Anything Goes

Scotland and started building a Scottish castle on the island. He died before it was finished, but the family still uses it to store things. The librarian said he didn’t think any of them lived there anymore, though, only visit occasionally. But it’s heavily guarded. Remember, the newspaper article mentioned guards that helped the passengers from Uncle Horatio’s boat when they came ashore. Or maybe it was Jack Summer who told us. And Claude and Major Winslow also mentioned them.“
    “Where is this island?“ Lily asked, still reeling from the fact of Robert’s having gone to a library and done research. He’d never been an enthusiastic student of anything but living the Good Life. A few days of residing in the ‘wilderness’ was exerting a profound and surprising influence on him.
    “That’s the good part. It’s just downriver about fifteen or twenty miles from here. And it’s on our side of the river, about a thousand feet offshore. So we can take a pretty good look at it, if I can find some binoculars to borrow, without having to hire a boat. All we need is a little bit more gasoline money. The Duesie is a greedy old girl with gasoline.“
    “I could find another dollar somewhere,“ Lily said.
    Robert was shuffling his paperwork. “Oh, get this! In 1776, the army or somebody stretched a thing called a ‘chevaux-de-frise’ from the island to Plum Point—I don’t know just where Plum Point is though.“
    “A chevaux-de-frise? What’s that?“
    “I didn’t quite understand it, but in English, it’s a chain and boom. A chain of iron links and somehow big pointed logs come into the construction. It was meant to keep the British from sailing past the island to attack forts farther north during the Revolutionary War. I don’t suppose there’s any of it left, but if bits of the thing are still there, they might have caused the hole in the boat, if the tide was out.”
    Lily nodded. She didn’t see how this was particularly useful information, but it was interesting and it was astonishing that Robert had hunted it down and recorded it—behavior she certainly didn’t want to discourage. “Can we go there tomorrow?“
    “Yes, let’s do. But we need binoculars. Do you even have your old opera glasses?“
    “No, I dropped them and smashed a lens last time I used them,“ Lily said. “That was back in the days when we threw broken things away. But I think I’ve seen a telescope somewhere in the house. Where was that?“
    “Telescope! Oh! It’s in my room, on top of that chest that’s almost as big as the Duesie. I’d forgotten it, too. Uncle must have used it to look out at the river before the ivy took over the windows. This is good. I’ll sneak it out to the garage tonight.“
    “Why sneak?“
    “Because I’d just as soon nobody asked us where we’re going with a telescope.”
     
    Dinner was excellent as always. There was a ham with a spicy sauce that went well with what Mrs. Prinney called suppawn, a rich, but bland sort of cornmeal mush that she explained was either a Dutch or Indian word. She’d never thought to ask her mother which.
    “Mrs. Prinney is a descendant of Guilliam Bertholf, the well-known voorleser of Tappan,“ Mr. Prinney said proudly.
    Lily smiled encouragingly, not having the faintest idea what he meant.
    “A voorleser was one of the most honored members of the original old Dutch communities,“ Prinney explained. “You had to be a man of both learning and piety to hold the honor of the title.“
    “I’d forgotten the Dutch settled the Hudson River Valley,“ Lily said, feeling a bit ashamed of herself. She wanted to be part of the community, yet she’d made no effort to find out anything about it.
    Mr. Prinney, who wasn’t in a very good mood anyway, twitched his little moustache at her for this comment.
    Lily decided she needed a trip to the Voorburg library as well.
     
    * * *
     
    They set out early in the morning, having break. fasted and told Mrs. Prinney they wanted to se( some of the countryside.
    “Do you have a map of where we’re going?“ Lily asked.
    “It’s downriver. How hard can that be?“ Robert said.
    Harder than he thought. The road didn’t follow the river closely at all points. Several times Robert tried to get back to the river when it had disappeared by taking side roads that led west... usually to a dead end in a wooded area. Turning the Duesenberg around in a confined area was quite a challenge.
    When they did come upon