Mandie Collection, The: 8 (30 page)

“Maybe,” Joe agreed. “Remember Uncle Ned said they were going to search the whole mountain?”

“I remember,” Mandie answered. “My time is getting short, and
I want to hurry up and solve all these mysteries before I have to go home.”

“And before I have to return to college,” Joe reminded her.

“I suppose Uncle Ned will keep on searching for the wagons and the mica if we don’t find it before we leave,” Mandie remarked, quickly sipping her coffee. Then looking at Joe she said with a big smile, “I’ll be ready to go as soon as you are.”

After they finished their food, Mandie put the leash on Snowball and picked him up. Joe got his rifle and took the basket of food from Mrs. Miller. They got into Mrs. Woodard’s cart and hurried down the road to the Cherokee schoolhouse.

Uncle Ned and Dimar were already there, talking to Sallie and Riley O’Neal in the doorway of the schoolhouse. Mandie looked inside and saw six Cherokee children sitting at desks. She had let Snowball walk on his leash and he tried to go inside.

Uncle Ned was busy explaining to his granddaughter where they were going so that she and Riley could catch up with them when the school closed. Sallie knew the territory but Riley O’Neal didn’t.

“We will find you,” Sallie called to them as Dimar left his horse tied up under a tree and followed Uncle Ned and got in his wagon. Mandie and Joe got back in the cart. Mandie held the white cat in her lap.

“We go other side of mountain today where we brought down Wirt’s wagon,” the old man explained. He and Dimar had not taken time to look for the other wagons the night before because it was late by the time they had found a way to get the wagon down.

Mandie and Joe followed the old man and Dimar, and they ended up at the foot of the same mountain but in a different place from where they had been yesterday. Uncle Ned pulled his wagon under a shade tree, and he and Dimar jumped down. Joe stopped the cart nearby, and he and Mandie joined them. Snowball insisted on getting down, so Mandie let him walk at the end of his leash.

Suddenly Mandie remembered Mr. Jacob Smith. “Uncle Ned, we didn’t ask if you or Dimar had seen Mr. Jacob Smith anywhere yesterday. He’s still not home,” Mandie explained as the four of them stood by the wagon and cart.

Uncle Ned shook his head. “No, have not seen him.”

Dimar also said, “No, I have not.”

Mandie told them about finding the hen and biddies in Jacob Smith’s
yard. “Do y’all know of anyone who would have brought the chickens to his house and left them?” she asked.

Uncle Ned and Dimar both shook their heads.

“Maybe chickens lost,” the old man suggested, taking his bow and arrows from his wagon.

Dimar was carrying a rifle again, and he shouldered that, ready to go up the mountain.

“Now we go,” Uncle Ned told them, walking toward a trail beyond the wagon.

Mandie picked up Snowball and quickly caught up with him and asked, “Are we all staying together today? We’re not going to split up like we did yesterday, are we?”

Uncle Ned looked down at her and smiled. “We stay together. Quicker.” He walked on and the others followed him.

The trail was not as steep as the one they had traveled yesterday, but it completely disappeared in places and they had to fight their way through bushes and underbrush. Uncle Ned was very thorough and went slow enough to examine smaller pathways on the side from time to time.

Joe walked directly behind the old man and Mandie followed him. Dimar brought up the rear with his rifle. Sometimes Mandie allowed Snowball to walk and sometimes she carried him. She had trouble with him trying to chase after everything that moved in the bushes—squirrels, birds, chipmunks, and unseen inhabitants of the woods.

“I could carry Snowball for a while,” Joe offered as he looked back to see Mandie quickly pulling on the leash to keep Snowball from getting away.

“Thank you, Joe, but you have your rifle. Besides, you need to be free to use it if we run into any trouble,” Mandie replied, picking up the white cat and holding him on her shoulder.

“Joe could carry Snowball and I could shoot my rifle if we have trouble,” Dimar said with a big smile.

“No, no. I thank you both, but I’ll manage,” she said as they walked on.

Mandie noticed that Uncle Ned was not leading them straight to the top of the mountain but was more or less circling around it at various intervals. At some places they had to walk on a steep incline,
with one foot higher than the other, but by speaking firmly to her cat she was able to control him.

Then they came to the place where Uncle Wirt’s wagon had been hidden. Uncle Ned and Dimar had removed the bushes hiding it, and Mandie saw that it was a good-sized clearing with a path leading out of the other side from where they were.

