Mandie Collection, The: 8 (24 page)

“Joe, maybe you should just keep watching for a brown shirt and deerskin jacket as we walk through the woods,” Mandie said as he walked by her side.

“That’s a good idea. I can keep my rifle handy in case we run into trouble,” Joe agreed. He put his rifle across his shoulder, straightened up, and kept looking in every direction as they proceeded up the mountain.

After a while the tiresome climb up the mountain ended on a level cliff of rock. Uncle Ned motioned for everyone to stand still.

“Now we see everywhere,” he told them. He waved his hands around.

“I can see lots from up here, but where are we, Uncle Ned?” Joe asked.

“Almost to top of mountain. Then we go down other side,” the old man explained. “Look now for wagons. Look for Dimar.” He again motioned all around them as he turned.

At that moment a shot rang out through the woods. Everyone jumped.

“Down!” Uncle Ned told them as he quickly stooped down.

Mandie sat down on the rock and hugged Snowball tightly. He was about to act up, and she didn’t want him making any sound that some enemy might hear. And she was sure that shot must have come from an enemy, although she had no idea as to what direction it had been fired from or how near it had come to them.

Joe knelt on the rock beside Uncle Ned and held his rifle ready. The old man drew an arrow out of his bag in case he needed to shoot with his bow.

Everyone was silent, even Snowball. Mandie couldn’t hear another sound in the woods, and she wondered if the person who shot the rifle was silently creeping up on them. She was afraid and didn’t want her friends to know it, so she rubbed her face on Snowball’s white fur, which also kept him quiet.

After a few minutes, Uncle Ned looked at the young people and said, “No more shots. We go, but we keep ready, watch, listen, see anything moves in woods.” He slowly stood up, balanced the pouch
holding his bow and arrows on his shoulder, and all the time he kept watching the woods around them.

The young people silently followed him over the rock and up the last slope to the tip of the mountain, continuing to watch the ground for tracks. They didn’t hear another sound.

Just as they reached the summit, another shot rang out, causing the three to stumble over each other as they tried to get down out of sight in the bushes nearby. Uncle Ned stooped down and readied his bow. This time he aimed and shot. Mandie could hear a singing sound as the arrow flew through the air into the woods beyond them.

“Did the shot come from the woods over there?” Joe asked. “Should I fire my rifle?”

“No, not yet,” Uncle Ned answered as he kept looking in the direction his arrow had taken. “Enemy not know we have rifle. They come closer. We surprise them.”

Joe silently agreed. He held his rifle ready.

“Look!” Mandie whispered, pointing above them. “I see someone in a white shirt up there.”

Everyone looked in that direction. Joe turned his rifle that way. Uncle Ned squinted his black eyes and silently watched as the person with the white shirt slowly moved to their left on the crest of the hill.

They were too far away to be sure, but Mandie thought it was a man, a tall man at that and not very heavy, but she couldn’t tell whether the person was white or Cherokee. While she was debating this in her mind, the person suddenly slipped and slid down some rocks.

Uncle Ned immediately jumped up and raced up the hill toward the person. Joe followed with his rifle.

Mandie looked at Sallie and asked, “Should we go, too?”

“No, we might get in their way. We stay here,” Sallie said from where she had sat down on the ground.

Mandie, afraid to stand up, crawled over to her friend, holding the white cat’s leash firmly in one hand. “Could you tell who it was?” she asked.

“Too far away,” Sallie replied.

The girls watched as Uncle Ned and Joe overtook the person on the cliff. There was a scuffle during which Mandie held her breath, but
then she could tell that Uncle Ned had succeeded in tying the person’s hands behind their back. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Mandie and Sallie were so intent on watching the scene above, they were suddenly frightened speechless as someone approached them from behind.

Mandie instantly turned around and then burst into laughter. “It’s Dimar!” she said, getting up to meet him as he came through the bushes.

Dimar was a tall, good-looking Cherokee boy, about Joe’s age, and he had been Mandie’s secret admirer from the first time he had seen her a long time ago. At least he thought he had kept it a secret, but Mandie knew every time she looked at him. And it made a problem for her because she believed Sallie was secretly interested in Dimar. And Sallie was her best Cherokee friend.

He reached for Mandie’s hand, squeezed it, then did the same to Sallie’s. “What are you girls doing here?” he asked.

