Kings Pinnacle (33 page)

“
I know you,” said the man
who walked in from the warehouse with the underling that had gone
to fetch him. “You’re Big Mike Finn who used to lead the dock
workers here in Philadelphia.”

“That’s right. What of it?”
asked Big Mike, who hadn’t expected to be recognized and was
shocked a bit by it. But he recovered quickly.

“Nothing really, I heard
that you quit the docks and joined the army,” said the warehouse
straw boss.

“I did, but that’s neither
here nor there. Major Ruskin has sent me here to pick up Maggie,
the girl you are holding, and take her with me back to the camp at
Valley Forge,” said Big Mike.

“He did, did he? How do I
know you’re telling me the truth?” asked the boss.

“Well, there’re three
reasons, one of which is me telling you and another of which is
Molly standing right here beside me. You know Molly, don’t you?
She’s Maggie’s sister, and Major Ruskin sent her with me to pick up
Maggie. And the third reason is this written order from Major
Ruskin himself,” said Big Mike, pulling out from his coat pocket
the order that Robert had forged.

Big Mike handed the order to
the warehouse straw boss. The man took the letter from Big Mike,
walked over to sit in the chair behind the desk, and studied the
order for a few minutes. Of course he knew Molly; they had held her
for some time with her sister Maggie until Major Ruskin had taken
Molly with him and left Maggie behind. He and all the men had had
their fun with both Molly and Maggie. They were still having fun
with Maggie and didn’t want to let her go. Both girls had been the
prisoners of Samuel Ruskin and his men. Each of them had been
forced to do anything that was asked of them, and to constantly
satisfy any wishes that the men might have, under threat of harm to
the other.

“Do you mind if I check
something on this order?” asked the straw boss.

“
You can check anything
you like,” replied Big Mike.

The man then reached down to
open one of the desk drawers and pulled a few documents out of it.
Big Mike thought he was comparing Robert’s forged Samuel Ruskin
signature with some real Samuel Ruskin signatures on the documents
that he had pulled from the desk. And in fact, he was.

“This signature doesn’t look
quite right,” said the straw boss with a frown.

“
Maybe you should come
back to Valley Forge with me and the women and tell that to Major
Ruskin,” replied Big Mike.

“How about I hold you,
Molly, and Maggie until Major Ruskin comes back and tells me what’s
what,” said the straw boss as he reached for a pistol in the open
desk drawer.

Big Mike had anticipated the
boss’s move to pick up the pistol and was faster drawing his own
pistol. He opened his coat and pulled his pistol out of his belt
quickly. He aimed it at the straw boss before the man had the
chance to pull the pistol out of the desk drawer.

“Hold on there, friend. Why
don’t you just leave that pistol where it is right now? I don’t
think the major would like very much if you shot me, and I’m kinda
in a hurry right now,” said Big Mike as he casually cocked the
flintlock of his pistol.

“Why don’t you tell your
friend here to go get Maggie?” said Big Mike as he waved the pistol
toward the underling and then pointed the pistol back toward the
boss.

The boss hesitated for a few
heartbeats and then took his hand off the pistol, stood up and
nodded to the underling, who walked out of the room to get Maggie.
Big Mike could taste the tension in the air. That was exactly how
he wanted it as he sighted down the pistol toward the boss. Big
Mike was a battle-hardened member of the Continental Army, a
veteran of several engagements. He had no problem pointing a pistol
at a soft town man and pulling the trigger.

“There’s no reason to get
hasty with that there pistol,” said the straw boss, holding up his
hands and waving them in a backing off motion.

“I don’t intend to unless
you have other ideas about keeping me from doing the job that Major
Ruskin ordered me to do,” said the steely-eyed Big Mike.

The underling soon
reappeared in the office holding Maggie by the arm. As soon as she
saw Molly, she broke free of his grasp and ran into Molly’s arms as
the two sisters hugged and sobbed softly. Big Mike motioned with
the pistol for the underling to move over beside the
boss.

“There’re two of us, and
you’ve only got one ball in that pistol,” said the straw boss,
pointing at the pistol.

“That may be true, but you
will be first to die if you try anything,” replied Big
Mike.

“Let’s get out of here,”
said Big Mike to the two women.

It was a standoff, so Big
Mike and the two women walked toward the office door. Big Mike was
in the rear, walking backwards, all the while pointing the pistol
at the two men. As Big Mike reached the door, the straw boss made a
desperate grab for the pistol in the drawer. Big Mike had expected
it and fired a shot into the man’s chest. The warehouse straw boss
fell to the floor, clutching his chest. Big Mike used the
distraction of the shot to cover the few steps between him and the
straw boss’s underling. He struck the underling over the head with
the empty pistol barrel as the man looked down at his fallen
superior. The blow knocked the underling unconscious and he
collapsed to the floor beside his boss.

“Well, it’s been a pleasure
doing business with you two gentlemen. I’ll let Major Ruskin know
how cooperative you’ve been,” said Big Mike to no one who was
listening to him.

He closed the office door
behind him and hurried off with the two women. Big Mike put the
pistol back into his belt as he and the two women left at a fast
walk, away from the warehouse and docks. They hoped that the pistol
shot would go unnoticed and not bring anyone right away. They
didn’t hesitate and immediately found the road out of Philadelphia,
walking as fast as they could without attracting
attention.

