The Swindler's Treasure (8 page)

As the wave of shock rippled through the room, a cry of anger and unbelief went up from the congregation. People dropped into their chairs.

Softly at first, someone began to weep. Then, with a growing sound, one person, then another sobbed aloud. In that moment Jordan fell on his knees and joined the weeping. But his mother stood tall, her face still, as though unable to take in what had happened.

Then, from the back of the church came an angry voice. “Jordan's family be new here. We ain't got no way of knowin' them!”

From the side of the room came another voice. “How come you gave him the job, anyhow?”

From near the front a man muttered, “We can't trust that Jordan Parker!”

As though new life had come into him, the pastor straightened, facing the congregation. “Can every one of you be trusted? Would you have thought it was safe to leave money in your house when you were right next door?”

A low muttering passed through the room, then silence fell again. His eyes filled with fire, Reverend Freeman spoke again.

“Almost every one of us has been a slave. We have known the whip, the lash upon our back. We have known what it means to be wrongly accused. There will be no accusing word spoken here. There will be no word spoken without proof. No word spoken without love.”

In the silence someone began to pray aloud. Soon another voice joined the first, then a third, and a fourth, until the whole room was filled with the sound of people praying. Then, as suddenly as they began, the voices stopped.

A tiny woman walking with a cane came first. Her humped back bowed, she reached out to Hattie with her free hand. Leaning forward, she planted a kiss on Hattie's cheek. Then, still leaning upon her cane, she stopped in front of where Jordan knelt. With her free hand, she reached down, took his hand, and motioned for him to stand.

“Young man,” she said in a voice the entire church could hear. “You will still be used of God.”

His shoulders bowed, his face wet with weeping, Jordan stared at her. As the little woman walked back to her chair, his gaze followed her dragging steps. When she sat down again, his eyes held the light of hope.

One by one the men and women and children walked forward. Some clasped Hattie's hand. Others reached forward to hug her. But all passed on to Jordan.

One gave a Bible verse, memorized long ago. Another stopped to pray. Men put an arm around Jordan's shoulders.

Then at last Caleb and Libby stood before Jordan. Now that Jordan was in trouble, Caleb had a different look on his face. “Do you want Libby and me to help you find the money?” Caleb asked.

“I was proud, wasn't I?” Jordan said when Caleb clapped him on the shoulder. “I ain't proud no more. I need your help.”

When the service was over, Jordan faced his pastor. “If I have to leave for a while, I want you to know I ain't running away. Me and my friends are going to find the money.”

“If it helps you, some of the bills are marked,” Reverend Freeman answered. “When I was counting the money, I spilled a bottle of ink on the table. About ten of the bills have ink blotches on them.”

Jordan's voice was humble now. “I want to be the person you think I am,” he said.

When Jordan turned to go, Reverend Freeman told him the exact amount of money that had been stolen. “You will find it, Jordan,” he said. “You will find the Lord's treasure. You will bring it to our needy people.”

For the first time since the discovery of the theft, Jordan straightened, standing tall like royalty.

As Jordan finished talking with people, Libby, Caleb, and Peter went outside.

“Do you think the man who swindled Pa is the one who took Jordan's money?” Libby asked Caleb.

“I wondered about it,” Caleb said. “But it seems like such a big coincidence. When Dexter took your pa's money, he was down the river from here. How would he know enough to find Jordan here, unless—”

Libby finished the thought. “Unless he felt sure that sooner or later Pa would come to Galena?”

“Like all steamboat captains do if they travel the Upper Mississippi.”

“So if the swindler came to Galena, he just stumbled across Jordan's family?” Libby remembered Dexter shaking his clenched fist at Pa.
“I'll get even with you!”
the swindler had threatened. Then he seemed to memorize how Jordan looked.

“I'm scared, Caleb,” Libby said.

“Me too,” Caleb answered to Libby's surprise.

As soon as Hattie came out of the church, she and her family started home. On the way there, Libby and Peter walked behind Caleb and Jordan.

Peter poked Libby to get her attention, then pointed to Jordan. “What happened?”

With all that had gone on, Libby had forgotten that Peter couldn't hear. Taking his slate, she began to write. “Many people gave money to help slaves go on a boat to Canada.”

Each time she filled the slate, Peter read what she had written. Libby erased her words, then started writing again. “Jordan was going to take the money to them. But an evil man changed the good money for bad money.”

