Part 15 (1/2)

”News?” said the fisherman eagerly; ”perhaps you have a billet for me?”

”And what may you be called?” asked the other cautiously.

”Jim Bates, from Breucklen Heights.”

”Then you're all right, sir; why didn't you say so before?” and the man, casting a swift glance to make sure that the boy at the door was not looking, pulled a sc.r.a.p of dirty paper from his pocket, which was instantly seized and opened by the fisherman. As he read the few words it contained, the anxious lines on his face grew deeper.

”It is the only way,” he muttered to himself, as he tore the sc.r.a.p into tiniest fragments, ”but I must know from Kitty the hour.” Then aloud, ”Have you a bit of paper, friend, on which I can write a message?”

”Surely,” said the shopkeeper; ”wait here a moment until I fetch it,”

and he went hurriedly through a small door at the back of the shop, leaving the fisherman standing near the window, from which he could see the crowd outside. Suddenly the man uttered an exclamation, and made a dash for the door, nearly upsetting the boy on the threshold.

”Tell your master I will return shortly,” he said hurriedly, and disappeared in the direction of the Vly Market.

It happened that Madam Cruger, thrifty housewife though she was, had forgotten to order an extra number of the large, flat seedcakes, known as New Year Cakes (and without which no gathering could be considered complete for New Year day, when they were handed to all callers with the accompanying gla.s.ses of mulled wine and metheglin), and had therefore dispatched her daughter, with a colored servant carrying a capacious basket on his arm, to purchase the dainty from the one stall in the Vly Market where the aristocratic folk were wont to deal. Truth to tell, Madam Cruger had made matters somewhat uncomfortable for her portly cook when she learned that the cakes made by that functionary were too few to meet her ideas of hospitality; and although Kitty knew that it would require speed on her part to go to the market and return in time to dress and be ready to receive their visitors in the drawing-room by twelve o'clock, she preferred to pour oil on the troubled waters and procure domestic peace at the expense of a little personal fatigue.

Beside, it was not unpleasant to trip along with the merry crowd, bent on enjoying themselves, and Kitty knew that she would meet many an acquaintance, out, like herself, on some belated errand for New Year day.

But there was one occurrence for which Kitty had not bargained, and that befell her as she gained the market door. The fisherman, who had followed her as swiftly as he dared without creating notice, pa.s.sed close at her elbow, then turned and met her face to face. Kitty grew a little pale as he touched his cap respectfully, but she stopped in obedience to the glance which met hers.

”A Happy New Year to you, my good man,” she said. ”I fear that you and your brother craftsmen suffer this terribly cold winter. Stand aside out of the chilly wind which meets us through the market door and I will speak to you. Cato,” to her servant, ”go on to Fran Hansel's stall, and let her weigh out five pounds of seedcakes for my mother; I will join you there in a moment,” and she turned back to the fisherman, knowing that in the crowd she was comparatively safe, provided her voice was not loud enough to attract attention.

”What is it?” she murmured, almost breathless from excitement, yet striving to maintain a quiet, even careless exterior. ”I hoped you had fulfilled your dangerous errand and gone hence two days ago.”

”I cannot leave until my mission is completed; we have almost certain news of an incursion by the British across the Kill von Kull, which will do much injury to the peaceful country folk of Elizabethtown and Newark.

The man they call 'Billy the fiddler' will have a message for me to-night of the greatest importance, and he plays with others at the De Lancey ball; are you to be there, and at what hour?”

”I, Oliver?” said Kitty, and turned rosy red as the incautious word escaped her; ”all New York is going at eight o'clock, but what has that to do with”--

”This,” whispered Oliver Wolcott, pulling his hat further down over his eyes, and motioning Kitty to walk a few steps away from the door: ”I must be there.”

”You are mad!” and Kitty turned pale at the idea.

”Oh, no, I am coming as one Diedrich Gansevoort, from Albany. Do not fear for me; my disguise will be very perfect, and I go introduced by Abram Lansing, from whom I bring a letter to Madam De Lancey. They are old friends, though he is as stanch a Whig as she a Tory. I tell you, Kitty, 't is of vital importance that I ascertain the facts of this rumored raid upon the patriots, and I must risk all to gain it. Warn Betty, lest she give way to alarm; be brave and fear nothing.”

”A Happy New Year, Mistress Kitty,” said a gentleman who approached her, followed by his negro servant. ”I shall do myself the honor to pay my respects to your mother a little later;” and Mr. Van Brugh raised his three-cornered hat in courtly salute, staring hard at Kitty and the fisherman as he pa.s.sed them.

”We are noticed,” said Oliver calmly; ”go on and do your errand.”

”But I am so fearful for you,” gasped poor Kitty, whose usual composure seemed to be deserting her. ”You try me too far, unless I may do something to aid your escape, for a horrible sinking of my heart seems to bode no good to you.”

”Put no faith in omens,” answered Oliver, with a smile. ”I shall be off at daybreak. Farewell, Kitty, and have no fear; I am well protected,”

and mingling in the crowd, he pa.s.sed out of the market door and was gone.

With what courage she could summon, Kitty sped on to Fran Hansel's stand. The seedcakes had been weighed, decked with a handful of Christmas greens, and placed in the basket, and Kitty, after a few kind words to the old Dutch market-woman, made her way swiftly through the crowd and gained the street.

”I must warn Betty,” she thought an she proceeded up Maiden Lane, and as she came to Queen Street she paused. ”Go directly home,” she said to her servant; ”tell my mother I have stopped to see Grandma Effingham and wish her a Happy New Year. I will be back in time to dress,” and off she sped in the direction of Wall Street.

Betty, who like Kitty, had been spending her morning a.s.sisting in preparations for the New Year callers who would present themselves later in the day, was dusting the quaint Dresden Shepherdess who presided over a corner of the drawing-room mantel, when a sharp knock at the front door announced a visitor; and she fled out of the drawing-room only to encounter Kitty in the hall.