Mister Slaughter Part 26

"My name is Matthew Corbett," said the visitor. "May I come in?"

"Ah well I am very busy at present, sir. I mean to say, it would be best if you came back some other-"

"I want to talk to you about one of your inventions," Matthew plowed on. "An exploding safebox."

"An exploding oh. Yes. Those. You mean the keyless safe? The thief trap?"

"Whatever you call it. I just want to know how it got into the hands of a killer named Tyranthus Slaughter."

"Slaughter?" Quisenhunt searched his memory. "I'm sorry, I have no recollection of that name. I sold no thief trap to him."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. I keep strict records of who buys my " He almost said art art. But instead he said, "Creations."

Matthew hadn't known quite what to expect from this man. Quisenhunt was thin and gangly, had hands that seemed too big for his skinny wrists and feet like longboats. He had large brown eyes and a topping of blond hair with a cowlick that shot up at the crown like an exotic plant. Thick blond eyebrows arched up over the rims of his spectacles, as if he were perpetually asking a question. Matthew already knew he was twenty-eight years old, from his inquiries, but Quisenhunt seemed younger than that. There was something almost childlike about him, in his slightly-slumped posture, or in the inflections of his voice that seemed to rise on the last word of every sentence. This impression was aided by the mult.i.tude of freckles scattered across his cherry-cheeked face. He looked to Matthew to be a strangely overgrown twelve-year-old boy wearing his father's buckled shoes, white stockings, dark brown breeches, cream-colored s.h.i.+rt and yellow-striped cravat. The phrase mishap of nature mishap of nature came to mind. came to mind.

It was time to roll out the cannon. Matthew said, "I am a representative of the law from New York. In this case, you may consider me an arm of the royal court. I'm looking for Slaughter. You may have information I need."

"Oh," came the hushed response. Quisenhunt rubbed his lower lip. "Well, then why aren't you in company with the Philadelphia officials? I personally know High Constable Abram Farraday."

"Yes," Matthew said. "He sent me here."

"I thought you were an Indian scout," Quisenhunt said, and almost sounded disappointed.

"May I?" Matthew made a motion of entrance.

There was an uncomfortable moment where the master of the house looked to his wife to see if she approved letting such a ragam.u.f.fin into their domain, whether he was a law man, an Indian scout, or chief of the street beggars. But then she nodded graciously at Matthew, retreated a step, and asked if he might like a nice cup of lemon water.

Quisenhunt took Matthew along a hallway and through the door to his workshop, and there Matthew saw how much a man could love his calling.

Three days ago, in the weak light of early morning, Matthew had stumbled down out of the forest into the village below the watermill. He didn't get very far before a man wearing a brown woolen cap, a gray coat and carrying a torch came out between two houses and hollered, "Who goes there?" Matthew thought it was wise he answer, because the man was also aiming a blunderbuss at him.

Indian trouble, the watchman had told him as they went to see the town's constable, by name Josaphat Newkirk. The town's name was not Caulder's Crossing but Hoornbeck, and according to the watchman was situated on the Philadelphia Pike about four miles away from the city. The Indians have got their warpaint on The Indians have got their warpaint on, the watchman told him as they walked. Matthew still had a pounding headache and his vision blurred in and out, but he could function, more or less. Hey Hey! Did they jump you too Did they jump you too?

Who? Matthew had asked.

The Indians, man! They're crawlin' all around here They're crawlin' all around here!

Hoornbeck, a small town that overlooked a picturesque lake, was in a state of high alert. Men with guns were everywhere, leading skittish horses. Women stood in groups holding babies or comforting frightened children. By the time Matthew was escorted to the constable's office in the white-washed town hall, a clerk reported that Constable Newkirk had gone out on his rounds to check with the other watchmen. Matthew had no time to waste; he asked to be taken to the town's doctor, so in a few minutes he was at the door of a white house with dark green shutters on the edge of the lake.

Dr. Martin Lowe, a big bearish man with close-cropped brown hair, a brown beard streaked with gray and brown eyes behind his spectacles, took a look at him, rushed him in and put him on a table with three candles on either side of Matthew's head. He began to examine the injuries while his wife boiled water for tea and hot towels.

"Lucky here," said the doctor, in a ba.s.s rumble that Matthew could feel in his chest. He touched the sore, blood-crusted area below Matthew's left eye. Matthew hadn't realized before now that Slaughter's fingernails had worked their magic. "You might have lost that eye if those claws had caught you any higher. And that was a bad blow to your head, from the size of the bruise. Very dangerous. How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three," Matthew said, when he concentrated and half of the man's six fingers disappeared like wisps of smoke.

