Just a word about the evolving language of this time; thee, thou, you and your and ye were all used interchangeably during this time. If you've read any plays written during this time-late to middle 1700's, you can see this in the dialogue.

Part 3

When Adam arrived at the rendezvous point, Mac and Dick were nervously waiting; they had all ridden off in different directions but met in a small clearing a bit outside London proper.

"Cap'n, we've been feared that something bad had come to thee," Dick said. "We were just decidin' whether or not to backtrack and see if you were in danger or distress."

"A bit of the all right, Cap'n to see you here," Mac said, obvious relief in his voice.

Adam laughed. "No need to fret over my safety. I come to thee safe and sound." Adam dismounted and held onto Jupiter's reins as the horse was dancing, tossing its head, wanting to run more. Adam would give the steed the chance when he left his two partners and took off for his family's estate.

"Here's the goods, Cap'n-plenty of foldin' bills." Mac handed the bills to Adam. "And here are the jewels." Mac kneeled down and spread the jewelry on the grass. The other two men kneeled down as well. Gosling's silver watch and fob and two necklaces, one with a large pearl pendant and one of garnets in gold, a pair of pearl earrings and a bracelet.

"Think they're paste?" Dick asked. Dick knew that neither he nor Mac would ever be able to tell the difference but Cap'n seemed to know quickly, even in the moonlight. Often women traveled with paste duplicates of their real jewelry so should they be robbed, they wouldn't lose their valuables.

Adam checked them out, rubbing the pearl pendant and the earrings against his teeth. "These be real," he stated.

"That was the salty beauty's," Mac said. This'n and the bracelet were the broad woman's."

Adam looked at the garnet necklace and the bracelet. He pulled out a penknife and scratched the gold that held the garnets and it flaked off revealing a base metal. "The garnets, now they're real but the gold-it's plate. Mac, you have a sweet slut who won't know the difference, right?"

"Right," Mac laughed. "She don't know the difference between me and a gentleman neither." The three men laughed.

"Well, take it and buy some more favor from her. She'll proudly show what her 'gentleman' gave her. Here, Dick, take the watch and fob-buy some pleasure for yourself. I'll take the pearls and the purse. Well-done tonight both of you. Here," Adam handed the folded bills to them. "Divide the bank notes among yourself only be careful not to lose all of it gaming-save some for your old age." The three men stood up and took their share of the jewelry. Adam slipped the pearl jewelry into the pocket of his cutaway jacket.

"Why, thank you, Cap'n, but are thee sure ya won't take more?" Dick asked.

"I'm sure." Adam said, mounting his horse. He tossed the purse in his hand. "I think this is all that Betty Brown requires to let me have at her. She's been crossin' her knees lately wantin' a husband but this purse will uncross 'em. Can you imagine such a thing as holdin' out for that?"

The men laughed. "With a husband, she'll never have the pleasure of a man again and die dried up and wizened if she keeps that attitude," Mac said and the men laughed again.

"God be wi' ye two," Adam said as he turned Jupiter's head toward home.

"Cap'n," Dick said, "when shall we meet again?"

"Don't worry," Adam said. "I know where to find you both." And with a quick wave of his hand, Adam rode off into the darkness.

"He's a strange, amazin' bloke," Dick said. "I can't understand him but I suppose it's nay necessary as long as he leads us on a successful adventure. I do wish he'd take more for his share though. He risks his life as much as we."

"I know," Mac said. "Now, let's divide the bills and then be off to the Red Griffin. I'm in for a night of drinkin', gamblin' and whorin'-all in the order."

The men laughed again, divided the money and took off together for London.

Adam nudged the stable boy with the toe of his boot. The boy slowly woke up and when he saw that it was Master Adam Cartwright, he jumped up.

"Rub the sleep outta your eyes, Tom, and take care of me horse," Adam said, "and if I find that you haven't tended to him properly, I'll use the horsewhip on your arse. Understand?"

"Aye, sir, I understand." And the boy took Jupiter by the reins and having a great deal of respect for the horse, having been nipped more than once, he gingerly unsaddled the horse and began the rubdown having put oats and straw in the raised trough so that the horse's teeth would be too occupied eating to take a chunk out of his buttocks.

Adam entered the hall of the mansion and Hop Sing, the butler, came to the door.

"Father angry," Hop Sing said, taking Adam's hat and jacket. "Velly angry Mistah Adam."

