John Drake - Skull and Bones

"Come aboard, shipmate," said Silver, indicating a chair at their table.

Which they soon regretted because he delivered a monologue on the war that was coming against France and Spain: an unremarkable prospect to Flint and Silver, who'd grown up among such wars, but the angry gentleman was fearfully anxious for the thirteen English American colonies:

"Consider," he said, "French Canada lies to our north – a despotic, military state – while the vast Spanish empire lies to our south!" He went on at length, especially about forest warfare and the Indian allies of the French. It was all very tedious, but then Flint picked up a certain drift in his conversation.

"Tell me, sir," said Flint, "do these Indians use the musket or the bow? I mean the bow as in 'bow and arrow'." He repeated two of these words, slurring them together as if they were one: "bow-as…"

The big man said nothing, but his lips shaped the word: Boaz…

"I think you have square-ly hit the mark, sir," he said.

"I shake your hand on it, sir," said Flint, and held out his hand.

Silver frowned. Something was going on. Something secret. He watched as Flint and the other made a pantomime of holding their grip, and smiling little smiles. Then Silver saw the big man look at him, then raise his eyebrows at Flint, and Flint shake his head.

No, he was saying. Whatever it was the silly sods thought they were, he – John Silver – wasn't one! Secret bloody signs! Silver was fuming. It was just one more piece of shit from Flint!

"So," said the big man, "I welcome you to Alexandria, for I should inevitably have met you before, had you not been newly arrived."

Flint gave another little smile.

"I am Joseph Garland of the schooner Sea Serpent," said Flint, "And this is my friend, Mr… ah… Bristol. We are merchants and seafarers."

"Mr Bristol!" said the big man, shaking Silver's hand.

"And who are you, then?" said Silver, rudely.

"I am Washington. Colonel George Washington of the Virginia Regiment."

Afternoon, 6th April 1754 Alexandria Virginia

So what the buggeration is sodding masonry?" said Silver, as he and Flint walked along the wharf to where their boat was moored.

"It's a piece of nonsense that some take seriously," Flint sneered. "The pope takes it so seriously as to forbid it."

"And what might that mean?" said Silver. "And what was you a-doin' of, with that Washington, with funny words and handshakes?"

"I'll show you," said Flint, and looked around. "Come over here -" He found a quiet spot among some bales and casks. The two men stopped and looked at one another.

"Huh!" said Silver, for they didn't do a lot of gazing into one another's eyes: not them, not John Silver and Joe Flint!

"Pah!" said Flint, as he looked up at Silver's big, plain face. "Give me your hand," he said, "Go on!"

Silver clasped his hand, and felt Flint's thumb pressing the first knuckle-joint of his first finger.

"That's Boaz," said Flint. "The grip of the Entered Apprentice."

"Hoss shite!" said Silver.

"Wait!" said Flint, and pressed his thumb into the space between Silver's first and second knuckles. "And that's Shibboleth, which is…"

"Which is bollocks!" said Silver, and pulled his hand away, and Flint's face darkened and the two fell to shouting at one another, and drew back, gasping and panting… well knowing why they must stick together.

"So what is it?" said Silver, fighting to be civil.

"It's a secret society," said Flint, "with exalted moral aims. And they recognise one another by special words and signs."

"And what do you know about it? Are you one of 'em?"

"Not I! But you know I was with Anson on his circumnavigation?"

"Aye. For you never cease to boast of it!"

"Huh! Well, I was master and commander aboard of Spider."

"So?"

Flint smiled. It was a nasty smile, and Silver's spine prickled, for he was looking at the old, mad Flint returned – plain as day – in all his wicked spitefulness.

"My first lieutenant was a man called Sam Higgins," said Flint. "He was a mason, like Anson and all his blasted clique, but he was the only one aboard Spider…" Flint's eyes half- closed as he remembered those times. He shook his head. "Poor Sammy! He never was fit for the sea life… So we played with him a little."

"Did you now!"

"Yes. Myself and the other officers. He was different, you see… delicate."

"Huh!"

"I suppose we made his life something of a misery."

"By thunder, I'll bet you did an' all!"

Flint laughed.

"Yes. We pressed him in various ways, for the secrets of…The Craft."

"Masonry?"

"Yes. And we got it all out of him in the end. All the rituals. All the secrets."

"But what is it? A religion?"

Flint frowned. He puzzled.

"I don't know. I could never make up my mind."

"So what do they do? Where did they come from?"

"Well," said Flint, "they meet in lodges. They hold ceremonies…" He shrugged. "The thing is about forty, years old, and started in London."

"And has it come out to the colonies?"

"Oh yes! Look at Colonel Washington."

"Ah!" said Silver. "He's cock o' the walk, that one, and no mistake!"

"He is indeed," said Flint. "It falls out of his conversation at every word. He is a senior officer of the Virginia Regiment, and is intimately connected in colonial society… and… therefore, through my knowledge of free-masonry I think that I… we" said Flint, seeing the look on Silver's face, "we… may become equally well connected."

"Meaning what?"

"I don't know," said Flint. "But we're here for a while, to rest and re-fit…"

"Aye," said Silver, "the crew's buggered. We're here for weeks."

"So… let's see what fortune brings. Fortune and Mr Washington."

"Aye," said Silver, and they set off again towards their boat. But just as they were settling in the stern, a thought came to Silver. "What happened to your Mr Higgins? Did he come safe home with Anson, or did the scurvy get him?"

Flint shook his head.

"No. Not little Sammy." He tried to stifle a laugh.

"Well?" said Silver.

"One night… he put on all his masonic regalia… and jumped over the side."

"You mean you pushed him," said Silver.

"No," said Flint, "there wasn't the least need for that."

In the next few days they met Colonel Washington again, several times. Him and others who were important men in the colony: planters, councillors, soldiers and others, of whom a surprising number were, like Washington, in the Craft. Silver soon left Flint to talk to these initiates, disgusted by the nods and winks and little signs that they kept flashing at one another, just as if it weren't clear for any man to see: any man who wasn't Blind Pew!

But even Silver saw that business ashore was thereby eased, and prices fell, and smiles were given and hats raised when Mr Garland and Mr Bristol walked through the town. In return, Colonel Washington and a few friends, some of the leading men of Alexandria, were welcomed aboard Walrus – which is to say Sea Serpent – and the ship and her people turned out for inspection, and the side piped and three cheers were given by all hands, as best they could in their current spent condition.

"Splendid!" said Washington, as he was introduced to the ship's officers. "If it weren't for an anxious mother," he said, "I'd have been a seaman myself and in His Majesty's navy!"

"Oh?" they said politely, as if the Royal Navy were their model and ideal.

"Indeed! For my brother had secured me a berth as a midshipman with a ship a-waiting to receive me." He smiled. "But my poor mother shed tears, and I was but a lad, and so I remain a landman still!"

Later, in the stern cabin, over a few glasses, Washington and his friends comprehensively bored Flint and Silver with an account of the colony's plans to expand inland, via the Ohio valley and the great rivers that flowed in the vast interior.