But he was too late. They had already left. Linda Craven came running out into the hall.
“What is it?” she said.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s Moffat.” Lucas said grimly. “He’s escaped.”
10
Andre clocked with Johnny to the street outside Ebenezer Macintosh’s house. It was a calculated risk, one she certainly would not have taken during the daytime, when the traffic on the streets of Boston would have made such a transition highly dangerous. Clocking into a set of temporal coordinates that already happened to be occupied at that particular instant by some passing citizen or cart or horseman would have proved extremely messy and extremely fatal. However, at this hour of the night, the streets of Boston were practically deserted and the lack of street lighting served to mask the transition, thereby decreasing the likelihood that anyone looking out a window would see two people suddenly appearing out of nowhere in the middle of the street. No sooner had she pulled him over close to Macintosh’s door than he began to come around. He came to lying on his back. with Andre looking down at him anxiously.
“What… Andre! Where am I?”
“In the street outside Ebenezer Macintosh’s house.” she said. “Are you all right?”
He looked around. confused. “I–I don’t understand. What happened? I was in a room somewhere…”
“You fell and struck your head.” she said. “I was afraid you might be seriously hurt.”
“I fell?” he said. “I don’t remember. I was with Mr. Hunter… that man!”
“What man?”
“I don’t know! I don’t know who he was! He shot the other two!”
“The other two?” she said.
“Yes, the other two men! They had guns! They were going to kill us! And that man shot them both with that strange pistol… he fired several times without reloading! So fast! How could he have done that?”
“But. Johnny, there’s no one here,” she said.
“But I saw them. Andre! He shot them, I tell you! And then he made the body disappear-”
“ What body? Johnny, what are you talking about?”
He stared at her. “You don’t believe me!”
“You must have been dreaming.” she said. “You struck your head.”
“A dream?” said Johnny. “No, it could not have been a dream. I saw it. I tell you! I came running here. I was looking for Mr. Macintosh. I thought he could tell me where Mr. Hunter was and I could ask him where I could find you and then those men came and they were going to kill him and they were going to kill me, too. and-”
“But, Johnny, I just saw Reese Hunter.” she said. “And he didn’t say anything about two men trying to kill him.”
“He-he didn’t?”
“No.” She shook her head. “He said he spoke to you about us and then you started to run off, but you slipped and fell and struck your head. I helped him carry you over here, out of the middle of the street, and he said you would be fine in a few moments and asked me to watch over you until you came around. He had to hurry to meet with someone.”
Johnny shook his head slowly. “But-but it seemed so real! You mean it was all a dream?”
“What else could it have been?” she said. “How can someone fire a pistol several times without reloading and then make
a dead body disappear?”
Johnny grimaced and rubbed his head. “I–I must admit it does sound foolish,” he said. “I don’t remember falling. But-but how did you come to be here.”
“I came looking for Ebenezer Macintosh,” she said. “I came to warn him. We’ve discovered that the horseman’s men, the ones who call themselves the Hellfire Club, are planning to kill him. It seems that they intend to kill the leaders of the Sons of Liberty, one at a time, striking in the middle of the night.”
Johnny gazed at her wide-eyed. “We must warn Mr. Macintosh!”