They both tried to explain at once, and when he finally understood, he looked up the hill. Uncle Ned and Joe were bringing the person down toward them.

“Do you know who that is?” Mandie asked him as the three continued watching.

“No, he is not Cherokee,” Dimar replied, frowning.

As Uncle Ned and Joe got down to them, Mandie could see the man was white and probably not much older than Joe. He was wearing a white shirt and brown pants. Evidently he had been carrying a rifle because Uncle Ned now held a rifle in his hand.

When they finally approached the girls, Mandie could also see that the man’s hands were tied behind him. She looked at Dimar to see if he recognized the man. He shook his head at her.

“This man shoot,” Uncle Ned explained. “Say shoot for rabbit, but we say he shoot at us.” He turned to Dimar and said, “Good we find you. Know this man?”

“No, Uncle Ned, I’ve never seen him before,” Dimar replied. “But maybe he knows something about the stolen wagons.”

Joe spoke up. “He said he would tell us what he knows if we will let him go. So we brought him down here to talk.”

“What do you know about the wagons?” Dimar asked. “I ain’t had nuthin’ to do with your wagons, or whatever it is that
you’ve got missing,” the man sputtered in anger as Joe kept his rifle pointed at him.

“Then how can you tell us something about the wagons?” Mandie asked.

The man quickly looked at her and said, “I ain’t had nuthin’ to do with stealin’ no wagons.”

“Then how do you know about the stolen wagons?” Dimar asked.

“I ran across this tall Injun man looking for stolen wagons back down the mountain,” the man stuttered as he evidently tried to think of an answer that would be satisfactory.

“And who was this Indian man? Why did he talk to you about stolen wagons?” Dimar demanded.

“Said his name was something like Jessie, and said he lives at Deep Creek and someone stole his wagon and two more,” the man told them.

“Jessan,” Mandie said.

“Yes, Jessan’s wagon was stolen,” Dimar agreed. Looking at the man, he asked, “Where were you yesterday? And last night?”

“I walked over the mountain yesterday, and last night this here fella at some kind of schoolhouse or something that I came across let me sleep inside his building where he lived. I left before daylight and been walking ever since,” the man told them.

“Riley O’Neal,” Mandie said, looking around the group.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Where are you from? Where are you going?” Joe asked.

“I come from Tennessee. I’m on my way to Georgia,” the man said.

“Why are you going to Georgia?” Mandie asked.

The man instantly turned his attention to her. He smiled and Mandie thought he was not bad looking and didn’t look like a crook. Maybe he was not guilty of a crime.

“I’m looking for work. Can’t find nuthin’ to do in Tennessee and hear tell there’s jobs on farms in Georgia,” the man explained.

Mandie noticed that everyone was looking at everyone else. She was sure they were trying to decide what part of the man’s story was true, because that’s exactly what she was doing. And she felt he was telling the truth.

Finally Uncle Ned said, “You go on over mountain with us. Then we let you go on to Georgia. But must behave.”

“I will. I promise,” the man said, his blue eyes lighting up with relief.

Everyone looked at Uncle Ned as though to question his decision. The old man nodded and said, “White man not need three wagons. We let him go.”

“I believe you are right, Uncle Ned,” Dimar agreed. “Besides, whoever stole the wagons didn’t even steal a single horse, so how could this man drive a wagon without a horse?”

“Thank you,” the young man told Dimar. “I may be a bum, but I ain’t no thief.”

“Now, we take off rope but must keep walking with us. We have bow and arrow and rifles,” Uncle Ned warned him as he walked over to untie the rope holding the man’s hands.

“Thank you again,” the man said, rubbing his wrists.

“You must have a name. What is it?” Mandie asked.

The man smiled at her again and said, “My name is Beethoven Jones.”

Everyone laughed.

“I suppose you were named after the famous Beethoven,” Mandie queried.

“Yes, my mother was a famous concert pianist in New York before she married my pa,” the man explained.

“My grandmother is making me learn to play the piano at school, and I haven’t decided whether I like it or not,” Mandie remarked as the group started moving ahead. Then she became aware of her friends’ silent stares and decided to say no more.

Uncle Ned led the group up over the mountain. From there Mandie could see a road below winding through the trees. The old man pointed as he said to the man, “Here is your rifle. We trust you not shoot us.”

