Free TW10 The Hellfire Rebellion NEW by Simon Hawke Page B

Hancock's Wharf to rescue the man who'd been impressed. I was impressed myself, so to speak that it could have all been done so quickly."
    Brown smiled. "No surprise there, Mr. Dark." he said. "Sam Adams has many friends among those who work the docks. He plays to their sympathies and plys them with drink, no great matter for one who owns a brewery, and if a man be hard-pressed, why, a job can always be found for him on one of King Hancock's vessels or in one of Avery's warehouses. Grant them that, they take cam of their own."
    "What do they say in London about events here?" Hewitt asked Drakov.
    "They call the colonists 'rebellious children.'" Drakov said. "All good citizens of England must pay taxes. They don't see why the colonists should be exempt."
    "Yes, quite." said Brown. "But try to tell that to the Sons of Liberty!"
    "Sons of Liberty, indeed!" snorted Moffat. "They respect only the liberties of those who feel the way they do! Let any man speak out against them and he will soon find out what liberties he has! He'll enjoy the liberty of having a paving stone heaved through his window. Try to tell them that you have the right to disagree with them and they will demonstrate their right to break your head for you! You cannot hope to reason with such men."
    "That's true enough," said Brown. "You'll not convince the Sons of Liberty with logic."
    "Perhaps they can be convinced in other ways," said Drakov.
    "What do you mean?" asked Hewitt.
    "I was thinking of the headless horseman," Drakov said.
    "What?" said Brown. "A headless horseman, did you say?"
    "Yes, haven't you heard?" said Drakov. "Moffat here was telling me about it just this morning."
    "What's this about a headless horseman, Moffat?"
    "Then you haven't heard'?" said Moffat. "It's been the talk of all the taverns on the waterfront. A tale of a ghost rider, gentleman, a specter with no head who rides the streets of Boston after dark."
    "What manner of nonsense is this?" said Brown.
    "I report only what I hear, gentlemen." said Moffat. "It seems that the other night. Ebenezer Macintosh and some of his fellow so-called Sons of Liberty received what one might call a visitation Macintosh, so the word goes, was raving drunkenly when a jack-o-lantern came crashing through the tavern window and knocked him from his chair."
    "No, really?" Hewitt said, grinning.
    "The broken window was real enough," said Moffat. "I saw them fixing it myself."
    "Go on," said Brown. "What happened then?"
    "Well," said Moffat, "it seems that Macintosh and his friends ran out into the street to see who'd done it. They were ready to break heads, I gather, but instead, so the story goes, they all got the fright of their lives. The street appeared deserted, with no sign of whoever had thrown the pumpkin through the window. They looked all around, but there was simply no one there."
    "The fellow ran off," said Hewitt.
    "Be quiet. John." said Brown. "Let Moffat tell it."
    "As I said, the street appeared deserted." Moffat continued, "when suddenly.
    they all heard the sound of hoofbeats and a rider came galloping at them from out of nowhere. A rider dressed all in black, on a black horse. A rider, gentlemen,
who had no head.
"
    “No head, you say'?" said Hewitt, frowning. “Balderdash!"
    "Macintosh does not think that it was balderdash." said Moffat.
    "The man was obviously drunk." said Hewitt. "He was seeing things."
    "Then all who were with him shared the same delusion." Moffat said. "They all swore that it was true."
    A crowd had guthered around their table to listen as Moffat went on with the story.
    "The rider came galloping straight at them, so they said, as if to run them down. They scattered and the rider galloped past, then reined in and turned his horse and came at them again. Jeb Stiles wasn't quick enough to get out of the way. he was struck solid by the rider's horse. I hear it broke his ribs."
    "That's true!" said someone in the crowd. "His wife told me he couldn't finish mending my