“Now we rest,” Uncle Ned said, walking into the clearing and pointing toward a small waterfall coming out of the side of the mountain. “Water.” He went to it, cupped his hands, and drank.

The others followed, doing likewise. Mandie let Snowball down to drink from the rocks where the water fell. Then they all sat on the grass and relaxed.

“Whew!” Mandie exclaimed. “Feels good to sit down. Uncle Ned, is there a lot more of this mountain to search? Are we almost finished?”

The old man replied, “Top.” He pointed upward. “Few minutes, then go down to wagon. Eat.”

“Eat, that’s a magic word,” Joe said with a big grin.

Mandie looked at Dimar and said, “You know something? We brought loads of food with us today.”

Dimar smiled and said, “Do not need a load, only a little. Too much food will make us lazy.”

“But I need food for strength,” Joe teased. “You are used to climbing all over mountains, and I’ve been citified all this year without a chance to exercise, like following Mandie around on her mysteries.” He turned to grin at Mandie.

“Just think, you only have two more days to follow me, really one day, because Uncle John will be coming for me on Saturday,” Mandie replied, smiling.

Uncle Ned stood up and said, “We go now. Make haste.”

The three followed the old man to the top of the mountain and then all the way back down to the wagon and the cart without finding any clues whatsoever to the missing wagons or the mica. They were all tired and disgusted.

But when the food was spread out on a blanket in the grass, Mandie saw that Uncle Ned had brought lots of fried chicken, Dimar had brought many biscuits filled with meat, and Mrs. Miller had given her
and Joe ham biscuits and chocolate cake. Besides all this food, there was plenty of milk and coffee to drink.

“Shucks, we can’t eat all that food and then travel up another mountain,” Mandie said, laughing as she tied Snowball’s leash to the wheel of the cart.

“Not another mountain,” Uncle Ned told her as he reached for food to fill one of the tin plates he had brought. “We search valley, river, cornfields, cave.”

“Cave?” Mandie quickly asked in surprise and almost choked on a bite of ham biscuit she was chewing. “A cave? We’re going to a cave?”

Joe also stopped eating to listen, but Dimar, knowing the territory, sat there smiling as Uncle Ned explained.

“Big cave across valley under mountain,” Uncle Ned said. “We go in it.”

“But, Mandie, you remember that cave we went in and it collapsed?” Joe asked her. “Do you want to go into another cave?”

“Well, if Uncle Ned says it’s safe,” she replied slowly, looking at the old man.

Uncle Ned nodded and said, “Many hundred years old. Cave safe.”

“It is safe, Mandie,” Dimar told her. “I have been in it many times.”

“If y’all say so,” Joe managed to say with his mouth full of fried chicken.

“Yes, if y’all think it’s safe, then it must be safe. Let’s hurry and go there,” she said, quickly digging into her food.

They finished the meal and repacked the various utensils and leftovers. Uncle Ned and Joe took their horses to a nearby waterfall to drink and then retied them in the shade where they could eat grass.

“We ready now,” Uncle Ned said, pulling three lanterns out of his wagon. He handed one to Joe and one to Dimar and kept the third one.

Mandie picked up Snowball and asked, “Don’t I get a lantern, Uncle Ned? Suppose I get lost from y’all in the cave. I wouldn’t have a light.”

Uncle Ned smiled and said, “No, Papoose, you got cat. No need for lantern. We go together.”

“Uncle Ned, I was thinking about Sallie and Mr. O’Neal,” Mandie said as they started to follow the old man. “Do you think they will find us?”

“School may be late, but they find us later,” Uncle Ned replied. “I tell Sallie where we go.”

They traveled across the valley, pausing only to search behind clumps of bushes and trees here and there. Then Uncle Ned led the way through a dense forest to a cluster of huge boulders that seemed to be the base of the mountain. Uncle Ned and Dimar set down their lanterns, rifle, and bow and arrows, and walked right up to the stones and began pushing on a large one.

“Here, let me help!” Joe quickly lay his rifle down beside Mandie and handed her the lantern he was carrying, then ran to assist them.

Evidently the stones were not as heavy as they looked, because the large one rolled to one side and uncovered the mouth of a cave. Mandie watched in fascination. She had seen caves before, at least two of them, but had never seen one closed up with a boulder for a door.