“I wouldn’t ever shoot anyone, mister, honest. Thank you,” the man said, bowing as he took his rifle from Uncle Ned. “But I do need something to eat. Is it all right with you if I shoot a rabbit?”

Uncle Ned opened the pouch he had been carrying on his shoulder with his bow and arrows and pulled out the remains of the food they had had at noon. “Take,” he told the man, holding it out to him wrapped in a napkin. “Better than rabbit. Cooked. Not raw.”

The man was overwhelmed with Uncle Ned’s kindness. He bent and kissed the old man’s hand as he accepted the food. “Thank you, sir, thank you,” Beethoven said, and looking toward the sky, he added, “And thank you, my dear Lord, for taking care of me.”

Mandie felt tears rise in her eyes as she realized they had almost made a big mistake. The man certainly was not a criminal, and she was so glad they had the food to give him. She stepped forward, took the man’s hand, and said, “I have a special verse that I always say when I’m in trouble or scared or worried, if you would like to use it, too.”

“Oh certainly, miss,” Beethoven told her.

“It goes like this, ‘What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.’ And after you say it, you will feel better and everything will work out,” she promised him.

“ ‘What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee,’ ” the man repeated. “Thank you again. I will always remember that.”

The group stood there watching the man disappear down the side of the mountain, eating out of the napkin as he went. Mandie felt happy that they had done a good deed.

CHAPTER SEVEN

WHERE IS MR. SMITH?

After the stranger went on his way, Uncle Ned decided it was time for Mandie and Joe to return to the Woodards’. The sun was setting behind the mountain and darkness would soon come.

“Time you go home,” Uncle Ned told Joe as they stood on the top of the mountain. “I take you back to get cart, then I go with Dimar to look more for wagons.”

“I wish we could stay longer,” Joe replied. “But I know my mother will be awfully put out if we don’t get back in time for supper.”

“Maybe we could meet up with y’all tomorrow and help look some more,” Mandie said. Turning to Sallie, she asked, “Will you be at the school tomorrow?”

“No, I do not go tomorrow,” Sallie said.

“I just thought about something,” Joe told Uncle Ned. “Remember that Mr. O’Neal said he might meet up with us at the river. I wonder if he went and waited there?”

“Me and Dimar, we go see,” Uncle Ned told him. “We take Sallie home first.” He looked at Dimar and asked, “How you come to mountain?”

“My horse is tied up down by Red Bird’s house, where you left your wagon,” Dimar explained. “That’s how I found you. Red Bird told me you came up this way.”

“So Red Bird did see us,” Mandie said, smiling at Uncle Ned.

“Yes, he always see,” the old man agreed.

“Can we help look again tomorrow, Uncle Ned?” Mandie asked.

Uncle Ned nodded and said, “Meet at schoolhouse early. My house too far. I bring Sallie. Dimar come, too.”

Everyone agreed, and they all went to Dimar’s house to get Joe’s cart. There they said good-bye, and Joe and Mandie headed for the Woodards’ house.

“Do you think we’d have time to go by and see if Mr. Jacob Smith is home?” Mandie asked as they traveled down the road. Snowball was asleep in her lap.

“Sure, we can stop by for a minute,” Joe agreed, loosely holding the reins as the horse pulled the cart.

They soon approached Mandie’s father’s house, where Mr. Smith lived, and Mandie said in disappointment, “I don’t see any smoke coming out of the chimney. I’m afraid he’s not home.” She felt really frustrated. Where was Mr. Jacob Smith? Were they never going to catch him at home?

Joe turned the cart down the lane to the house. “Let’s look in the barn first to see if his horse is there,” he said, halting the cart by the barn and jumping down.

Mandie held tightly to Snowball, who was awake now, stepped down, and followed Joe to the barn door. “No horse! Oh shucks!” The barn was empty.

“I don’t understand why we can’t catch up with him,” Joe said, shaking his head as he turned to look at the house.

“Maybe he had some urgent business of some kind and had to go somewhere,” Mandie suggested as she, too, gazed at the house. “I think we ought to go knock on the door just in case he is in the house and the horse is gone for some reason.”

“Yes,” Joe agreed.

They hurried over to the house and went up the front steps. Mandie knocked hard on the door. They listened but only silence greeted them.