Free Valley Forge by David Garland Page B

pictures, we write the words."
    "While we're on that subject," said Proudfoot, "I have a few comments to pass on from General Washington."
    "Comments?"
    "Suggestions about what you might put in the newspaper."
    "Keep them to yourself."
    "Why?"
    "Because
we
decide what goes into print, Mr. Allen."
    "Naturally."
    "An editor needs complete authority."
    "General Washington is surely entitled to express a view."
    "Of course," said Hughes, striking a combative pose, "but we are equally entitled to ignore it. Miranda and I would never dare to tell him how to fight a battle. By the same token, we do not feel that we need his advice—or anyone else's for that matter—on how to wage war in print."
    "I see."
    "
The Pennsylvania Patriot
is our flag. We know best how to fly it."
    Proudfoot remembered what he had been told earlier about Pearsall Hughes, and he realized how accurate an assessment of him it had been. Evidently, he would brook neither criticism nor interference. The bookseller was very much his own man.
    Crossing the bay was a real trial for those unaccustomed to sailing, but it was far worse when they reached the open sea. The swell increased, the wind freshened, and the temperature seemed to fall. They also had to contend withswirling undercurrents. Jamie Skoyles sat with a soothing arm around Elizabeth Rainham's shoulders and, in spite of her apparent discomfort, she smiled bravely. Polly Bragg was also troubled by the random agitation of the boat, but she made no complaint either. What irritated Tom Caffrey was the way Cabal Mears remained at the helm, calmly smoking his pipe and giving every indication that he was actually enjoying their voyage.
    "I'm glad I'm not a fisherman," said Caffrey.
    "But it's a perfect day for sailing," Mears responded.
    "Perfect!"
    "Clear sky, calm sea, strong wind."
    "We're being blown all over the place."
    "No, Tom," Skoyles explained, much more at ease than the others. "Cabal is tacking to make best use of the wind. Trust him."
    "I have no choice," Caffrey moaned. The boat dipped, then rose as another wave hit them. "Nobody told me that it would be like this."
    "Would you rather be back in those squalid barracks?"
    "No, Jamie."
    "Then stop protesting. It's the same for all of us."
    "True."
    "Be grateful to Cabal. He's helping us to escape."
    Caffrey was too jangled to be able to express any gratitude, but he had the grace to apologize for his outburst. He tried to put his own anxieties aside and devote himself to cheering up Polly Bragg. Veering one way, then the other, the boat continued south. The most likely place for it to be intercepted had been in the bay. With that behind them, they felt marginally safer. Elizabeth tossed an admiring glance at the fisherman.
    "It's so brave of him to do this for us, Jamie," she said. "Did you have to pay him a lot to persuade him?"
    "I haven't paid him anything yet," Skoyles replied.
    "Oh?"
    "Cabal insisted on getting us away from Cambridge first."
    "How honorable of him!"
    "The same can't be said of Otis Tapper. He wanted all his money
before
he provided the horses. I only gave him half of the agreed amount in advance—or I'd never have seen him again."
    "As it was," she recalled, "he was dead before we even got there. They'd hanged him on the spot. We not only lost the chance to escape but you forfeited all that money as well."
    "There was plenty more where that came from."
    "Was there?"
    "Yes," he said with a confiding smile. "General Burgoyne has been kind enough to invite me to the card table, and I rarely lose."
    "What he said to me in Montreal was true, then."
    "Yes, Elizabeth."
    "It was at that ball, the first time I met you. He warned me never to play cards with Captain Skoyles because he had the luck of the devil."
    He squeezed her hand. "Lucky at cards, and lucky in love."
    "Do you really believe that?"
    "Of course. Don't you?"
    "Well, yes," she said uncertainly, "though I'm not sure that being tossed around in this boat is exactly my