Chapter 12

Early the next morning, Mrs. Ridgemont and Father Drew sent Jules out of the city in priest's robes on the train north. There were soldiers all over the station, but Verne was overlooked because of his European French accent. Luckily, the soldier who had fabricated the fake service record had not known that there was a wide divide between Parisian and New Orleans French. Natives of Louisiana were stopped and questioned, but Jules, taken for a newly arrived priest from the old county, boarded the train untouched.

In Harrisburg, or Houston as the townspeople called it, Jules put away the robe to enter town less noticeably. Now on foot, he followed Mrs. Ridgemont's directions to the home of her brother, Jason Singleton, near dusk.

Jason Singleton was a shortish lean man in his late forties but looked much older. The confederate ex-soldier owned a thick stock of silver and sand hair with a long drooping silver brush under the nose of a narrow hard face and piercing blue eyes. Jason Singleton looked hard and struck him as harsh at this first meeting.

Jules met his new host, standing on the porch of his small house with a shotgun in hand before Jules could get within ten feet of the house. Given what Mrs. Ridgemont had said about her brother, he made allowances for four years on some of America's most vicious battlefields. She said come called him Ranger. That was some sort of policing position from before the war. Many also called him captain, his Confederate army rank.

The Singleton home was a small horse ranch that boasted a barn, a fenced in coral and a larger fenced in pasture. His house was a three-room single story log cabin. The main room was a parlor, dining room, and kitchen. The two rooms on either side were bedrooms. One had belonged to his son, who had been killed in the war. A picture of the lost son laid on the mantle of the fireplace. He had looked every bit like his father. There was also a picture of a small Irish looking woman that was later identified as the man's former wife who died of yellow fever three years earlier.

Once Verne was given a chance to introduce himself, and had explained who had sent him to Houston, Mr. Singleton invited him in. Over preparing dinner, the Captain told Verne what his letter to his sister had not said, namely the lies being told about his nephews.

Jules told his own story about having to flee Galveston because of similar falsehoods. He could tell the older man did not like what he heard. "I have to get Matt and Mark out if they are still in Liberty," Jules said. "It is because of the League and their association with me that this is happening."

"What League?" Jason said.

Verne told him all that had happened in England and how the gunrunning during the war had put the boys in their present danger. They shared a meal of beef stew while they talked.

"I knew that would come to no good," Jason said sourly at the end. "Matt Ridgemont should have worked directly with the Confederate Army, like I told him to."

Jason got up from the table to get more coffee. "Don't worry about the boys going to New Orleans soon. The trains aren't up to full service yet. The Yankee Army has a few major lines repaired and going again, but not back to the way it was before the war. When I left Liberty, just three days ago, it was hit hard with yellow fever. No one boards the trains from town. I could only talk to the deputy at the station. Yellow fever has been killing more and more every year, but this year is the worst. That the boys are being kept from everyone in jail is to their benefit."

"I can't just hide here while they are in prison in the middle of an epidemic," Jules said, taking a refill of Jason's strong coffee.

"I can't either and we won't," Jason said. "My nephews aren't going to be strung up by no damn Yankees on trumpeted up charges. I was about to head east to do something about it when you came along. That deputy is all the law Liberty has since her sheriff died. The truth will come out in time, but there is no saying it will come before Matt and Mark are sent on to New Orleans."

After he said that, Jason gave Jules an appraising look. The former Ranger knew a tenderfoot when he saw one. This Frenchman didn't look like he had seen much of the world or of trouble. But Jules Verne seemed earnest about wanting to help.

"Now that you're here, I need to know if you can keep up if you come with me, and if you know how to handle yourself," the older man said. "We can take the train to West Liberty, but we will have to take horses through the marsh the rest of the way. Can you handle a gun, son?"

The only direct question Jason Singleton had asked was the only one Jules could unequivocally say yes to. Jules had never ridden a horse before meeting the Foggs, but could after a fashion with Fogg's lessons. He knew nothing about traveling through swamps. Nonetheless, he thought he could follow this man's lead and had the determination and the experience of being with the Foggs to try. "Yes, sir," Jules said with conviction.

"All right," Jason said, accepting his answer with a smile of approval. "My nephews pick their friends well. We leave for the train tomorrow morning."

Near the same time that evening, the Aurora lowered out of the cloudy night sky over Galveston. Few people were looking up into the late evening sky when she arrived, but two men to the north of the city had been watching. A flare was shot into the breezy night air as a signal.

