is doing what she can to comfort her," Margaret answered.

  Solomon revived under stimulants and was able to tell them briefly ofthe dire struggle he had had.

  "It were Slops that saved me," he whispered.

  He fell into a deep and troubled sleep and when he awoke in the middleof the night he was not strong enough to lift his head. Then thesefaithful friends of his began to know that this big, brawny,redoubtable soldier was having his last fight. He seemed to be awareof it himself for he whispered to Jack:

  "Take keer o' Mirandy an' the Little Cricket."

  Late the next day he called for his Great Father. Feebly and brokenlyhe had managed to say:

  "Jes' want--to--feel--his hand."

  Margaret had sat beside him all day helping the nurse.

  A dozen times Jack had left his work and run over for a look atSolomon. On one of these hurried visits the young man had learned ofthe wish of his friend. He went immediately to General Washington, whohad just returned from a tour of the forts. The latter saw the look ofsorrow and anxiety in the face of his officer.

  "How is the Colonel?" he asked.

  "I think that he is near his end," Jack answered. "He has expressed awish to feel your hand again."

  "Let us go to him at once," said the other. "There has been no greaterman in the army."

  Together they went to the bedside of the faithful scout. The Generaltook his hand. Margaret put her lips close to Solomon's ear and said:

  "General Washington has come to see you."

  Solomon opened his eyes and smiled. Then there was a beauty not ofthis world in his homely face. And that moment, holding the hand hehad loved and served and trusted, the heroic soul of Solomon Binkuswent out upon "the lonesome trail."

  Jack, who had been kneeling at his side, kissed his white cheek.

  "Oh, General, I knew and loved this man!" said the young officer as hearose.

  "It will be well for our people to know what men like him have enduredfor them," said Washington.

  "I shall have to learn how to live without him," said Jack. "It willbe hard."

  Margaret took his arm and they went out of the door and stood a momentlooking off at the glowing sky above the western hills.

  "Now you have me," she whispered.

  He bent and kissed her.

  "No man could have a better friend and fighting mate than you," heanswered.