"Mouth open. Did you swallow any teeth?"

"Sir please listen I'm not here about myself myself. I'm looking for a man who probably came in " What day was this? "Yesterday." Slaughter was simple enough to describe. "He would have had an arrow in his upper right arm."

"You mean Lord Shelby's land speculator, Sir Edmond Grudge. Constable Newkirk brought him in."

"Sir Edmund Grudge Grudge?"

"He had a terrible time of it. Indians ambushed his party. Wiped 'em out, not five miles from town. I sewed up that gash in his head, took the arrowhead out of his arm and did what I could. Gave him a bottle of brandy to ease his pain."

"And where is he now now?"

"I said he ought to stay here and let me watch him overnight, but he wanted to get a room at the tavern. The Peartree Inn, alongside the Pike. d.a.m.ned if he's not a strong-willed man."

"I've got to go." Matthew had started to get off the table, but suddenly there were two bearish, brown-bearded doctors in the room holding him down.

"Not so fast fast, now. Sir Grudge is due back by ten o'clock, which is a little more than two hours. I'm to check his st.i.tches again. In the meantime, let me work on you you, and tell me what the h.e.l.l happened."

Within five minutes, Lowe was out the door like a shot to track down Constable Newkirk.

It was awhile before they returned, because to add to the confusion of the day Matthew later learned that Newkirk had been out talking to a watchman whose eyes were evidently not so watchful, for his horse had been untied and stolen from a hitching-post on Main Street hardly an hour before. Then Newkirk, a lean gray-haired man with the sad face of a dog that just wants to sleep in peace, listened intently to Matthew's tale, which made him look even sadder. He lit his pipe, blew smoke, and said, "All right, then," with a sigh as if that explained everything. "Let me get some men together, and we'll go pay a visit to Sir Grudge. Whatever his d.a.m.ned name is."

When Matthew heard about the stolen horse, he'd figured of course Slaughter had taken the beast and pounded away the last few miles to Philadelphia. But the constable had a different story for Matthew when he returned from The Peartree Inn.

"Seems your Mr. Slaughter had himself a good meal last night," Newkirk said as he puffed his pipe and Lowe applied the plaster to Matthew's wound. "Everybody wanted to hear about the Indians and pay his bill. He told some big ones. Fooled me me, he did. Except the last trouble we had with the red men was more than six, seven years ago. You recall, Martin. They burned down Keltey's barn, set fire to his haystacks."

"I recall."

"Ran around hollerin' a little while, shot some arrows into the roof and then they went." Newkirk whistled and made a motion with his hand to represent how fast they had gone. "Back into the woods. Their kingdom. Well, he fooled me."

"He stole the horse," Matthew said. "Is that right?"

"The horse horse? Oh, Ben Witt's horse? No, I don't think so. Unless he was in two places at once. Your Mr. Slaughter"-Matthew wished he would stop saying that-"took up with a tradesman last night at the inn. Peddler told Daisy-that would be Daisy Fisk, my daughter-in-law-that he was headin' to Philadelphia. Had all his wares in a wagon. Well, your Mr. Slaughter left with the tradesman before before somebody stole Ben's horse." somebody stole Ben's horse."

Having delivered that unwelcome news, Newkirk just stood there puffing.

"Constable?" Matthew waved smoke away from his face. "Why don't you send out some fast riders? Maybe they can catch him before-"

"Already in the big town by now," Newkirk replied. "Their problem, now." He scratched his pate and gazed out the window at the lake as if he would give up everything he owned for a morning of fis.h.i.+ng. "At last," he said. "You say there're some bodies out in the woods?"

"This young man can't go anywhere for a while," the doctor said. "I'm surprised he can walk walk."

"The bodies can wait, then," Newkirk decided. "Funny thing, though."

"What's funny?"

"Your Mr. Slaughter. Such a killer and all, you say. Left with a tradesman." Newkirk gave a dry little chuckle. "Fella was sellin' knives."

Matthew stood on the threshold of Oliver Quisenhunt's workshop, three days since his visit to Hoornbeck. He looked into an untidy mess: stacks of books and papers upon the floor, shelves full of strangely-shaped metal pieces and tools, a filing cabinet with more papers spilling out, a desk covered with small bra.s.s and wooden gearwheels and more tools, and at the center of the hurrah-rah a chalkboard on wheels. The chalkboard was covered side to side and top to bottom with diagrams of what appeared to be different-shaped hinges and pegs, gearwheels, drillbits and mechanisms he had never seen before. Some of them might very well have come from a distant planet, like the thing that looked like half of a spoked wagon wheel and had two batlike wings extended on either side.

Of course I know Oliver Quisenhunt, High Constable Farraday had told Matthew this morning. He's the crazy clockmaker He's the crazy clockmaker. Well I say that with all respect. He's actually a very talented inventor. Designed the safebox especially for us. Now, Mr. Corbett tell me again how you let Tyranthus Slaughter get away Well I say that with all respect. He's actually a very talented inventor. Designed the safebox especially for us. Now, Mr. Corbett tell me again how you let Tyranthus Slaughter get away?

Matthew took stock of another shelf that held a variety of clockfaces in both metal and wood. "How many of them have you made?"

"My clocks? Twelve. Working on my thirteenth. I make three or four a year, depending on the complexity of what the client wants."

"What is that that?" Matthew pointed to the half wagon wheel with the bat wings.

"Part of the inner workings of my thirteenth. I don't believe in bad luck-unlucky thirteen and all that-but with my client's permission I'm making a clock that will um flap its wings like a bat upon every hour. What you see diagrammed there are the rods that the hammers will hit to cause the wings to flap. I'm thinking of creating the entire thing out of black cloth draped around a wooden frame. With a black clockface and possibly red enamel numerals. My client, fortunately, is very open to my designs and already owns two of my creations."

Matthew just stared at him. "Why don't you make it meow meow? Like a black cat?"

"Well," Quisenhunt said, and studied his knuckles, "the nearest sound approximating that would be from a fiddle. When I get my self-playing fiddle perfected, then maybe so."

"Your self-playing " Matthew decided to let it alone. "I'm not so interested in your clocks," he said, "as in "

"The thief trap, yes you said that. Then you know about my other interest?"

Matthew nodded. "Farraday told me."

"Ah." Quisenhunt's wife had entered bringing a cup of pale yellow lemon water, which she offered to Matthew. "Take your drink, then," said the inventor, "and I'll show you my cellar workshop."

"It's awfully dirty down there," the woman cautioned.

"I think Mr. Corbett can handle a little dirt." Quisenhunt paused to light a candle, and then motioned for Matthew to follow.

Along the stairs that led down, Quisenhunt lit a succession of wall candles until they reached the bottom. Matthew had caught the odor of gunpowder as soon as the door was opened. As Quisenhunt continued to walk around and touch fire to a few more wicks, Matthew saw that they stood in a stone-floored shooter's gallery. A half-dozen pistols hung on wall hooks near the stairs. On the other side of the chamber were two canvas-covered circular targets, one large and one smaller, with enough holes in them to show the straw stuffing. Matthew thought Ashton McCaggers would have felt right at home in here with his own pistols and dress-maker's forms Elsie and Rosalind to shoot at.

"I have always been fascinated by firearms," Quisenhunt said when the last candle was burning and yellow light gleamed off the pistols. "These I've designed myself. Here, this is something I've been testing lately." He picked up from a circular table not a pistol but a short sword with an ornately-scrolled grip.

"It's a sword," Matthew remarked.

"Is it?" Quisenhunt made a couple of swipes through the air with his weapon. Then he turned toward the targets. Matthew heard a click click as a cleverly-disguised striker was drawn. With a flash of sparks and billow of smoke the pistol barrel constructed along the swordblade fired. A hole appeared near the center of the larger target. as a cleverly-disguised striker was drawn. With a flash of sparks and billow of smoke the pistol barrel constructed along the swordblade fired. A hole appeared near the center of the larger target.

"Interesting," Matthew said. "Bringing a gun to a swordfight."

"That would be the idea, yes. The trigger is hidden in the grip." Quisenhunt showed it to Matthew, as smoke curled from the barrel. "I have high hopes for this, but unfortunately at present it does need work. The problem is keeping both sword and pistol equally-balanced."

Matthew thought a novice swordsman such as himself could benefit from the long reach of that particular blade. He saw a pistol hanging amid the guns on the wall that caught his attention. "May I?" he asked, and when Quisenhunt nodded he took it down. "What is this this?"

"My pride and joy," said the inventor.

It was a pistol, Matthew saw, with three barrels-one atop two-but only a single striker. The wooden body of the gun was black and sleek, the barrels a steely blue. Heavy in the hand, but very well-balanced. It was, he thought, awesome awesome.

