Cruel Captain Cunningham #1

Scott O’Dell’s Cruel Captain Cunningham is still looking for Sarah Bishop.  This travel bug wants to follow Sarah Bishop’s path as she wanders up and down the mountain between Ridgefield and North Salem, visit other caches dedicated to her memory (e.g., The Legendary Hermitess), and visit caches frequented by the Leatherman, who stayed in Sarah Bishop's cave.

Sarah Bishop, the Legendary Hermitess of Ridgefield, lost her family and home in Long Island during the revolutionary war when Patriots burned it to the ground. For over 30 years she lived in a small cave on a mountain between North Salem and Ridgefield. Periodically she walked into both towns for supplies and to attend church.

Scott O’Dell’s Cruel Captain Cunningham is still looking for Sarah Bishop.  This travel bug wants to follow Sarah Bishop’s path as she wanders up and down the mountain between Ridgefield and North Salem, visit other caches dedicated to her memory (e.g., The Legendary Hermitess), and visit caches frequented by the Leatherman, who stayed in Sarah Bishop's cave.

From Scott O’Dell’s novel, Sarah Bishop:

Captain Cunningham took a knife from his desk. He stood up and came around the desk. He glared at me. His eyes were red-rimmed and looked like two little onions that had been boiled a while in port wine.

“This is the weapon you used,” he said, thrusting the knife toward me. “Do you recognize it?”

“I didn’t slash the buckets, sir. I couldn’t have. I don’t have the strength. It was one of the men, a man twice my size. He dropped the knife at my feet and fled into the crowd. I picked it up.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, sir. I thought it was valuable, I guess.”

“Preposterous!” Captain Cunningham snorted, pausing to take a pinch of snuff. “Your brother is a rebel and so you are a rebel. The more I think, the more I am convinced that it is you who set the fire in the first place.”

He took my chin in his hand. I drew away but he caught my arm.

“You set the fire,” he said, “did you not? Tell the truth or it will go hard with you.”

He wore gold rings with colored stones. The lace on his shirt front gave off a sweet odor. His hands looked pudgy but they were strong. My arm hurt where he grasped it.