The Man Who Was Jekyll and Hyde by Rick Wilson Page B

Dent sealed orders from the owners, in which he was instructed to change course from a direct path to Leith and make straight across the North Sea for Ostend, where ‘Mr Dixon’ was to be landed.
    The couple’s feeling about this could well be imagined, but they had little choice but to shrug off this further delay to their homeward voyage, and they would even then do ‘Mr Dixon’ a parting favour (that would ultimately backfire on him and have a serious effect on his future). As it happened, the weather was rough with cross winds, the ship failed to make Ostend and headed instead from Flanders to Flushing (Vlissingen) in The Netherlands.
    What was that fateful favour? Having arrived at their unexpected destination on 8 April, the Geddeses were all set to say their farewells to ‘Mr Dixon’ – as he again boarded the skiff, to take him and his large trunk back to the ship’s original destination of Ostend – when he handed them three letters with the request that they deliver them on their arrival in Edinburgh. These were addressed to his mistress Anne Grant, of Cant’s Close; Michael Henderson, stabler in the Grassmarket; and his brother-in-law Matthew Sheriff, upholsterer in Edinburgh. The Geddeses warily agreed to do this as they waved their newfound friend goodbye.
    But why were the letters so fateful? Simply because, not long after he got home, it became clear to John Geddes, on reading newspapers and listening to local gossip, that their friend was surely the sought-after Deacon Brodie; when, after three weeks of prevarication (was he wondering about related rewards?), he eventually turned the letters over to the authorities, in the shape of the sheriff, it was noted not only that he had already opened them but also that they gave fairly clear clues as to Brodie’s likely whereabouts. So no more time would be lost in setting off to find him again.
    By now, the Brodie hunt had become not just national – with many British ports on the look-out for him – but international, which threatened to thwart his plan to make his American getaway unnoticed from the other side of the North Sea. Details of his progress, locations and circumstances revealed by the letters were instantly despatched to the authorities in London, and the Secretary of State, Lord Carmarthen, at once contacted Sir John Potter, the British consul at Ostend, who in turn informally appointed a ‘detective’ with special knowledge of the case to set off in hot pursuit. He was one John Daly, an Irishman resident in Ostend, who knew that – after being in the town for about two months – Brodie had left Ostend and was on his way to Amsterdam.
    This intelligence was based on Daly being a tenant of John Bacon, an English vintner in Ostend who met Brodie on 4 June when he came seeking company and advice, armed with a letter from the Endeavour ’s captain, which read:

    Dear Friend
    The bearer, John Dixon, was going passenger with me to New York but, being taken sick, had a desire to be landed at Ostend. Therefore, I recommend him to your care, being a countryman and a stranger; on my account, I hope you’ll render him every service in your power. In so doing, you will oblige your most humble servant,
    John Dent

    The burly Irishman had not only seen the note but had also witnessed Bacon advising the Scottish visitor that, as there were plenty of ships leaving Amsterdam with goods, including weapons, to replenish America’s post-Declaration of Independence skirmishes against the British, he would ‘very easily’ find a berth there to take him across the Atlantic.
    It was when the authorities made some close-focused local enquiries that it became clear to both Bacon and Daly that the Scottish stranger they had been talking to was probably not John Dixon but the fugitive suspect William Brodie. It also became clear to them that there was a considerable reward payable on his