André went up the Hudson that evening in the sloop-of-war _Vulture_, twenty-four, to have the arranged personal interview with Arnold. He was accompanied by Beverly Robinson. The vessel was anchored between Teller's (now Croton) Point and Verplanck's Point, and lay there all the next day. Arnold had agreed to send a boat to the _Vulture_ to convey André to the shore at the appointed time. For that service he had employed Joshua H. Smith, an intimate acquaintance and a gentleman farmer, at whose house Mrs. Arnold had been entertained a few days before, while on her way to join her husband at his headquarters. Smith's house is yet standing, upon an eminence known as Treason Hill, between Stony Point and Haverstraw. It overlooks a picturesque region, with Haverstraw Bay in the foreground. [Illustration: The Smith House.] The place appointed for the meeting of the conspirators was at a lonely spot in a thicket at the foot of Torn Mountain, near the west shore of the Hudson, about two miles below Haverstraw. It was outside the American lines. Smith appeared in a small boat, with two stout oarsmen, at the side of the _Vulture_ at midnight. André was ready to accompany him. He covered his scarlet uniform with a long blue surtout. Clinton had instructed him to have nothing to do with papers of any kind, and he went ashore empty-handed. It was a little past midnight when André was landed on the beach at the mouth of a little creek. He was conducted by Smith to Arnold's place of concealment, and there in the dimmed starlight these notable conspirators, who had long communed through mysterious epistles, met face to face for the first time. At Arnold's request, Smith went back to his boat to await the return of André, who was to be conveyed again to the _Vulture_ before daybreak. The interview was long protracted. It was not ended when the eastern horizon began to kindle with the dawn. Both men were anxious to complete the business at that time. Arnold had two horses with him, one of them ridden by his servant. He now proposed that André should mount his servant's horse and ride with him to Smith's house and there complete the arrangement. The major reluctantly consented to do so, with the understanding that he was to be conveyed to the _Vulture_ as soon as possible. As the two horsemen approached the little hamlet of Haverstraw they were challenged by a sentinel. André was alarmed. He was, unwittingly, within the American lines; but he had gone too far, however, to recede, and they rode on together to Smith's house. By ten o'clock they had finished their business, when Arnold, after handing André some papers containing all needed information concerning the post to be surrendered, departed in his barge for West Point.