"You prepare all three barrels at once," Quisenhunt explained, holding his candle closer so the light jumped off the bizarre and beautiful gun. "When the first barrel is fired, you c.o.c.k the striker again and a gearwheel revolves the second barrel into position. Then, when that is fired, the striker revolves the third barrel into place."

"What do you call it?"

"A rotator."

"Ah." Matthew was definitely impressed. "And all three of these barrels really fire fire, then?"

"Well " Quisenhunt looked down at the floor and rubbed at a stone with his shoe. "Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I've had considerable trouble with the third barrel, which fires-by my calculations-with only thirty-six percent certainty." He shrugged. "But there's always room for improvement. You'll note that the barrels all share a single flashpan, so unfortunately the shooter does have to prime the pan between shots. If you'll open the compartment in the b.u.t.t of the handle-it's the little bra.s.s lever there-you'll find three small paper cartridges, which hold the necessary powder for three applications to the pan. My intention with this was to speed the firing process as much as humanly possible."

"I'll say." Matthew heard himself sound like a dumbfounded schoolboy. "If you don't mind my asking, what would something like this sell for?"

"It's the better-working model of two in that configuration, but I wouldn't sell it. There's still a lot of work to be done."

Reluctantly, Matthew returned the rotator to its hook. What he would have paid to have a gun like that in the woods against Slaughter! His eye was snagged by another pistol, this one with a long barrel and atop the barrel a bra.s.s cylinder that looked to be a spygla.s.s.

"Tyranthus Slaughter," said the inventor suddenly. "Yes! I do recall that name. He was one of the highwaymen they caught was it two years ago?"

"Two years and a little over four months. You made the exploding box for that particular purpose, correct?"

"Correct. High Constable Farraday and some of the town officials came to me to ask that I help them catch the highwaymen who were terrorizing the Pike. They knew of my interest in firearms, but being Quakers they wanted something non-lethal. Something that would startle the highwaymen, possibly daze them long enough to be overcome."

"I see. And do you always sign your work?"

"All my finished work, yes." Quisenhunt answered. "I'm proud of my creations."

Matthew took a drink of the lemon water and found it more sweet than sour. But even so, it did make the healing cut inside his mouth pucker. After his realization that Slaughter had successfully escaped Hoornbeck, Matthew hadn't known what else to do. He could search Philadelphia, of course, and he'd already been to the stables to ask for anyone of Slaughter's description, but essentially the trail had gone cold.

Except for one thing.

The exploding safebox that had held Slaughter's ill-gotten treasure. The safebox that bore, burned across its underside, O. Quisenhunt, Phila O. Quisenhunt, Phila., followed by a number: 6 6.

Matthew said, "I know there's a striker device inside the box that ignites the gunpowder. And the hammer that falls makes the gunshot sound sound. But tell me how someone opens the box without the striker being tripped."

"Simple enough. The latches operate on springs. There are two versions of the triggering mechanism. In one, if the latches are turned any way but horizontally before they're opened, the mainspring is released and trips the striker. In the second, the latches have to be turned vertically, or the striker trips. The latches are designed to give some resistance; sort of an early warning to a potential thief, so to speak."

Matthew saw the intent, which was to blow smoke and sparks into the faces of the highwaymen, leading to-hopefully-a quick arrest. He recalled that the box Greathouse had opened-with some difficulty, as he remembered-had its latches turned vertically, which meant its 'safe position' would have been if the latches had been horizontal. Obviously, Slaughter had known which version he possessed. "How many boxes did you make?"

"Six. The first had an unforeseen flaw and suffered a premature combustion. The second fell off a coach and was broken. The third and fourth actually were in use for several months, but never um served their purpose before the highwaymen were caught."

"And what about the fifth and sixth?"

"I recall I sold those, for quite a nice price. To one of my clients for whom I have also created a clock."

"Then you're saying the fifth and sixth boxes were never never used by anyone but this client?" used by anyone but this client?"

"As far as I know. She said she had need of a thief trap herself, because she didn't have complete trust in some of her workers. Actually, she decided to buy the pair."

"She?" Matthew prodded. "What's the name?"

"Mrs. Gemini Lovejoy," said Quisenhunt. "She owns Paradise."

"Paradise," Matthew repeated.

"Mrs. Lovejoy owns the Paradise farm," Quisenhunt explained. "It's on the south side of town, a few miles out between Red Oak and Chester."

"A farm." Matthew thought he must be sounding like an idiot.