Nettie's Tale

“ Nettie, we have to get you out of here now.” Johns' rich tenor voice trembled as he barked orders offering no explanation for his sudden appearance “Quick, follow me. We’ve no time to lose.”

Heart pounding in her chest, she grabbed the thick folds of her long black skirt with both hands and followed John out into the deep dark night, thankful there was no moon. The moment she long feared had now come. Oh how she had hoped she would never have to flee again. The streets of Toronto were devoid of people and animals as they headed to a ramshackle shack near the railway. She gasped for breath as John briefly stopped to open the door. She nearly fell when he grabbed her hand and pulled her inside. The sharp smell of sulfur indicated John had struck a match and lit a lantern. He pulled so hard on her hand she nearly fell headlong down the steps to the secret tunnels that ran 80 miles to Niagara Falls and the border with America.

The musty smell of mold caused her to cough, the dust swirling as John lead her to a small wooden wagon. The whooshing sound of John pumping the bellows hid the pounding of her heart. Within seconds, there was a rush of white steam and the car sailed forward, sending Nettie face first toward the floor with an ungraceful crash. She was thankful John was able to steer through the darkness. He must have done this many times before, as it seemed so natural to him, she thought to herself.

“ John, what is going on? Why have you come for me like this?” Netties voice was sharp with irritation. “ This was only to be used in case of emergency!”

“ There is a plot underway to destroy the American Government during the Centennial Celebration in Philadelphia next month. Rumor has it that whoever is behind it is looking for the Confederate gold to finance it. I had to get you out of there and back into America. We’ll find a way to keep you safe there. It’s been eleven years; most people think you are dead. ” John’s voice sounded surreal. “ We’ll pick up the Gold at the Abbey in St Catherine’s and cross the border from there. Read this, it explains everything.”

Nettie looked at the paper John handed to her. Her heart jumped. There was a plot uncovered stating that a fleet of steam-powered airships would descend on major American cities and launch an army to take over the country on July 4, 1876.

“ Its Edmund Howells isn’t it? He won’t give up the dream of a new Confederacy will he?” A wave of memories washed over her. “ That dream died the night Wilkes Booth went crazy, violated orders and shot President Lincoln. We all knew that when we went into hiding.”

“ Edmund was always a little touched in the head Nettie. You know that. He took off that night swearing revenge against the powerful militant North. I thought it was over when I had heard he was killed in an explosion a few years later. Then last week this surfaced in Chicago. Pinkerton’s secret service agents brought this to me asking if I knew anything since they knew I was acquainted with Howells. Of course I knew nothing but was suspicious. No one else but you, Howells and me knew where the gold was. I knew you couldn’t be behind it. I headed straight for you when I checked on Howells and his family said no body had been found.” John swallowed hard. “ It scares me because he was always tinkering with stuff. Playing around with tubes, nitroglycerin and the like. You remember he was always drawing weird things with gears and powered by steam.”

“ I remember John.” Nettie shivered despite the warmth from the steam. “ He had these weird drawings with him one night at the Boarding House. All I remember was seeing these things that looked like clock gears joined together in some kind of mechanical device. When he saw me looking at them, he scrambled to hide them. I seem to remember something that looked like arms and legs but I could be wrong.  John, where is the army coming from? Old Confederates who refused to give up? Foreign nationals? Who John?”

John shrugged nonchalantly, causing her to frown. “ Who knows Nettie? My friend in the Pinkertons had no idea. He passed it off as a crackpot scheme. I thought otherwise. This is no joke. Hang on Nettie; we’re at St. Catherine’s. “

Nettie grabbed the sides of the car with all her fragile strength as the brakes suddenly engaged. She pitched forward and felt her stomach lurch. Every muscle in her body ached. John helped her to her feet and hastened her up the stairs, causing her to trip over her floor length skirts. She heard him pound on the roof above. A rush of dim light indicated the roof had opened. John pulled her up the ladder into the kitchen of the Abbey.

Nettie caught the pale aged face of her dear friend Sister Agatha standing there holding a pearl handled derringer. They silently followed her into the dark parlor and waited till she lit an oil lamp.

“ Sister Agatha, we are so sorry to disturb you. Its John Surratt and Nettie Gilbert Slator come for the package she left here eleven years ago.” Johns voice was tender and gentle.

“ Bless you both! I did not recognize you. No one uses the tunnels any more. When I heard the pounding I was frightened. Rest here while I get the package. Please be quiet so we don’t disturb the others. ” Sister Agatha hugged her two old friends and hastened from the room.

The silence was deafening and time stood still as they waited. A sudden soft crackling noise caused John to jump. He reached deep into his boot and pulled his pistol. Nettie lifted her skirt and drew a small derringer as well, sensing sudden danger. The noise drew ever closer. Netties heart pounded. She cocked the gun, ready to fire.

