Patroon van Volkenberg

Let me pass briefly over the next six months. It is now midsummer and the city is at peace. Already the Red Band is a thing of the past and well-nigh forgotten. Jacques’ return...

My astonishment was so complete that several minutes passed before I could find voice enough to ask what this deception meant. Annetje soon quieted her laughter and was ready to...

It is pleasant to indulge the habit of speculation, and to this day I never weary of wondering how it is that a person can perform acts in a moment of excitement that he could d...

Considering the events of that night, one may be tempted to suppose that I lay awake for a long time in restless anxiety. But I did no such thing. I had had a hard day of it, an...

It was past two o’clock in the morning when I finished my consultation with the Earl. Small wonder that he walked up and down the room at his wits’ end what to do. Captain Kidd...

Later in the day of Van Volkenberg’s disgrace, Lady Marmaduke and I were talking together in no very pleasant frame of mind. We both knew the far-reaching power of the Red Band,...

During the next forenoon I had no opportunity to go to Yorke. Nor did I feel the duty quite so necessary now that I thought Louis had been beforehand in the matter of warning th...

When I returned to Marmaduke Hall I found every one in bed asleep except a lad who had been left to attend me to my room. He informed me that his mistress had been impatient at...

How long we stood there in the joy of that moment I can never say. We were brought back to a sense of our surroundings by the jarring voice of someone speaking to us from the si...

When I recognized the name on the front of Van Volkenberg’s warehouse I dipped my hand into my pocket to make sure that the silver buttons Captain Tew had given me were safe and...

Of all the crises of my life I am accustomed to think of the presentation of my silver button to the patroon as the most important. Nor did I underrate it at the time. On that n...

As I glance over the pages I have just written I wonder whether anyone will believe the record I have set down. So much happened during the first three days of my residence at t...

The next day was the beginning of that period that led rapidly to the end. A few days later and all was over; there was no Red Band left to threaten New York, and I—I had suffer...

We made a quick sail from Maryland to the neighborhood of New York and drew near Long Island on a bright day in August. The stiff wind caught up the jetting water from the prow...

This scene with Miriam put me in a state of bad humor, for all there was in it to make me glad. It is seldom that sweet recollections come unmixed with sour, and then the sour b...

Bristol was then the second seaport of the kingdom; only London surpassed it in the number of ships sailing from its docks and in the amount of hurly-burly, shuffling traffic in...

The long-boat of Captain Tew had set me ashore on the southwest end of Long Island in a cove near the village of Gravesoon, which is just across the end of the island from New Y...

Four days later news came to the manor-house that Meg of the Hills was dying. Since our visit to Meg’s cottage I had seen little of the patroon. This particular afternoon I had...

Good humored little Pierre was ducked for his offense in the coffee-house. He was taken before the magistrates who sat in the great room in the Stadt Huys, and they tried him le...

The French pastor met me at his door with a cordial welcome. I laid my case before him without reservation, telling him how I had joined in with the weaker party in the street a...

Though we sat together for some time after that, little enough passed between us. I had my own thoughts and so had the patroon. Whatever was in his mind I could not tell, but I...

I set out for the manor-house shortly before twilight, taking the Boston post road, which led northward by the patroon’s estate. I passed the Kissing Bridge, over which I had se...

At ten o’clock the next morning the governor’s privy-council was assembled. The members of the board were seated along both sides of a huge mahogany table, carved around the edg...

When I think back upon the mysterious occurrences of the night which followed my introduction into the household of Lady Marmaduke, I hardly know how to tell them. It was not ti...

Within a few minutes after leaving Marmaduke Hall I arrived at the Ferry-House alone, having stationed Pierre in a dark court-yard across the street. I looked in through the doo...

We had halted behind some willows that overhung the brook beneath the Kissing Bridge. Over this bridge ran the road, which led north from the city through the length of the isla...

Louis Van Ramm continued his way towards the manor-house, walking rapidly, I following on the turf at the roadside. Suddenly I came upon the place where I had joined the high ro...

I found the patroon in much the same position as Louis had found him earlier that day. A few red drops showed on the scattered papers; otherwise all signs of the henchman’s deat...