Before they approached the
sentries, Big Mike asked Maggie to hide his pistol again, which she
did as before. They slowed to a casual walk as they approached the
sentries. Luck was with them, and the sentries had been changed
since they had entered the city. When they had passed the soldiers
at the check point and were safely out of sight, they ran for some
distance away from Philadelphia. Then, when they were certain that
there was no pursuit, they slowed to a walk as they set out on the
road to make their way back toward Valley Forge, where the
Continental Army was camped for the winter.

Big Mike had not thought
about it before, but as he looked at the two women, he was amazed
at how much they looked alike.

“I didn’t realize how much
you two favored each other,” said Big Mike to Molly and
Maggie.

“Of course we do; we’re
twins, Mike,” answered Molly.

“Maybe it’s time for
introductions. My Christian name is Mary Ludwig and this is my
sister Margaret Ludwig. You can call us Molly and Maggie. Everyone
else does,” said Molly as she took Big Mike’s arm with one hand and
Maggie’s hand with the other and continued to walk toward Valley
Forge.

* * * *

* * * *

Kings Pinnacle Part 5

Alex

“
Martha Kelly, I’d like
you to meet my two older brothers, Robert and Hugh,” said Alex as
he motioned toward his two brothers standing beside him.

“It’s nice to meet you at
last. Alex has told me so much about you,” said Martha.

Martha gave Robert and Hugh
each a hug and then backed off to stand beside Alex while still
looking at Robert and Hugh. Robert and Hugh both had to bend down
quite a bit to hug the tiny Martha who stood only a little over
five feet tall.

“Aye, we deny everything
that this skinny runt of a March Hare has said about us. But yer a
bonny wee lass and from what Alex has told us, yer a good match for
him,” said Hugh, smiling at Martha and pointing at Alex.

“Welcome to the Mackenzie
family,” said Robert with a grin as he raked his left hand through
his hair to smooth it back, momentarily exposing his battle scar
from Breeds Hill. The gesture reminded Martha of the same one Alex
used constantly.

The brothers had ridden
southwest from Valley Forge to find The Great Wagon Road. They had
then followed the same road Alex had taken when he first arrived in
America. The road went west through Lancaster and then west
southwest to York, Pennsylvania. They had followed the trail
further southwest to Gettysburg and finally across the first Blue
Ridge mountain range to Hagerstown and Williamsport, where Martha
was waiting for Alex. The plan Alex had devised was to resupply in
Williamsport, collect Martha, and then travel southwest as soon as
possible. They would continue following The Great Wagon Road
further south, on its way to Georgia.

The proposed route led from
Williamsport to Winchester, Virginia. Beyond Winchester, the trail
could only be traversed via horseback, since it was too rough and
narrow for wagons. At Winchester the trail changed names and was
called The Great Warrior’s Trail. The Great Warrior’s Trail led all
the way south through Virginia to the North Carolina border, where
The Great Wagon Road again changed names and became The Carolina
Road, which would run all the way to Augusta, Georgia.

Alex planned to follow The
Great Warrior’s Trail as far south as Big Lick. At Big Lick, Alex
and his party intended to turn off the trail and follow a western
trail that would eventually lead to The Wilderness Road that began
at Fort Patrick Henry. This trail ran west southwest from Big Lick
toward Shelby’s Fort on the Virginia and North Carolina border and
then further southwest to Fort Patrick Henry. From there, a trail
that ran south along the banks of the south fork of the Holston and
the Watauga Rivers would lead them to Fort Watauga, located at the
Sycamore Shoals of the Watauga River.

The trail from Big Lick to
Fort Watauga was very lightly traveled and very dangerous. In 1775,
a longhunter named Daniel Boone had been hired by the Transylvania
Company, a trading company made up of prominent North Carolinians,
to cut a trail from Fort Patrick Henry west through the Cumberland
Gap into Kentucky. This trail was called The Wilderness Road. The
trading company had purchased the land along the trail from the
Cherokee tribes that claimed ownership of the land. The entire
route from Big Lick to the western frontier cut right through the
heart of the Cherokee territory.

A band of Cherokees who had
violently objected to the sale of their land to the Transylvania
Company, and subsequently to the settlers who followed, separated
from the Cherokee nation. They formed a new tribe called the
Chickamauga tribe. A Chickamauga chief named Dragging Canoe made
constant attacks against the settlers. He and his band sided with
the British against the colonists in the Revolutionary War, as did
all the Cherokee affiliated tribes that made up the Cherokee
nation. The British armed the Cherokee warriors with rifles and a
large number of other weapons to fight the settlers.

It would take Alex and his
party at least two months to travel the more than five hundred
miles from Williamsport to Fort Watauga. Martha had already renewed
her acquaintance with the Longhunter, Alexander Glendenning and had
met Jonas Dunne and his partner Clem Jackson for the first time.
She finally said goodbye to her uncle and aunt at the dry goods
store in Williamsport and packed her few belonging, saddling up to
ride south with the men.

When Martha walked out of
the dry goods store to mount the roan pony she would ride on the
trip, she was wearing buckskin trousers and moccasin boots that
laced up to just below her knees. She also sported a tightly woven
cotton shirt tucked neatly into her trousers. Her long brown hair
was tied back and plaited into a braid, the end of which was tied
with a leather strip. Her possessions, which consisted of only a
few clothes and personal items, were stowed on the pack horses.
These animals carried all the supplies that the party would need to
camp, hunt, cook, and travel across the wilderness.

* * * *