Voyage of the Dolphin (9 page)

S
arah awoke just before dawn to find the other Sleepers awake too. They had gone to bed early, had slept well, and now that early morning light was coming through the window, they were restless.

“We'd better have a talk before Olina gets here,” Josh said. He stretched and stood to his feet, holding onto the slats of their cage. Even as he did he exclaimed, “There's one of those rats again. I can't stand those things!”

“I expect most houses in this place have rats,” Jake said. “They're what brought the Black Plague on, you know. Killed about one-fourth of Europe.”

“Jake, you say the awfulest things!” Sarah snapped. “Can't you think of anything pleasant to talk about?”

“I don't know anything pleasant about rats, do you?” Jake growled angrily. He was irritable—as were the rest of them, Sarah noted—and now cast a discontented look at Josh. “We've got to do something! Sooner or later we've got to break out of this place.”

“That's fine with me,” Josh said angrily. “What's your master plan for getting us out of here?”

“I'm not the leader. You are.”

“Please don't quarrel,” Abbey said. “I know it's hard, and we're all worried—but there's no sense fighting one another.”

Sarah turned to look at Abbey, a smile on her face. She thought how the girl had changed since the Sleepers' last dangerous encounter where she had offered to give up her beauty for the sake of the others.

“Abbey's right,” she said. “We can't quarrel among ourselves.”

Jake ducked his head and muttered, “I'm sorry. I guess my nerves are a little bit stretched.”

“Well, mine are too,” Reb said. “I feel like the time I was in the pokey for stealing hogs with my Uncle Seedy.”

“You stole hogs?” Dave exclaimed.

“Well, no, I didn't. My uncle did. I was just along to help him load them.”

“Well, that makes you as guilty as he was, doesn't it?” Wash said.

“What are you talking about? He stole 'em, I loaded 'em.” Reb's voice contained hurt innocence. “It's not against the law to load a hog—only if you steal him.”

“I guess we'd better not get into the ethics of hog stealing right now,” Josh said. He turned and stared at the rat, which was disappearing into its hole. Then he turned back to face his friends. “We've got to escape all right— get away from this place.”

“And what would we do then?” Dave asked. He had a practical streak in him. “We'd probably get eaten by a snake or a wolf or something. Going out there is like going into a zoo with the animals all loose.”

“It would be better than staying here,” Reb insisted. “At least we'd have a chance. And I'm getting tired of being treated like a doll.”

“Olina's a sweet girl,” Abbey spoke up at once. “She just doesn't understand that we are people and not toys.”

“That's right.” Sarah nodded. “I think she's our only hope. We've got to try to persuade her to let us go.”

“She'd never do that,” Reb said. “We're just like her toys. Besides, she'd be afraid of her father.”

Finally Olina and her mother got up, and soon the Sleepers were eating breakfast—oatmeal and chunks of bread smeared with butter. Reb had whittled not only eating
utensils for all of them but also trenchers to hold their food.

Olina was delighted as always to see her Little People. She had learned all of their names, and they had become accustomed to her speech.

In the middle of the morning she took them outside. She was very careful where she let them play, for she had learned there were many enemies that could destroy her pets.

As the Sleepers strolled around in the chest-high grass, Jake pointed out an anthill. The ants were huge, almost a foot long, and Reb cautioned him, “Don't get those things stirred up, Jake. I bet they could bite pretty hard. Little old fire ant back in the old days could hurt like blazes. I'd hate to think what one of these could do.”

They were interested in watching the ants, however, giving Sarah a chance to talk to Olina. She had grown fond of the giant girl, and Olina had made a special pet of her.

“Olina, I've got to talk to you!” she shouted.

“All right.” Olina lay full length on the grass and turned her face upward.

Her skin, smooth as it was, looked rough when viewed through Sarah's eyes. Sarah thought suddenly,
If you enlarge anything, it looks worse.
She remembered seeing a piece of fine silk through a microscope. It had looked like a tattered, rough, ugly blanket. So it was with the features of all the giants.

“Olina, I want to talk to you about us.”