Passepartout saw the flare fly across the ship's bow as he searched for a field to land in not covered with vicious looking long horned cows.

Phileas saw the arching flare, too. He moved forward to look for its source. On the ground, well away from the city, the lights of a hand-held flare were waved back and forth.

"Land there, Passepartout," Phileas called.

Once on the ground, the occupants of the Aurora and the two American agents met and shook hands. "You ladies look lovelier than I remember," Artemus Gordon said, bowing over Rebecca's and Jessica's hand. "But I must confess to surprise at seeing you, Mrs. Parker."

"I am just coming to visit my mother-in-law in Galveston," Jessica said. "And my name is McAllister now, not Parker."

"Congratulations." Both surprised men said almost in unison.

"You have our best wishes," James West said for them both. "But going to see Mrs. Parker will not be possible. Galveston is under quarantine. This city, New Orleans, and several other towns on the coast have been hard hit with yellow fever. That is why we signaled you to land out here. No one is allowed in or out of Galveston."

"You will have to stay on the Aurora," Phileas said with finality before Jessica thought to go, anyway. "Are we in danger?"

"No more than anyone else," James told him. "As long as you stay away from the cities, you should be fine. Is your friend Jules Verne with you?"

"He is already here in Galveston," Rebecca answered, "at a farm owned by a Mrs. Georgina Ridgemont to the east. He and two Americans students were caught up in the trouble we wired you about. They came back to Texas over a month ago. Gentlemen, we should go inside and tell you more fully about what has been happening in Europe."

After an hour of discussion about the League of Darkness and what had been transpiring over the last month across Europe, the American agents were told about the League's plans to move to this region.

"The weapons shipments have stopped, and as best can be determined, the League can no longer move across the Atlantic," Phileas informed them. "The Prometheus, the League's airship, was found in Prussia under repairs. It was boarded, and all were arrested. The airship now belonged to the Prussian government. The information found in France has been made excellent use of, but it caused political upheaval, as offices, and sometimes entire governments, have changed hands. America is lucky that their move had been discovered before they could become entrenched."

"America has still not recovered from the war or President Lincoln's death," Artemus Gordon said. "It would be hard in this political climate for any outsider to gain much influence. However, it also means that we have been too busy to notice this threat coming. America will be indebted to England over this."

"We can begin our search for the League's new base tomorrow," Rebecca said. "For now, we would like to find out how Verne and the Ridgemont brothers are." She pulled a map of Galveston out of the pile of papers they had been going through and pointed out the Ridgemont farm.

"That is just outside the quarantine area," James said, looking over the map. "We could go there in the morning."

So concerned for Jules, Rebecca requested the use of Agent Gordon's horse for an evening visit, escorted by Agent West.

Riding through the dark, Rebecca found herself more anxious about Jules by the second. The horse's hoofbeats and her heart thundered as they traveled. Having spent over a month in the middle of a yellow fever epidemic was no small matter. The closer they came to the farm, the more unsettled the idea made her. Rebecca had forced herself to hold to the pace Jim West had set for them. All the way she prayed for Verne's health and safety.

They finally arrived at the Ridgemont farmhouse. There were dim lights in a window as they rode up. Even in the dark, Rebecca could tell it was an inviting place. Everything about the outside of the house spoke of a woman's touch. It was a nice, well-tended frame home with a picket fence. Spring roses grew over a trellis on the deep porch, perfuming the air. Inside the fence she saw bed after bed of well-tended flowers. The house had been set close to the road, a short distance outside the city.

Hopefully, that had kept the fever to this door.

They left the horses tied to a post by the road covered with vines and topped with a carving of a horse's head with a large ring in its nose. The visitors were greeted before they touched the gate, even at this late hour. Mrs. Ridgemont came to the door and called out to them. "Who's there?"

"Mrs. Ridgemont?" Rebecca questioned.

"I am Georgina Ridgemont," the older woman said warily to the strange woman in expensive finery. As a farm wife, she did not indulge in fancy dresses of the type this woman was wearing, but a woman knew good quality when she saw it. "If you were turned away from the city by the quarantine and are looking for lodging, I have a cottage behind the house."

"Thank you, but no, you misunderstand," Rebecca said. "We are looking for Jules Verne and your son's. I am Rebecca Fogg from London."

"Oh, my–Please, come in. I have so much to tell you." Mrs. Ridgemont waved Rebecca and James West into the house quickly.