Chapter 49

We all instantly reappeared at the foot of the short conference table in the second floor conference room in General Abercrombie's Headquarters. All of the Generals were already there awaiting us. They all seemed shocked to see Admiral Ball with us.

"Are you in league with those people, Alexander?" General Abercrombie demanded in a harsh voice on seeing him with us.

"I would hardly call being abducted by someone as being in league with them, Ralph," the Admiral replied.

"But what about your ships and men?" the General demanded, quite surprised.

"I don't know. These 'people' only said that my ships had been 'isolated' to use their term," the Admiral replied.

"Isolated!" the General said with a snort. "That is what they said we were, and we can't go anywhere!"

"How does one isolate a squadron of ships?" General Craddoch asked, curious.

"The exact same way that we have isolated all of your headquarters," I informed him to a frown.

"But they are in the water!" General Finch objected.

"Yes, they are. We just used a bigger shell and anchored it in the river bottom. They are all now floating in large impenetrable bubbles," Wolf told them with a smile.

"I suggest that you join your countrymen, Admiral," I told him, and we waited until he was seated to proceed.

"We have come for your answer, Gentlemen. Do you surrender, or should we just leave all of you and your men to starve to death?" I demanded, but before they could say anything, I had something to add.

"We know about the fleet and the additional troops on the way here. We have already made preparations to deal with them when they arrive." The looks on the Generals' and the Admiral's faces was one of shock and disbelief.

"How could you even know about that!?" General Abercrombie demanded in a startled voice, having risen to his feet at the head of the table.

"We have many sources of information. The fleet was spotted off of the Georgia coast this morning. We will be ready for them when they arrive here,"I told him. All of the fight seemed to have gone out of Abercrombie and the other Generals, as he sank back into his seat.

"We're doomed!" one of the Generals at the table said in despair, but I was unable to tell which one it was.

"What's this about surrendering?" Admiral Ball demanded in a loud voice. "What's wrong with all of you?"

"All of our Headquarters, their support and staff, and our supply facilities have been separately isolated from the remainder of our forces who have no access to supplies either. We have been given the choice of surrendering or starving to death. The timely arrival of the fleet was our last hope," General Abercrombie told him in a voice filled with despair.

"They don't have the ships or the men needed to defeat a Royal Navy fleet!" Admiral Ball objected vehemently in a loud voice.

"They didn't have the men or the arms to capture all of us, our people, and supplies either, yet here we are unable to even walk out of our Headquarter's area, or to communicate with our unit commanders," General Abercrombie reminded him.

"You can't surrender now!" Admiral Ball chided them passionately. "They can't possibly defeat the fleet that is on the way here, and it will surely be here in another few days," he insisted.

"That's easy for you to say, Alexander. We haven't had a decent meal in three days or more, and you want us to wait how many more days?" the General demanded.

"Surely not more than another three days," the Admiral told him to a look of despair from all of the Generals.

"If you sign the surrender documents tonight, we will cancel the shells around your Headquarters, troop areas, and supply areas. Additionally, we will give your Quartermasters access to the warehouses tomorrow to draw food, medicine, and clothing. There will be no weapons, ammunition, or other offensive material issued, however," I told them. All of the Generals appeared ready to give in, but Admiral Ball was just as determined to have them hold out.

"We will give you an hour to decide. After that, you will have to wait until after we deal with the arriving fleet, as we will be busy," I told them before Ken and Kell cast the transfer spell, and we all vanished from the conference room.

We immediately reappeared in the small parlor at Hickory Hill. A question surfaced as soon as we arrived.

"If they sign the surrender documents, will we still be able to engage the fleet?" Ken asked causing all of us to pause in thought.

"I don't know and hadn't considered the possibility," I told him.

"We should check with John. He may know," Gwyn suggested before going to get him. She returned with him after a time.

"Gwyn has explained the problem to me," he stated. "I am certainly not an expert on international law, but it would seem that you would need to notify the fleet of the surrender, and allow them time to withdraw if they chose to before attempting to engage them in battle," he told us.

"That might not be a good idea," Sererena immediately objected. "They could withdraw and still attack the French fleet and New Orleans. They would then be free to interdict any shipping bringing in supplies to the Americans all along the entire coast," she finished.

"A good point," I said. "So what do we do?"

"All that we can do is return in a bit and see what they have decided. It would be much harder to fight their fleet on the open ocean where they have more room to maneuver than in Delaware Bay where they are more restricted," Kell reminded us. Gwyn sent John back to whatever he had been doing after some hugging and kissing. She definitely seemed distracted following that. Sererena went over to talk to her for a bit while the rest of us considered what had been said.

As the end of the hour approached, we all transferred back to the conference room at General Abercrombie's Headquarters.

"Have you reached a decision?" I demanded on appearing there. Our sudden appearance had caused all of them to flinch in surprise at the sound of my voice.