They heard the door creak open. Nettie screamed at a whirring sound that grew louder and louder as it approached. John pushed her to the floor behind the settee as five odd looking men jerkily entered the room. Nettie trembled at the sight of flesh colored faces, gray clad arms that moved with a symbiotic mechanical rhythm. She could hear the sound of gears grinding against each other and noticed steam pouring from their ears. She held her hands over her head waiting for bullets to whiz by. Terror washed over her in great waves

The voice spoke in a monotone voice backed with the whir of gears.  “ We want the gold. We will take the gold or destroy all who are here.”

John called out loudly, “Sister Agatha, run. Take the gold and run!” He turned to the men and aimed his pistol at the apparent leader who awkwardly charged towards them a brass gun drawn ready to fire. John aimed for his chest area and fired rapidly in succession, bullets bouncing off the man/creatures metal chest. Nettie fired her derringer, missing the leaders head but hitting a small metal bar on his right shoulder. A sudden loud grinding noise and abrupt stoppage of movement caused screams to pour out of her mouth. The men/creatures were frozen in their tracks! She silently thanked God that she had learned to shoot all those years ago.

“Good shot Nettie! Whatever you hit stopped all of them.” John’s voice rasped as he drew in his breath.

Nettie tried to stop her trembling and calm her pounding heart. She heard Sister Agatha’s approach as John examined the unmoving beings, tearing away at the cloth on the arms and revealing a mass of well oiled gears and timing mechanisms.

“ Miss Nettie, John, you must both go quickly. I’ll get rid of these things, whatever they are; I’ll get them to the lake and dumped. Here is your package and go. Godspeed on your journey. Be gone before anything else happens to you!” The urgency in Sister Agatha’s voice frightened Nettie. They had always been safe here at the Abbey. She had always given them shelter, why not now?

Sudden movement caught Netties eye and she saw John remove something from the first mechanical being. That action puzzled her; it seemed like he knew what he was doing. She shook that thought from her mind and reached deep into the pocket hidden in the fold of her skirt and removed a folded wad. She hugged Sister Agatha quickly and slipped the wad to her wordlessly, their eyes meeting briefly in silent understanding. Fear and sadness welled up in her chest as she dropped the veil on her hat and prepared to follow John out into the streets. She thought she would never see Sister Agatha again and the safety of the Abbey was gone forever.  They headed quickly to find a carriage to take them to the falls. There was a madman to be stopped and it was up to her and John to do it. She clutched the heavy gray wool package to her as if willing it to protect her.  No words passed between them. Nettie watched Johns every move suddenly on high alert for hidden danger around every corner. Once a Blockade Runner, always a Blockade Runner she muttered silently, always suspecting danger around every bend. 

Nettie flew forward as the carriage suddenly halted in front of a building that resembled a chocolate gingerbread house. Her heart leapt with fear, knowing they were still several miles from the border crossing. Something was wrong.  What was John up to? His hand roughly grabbed her arm and pulled her jerkily from the carriage to the ground, as she grabbed the package. He pulled her swiftly, roughly behind him and she felt her heart pounding once again. She spoke no words as he pulled her roughly up the steps and pushed her in the door, causing her to stumble over her skirts and nearly fall to the polished wooden floor.

He continued to push her into a harshly gas lit room filled with dark furniture and overstuffed chairs. She looked at him with questioning eyes as he pushed her into a chair and drew his pistol once more, this time training it on her. Every part of her body shook like an earthquake as she realized he was going to kill her. She held the package tight in the folds of her skirt. When she heard a loud rushing noise followed by steady whirring of gears she felt her consciousness leaving her. A quick shake of her head and a deep breath brought her back to the grim reality of a man dressed in black and white wearing brass goggles and maneuvering a steam powered chair entering the room.

“ Well done John. I see you have found our little Nettie and she has cooperated in getting us the gold. I can see even after all these years she trusts you as she trusts no other! Stupid trusting fool!”  His voice and accompanying laughter sounded like a coyotes mournful howl at sunset. “ Take the gold John and dispose of her! Now the United States and eventually the world will be mine. I will now have the money to build a mechanical Confederacy and be Emperor of the world!!”

Nettie cowered back in the chair, grasping the package tightly against her stomach as John lunged forward to wrench it from her. That madman was Edmund Howells, still alive despite the explosion years ago, still plotting to take over America and her trusted friend and protector John was in on it all along! 

A loud angry crash distracted him and Nettie pushed his suddenly off balance form knocking him to the floor as waves of red coated men poured into the room, guns drawn, bullets whizzing in the air as they came. Nettie cowered lower in the chair as gray clad mechanical men burst into the room; firing round after round from brass guns attached to their hissing and whirring mechanical arms. John lay on the ground in front of her his hand reaching for his gun to shoot her. She kicked it as far as she could. The battle raged on around her and she longed for the comfort and safety of her home in Toronto, even as she clung to the package in her hands. The sounds of bullets flying, men dying, gears whirring and above all Howells cackling laughter as his mechanical men did their duty overwhelmed her momentarily.

