Time crawls by at a snail’s pace, but the following morning you hear a familiar voice saying, “Oh, I can flatter almost anything out of old Winder; his personal vanity is so great!” It is Crazy Bet, but she is now dressed in fine silks befitting a prominent member of Richmond society. It seems she has sweet-talked the General into allowing her to visit the hospital patients and she tends to a few others before approaching your bedside. “Good morning, dear sir! It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Elizabeth Van Lew and I am delighted to make your acquaintance.” It is said that Miss Van Lew is a tender hearted lady and regularly visits patients in the hospital.
You fake a wracking cough, and Miss Van Lew places a poultice of peppermint and chamomile on your chest. Leaning close, she begins to ask you about your battle experiences. Between questions, in hushed tones, she makes clear her support of the Union cause: “I will help you escape, and in return you will help us deliver information to the Union generals. Always inspect the items I bring you with great care. I will return in a day or two.”
As promised, Miss Van Lew returns. She has brought you a blanket and a delicious-smelling pie. As your starved hands reach out for the pie, the guards snatch it from you. “Miss Van Lew, we have been instructed to watch you very carefully. We know about your ‘bottom of the tin’ trick, and while we appreciate your desire to comfort the desperately ill, we must inspect everything that you bring in here.” To your utter dismay, the guards “inspect” the pie by eating it. However, while they are distracted, she slips you a small scrap of cloth and a piece of paper. She then bids you goodnight and is gone in a rustle of petticoats.
You resign yourself to another miserable night in this hellhole, but gratefully wrap Miss Van Lew’s blanket around you. When the ward begins to settle for the night, you examine the things that Miss Van Lew gave you. You see that the scrap of cloth has strange markings and the paper is a sort of grid. The paper will have to wait until you find a pencil to work out the mystery of the grid, but you are certain the cloth must hold a message. You examine it carefully.
*Choose the best-related object to the cloth’s message:
