ghbors, found it
somewhat difficult to lay a straight course for home. However, nothing
has been heard of his ghostship of late, and it may be that the
materialistic spirit of the present age, which does not know a ghost
when it sees one, has sent him off to some more happy haunting ground.

[Sidenote: _HESSIAN HILL._]

[Sidenote: _ARNOLD-ANDRE MEETING._]

As the road winds up and over the western slope of Hessian Hill, just
north of Croton Landing, three panoramas follow each other in rapid
succession, all strikingly beautiful. The first two are different
views of Teller's or Croton Point, with Hook Mountain and the
Palisades in the distance, that Teller's Point from whose banks
Colonel Livingston bombarded the Vulture, thereby leading to the
capture of Andre, by this one action saving, possibly, the collapse of
the War for Independence. From a further spur of the same hill comes
into view the broad expanse of Haverstraw Bay with its background of
jagged hills known as Clove Mountain and High Tor, under whose shadow
Arnold and Andre met. Elson's concise and graphic description of this
event is worth quoting as it stands: "On a dark night in September,
1780, Benedict Arnold lay crouching beneath the trees on the bank of
the Hudson a few miles below Stony Point, just outside the American
lines. Presently the plash of oars from the dark, silent river broke
the stillness, and a little boat bearing four men came to the shore.
Two were ignorant oarsmen, who knew not what they did, the third was
the steersman, one Joshua Smith, who lived in the neighborhood, while
the fourth was a young and handsome man who concealed beneath his
great overcoat the brilliant uniform of a British officer. The young
man, Major John Andre, adjutant-general of the British army, was put
ashore, and he and Arnold, who had long been secret correspondents,
spent the night in the dense darkness beneath the trees. Here the plot
to place West Point into British hands was consummated, and at the
coming of dawn Andre did not return, as at first intended, to the
English sloop of war, the Vulture, which was lying in the river
waiting for him, but accompanied Arnold to the house of Smith, the
steersman, a few miles away. Arnold returned to West Point, and Andre
waited his opportunity to reach the Vulture; but shore batteries began
firing on her, and Smith refused to venture out in his little boat."

[Sidenote: _VERPLANCK'S POINT._]

Beyond Hessian Hill