She reached deep into the pocket of her dress and felt the cool handle of her derringer. She prayed that it was still loaded as she withdrew it and aimed at the broad barrel chest of Howells suddenly exposed as he lifted his hands in joyful triumph. Hands shaking, palms sweating, she pulled back on the trigger and watched as the bullet reached its target, noting the sudden spray of red on his crisp white shirt and his stunned expression as he slumped in the chair, no longer laughing hysterically. The whizzing of bullets stopped as the mechanical creatures ceased to fire, no longer getting a signal from their leader. Dreamlike, she watched as two police rushed to Howells as two others grabbed John, cuffing him quickly putting him face down on the floor. The blackness swept over her as she shank into the cool comfort of unconsciousness. Was she finally dead and at peace?

She jumped as she felt hands shaking her. She blinked her eyes and shook her head to clear the cobwebs as she was greeted by the faint smell of spent gunpowder and sweat. She gazed up into the frowning handsome tanned face of a red-coated Canadian policeman. She knew in that moment she was alive and clutched the package ever closer. Protecting it was her mission, had always been her mission.

“ Ma’am are you ok? Its Lt. Jones ma’am of the St. Catherine’s police force.” She forced her head to nod yes and tried to relax, taking in deep breaths.

“ You sure are a good shot. You got him on the first try, right through the heart. He won’t be stirring up any more trouble. Thanks to your message to Sister Agatha and her quick action in getting me we were able to follow the carriage and get here in time. That scum there will be going to jail for a long time to come” He pointed his thumb in Johns direction. She could see him being led out the door by two burly men.

“ Thank you sir. I am a little shaken up but okay I think. I am so glad Sister Agatha understood what I gave her and sought help. I knew when we reached the Abbey and those mechanical things got there that something was wrong. I saw John take something from one of them.  For the last twelve years I have carried a coded message that Sister Agatha knew meant I was in trouble.” She looked at the puzzled expression on his face.

“ You see I am the supposed dead Sarah Antoinette Gilbert Slator, Confederate Courier and Blockade Runner. Eleven years ago in April, I fled to Canada with the Confederate Gold that John Surratt and Edmund Howells believed was hidden at the Abbey. It was the agreed upon hiding place should we be captured by the Union Army. Shortly before the surrender at Appomattox, I overheard Howells and John discussing a plan to build a fleet of airships and a mechanical army to assist the Confederates in destroying the North, then pushing out the Confederate Government, with Howells then taking over as Emperor of the America’s. The Confederate Gold in my possession to be carried north was to be the purse to fund the project; they were going to steal it from the Abbey after I got it there safely. I was frightened at what I heard and fled that night northward to the Abbey, our safe house. I gave Sister Agatha a package, here it is sir” She paused to give him the gray wool bundle she had been protecting. She watched as he unwrapped it, noting the surprised expression on his face. “ I decided that while I loved the Confederacy, I could not see democracy destroyed by a madman so Sister Agatha and I wrapped these bricks in the same cloth bundle as the gold and hid them as previously instructed. I then fled through an underground tunnel from the Abbey to Toronto and settled into life as the Widow French, the Director at the Female Academy. I took the gold with me. You will find it hidden in the garden of my home on Queen Street West. Wilkes Booth killed Lincoln later that month causing John and Howells to part company and flee to parts unknown.  Over the years, John had convinced me through letters that he had changed, settled down to become a respectable stable citizen and that Howells had died. He showed on my doorstep just a few hours ago and well you know the rest. I am guessing that he and Howells were working on that plan all along. I am just so glad that you got here in time. I will show you where the gold is and go quietly back to America to face whatever my punishment will be.”

She caught Lt. Jones watching her, his eyes filled with wonderment and compassion. “Ma’am, we will send you back to your home in Toronto or in America, wherever you wish to go. Let the gold lie where it is and you can go about living a life in peace. No one other than my men, Sister Agatha and you need ever know the truth. The official report will be that you were kidnapped from the Abbey and rescued here. John will be tried, convicted and hung as a kidnapper. You will at last be safe. I owe it to the memory of my father who gave his life as a Confederate Soldier to give you protection and safety since you labored for the same cause as he and risked all to protect your people. He would not want his memory as a Confederate Soldier to be associated with madmen such as these. ”

“ Bless you Lt. Jones. I thank you and I am sure your father thanks you.  Please take me to the Abbey and then home. I trust that all of this will be kept sacred and secret. I have seen enough of intrigue, madmen and demagogues for my lifetime. For now I simply wish to be simple humble Nettie whose tale shall never be known.”

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