Kings Pinnacle (9 page)

“Top o’ the morning to you,
lassies,” said the soaking wet Mike, taking off his cap and bowing
extravagantly to the two young women.

The two young women giggled
and smiled at Big Mike as they strolled off the dock and into the
city. Their dresses were plain, but clean, and they had just
arrived on the ship from Europe. The two young women were off to
look for work in Philadelphia in order to make their way in the
colonies. Molly and Maggie were both very beautiful and Big Mike
never forgot a face.

* * * *

Robert and Hugh

“
Robber, do ye think it be
dark enough to take a look see?” asked Hugh.

Robert nodded.

The two brothers mounted
their horses and rode toward the cattle pens just south of
Portpatrick. They let their noses guide them, just as they had done
the first time they arrived in Portpatrick, and soon the smell of
cattle was overpowering. After riding through the brush and
circling around to the south of the pens, they tied up their horses
to some bushes in a small clearing. Then they crawled up to a rise
where they could lie flat and watch the activity in and around the
cattle pens.

After thirty minutes of
watching, they decided that the only thing that was moving was a
single night watchman who was riding a slow circuit around the pens
and the ferry dock. Robert thought he recognized the man, but he
wasn’t sure.

“
You stay put while I
crawl down and look around,” Robert whispered to Hugh.

Hugh nodded, and Robert
crawled down the slope to get a closer look. When he got close
enough, the moonlight revealed the shining insignia on the collar
of the British Army uniform that the watchman was wearing. Robert
realized that the horseman was not one of the regular night
watchmen, but was in fact a British soldier. This was not what he
had hoped for, since it meant that sailing on the cattle ferry to
Ireland was going to be a problem. Robert stayed where he was and
allowed the night watchman to pass. As he looked around, he saw two
tents near the cattle pens, with a picket line of horses tied up
behind them. The British military was evidently very interested in
the cattle pens and the cattle ferry. Robert was worried that he
and Hugh might not be taking the cattle ferry across the Sheuch as
he had planned. As soon as the night watchman was on the far side
of his circuit, Robert reversed his course and crawled back up to
where Hugh was laying.

“
Soldiers,” whispered
Robert.

Hugh nodded, and they both moved back
down the rise to the bushes where they had tied their
horses.

Robert decided that they
would ride around a little further to the south and west of the
cattle pens to see if he could find any other alternatives. Robert
and Hugh tied up their horses again, and they both crawled closer
to the cattle pens to a spot where they could lie flat and look at
the pens. Robert told Hugh to wait for him while he explored closer
to the pens to see if he could determine anything. He moved in a
crouch as far as he could while the night watchman was furthest
away from him. Then he dropped to the ground to crawl the rest of
the way in.

When Robert was crawling
toward the pens, he got another idea and turned left, crawling
toward the Sheuch. When he got to the beach, he stashed his boots
under some rocks and brush and waded out into the water. As soon as
he had waded out to where the water was deep enough, Robert swam
north, parallel to the beach, toward the dock where the cattle
ferry was tied up. The swim was only about a half mile, which took
almost no effort for Robert. He turned a little east and swam up to
the dock and the cattle ferry tied to it.

The cattle ferry was secured
by ropes to the dock for the night. Robert reached the ferry, where
he found the end of a rope dangling in the water on the side toward
the sea. He grasped the rope and used it to climb up the side and
over the gunwale of the ferry. After creeping around and exploring
the boat for a while, he finally found two of the drovers asleep on
the weather side of the deck. He knew both men, so he decided to
wake one of them up quietly. Crawling up to the man that he knew
best, Robert put his hand over the man’s mouth. The startled man
awoke immediately and attempted to cry out, but Robert’s hand
muffled the cry.

“
Daniel, it’s me, Robert;
don’t cry out,” Robert whispered in the man’s ear as he slowly took
his hand away from his mouth.

“
Who?” asked
Daniel.

“
Robert Mackenzie; please
keep your voice down,” whispered Robert.

“Aye, Robert. I haven’t seen
ye in a while.”

“I know. What are all the
soldiers doing about?”

“
Looking for ye and yer
brute of a brother,” whispered Daniel.

“I was afraid that might be
the case. Are the soldiers up in Portpatrick also?”

“
Aye, there’re everywhere
as near as I can tell.”

“
Do you think there is any
way Hugh and I can climb aboard the cattle ferry and hide in the
hold to ride over the Sheuch when you leave in the
morning?”

“Nae, Robert. The soldiers
always check the boat from stem to stern before we cast off.
There’s no place we could hide ye two and guarantee that ye
wouldn’t be found.”

“Well, it was just a
thought. Thanks for the information. Don’t tell anyone I was
here.”

“Good luck to ye and Hugh. I
always liked ye two,” whispered Daniel as Robert disappeared over
the side of the ferry and slipped silently into the
water.

The other drover never woke
during the quiet conversation between Daniel and Robert, which made
Robert feel better. There would only be one person who could tell
tales about him rather than two. Robert retraced his swim by
moonlight, crawled out of the water and found his boots. He walked
in a crouch back to where Hugh was waiting and told him about his
conversation with Daniel.

“
Weel Robber, what’s the
new plan?” asked Hugh.