Olina nodded. “I like you,” she said. “I'm so glad you came.”

“I'm glad that you like us, but there's something you've got to understand.”

“What's that, Sarah?”

“Well, because we're small compared to you, you think of us as dolls or perhaps as one of your pets.”

Olina loved pets. She had several birds in cages, and a puppy, and kittens in the barn that she was not allowed to bring into the house.

“Yes, but you're my favorites of all,” she said.

“But Olina,” Sarah said desperately, looking very serious. “Can't you see that I'm different from your puppy or from one of your birds?”

“Oh, yes, I see that.” Olina smiled, nodding. She reached her finger out and carefully stroked Sarah's hair. “You're a lot smarter than them. They can't talk like you can.”

Sarah felt a moment's helplessness wash over her. How was she to get the concept of her humanity into the head of this young girl who had never seen anything like the Sleepers?

Taking a deep breath, she said, “Olina, suppose someone took you to town and you were sold and the people made a pet out of you. What would you think?”

“I wouldn't like it. That would be awful.”

“It is awful. That's what I'm trying to tell you.”

Olina's brow wrinkled. She rolled over on her side and supported her head with her hand, keeping her blue eyes fixed on Sarah. Some thought seemed to trouble her. “You don't like me?”

“Oh, yes, I do like you, Olina. We all do. You take care of us so well. But you take care of your puppy and your kittens out in the barn the same way. And we're not like them.”

“What do you mean, Sarah?”

“I mean, we're not animals—we're people, just like you are.”

“Oh, we're a
lot
different.”

“No, you aren't—except in size. When you hurt your thumb yesterday, it hurt.” She held up her own thumb and said, “When I hurt mine, it hurts too. Sometimes you get lonesome; so do I. You have good friends, and so do I. I'm just smaller than you are.”

That seemed to be a new thought to the giant child. She pursed her lips and frowned slightly. “But you're not like us.”

For the next twenty minutes Sarah did her best to get through to the girl, but it seemed to be a hopeless matter.

Finally Olina went as far as she knew how. “You're my friend, Sarah,” she said. “I love you.”

There was such charm in the young giantess, though she was huge and sometimes clumsy, that Sarah could not help but smile. “I love you too, Olina. I'd do anything for you. So we're friends.”

Later on that evening, Sarah and Josh were watching while Olina and her mother cooked supper. “I tried to talk to Olina today about how we're people, just like she is.”

“I don't think you'll ever get her to understand that.”

“I suppose not. She's sweet, but as far as she's concerned we're just toys or pets, little dolls for her to play with.”

“Well, she's never seen anything like us. I don't know what I would have thought if a person sue inches high would have popped up on my doorstep.” He nudged Sarah. “Maybe I would have sold him at the county fair.”

“No, you wouldn't. You're not like that, Josh.”

The two of them sat there quietly. They had been friends a long time and had learned that friends didn't have to talk all the time. Once Josh had said, “Sarah, it's nice to be around you. You don't talk all the time like other girls.”

Sarah had been angry until she realized that he was paying her a compliment.

“What do you suppose is happening to the captain and Dawn?” Josh asked.

“I'm worried about them. What if they separated them? Dawn would just die. She's really like a child. She's been so protected.”

“I've thought about that myself.” He looked at Sarah quickly and said, “And I've thought about what would happen if they separated us.”

“Oh, that can't happen!”

“It might. Gant's no man to overlook money. He's not very smart, but he's greedy enough to make up for it. He'll be coming back soon.”

A silence fell over them again, and for a while they sat just thinking. Sarah recalled how many adventures they had gone through together. She said, “I remember back in Oldworld, you didn't like me very much when I first came to stay with your family.” Sarah's parents had to be overseas, and Josh's family had taken her in.

“That's what you think,” Josh said. “I took one look at you and said, “That's the prettiest girl I ever saw in my life!'”

Sarah turned to face him. “You do have your moments, Josh.” Then she frowned. “You certainly kept your thoughts to yourself, though.”

