The Crescent Spy Read Online Free PDF Page A

of grumbling. A couple were scribbling in notepads, and one man shouted a question at her that she didn’t quite catch but wouldn’t have answered if she had.
    Dozens of troops guarded the arsenal, and guard towers bristled along the river. Row after row of newly cast cannons lined up waiting to be finished and then fitted onto gun carriages. They all pointed toward the river, as if already preparing to blast their way into Virginia.
    After crossing the arsenal grounds, Gray showed his pass again, this time to one of the sentries who patrolled the shoreline. The man ran off to fetch a boat. Josephine asked if they might wait in the shade instead of under the sun. Gray consented, and they retreated to the shade of a tree filled with buzzing cicadas.
    She made another attempt. “I am a newspaper writer, Mr. Gray. Naturally, I used feminine charms to get close to the rebel officers—I can play the coquette when I must. But I did not betray our secrets. I’m a patriot, like you.”
    Gray lit a cigarette. “You are a spy and a traitor. If I had my way, you’d be hung. Count yourself fortunate that Mr. Pinkerton has a soft spot for women.”
    “What evidence do you have that I’m a spy?” she persisted. “Because of what you read in the Standard ? They’re our enemies, you know. You can’t trust those scoundrels.”
    “Be quiet, I’m weary of your company.”
    She fell silent. The air grew hotter and hotter, and trickles of perspiration ran down her back and dampened her armpits. At last the soldier returned, this time with four of his fellows, carrying a rowboat between them.
    They heaved the boat halfway into the water, where one of the men held it against the current so it wouldn’t drift off.
    “Go on, then,” Gray told Josephine, who was eying the rowboat doubtfully. “Get in.”
    “Don’t tell me I’m supposed to row across by myself.”
    “I wish it were so. Indeed, I’d send you halfway out and let the guns of the fort sink you like a Confederate raider.” He shook his head. “Mr. Pinkerton’s orders are to take you to Manassas under white flag and trade you for one of our colonels taken in the battle.”
    “Nobody will trade for me for a colonel. I told you, I’m not a spy. The rebs wouldn’t give you two cents.”
    Gray smiled. “Mr. Pinkerton telegraphed Richmond this morning. They agreed at once to the trade.”
    “They did?”
    The only way it could be true would be if the Confederates somehow thought she’d betrayed them as well. In that case, she’d be trading humiliation in Washington for a jail cell in Richmond.
    One of the soldiers held out a hand to help Josephine into the boat. She folded her arms and clenched her jaw.
    Gray drew his gun. “Get in that boat or by God I’ll be trading your dead body to the rebs.”
    Josephine gave it a moment of thought. She couldn’t let him take her to Manassas to face angry accusations from Beauregard’s staff. But there might be opportunities to escape along the way. Then she could figure out what to do.
    After she’d climbed in, Gray put away his gun and took his place at the oars. The soldiers pushed them into the current. Gray let them drift for several seconds, then fit the oars into the oarlocks and dipped them in the water. He began to row almost casually for the opposite side of the Potomac. His oars creaked in the oarlocks, and eddies swirled around the paddles with each stroke. Sitting near the bow, Gray had his back to Virginia. Josephine faced the agent and looked across to the woods and fields of the other side. A small force of laborers were constructing yet another Union fort on the Virginia side of the river.
    Any hope that a river breeze would cool her disappeared. The air was steamy, the sun like a hammer. Sweat was soon running down Gray’s face and dripping from his mustache.
    “Well?” he said. “Are you going to tell me why you’re innocent?”
    “I thought you said you had orders.”
    “I do. You have until