Allison; Taking Control

Chapter 41

James handed him the glass tube with the strange white clump inside.

“William, if you’ll attend me once we set foot on deck, I believe I have another job for you as well,” Allison said to the marine lieutenant.

The carriage rumbled on down Mount Fitzwilliam and out into the dim lights of George Street toward the waterfront.

Allison sat glumly in the sternsheets of the pinnace as it was being rowed back across the harbor to Philadelphia. He was not happy. Though he had done his best to steel himself against the sheer and utter vexation he knew the meeting with Semple aboard Gallant would invariably cause, it did nothing to assuage the searing resentment which continued to torment him after he departed. He reflected, half-dejectedly, half-angrily, upon what had taken place in the Captain’s cabin.

The whole affair had been little more than a tiresome and needlessly degrading rehash of what Sir Roger had told him the previous evening at Government House. Whether it was done for Suggs’