There Peter stopped Libby. “Magician?” he asked.

“No, no!” Libby shook her head.

Peter again pointed to the carpetbag carried by Jordan. “What is bad money?”

Libby sighed. Pa had found it difficult enough to explain to an immigrant. How could she explain to Peter? “Wildcat money,” she wrote because she didn't know what else to say.

“Wildcat? Animals don't use money!”

Again Libby shook her head. “Not worth anything,” she wrote. “A bad man put worthless money into the carpetbag.”

“Swindler?” Peter asked.

Ahhh!
Libby felt surprised but nodded yes. How did Peter know about swindlers?

“So all the good money was lost,” he said.

Libby nodded.

“Did the church people forgive Jordan?” Peter asked.

Again Libby nodded, but her mind raced ahead. How did Peter know about forgiveness? While living with a cruel man, there must have been many times when Peter needed to forgive. But who had taught Peter how to do it?

“The church people forgave Jordan,” Libby wrote, and Peter grinned.

Libby was happy, too, but Peter said, “Now we must find the swindler.”

Libby stared at him. Taking the slate, she wrote back. “Peter, how come you're so smart?”

Again Peter grinned. “I will show you a way to say, ‘Yes! Yes! You're right!'” Elbows flexed next to his body, he made two fists, as though rooting for someone in a race. Raising his hands, he brought them forward, then down.

When Libby made the sign after him, Peter nodded his approval. But Libby wrote again.

“I asked, ‘How come you're so smart?'”

Instead of answering, Peter took the slate and slipped it into his bag.

As though impatient with how long everyone was taking, Serena half walked and half ran to the boardinghouse. “I want to see if that boarder is still there,” she said.

It took only a minute to learn from the owner that the man had left early that morning.

“What was his name?” Caleb asked, but it was one that neither he nor Libby recognized.

“If the boarder took the money, how did he know about it?” Libby asked. “Can we see his room?”

The room the man had rented for one night was on the third floor and faced two directions. One window overlooked the street and the front entrance to the house. The other gave a view across the side lawn to the carriage house where Jordan's family lived.

“Maybe he saw you come home with the carpetbag,” Caleb told Jordan, then wrote to Peter.

The ten-year-old had another idea. “Maybe the swindler saw Jordan with the carpetbag, then rented the room.”

“Either way, the swindler took a chance,” Caleb answered. “And he won.”

The room was as clean as if Serena had already dusted every inch of it. “Let's see if the boarder left something,” she said.

Every one of them joined in the search. Caleb took down the pictures from the wall, checking the back side to be sure nothing had been hidden. Hattie picked up the rugs, then folded back the quilts and cornhusk mattress. Libby studied the floor inch by inch to be sure there was no hidden crack. Jordan opened every window, testing the movement between the frames and the wall. Serena pulled out each drawer in the dresser, searching behind and underneath.

Finally they had to admit the boarder had left nothing behind.

As they started to leave, Serena turned back. “Wait! There's one more place to look. I've found things there before.”

On the far side of the room, a shelf was attached to the wall. Low and strong, it was the kind of shelf where people set their baggage if staying for a short time.

Now Serena peered at a narrow crack between the shelf and wall. Libby could just barely see a narrow edge of paper. Working carefully so the paper wouldn't slip in farther, Serena managed to pull it out.

The paper had writing on it. Serena tried to read it, then handed it to Libby. There was no name on the paper, but an address in Alton, Illinois.

“It might be just what we need to find the swindler!” Libby exclaimed.

CHAPTER 7

I
f that address will help us find the swindler, I am going with you,” Jordan said.

Then, as if remembering the disaster with the money, he changed his words. “I mean, I am going if your pa lets me work for him again.”

As Libby, Caleb, and Peter started back to the
Christina
, Jordan walked with them.

“If we're going to search for the swindler in Alton, maybe I'll have time to find out more about Elijah Lovejoy,” Caleb said. More than once he had talked about wanting to be a newspaperman. Mr. Lovejoy had been just that—a newspaper editor who lived in Alton.

Soon Caleb and Jordan walked ahead, talking so fast that Libby knew they were making up for lost time. As she followed with Peter, the boy took out his slate and handed it to her.

“I think I know the man who rented that room,” he said.