New York - The Novel

men.
    We were scarcely in the house before the Boss sent for me.
    “Well, Quash,” said the Boss, “Captain Kidd wants to buy Hudson. He’s made a very good offer.”
    I just looked from one of them to the other. I didn’t know what to say. Then I went down on my knees. It was all I could do.
    “Don’t send him away to sea, Boss,” I said. “He’s all I have.”
    “He wants to go, you know,” said the Boss.
    “I know,” I told him. “But he don’t understand. Captain Kidd’s a fine gentleman, I expect, but his crew … Some of the men he’s collecting are just pirates.”
    “You can’t keep him forever, Quash,” said the Boss.
    I was thinking as fast as I could. As well as losing Hudson to the perils of the sea, I was mightily afraid of what Captain Kidd might do if he owned him. What if he decided to sell my son in some distant port? Whatwould become of Hudson then? I was still hoping the Boss might set him free as well, one day.
    “Maybe Captain Kidd would pay you for the service of Hudson without buying him,” I said. “You’d be renting him out. But the captain would still have to return him to you. He’d be worth more, trained as a sailor,” I said. I was just trying to think of anything. But I saw that the Boss was looking thoughtful.
    “That’ll do, Quash,” he said. “You go along now, and we’ll talk tomorrow.”
    The next day it was decided that Hudson should be rented out to Captain Kidd. I was grateful for that at least. It was many weeks before the ship was ready, and that time was very precious to me, because I thought I might never see my son again. But I didn’t tell him what I was thinking, and he was so excited that he was down at the waterside whenever he could get away from me.
    Certainly, many people had high hopes of making money from that voyage. Not only the governor, but several great English lords had put money into it. People said even King William had a secret share. The ship was called the
Adventure Galley
, on account of the fact that it carried oars, so that it could attack other vessels even if there was no wind. It carried a hundred and fifty crew and thirty-four cannon.
    As the time approached when the ship was due to sail, I made Hudson sit with me, and I told him: “Now you obey Captain Kidd in all things, because he’s your boss for now. But some of these men you’re sailing with are very bad men, Hudson. So you just tend to your business and keep yourself to yourself, and maybe they won’t bother you. But just remember what your father and mother taught you, and you won’t come to no harm.”
    Finally, in September of that year of 1696, the
Adventure Galley
sailed out of New York harbor, and I watched Hudson till he was out of sight.

    Months passed and there was no word. I knew that if he didn’t find any prizes nearer, Captain Kidd would most likely head across the ocean, toward southern Africa and the Cape of Good Hope. For round the Cape toward the island of Madagascar, there’d be French merchantmen and pirates to be found.
    One day a ship put into port that had been in those parts, with news that Captain Kidd had lost a third of his crew to cholera near Madagascar. But whether it was true, or whether my Hudson was dead or alive, I had no means of knowing.
    That spring Miss Clara gave birth to a son. So far, Jan had only daughters, so this little boy pleased the Boss very much. They called the boy Dirk, after him.
    “I have a grandson, Quash,” he said, “and with luck I may even live to see him grow up. Isn’t that a fine thing?”
    “Yes, Boss,” I said. “You’re a lucky man.”
    But although Miss Clara brought the baby round to show to her mother, the Mistress still wasn’t pleased to have an Anglican grandson.

    And then, just when I wasn’t expecting it, came the news I’d been waiting for all my life. The Mistress was out that day, when the Boss called me into the parlor.
    “Quash,” he said, “you know I promised you that when I die, you shall be free.”
    “Yes, Boss,” I said.
    “Well,” he said, “being free may not be all you think. But anyway, in my will you’ll be given your freedom, and some money too.”
    “I’m getting old myself, Boss,” I said, secretly praying. “May Hudson also be free?”
    “Yes,” said the Boss, “he will also be freed. If he lives.”
    “Thank you, Boss,” I said.
    “You are to tell no one about this, Quash,” said the Boss severely. “Don’t speak of it to