Excerpt From
The Artifact Hunter
By
J.T Lewis
Copyright 2013 by J.T. Lewis
March, 1777
New York Colony
The horse’s breath came out in wisps of steam in the early morning light as the man in the red uniform glanced around nervously.
The night had turned cold again, dropping down below freezing after the sunny spring weather of the previous day. Sergeant James Turner pulled his wrap tighter around himself, breathing his hot breath into his gloved fists to try to warm his frozen hands.
“Blimey! Will this trek never end?” he mumbled to himself for the hundredth time.
Turner’s old mare tripped suddenly on a frozen clod of soil. Tensing quickly, the Sergeant gripped his legs tightly around the horse as he pulled back on the reins.
“Whoa Gertrude… steady there old girl.”
Regaining control, Turner glanced to his right, shivering at the thought of dropping into the partially frozen bog beside him.
“Blasted country!” he thought angrily as he tapped his heels into Gertrude’s flank, getting her moving again. Although he was dreadfully cold, James Turner was thankful for the frozen ground below him, preferring it to the slimy mud of the previous day.
Ordered by his Major to make his way north along the Swamp Road for this special mission, he quietly questioned the logic of the plan and the sanity of the officer. The Major had calculated that he would be less likely to be observed in the swamp, but he had to know that this route would take three times as long to traverse.
Didn’t he?
Turner shrugged his shoulders while trying to get comfortable on the saddle. He hadn’t obtained the rank of sergeant by questioning his superior’s orders, but sometimes he wondered why he cared.
The pompous and elitist Royals and their clans’ ruled the Army by the mere fact of their lineage. It was a system that had been in place for centuries, and even God himself couldn’t seem to change that fact Turner thought testily.
His thoughts turned to the colonies and the people that lived within. He now believed that the citizens of this country must be the most determined lot he had ever run across, and he was in awe of their fortitude.
They called themselves Americans, he reflected with a smile, and they had the balls to challenge the King himself!
And don’t forget about the land!
Discounting his current location of course, the abundance of the beautiful and fertile commodity was mindboggling!
When the news had hit that the colonials were seeking independence from the mother country, his whole regiment had laughed at the thought. They had been certain that a quick foray across the Atlantic would quickly squelch such a notion.
So far however, this expedition had been anything but short. Now Turner himself was starting to have second thoughts on the matter.
Maybe these backcountry hill climbers had something going on here after all!
Turner continued to reflect on the vast expanses of farmland that could be had for a fair price, something unheard of in England. He had also noticed the industriousness of the people in the cities, proudly starting their own business and working at it with a fervor that seemed lacking back home.
