The Code

The Code
Isaiah parted the branches and peered out. The scent of hemlock enveloped him, and the boughs above made his hideout as gloomy as a robber’s cave. How much longer? He’d finished the bread and the flagon of water an hour ago. Soon the sun would be scorching the fields.
Isaiah’s stomach complained as thoughts of Mama’s stew beckoned. But Miss Anna would be angry if he didn’t deliver this parcel.
The vibration of hooves sent Isaiah diving to the needle-cushioned ground. When the clip-clopping grew nearer, he recognized the blaze-faced stallion and the scuffed riding boots of the horseman. Only one man sported timeworn boots like those—tavern keeper, Austin Roe!
Without delay, Isaiah exploded from his hiding place. “Sir!”
In a flurry of dust and cursing, Roe halted, lashing his horsewhip and striking a tree limb above Isaiah’s head. “Blast it, boy, I could have been thrown! Are you daft?”
“No, Sir!” Isaiah spat back, offering up the parcel. “I’m delivering this for Miss Anna.” Had he been a few inches taller, Isaiah would have been struck in the face. He watched as Roe untied the parcel and something tumbled out.
“Fetch that,” Roe growled. Isaiah recognized Miss Anna’s locket, and as he placed it in Roe’s chapped hand, he saw the man’s face soften and his left eye twitch. The man rubbed the golden disk as if he were polishing it. When he snapped it open, the wind picked up a slip of paper, which floated on the breeze briefly before landing at Isaiah’s feet. Isaiah reached down and retrieved the paper, noticing that it contained a series of numbers. As he handed it to the tavern keeper, Roe said, “Tell Miss Anna that I received her order.” And with that, he galloped off down the byway toward New York City.
As Isaiah strode back to Anna Strong’s home at Strong’s Neck for his payment, he wondered about the strange numbers. What kind of order could that have been? He knew that Austin Roe traveled to New York City weekly to buy supplies for his tavern, but what could Miss Anna be purchasing in the city? And how could Roe pick up supplies for Miss Anna without his wagon and carry them back to Setauket on horseback? All these thoughts rambled around in Isaiah’s head on his way to apprise Miss Anna that he had successfully delivered her parcel. When he arrived, she thanked him with a loaf of bread, hot from the oven, to take home to his mama.
A few days later, as Isaiah ambled along the road at dawn toward Abraham Woodhull’s farm to look for work, he heard thundering hooves approach him from behind. Expecting the rider to slow down as he came closer, Isaiah was startled when he saw Austin Roe blaze past him, leaving Isaiah in a cloud of dust. That is odd, Isaiah thought. What business would the tavern keeper have with the farmer at daybreak? As Isaiah drew near the Woodhull farmstead, Roe flew past him again, this time to the road toward town. Whatever business the two men had had been concluded.
Later that morning, as Isaiah baled hay in Woodhull’s barn, he watched as Miss Anna, whose farm was right next to the barn, rush out from her kitchen and hang a black petticoat from her clothesline. He thought it strange that the lady of the manor, and not one of her servants, would tend to the wash. To Isaiah, Miss Anna seemed to be in an awful hurry. And from where he stood the petticoat seemed to be dry, as no water dripped from its scalloped lace.
Isaiah sensed that something peculiar was happening. The Battle of Setauket, a failed attack by the Continental Army against British loyalists, had taken place in town the year before. At 14 and relatively unassuming, no one seemed to notice that Isaiah observed and listened to everything around him. He had heard rumblings of a spy ring that operated on Long Island that fed information about the British to General George Washington in his fight against them. He also had noticed that whenever a British soldier came within earshot, men who were known to him as patriots halted their conversations. Now all these events combined together—Austin Roe traveling to New York City several times a week for supplies, Anna Strong concealing a message in her locket to be delivered to Roe, and Roe galloping to Abraham Woodhull’s farm at dawn and then leaving immediately—seemed rather suspicious to the young boy.
After the Battle of Setauket, Isaiah’s father’s small farm had been taken over by the British. Isaiah’s father had been imprisoned for resisting the soldiers, as was Anna Strong’s husband, Judge Selah Strong. So Isaiah and his mother and younger siblings were left to live in a small shack at the edge of their property. Now, as the man of the house, Isaiah had the responsibility of feeding his family. He found work when he could at the neighboring farms. Sometimes he fished in the marshes and in the Long Island Sound from a small boat that he hid from the British in the reeds along the shore. His mother kept a small vegetable garden and took in sewing.
The following morning Isaiah set out early for Anna Strong’s farm. He wasn’t sure what he would say, but he knew he wanted to become part of the alliance that was working against the British. He had thought of approaching Austin Roe, but felt that Anna Strong would be more receptive to him.
Isaiah knocked on the kitchen door, as he usually did when seeking work. The kitchen maid let him in and went to fetch Miss Anna while Isaiah waited, nervously shuffling his hat from one hand to the other. When Miss Anna entered the kitchen, Isaiah felt his face flush.
“Good morning, Isaiah,” Miss Anna said. “You may put fresh hay out for the horses and collect the eggs. And one of the fences in the corral needs mending.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Isaiah said. “There is something more I would like to do, if I may.”
“And what may that be?” Miss Anna asked, raising her eyebrows.
“The locket,” Isaiah stammered. “The message in the locket.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Miss Anna responded, pretending ignorance.
“I can help you,” Isaiah said, “In your quest. I see and hear things that no one thinks I do.”
“I see,” Miss Anna said, staring into Isaiah’s blue eyes. “I’ll take that into consideration. See me before you leave.”
That afternoon after Isaiah finished his work, he returned to the kitchen as Miss Anna had instructed. Handing Isaiah the basket of eggs he had collected earlier that morning, Miss Anna said, “Take this basket to Mr. Woodhull—directly to him and no one else and tell him they are from me. Then take the eggs home to your mother.”
Confused, Isaiah was unsure what she meant. How could he take the eggs home if he left the basket with Mr. Woodhull? When he looked at Miss Anna quizzically, she gently slid her fingers between the edge of the basket and the eggs, whereupon Isaiah saw a sheaf of paper, and he understood.