"Isn't he always," Adam said. "I assume he's in his study."

"Yes," Hop Sing said. "I go turn down Mistah Adam's bed."

"Hop Sing," Adam said. "There's a necklace and earrings in my jacket pocket. Put them on my dresser before you take my jacket to brush it."

"Yes, Mistah Adam." Hop Sing never questioned Adam about his comings or goings, he just did what he could to help the son of Lord Cartwright. But then Hop Sing had picked up hints and clues that Adam had some nefarious activities and Hop Sing was familiar enough with that aspect of life that he knew ignorance was bliss as Adam oft quoted.

"Oh, and there be also a small purse," Adam said. "It's yours-pay off your Fan T'an losses before we find you hanged by your queue."

Hop Sing smiled and bowed slightly. "Thank you, Mistah Adam." And Hop Sing headed up the stairs. Adam smiled and shook his head. Hop Sing's hair was incongruous with his butler uniform. In every way he dressed like the gentleman's butler he had come to be and even wore a small powdered wig but he kept his queue hanging out the back and in the evenings, Hop Sing slipped on his Chinese slippers; the tight, high-heeled, buckled leather shoes pinched his feet, he complained.

But Hop Sing did rule the upstairs' servants with an iron hand although they complained amongst themselves about the "heathen Chinee" giving them orders but Lord Cartwright was exceptionally fond of Hop Sing, telling the house staff when he introduced Hop Sing to them, as having once saved his life.

It had been quite a few years ago that Lord Benjamin Cartwright was returning from Alsford and took a shortcut through the Chinese section of London, the Limehouse area. He was riding his horse and trying to avoid meeting the curious eyes of the Chinese workers who looked at him suspiciously; they didn't see many of the odd looking Anglos in their area and wondered what his business was. As Ben's horse nimbly made its way among the carts rolling over the pavers, it's ears twitching back and forth nervously at all the shouts from the people and the squawking and grunting of all the animals waiting to be butchered, the horse slipped its shoulder when it stepped on some slimy offal that had fallen from a cart earlier in the street and down the horse went, rider and all.

Ben's hat had flown off and he cracked his head on the pavers. The horse quickly recovered but was nervous and anxious and took off down the narrow street, the people shouting at it as it knocked over carts and stalls. A wooden cage of chickens was smashed in the horse's escape and chickens went loose and everything was chaos. The vendors blamed Ben and they began to throw their vegetable refuse at him and as he moaned, trying to regain his senses, the people became braver and decided they would take the money from him to pay for their damages.

Ben felt hands grab at him and lift him up by the lapels-then suddenly, they dropped him. Ben glanced up and a bandy-legged Chinese man was shouting warnings to them in Chinese and brandishing a cleaver. When the crowd stepped far enough away, the man helped him up and sat Ben on a stool in his stall where he had been butchering pigs and chopping them to sell the sections-people who couldn't afford a whole pig could pay a few coins for a hindquarter or pig head.

The Chinese man's name was Hop Sing, Ben discovered, and he spoke pidgin English. He had arrived in England three years ago he told Ben. He had been hired on as a sailor for the East India Trading Company and that was how he had learned English. Hop Sing made Ben sit and he went out to find Ben's horse and returned with it even though Hop Sing didn't care much for horses. He only had experiences with oxen; they were more placid and with their nose ring, easier to lead.

Ben, still stunned and still suffering from a pain in his head from the fall, thanked the small man with the friendly, broad face and rode home. He told his three sons, Adam, Joseph and Erick, about his fall and then it occurred to him when Adam asked if he had rewarded the Chinese man, that he had given nothing to the man. So the next day, accompanied by Adam, his oldest son at sixteen, Ben returned to Chinatown and gave Hop Sing 20 pence and after talking to him, invited Hop Sing to accept a position in his household. So the next day, Hop Sing arrived at the Cartwright estate, all his belongings wrapped in a piece of cloth and after starting as an assistant to the cook-which didn't work out well-Hop Sing became a footman and within a few years, Hop Sing had worked his way to butler. He had now been with the Cartwrights for twenty years and he knew the family as well as if they were his own.

So Adam stood outside his father's study, his hand on the latch. "I should've gone on to town and not come home 'til the cock crow," he thought to himself, But he hadn't so he pressed the latch and went inside to face his father.