"Yes, we have," General Abercrombie answered with as much dignity as he could muster. "We refuse to surrender."

"Very well. We will see all of you when the fleet arrives," I told them before we all vanished and returned to Hickory Hill.

"Well, that certainly solved one problem!" Seamus said when we reappeared in the small parlor.

"Admiral Ball must have been very persuasive in his arguments," Kell added.

"Yes, we will be free to engage the British fleet now," I answered. "Tomorrow, we should all go to Philadelphia and check out the ship that we will be using to become familiar with it. We can take the rest of the family there on Friday," I told them. We all returned to our separate rooms for the night following that.

Thursday the 19th, we were all prepared to leave for Philadelphia by 9:00 in the morning. We transferred to the southernmost Defensive Shell there, and then walked down to where the Rattlesnake was anchored. There was already considerable activity there. We met Captain Graham near the ship. He was returning with several men and a wagon full of materials. The men began unloading the wagon while we spoke to the Captain.

"You certainly got the citizens' attention at sunrise," he told us with a smile. "When they saw those ships sitting in the river like ships in a bottle, there was shock at first and then amazement. Right now there is panic spreading through the upper-crust of the city, as they begin to realize that the British might actually be defeated.

"Last night my crew spread the rumor that we were going out as privateers, and we have been able to acquire supplies for the repair of the sails and rigging easily. There are many of the average citizens who will be glad to see the British leave and their Tory friends out of power," Captain Billy informed us. We all transferred out to the ship while the crewmen continued unloading the supplies and moving them to the ship in the ship's recently acquired boats.

We all spent time examining the ship and its various compartments. The crewmen were very surprised, even shocked, to see women in military uniforms on their ship. After a short time spent inspecting the ship, one thing soon became very apparent to us.

"We need to move most of these cannons out of the way. They take up too much room on the deck," Ken observed.

"Yes, we will require room for each group of us to stand along the rail," Kell agreed. I turned to Captain Graham.

"We need to remove some of the cannons so we will have sufficient room to operate against the British fleet," I told him.

"Yes, you may as well. There is no powder in the magazine or shot in the shot locker for them. We can put them in the hold. Moving all of that weight lower in the ship will improve maneuvering also," he told us.

"Don't worry. We can move them ourselves. We'll leave two cannon on each side of the ship, and we'll get you powder and shot for them from the warehouses," I told him.

"Are you sure that you can move them yourselves? They are quite heavy," the Captain asked.

"Yes, we won't have any problem moving them," I assured him, as first Ken and then Kell disappeared with one of the guns each after releasing all of the ropes that secured them when stored and also when firing. Several crewmen saw this and were quite startled by it.

Seamus and I assisted Gwyn and Sererena in disconnecting the pulleys and stout ropes that secured two more of the guns, and they each disappeared with one. Seamus and I took the next two. We soon had ten of the guns relocated to the hold of the ship and tied down. A number of crewmen had gathered while we worked and stared at the now empty gun positions. Several had made signs against evil, and all were shocked at what they had seen. Captain Graham stepped in then.

"Now lads, I told you that our backers were powerful people. You have just seen some of what they can do. They also are the ones who put those Royal Navy ships up the river from us in bottles last night," the Captain told them.

"But Captain, even those women moved some of the cannons, and as easily as the men did!" one of the crewmen said, still amazed.

"Yes," Gwyn told him with a grin. "We are just as powerful as the men are."

"Yes, they are," the Captain agreed. "So don't go bothering them unless you want your head handed to you. Then, if you are still alive, you'll have to deal with me," he warned them in a stern voice.

Seamus and I went to get powder and shot from the warehouses while Ken, Kell, and our Sisters stayed to watch the repairs and lend a hand if needed. After gathering what we needed, we transferred the powder kegs, the boxed shot, and other supplies for the guns to the deck of the Rattlesnake. Ken and Kell had asked where they were stored and saw to moving them to their proper locations. Shortly after that, we returned to Hickory Hill to brief the remainder of the family on what we had learned.

On Friday the 20th, the entire family transferred to the ship to familiarize themselves with it. The crew was surprised that there were so many of us and that so many were females, but they quickly noticed that all of the females had a male accompanying them. Of course Nora and Nola hadn't come with us. John and William weren't with us either as they hadn't completely recovered yet or learned enough Magic to be of much help. I spent some time speaking with Captain Graham and determining whether things were ready for tomorrow.

"Don't worry, Lad. Things are as shipshape as we could make them in the available time," he assured me. "There was a low tide this morning at around sunrise, and there will be another tomorrow morning around the same time. The high tide that we need to worry about won't occur until the afternoon either day," he told me. "That will give you a little extra advantage."

"When should we depart?" I asked him.

"I would leave this afternoon and sail as far as Wilmington and anchor there overnight. In the morning, there will be only a short stretch of river to travel before we come to where the bay narrows," he advised.