“
I’ll let ye know as soon
as I figure it out,” answered Robert.

* * * *

* * * *

Alex

It hadn’t taken Alex very
long to outrun the mob chasing him away from the docks in
Philadelphia. He knew he could easily get away from them. But he
also finally realized that he was never going to make his way in
Philadelphia. He had no kin to rely on, and he didn’t know anyone
who could help him get a start. So far, he hadn’t met many other
Scots, and none who knew him or his family. As soon as he had lost
his pursuers, he doubled back to the old, abandoned warehouse that
had been his temporary home and gathered up his few belongings. He
packed them in his rucksack and slung it over his shoulder. After
he gathered up his rifle and powder horn and slid his dirk into his
belt, he mentally said goodbye to Philadelphia and walked west
until he left the town behind him.

Alex knew that the land that
was located closest to Philadelphia was already settled, and there
were plenty of people to do all the work that needed doing. He
thought that he might have better luck out west where all the land
wasn’t already claimed and where there weren’t so many people to do
all the work. He had heard talk on the docks and on the Ocean
Monarch about the frontier and the hearty pioneers who were
attempting to settle this wild land. So Alex lit out on The Great
Wagon Road toward the American frontier wilderness and into its
primeval forest.

The Great Philadelphia Wagon
Road or just The Great Wagon Road, as the settlers and pioneers
called it, had started as a collection of old Indian and game
trails that the Iroquois tribesmen and their predecessor tribes
used for hunting and also for trading with the settlers around
Philadelphia. These same tribesmen also used these trails to make
war on the settlers from time to time.

The initial segment of The
Great Wagon Road was a flat trail running west northwest from
Philadelphia to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. At Lancaster, the trail
turned slightly to the southwest towards York. It followed from
York to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and then wound through a valley to
cross the first Appalachian mountain range southwest of Gettysburg.
Then the trail led southwest to Hagerstown, Maryland, just across
the Pennsylvania/Maryland border. Southwest of Hagerstown, it
crossed the Potomac River at Williamsport, Maryland where the
Conococheague Creek flowed into the Potomac. An early settler named
Evan Watkins operated a ferry there for people and livestock to
cross the river. Thus, the ferry at Williamsport was called the
Watkins Ferry.

From Watkins Ferry, The
Great Wagon Road followed valleys and river banks to Winchester,
Virginia and then onward to the southwest. Eventually it ended in
Augusta, Georgia. The entire trail covered a total distance of over
seven hundred miles. The treaty of Lancaster in 1744 and some
subsequent treaties between the settlers and the powerful Six
Nations of the Iroquois allowed the settlers to use The Great Wagon
Road. Thousands of English, Scots Irish, and Germanic settlers used
the access provided by this trail to enter the interior of the
continent and claim lands in the west.

In the early 1770s, the
trail was almost always traveled on foot or horseback, with the
occasional small, two-wheeled wagon in tow. After the close of the
American Revolution, settlers normally would depart from
Philadelphia walking toward Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In Lancaster,
they would purchase a Conestoga wagon, named after the Conestoga
River or Conestoga Township, since the manufacture of these wagons
was the major industry in and around Lancaster. But during the
1770s, The Great Wagon Road was fit for small wagons only as far as
Winchester, Virginia. Beyond that point, it could only be traveled
by horseback or on foot.

The trail west northwest
from Philadelphia to Lancaster, Pennsylvania was straight and wide
and Alex made good progress, since the walking was very easy on the
flat ground. He had plenty of powder and shot and was able to hunt
just off the trail to satisfy his hunger. Alex had planned on
trading the excess game he collected along the trail with other
travelers for the items that he needed for the trip.

Late one evening after he
had traveled past Lancaster, Alex killed a small deer, which would
feed him for several days. Up and walking early the next day, he
caught up with a family that was traveling in the same direction
that he was going.

“Guten Abend, junger mon,”
said the young Prussian farmer when Alex overtook wagon that
carried him and his family and was being pulled by a strong pair of
oxen.

“Good day to you, sir,”
replied Alex.

“Vat is das, dat du carry on
your back,” asked the farmer.

“I killed a deer a ways back
and have saved two of the rear haunches to take with me on the
trail.”

“Vould du vant to trade for
ein of zem?”

“I would be happy to trade
one of them with you. What grains or beans do you have?”

And so Alex was able to
acquire some beans and peas to give some needed variety to his
diet. The German family gave Alex a ride on their wagon’s rear gate
as far as York, Pennsylvania, where the family took the trail north
toward Harrisburg. They had a number of relatives and friends who
had settled in that area, and they had already acquired some farm
land for themselves near there. The little Pennsylvania Deutsch
family was well on its way to making a new life in America. Alex
envied them.

“Auf Wiedersehen,” said the
farmer as he and his family parted company with Alex.

“Good bye, sir; I enjoyed
meeting you and your family,” replied Alex.

Beyond York, The Great Wagon
Road was less well-traveled and the trail was quite a bit rougher.
Alex was glad that he was on foot and not still riding in a wagon
anymore, although a horse would have been much better and faster.
But Alex was not in any particular hurry. He had nowhere to go, and
he had nothing to do other than travel. He was fairly well-fed and
healthy. “What else could I want?” Alex thought as he hiked along
the trail.

* * * *