Mandie Collection, The: 8 (12 page)

“Inside?” Joe exclaimed. “There is nothing inside that house, I’m sure. I imagine the floors inside are even gone.”

“We could go look through a window,” Mandie suggested as Snowball squirmed on her shoulder, wanting down. She started forward and then waited for Joe to join her. “Are you coming?”

“Oh, Mandie, I’ll go with you, but you can see there’s nothing left of this house,” Joe protested as he walked along with her to a window opening on the side.

“Look!” Mandie exclaimed, sticking her head through the opening and pointing inside. “Someone has been here. And the floor in this room at least is not caved in.” There was a stack of quilts in a far corner.

“Evidently someone has been camping out here,” Joe agreed as he, too, looked through the window. He straightened up and stepped back. “Mandie, they could be outlaws for all we know. We shouldn’t go poking around here. It might be dangerous if someone saw us.”

Mandie turned to walk over to the pathway toward the back. “They’ve been using this trail through the bushes. Let’s go see where it goes,” she told Joe.

“Mandie, we really ought to get going if we’re to find my father.”

Mandie quickly walked down the pathway that had been cleared
recently and found it took her directly to the back door and then seemed to branch off into the thick bushes at the back of the yard. The back porch was in better shape than the front porch, and she went up the three steps onto it and hurried to the back door that was shut. She tried the doorknob and was surprised when it turned easily and the door swung open without the slightest creak.

“Joe, come on,” she said as she stepped through the doorway.

“Mandie,” Joe protested but followed her.

They were in what had evidently been the kitchen. There was a crude table and two cracker barrels pulled up to it for chairs. Tin plates and eating utensils were on the table. A bucket of water stood on a shelf in a corner. On another shelf at the far side was food in bags and jars.

“Hmmm!” Joe murmured as he looked around. “Someone is definitely staying here, and I think we’d better get out before they come back.” He looked at Mandie.

“Look, Joe, they’ve even rigged up an old quilt on the wall that can be let down over the window,” she said, walking over to the huge rock fireplace. “And they have wood in a pile here in the corner to make a fire.”

“Mandie! Let’s go!” Joe said in a firm voice.

“Wait till I look in the other rooms,” Mandie said, opening a door and finding herself in the front room they had looked at through the broken window. She quickly looked around. There was no other door. The house had only two rooms.

“Mandie, let’s go,” Joe said from the doorway to the room.

“I’m coming,” Mandie replied. She tripped on an uneven floorboard as she turned, and Snowball managed to escape from her arms.

Joe reached out a hand to keep her from falling. “You see, this place is absolutely falling in and is dangerous.”

Mandie quickly looked around for her white cat. He had run across the kitchen and was pawing at a quilt wadded up in the far corner. “Come on, Snowball,” she said, hurrying to capture the cat before he could get away. “Let’s go.” As she bent down to pick him up, his claws hung in the old quilt and dragged it along with him. Mandie pulled at the bedcovering and was about to throw it down when she glimpsed something in the corner where it had been lying. “Joe! There’s something
here!” she exclaimed, holding on to the cat and kneeling to look in the dark corner.

Joe joined her, and he reached forward to pull whatever it was into the light from the window. “Mandie, I do believe this is a bag of ammunition,” he said, opening the dirty bag. “It is! We’d better get out of here fast. Outlaws are probably holed up in this house, and there’s no telling what they would do to us if they found us in here.” He pulled closed the bag, put it back where it had been, and covered it with the quilt.

“Oh, Joe, too late! I hear someone walking outside,” Mandie said in a loud whisper. “Where can we hide?” She gazed around the room and then slipped back into the front room. Joe silently followed. The two crept back into a dark corner and tried to be quiet. Mandie leaned up against something bumpy behind her and felt around in the dim area to see what it was. “Joe, there’s a ladder to the loft here! Come on!” she told him as she turned and quickly began her way up, holding on to Snowball with one arm.

There was a light footstep on the back porch, and Joe immediately scrambled up the ladder behind her.

The loft was dark except for a little light filtering through the holes in the roof. Mandie could see that it was roughly floored, and she moved silently to one side, stooped down, and held Snowball tightly, hoping and praying he would not make a sound.

Joe softly stepped over to join her and sat on the floor.