“Ah, well … I was an ugly, gawky kid. Couldn't walk without falling down. Couldn't play sports. I knew you'd be taken with the other guys.”

“I wasn't though. I always liked you—from the very first. Best friends, aren't we, Josh?”

Josh reached over and took her hand. “Best friends.” He smiled.

They were out of their cage and in the middle of supper when the door slammed, and Sarah looked up to see Gant come in.

His round, blunt features were flushed, and his eyes gleamed. “I'm home,” he said, “and look what I have.”

Reaching into his pocket, the giant pulled out a leather bag. He opened the string that held it together and poured out the contents on the table by the Sleepers' cage. “Gold,” he said. “Did you ever see so much gold, wife?”

Gant's wife picked up a coin. “My,” she said, “think what I can buy with this—a new dress!”

“You can have five new dresses, if you like.” Gant grinned. He reached down and hugged Olina. “And you can have that pony you've been begging me for. How do you like that?”

Olina's eyes gleamed. “Where did you get it all, Papa?”

“I sold the two Little People—to the king, no less.”

Gant's wife and Olina sat down while the giant boasted how he had forced the king to pay a high price for his wares. He ignored the Sleepers as though they were animals—livestock—not to be considered.

While he talked, Dave walked up to one of the coins. It was more than a foot in diameter and very thick. He struggled to pick it up but could not. “It's made out of solid gold,” he said. “Think what this would be worth back home. Why, we could all live like kings on what was in this bag.”

“We're not likely to get a chance,” Jake grumbled. But he came over too and examined the coins with interest. “If he got this much for the captain and Dawn, he'll be wanting to get more for us,” he guessed shrewdly.

Jake was not wrong. As soon as Gant had finished his story, he turned and stood over the Sleepers, grinning broadly. “These Little People—they're my gold mine,” he said. “But I won't be fool enough to let the king know about them.”

“What will you do?” Gant's wife asked.

“I'll take one of them at a time. Nobody knows that I have more. And I'll take them far away where some of the rich people up in the north country are. Why, they've got
as much money as the king, and they'll all want to have what the king has. You know how rich people are.”

“But the Little People won't like being separated!” Olina protested. She looked down at Sarah's distressed face. “See … look … they don't like it.”

Gant shrugged. “They won't mind. They'll be well fed.”

“But they'll be lonesome.”

“Maybe they'll get 'em a pet, a bird or something else small. That would be something—pets having pets— wouldn't it?”

He stretched hugely and said, “I'll rest up tomorrow and go buy me a horse and a wagon. I'm going in style this time. But day after tomorrow, I'll pick one of them out.” He leaned over and studied them all. His hand shot out, and he picked up Sarah. “This one—she talks a lot. She ought to be nice.”

“No, that's my favorite!”

Gant patted Olina on the head with his free hand. “As I say, you'll have a pony. You won't miss this one. And you've got six more to play with—for a while.”

“Are you going to sell them all?” Olina protested, tears in her eyes.

“Oh, I may let you keep one. You can pick any one you like.”

“Then I pick that one,” Olina said quickly, pointing at Sarah.

“Well, all right. She's a special pet of yours.” Gant put Sarah down and snatched up Abbey. “Then I'll take this one. She'll do just as well.”

There was misery among the Sleepers that night. Abbey was pale. Dave put his arm around her on one side, and Sarah did the same on the other.

“I'll never see any of you again,” Abbey said. Her lips
were drawn into a tight line, and she was fighting against tears. “All of us will be alone.”

“It would be a nice time for Goél to come and settle all of this.” Josh had spoken impulsively, and for a moment hope gleamed in his eyes. “But he's taught us to use our heads to get out of our troubles whenever we can. I guess we should try harder. And when we really need him, we can count on him to come.”

Jake's face was a mask of gloom. “We'd better try harder, because all we've got is a little while, then Abbey'11 be gone—and then all of us.”

“We've sure got to do something,” Josh said. “We have to think of a way out of this.”

Sarah squeezed his arm approvingly. “You'll think of something.” She smiled faintly. “You always do, Josh Adams.”