Uncle Ned and Dimar stepped back and picked up their things while Joe retrieved his rifle and lantern.

“Now we go in. Must stay together. Must. Remember that,” he said as he bent to light his lantern.

Dimar did the same with his lantern. Joe, watching, quickly struck a match to his lantern, also.

“But, Uncle Ned, why was the boulder in front of the door to the cave?” Mandie asked as the old man motioned for her to walk directly behind him.

“Keep out animals, hide cave from other people,” Uncle Ned explained. “Now we go.” He continued into the cave with Mandie right behind him.

Even with the lanterns, the inside of the cave looked spooky. Snowball didn’t seem to like the place and tried to scratch Mandie in an effort to get down. She quickly scolded him, and he clung to the shoulder of her dress.

The entrance was like a long hallway, not very wide and with a low ceiling. As they continued, Mandie was amazed to find they were coming into another part that had several large rooms opening off the hallway. From what she could see, the place was furnished with enough
necessities, such as beds, dishes, water pails, blankets, and quilts, that it could be lived in.

“Does someone live here, Uncle Ned?” she asked, finding that her voice echoed as she tried to lower it.

“Now and then,” the old man said. “For special people, special times. Old days Cherokee people hide here from white people when white people take our land and make us move.” He stopped to look at her.

“But your people never lived here, did they? My great-grandfather Shaw built that tunnel in the house where Uncle John lives now to hide your people until all those horrible things were over,” Mandie reminded him.

“My people all live in house of your great-grandfather in tunnel. Your great-grandfather man of God, loved all people,” Uncle Ned said with sadness in his voice.

Mandie reached forward to squeeze his old wrinkled hand as they continued into the cave.

They examined the whole place. Uncle Ned inspected the dishes and blankets and then decided that no one had been in the cave. He turned to lead the way out. When they almost reached the entrance to go outside, Mandie suddenly heard Sallie calling to Uncle Ned.

“My grandfather!” she was saying from outside the cave. “Are you in the cave, my grandfather?”

“Yes, my granddaughter,” Uncle Ned called back as they reached the exit.

Sallie and Mr. O’Neal were standing there, waiting for them.

“Oh, Sallie, I’m so glad you caught up with us,” Mandie told her friend as she let Snowball down to walk.

“I am glad, too,” Sallie replied. Looking at her grandfather, she asked, “Have you found anything yet?”

“Not yet, but we will,” Uncle Ned told her as he extinguished his lantern.

“Then we are not too late to help a little,” Riley O’Neal told him.

Uncle Ned nodded and pointed across the valley. “We go now, across cornfields,” he said.

Dimar and Joe put out their lanterns, and everyone started across
the clearing. To Mandie it looked two miles wide, and Snowball was really heavy, but he would slow things up if she let him walk.

As though Sallie had read her mind, the girl held her arms out and said, “Let me carry Mr. Snowball. He is heavy, and you have been carrying him all day.”

“All right, for a little while,” Mandie agreed and handed over the white cat. Snowball knew Sallie and didn’t cause any trouble.

They followed Uncle Ned across the huge cornfields and out onto another road. There was no sign of anyone anywhere. They passed an old barn and later a shack, but didn’t see a living soul. Finally Uncle Ned paused on the road.

“We go two more miles, then we turn off toward wagon and cart,” he said. He looked up at the sky and said, “Getting late.”

“Oh shucks!” Mandie exclaimed. “If we don’t find anything or anybody within the next two miles, then we have to quit, and I only have one whole day left to help.”

Uncle Ned smiled at her and said, “Maybe we find wagons. Maybe we find mica. We look two more miles for them.”

They walked the two additional miles and still didn’t see anyone. Then Uncle Ned turned left at the intersection of another road. A small country church stood there with a small cemetery walled in around it.

Mandie had taken Snowball back from Sallie and was letting him walk at the end of his leash since they were on a smooth road. He suddenly decided he wanted to run away and managed to jerk the leash out of Mandie’s hand. She raced after him down the road toward the corner where the church stood. He slowed down now and then to see if his mistress was following, then he ran on. This was an old game with him.

Everyone also walked faster to try to help catch the cat. Mandie chased him right up to the iron gate in the wall where he had to slow down, and she managed to capture him.