Mandie bit her bottom lip to keep it from trembling in fear as she tried to see around the dark attic. It was empty. There was not one piece of anything up there that she could see. Therefore, whoever was downstairs would not have a reason to come upstairs, she hoped.

The man downstairs was moving quietly around the room. Mandie heard a faint tinkle that sounded as though the man was moving the tin dishes slightly, and he seemed to be talking to himself, “Oh, where is it?” Then a clatter of a tin plate, or something metal, being dropped, and the man said, “Ah, there it is. I knew I’d find it.”

The two upstairs heard the man close the back door with a loud slam. Mandie scrambled to the opening in the eaves to try to see down in the yard and found the roof of the back porch was outside where they were. She squeezed through the broken boards and managed to step out onto the roof.

“Mandie, what are you doing?” Joe exclaimed softly as he watched.

“Joe, look, the man’s down there!” she exclaimed, looking back at Joe. “And he is the man who came to my house for your father. Quick, Joe, come look!”

Joe hastily pushed through the opening, snagging his coat without noticing it, and looked down into the yard. The stranger was walking toward the bushes at the back, and the two saw him lead out a horse that he was preparing to mount.

“Mandie, are you sure that’s the man who came to your house?” Joe whispered.

“Yes, I can even see the black patch on the knee of his trousers! He’s the same man we saw in the store!” Mandie exclaimed. “Oh, Joe, he’s going to get away!”

The man threw the reins onto a limb nearby and walked back into the underbrush. Mandie and Joe watched, but he had disappeared from sight.

“Where did he go?” Mandie said, mostly to herself, as she clutched Snowball.

The two were practically lying on the roof in order not to be seen, and they listened for the man to return. There was not a sound. Minutes passed, and Mandie was beginning to think the man had just decided to go off somewhere and leave the horse standing there in the yard.

Suddenly the man came back out of the bushes, carrying what looked like a heavy bag this time. He walked over to the horse and fastened the bag onto the saddle, then stepped into the saddle.

Mandie noticed that Joe was sliding his way closer to the edge of the tin roof. She tried to follow him but was afraid Snowball would manage to get loose. “Joe! Don’t get too close! You could fall off!” she cautioned.

Joe looked back at her and whispered, “You are sure this is the same man who came to your house after my father?”

“Yes, he is. I’m positive he is,” Mandie confirmed.

Mandie gasped in horror as Joe suddenly stood up on the very edge of the roof, and when the stranger began moving slowly forward on the horse toward the front of the house, Joe made a diving leap off the porch and landed squarely on top of the stranger on the horse. “Joe!” she screamed.

The man was taken by surprise, and Joe managed to knock him off the horse. Mandie watched, her heart beating so fast she was dizzy, as the two wrestled on the ground and the horse wandered into the bushes.

“Oh, Joe! That man’s twice as big as you! You can’t beat him up!” Mandie cried, her face flooded with tears.

Snowball was loudly protesting her hold on him, and when she reached to wipe her eyes, he managed to wiggle loose. He ran over to the edge of the roof, looked down, and then sailed off the roof and landed on the back of the stranger below.

“Oh, Snowball, he’ll kill you!” Mandie cried, watching as the white cat sank sharp claws into the man’s back, causing him to howl in pain and giving Joe an opportunity to break his grasp.

Mandie, trembling in fright, looked up at the heavens and said, “Oh, dear God, please help us! ‘What time I am afraid I will put my trust in Thee.’ ”

She felt the strength come to her to get to her feet. She raced back across the roof toward the opening to get into the attic and from there to get down to the backyard.

“Joe, I’m coming!” she called as she ran through the house.

CHAPTER TEN

STRANGERS

When Mandie got down to the kitchen, she could see through the open window into the backyard. She came to a screeching halt as she slipped on the uneven floorboards in the kitchen. Realizing the man probably didn’t know anyone else was around, she tried to figure out how she could help Joe.

“The bag of ammunition! It’s heavy, but I think I can carry it,” she declared to herself as she hastily pulled the bag out of its hiding place in the corner. A heavy rope made a drawstring for the bag, and she used that as a handle. The bag felt as though it weighed almost half as much as she did, but she figured she would be able to swing it by the rope.

