Roger's Blade

The party reaches Albany’s headquarters yard with the sealed papers beneath Phillips’s coat and the flour, powder, meat, and blankets tied fast. Two red-coated sentries; the sentry on the left is a young adult man with a lean build, ruddy skin, a freckled face, and a russet-brown queue beneath his black cocked hat level their muskets across the entry.

The sentries admit them into the yard. Captain Robert Rogers steps from a timber office with Lieutenant James Rogers beside him, both turning their attention to the sealed packet and the travelers.

A regimental surgeon, an elderly man with a narrow face, iron-gray hair, and a dark blue waistcoat, his lean frame also clad in a long gray coat and cream breeches, with a deep scar beside his left eye, his lean frame also clad in a long gray coat and cream breeches, with a deep scar beside his left eye, unwraps the coarse cloth and examines William’s untreated arm beneath the torn sleeve.

William keeps his arm still as the surgeon rinses the wound and applies a clean dressing. The Albany yard murmurs beyond the office, but the treatment is careful and unhurried.

He binds the cloth snugly without drawing William’s arm tight, then ties the knot where it will not chafe beneath the sleeve.

Dr. Mercer gathers his basin and linen. The arm is properly dressed at last, and the sealed orders remain safe with Phillips for the journey onward.

Robert’s eyes narrow at the bundled papers, then flick toward the office where James has been checking the orders. The question has found the proper men, but not yet the proper book.

Robert takes the sealed papers from Phillips and taps the blank space where a rank should stand. He turns them toward James, leaving William’s enlistment open but directing the next step to the formal muster.

James carries the sealed papers across the yard to a trestle table beneath the office awning. Robert follows, bringing the muster book and a quill.

James opens the book and writes William Rogers beneath the volunteers, recording Schenectady and his hunting trade. Robert sets one finger beside the blank rank line.

James turns the book toward William and places the quill across the page. Robert remains beside the table, already watching him as a prospective ranger rather than a traveler.

William reaches for the quill, but it remains in Lieutenant James Rogers’s fingers across the table. His hand finds only the rough page, and the rank line stays unmarked.

The explanation does not make the cramped attempt at a signature legible. James studies the uneven strokes, then keeps the quill beside the open roll.

Robert taps the blank beneath the failed strokes. James turns the book toward a wider space and reaches for the ink, leaving the choice of a witnessed mark or a delayed signature before William.

James lifts the quill from the table and places it in William’s hand, then slides a scrap of muster paper beside the open roll. Robert watches in silence.

William practices the letters slowly, using the firm grip and measured control his veteran father drilled into him for musket work. Ink gathers at the nib as the minutes pass.

The final attempt settles into a rough but readable William Rogers. James compares it with the written entry, then turns the roll toward Robert and marks the signature witnessed.

James records the signature and date, but the long practice has delayed the muster. The inked name is secure, while the exact terms still await his reading aloud.

James lends William the quill and sets a fresh scrap beside the muster roll. The ink smells sharp beneath the awning as the afternoon yard carries on around them.

William braces his wrist and guides the quill with the measured pressure his father taught him for musket drills, correcting each letter without rushing.

He writes the name again, rough but clear. The practiced hand holds steady through the final stroke, proving the soldier’s discipline useful beyond the firing line.

William holds the quill with the steady pressure his father taught him for musket drills. He sets his witnessed mark beside the readable name, accepting the discipline as firmly as he would take a firing position.

James writes the rank clearly into the roll and sands the fresh ink. Robert places his finger beside the entry, while the completed mark fixes William’s enlistment among the company’s volunteers.

James closes the muster book over the completed entry. Robert turns toward the equipment shed, already preparing to show the newly enlisted ranger what the company can issue before the next order is called.