“And the best way to surprise that man would be to go out the front and come around to the backyard,” she said to herself. She hurried to the front door, straining under the weight of the bag, managed to push the warped thing open, and stepped outside onto the shaky porch. Staying up against the front of the house, just in case the porch fell in, she dragged the bag behind her and then stepped off the end of the porch, straight into a thicket of briars.

“Oh, shucks!” she exclaimed as she worked to get her coat free. She was under such a strain she didn’t even feel the prick of the many sharp points on her legs or on her hands as she pulled them away.

“Now!” she exclaimed to herself as she gave a mighty tug against the briars and stepped into the cleared part of the yard. Wrapping the rope around one wrist, she lifted the heavy bag and slowly made her way to the back of the house.

“Oh no!” she exclaimed under her breath as she peeked around the corner. The stranger had one of Joe’s arms pulled behind him, and Joe was in great pain.

“I’m asking you again. Where is my father?” Joe gasped for breath as he tried to get free.

“I ain’t seen no doctor. You tell me whut you doin’ ramblin’ round here, if you know whut’s good fer you,” the man ordered, giving Joe’s arm a sharp tug.

Joe winced in pain but did not cry out.

Mandie did cry out in pain as she rushed forward, swung the bag into the air, and clobbered the man in the back of the head. The stranger sank to the ground and did not move.

“Oh, Joe!” she cried and rushed to his side where he had sat down on the ground when the man released his hold. He was rubbing his arm and shaking his head.

“Mandie! You conked him out,” Joe managed to say with pain in his voice.

Mandie began rubbing Joe’s hand, glanced at the man on the ground, and asked, “Did I kill him?”

“Mandie, I hope not!” Joe exclaimed. He rotated his arm and added, “I’ll be all right soon as the circulation gets going again.”

The man on the ground groaned. Joe quickly slid over to him and pulled his pistol from his belt.

Mandie watched and said, “Joe, let’s pull the rope out of that bag of ammunition and use it to tie him up.” She ran to drag the bag over near them.

“I’ll have to cut the rope in two to get it out,” Joe said, looking around for something to use.

Mandie gazed around the yard, trying to figure out how she could get the string out of the bag. She saw Snowball over near the porch scratching in the weeds. “Snowball, come here! We don’t want to have to chase you down,” she called to him as she ran to pick him up. Glancing down at the weeds, she spotted something shiny the cat had been pawing at. Stooping down to push the weeds apart, she found a
long, shiny knife. Holding on to Snowball, she stood up and held the knife up for Joe to see. “Look, Joe, look!”

Joe hurried to her, and taking the knife, he said, “That man had this knife in his belt. It must have fallen out in the scramble.”

Mandie had to allow Snowball to get down so she and Joe could cut the rope from the bag. Then they rushed over to the man still lying on the ground. The man surprised them by making a sudden move to rise.

“Stay there!” Joe demanded as he held the knife point toward the man. “Tie his wrists together behind him, Mandie, while I hold the knife.”

“Whut fer?” the stranger asked as he opened his eyes and looked up at Joe.

“We are going to tie your hands up, and you are going to take us to where my father is or I may be tempted to use this knife to prod you on,” Joe told the stranger. “Turn over on your stomach and put your hands behind you. Now! Right now!”

The stranger gave him a surly look but obeyed. Mandie quickly wound the heavy rope around the man’s wrists and tied it in hard knots. It was long enough that she could bring the rope around his waist and tie it again in the back.

“I dunno whut you a-doin’ this fer,” the stranger mumbled as he rolled over with the rope as Mandie pulled on it.

Mandie spotted a chain falling out of the man’s pocket and decided to pull it out. Giving it a quick yank, she was startled to see Dr. Woodard’s gold watch at the end of it. She held it up. “Joe, your father’s watch!” she cried.

Joe quickly moved forward, took the watch, and said, “Man, if you’ve harmed my father, you will pay for it,” he said in an angry voice. “This is my father’s watch, so don’t tell me anymore that you haven’t seen him. Now, where is he?”

The man sputtered for an answer as Mandie finished tying the rope. He managed to sit up on the ground and said, “I won that thar watch in a card game.” His eyes shifted and he wouldn’t look straight at Joe.