Midnight Rescue (24 page)

And what if we don’t?
Libby wondered. She felt afraid to think about it.

But Serena was excited. “We is goin’ into the Promised Land?” she asked.

“Iowa be a free state,” Jordan told her. “But you won’t be safe yet.”

Hattie looked relieved to be this far, but Libby felt sure that she also knew the dangers ahead. Both Jordan and Caleb had told her about the slave catchers who roamed up and down the border to catch runaways.

As they finished eating, Hattie spoke to Libby. “I wants to thank you for comin’ to my room and warnin’ me about Zack.” Whenever Hattie turned toward her younger son, a glad light shone in her eyes. Then her gaze rested on Libby’s hair.

“When I was prayin’, the Lord gave me a warnin’ about you. Your hair be mighty pretty, Libby, but if we ain’t careful, it goin’ to get us in trouble.”

“People notice my hair, don’t they?” Libby remembered Melanie’s anger.
If Mr. Weaver doesn’t remember how I look, Melanie will tell him
.

“Does you have a sun bonnet with you?” Hattie asked.

When Libby pulled it out of the bag she carried on her back, Jordan’s mother told her, “Then I got what you need.” Hattie opened the small bag Libby had noticed before.

Libby started to giggle. “Is it flour?” she asked. “That will make my hair look dull and lifeless!”

Hattie smiled. “You’ll look as harmless as a baby kitten.”

Sweeping her long hair up and away from her face, Libby tied it in a knot. Hattie sprinkled the flour over Libby’s head and worked it into her hair. Then Hattie tucked the leftover strands inside the back of Libby’s collar.

“You is goin’ to be full of flour, child,” Hattie warned as Libby put on her bonnet. “But if we lets your hair swing free, all the flour might ride out.”

When they started walking again, Jordan kept looking at the sky. As the sun dipped lower and lower in the west, he picked up his pace.

“What if we don’t make the ferry on time?” Libby asked Caleb as they hurried along.

“We’d have to wait till morning.” Clearly Caleb didn’t like that idea. “Worst of all, we’d have to cross the river in daylight.”

Libby glanced around. Here in the deep woods, it would soon be dark. Since their escape from the farm, the woods had given shelter to Jordan’s family. But those same hills and woods offered all kinds of hideaways for outlaws.

“It’s a bad spot,” Caleb said as though hearing Libby’s thoughts. “The Fox River outlaws have seven crossings on the Des Moines River and four on the Mississippi. When they commit a crime in Missouri, they use the crossings to escape to Iowa and Illinois. There’s a good chance we’ll find a thief somewhere around here.”

“Or have him find us.” Libby dreaded the idea. “It’s no wonder you had trouble getting rid of Sam McGrady on the way down. He must have been going close to where you wanted to be.”

“And I bet he knows this country like the back of his hand,” Caleb said.

When they came to the edge of the woods, Jordan’s family had their first look at the Des Moines River. Though both Serena and Zack knew the danger of speaking aloud, they gazed across the river with excitement in their faces.

But Caleb and Jordan looked upset. Up and down the river, for as far as Libby could see, there was no ferry.

“Which way does we go?” Jordan whispered.

Caleb shook his head. They had come out at the river, but at a different place than planned. Staying within the line of trees, Caleb stared at the broad, deep waters. Usually calm, he seemed more nervous by the moment.

“You go one direction, and I’ll go another,” he whispered to Jordan. Whoever found the ferry would call like an owl.

Every minute we stay here, the more chance we have of being found
, Libby thought.

Searching for a better hiding place, Hattie moved her family farther back into the woods. Libby followed them, but as time grew long, she crept back toward the river where she could see the sun. Already it had dropped behind the trees in the west. With growing dread Libby watched the light sink lower and lower.

Then an owl hooted from upstream. From downstream Caleb answered with another hoot.

We’ll make it!
Libby thought as she looked in the direction
Jordan had gone. If his family followed the flat, pebbly ground close to the river, they would make better time than in the woods. But as Libby started back to them, she glanced downstream. Just then a man on horseback rode out of the woods.

Afraid again, Libby stepped behind a tree to watch. The man gazed at the water as if wondering about a way across. But Libby had no time to waste. Avoiding sticks that would snap and break, she hurried deeper into the woods.

Soon Libby met Jordan’s mother. She too had heard the owl and knew what it meant. As Hattie led her family upstream, Libby fell in behind them. Again and again she looked back over her shoulder.

As they walked, the light faded and the woods grew dark. Soon even the gray twilight that followed sundown would not help them. But just as Libby was ready to give up, Jordan found them.

“Where’s Caleb?” he whispered.

Libby explained that she had seen a man between them and Caleb. “You better keep going,” she said.

“And leave Caleb?”

“He would want you to,” Libby said. “If you don’t, all that you’ve tried to do might be lost.”

Still Jordan did not want to go on.

“Maybe he’ll catch up,” Libby said.

Turning, Jordan started back upstream with his family walking close behind him. In the last gray light, they reached the ferry. Already the owner was loosening one of the ropes.

As the others stayed inside the line of trees, Libby ran forward. “Seven passengers,” she said.

When the man named his price, Libby dug down into the
bag she carried. Suddenly she realized that she had no money!

Fumbling around, Libby searched her bag for something to sell. Drawings? No. She didn’t have any more. When she found the bracelet Mrs. Weaver had given her, Libby held it up.

But the owner of the ferry shook his head. “I ain’t got no use for the likes of that. I got a family to feed.” Turning his back on Libby, he walked over to another post and untied the second rope.

Palms up, as though asking what to do, Libby looked toward the woods. In that moment Jordan stepped out, followed by his family. As they hurried onto the ferry, Jordan took a coin from his pocket. The man stared up into his face, bit the coin, then nodded.

“I is paying for my friend too,” Jordan said.

“It’s enough,” the man answered.

Just then Caleb raced out of the woods. As he leaped onto the ferry, the owner pushed off. They were halfway across the river before Caleb caught his breath.

As the twilight faded into darkness, Libby stared at Jordan. “Where did you ever get enough money to pay for all of us?”

Jordan straightened, wearing the proud look that reminded Libby of royalty. “Your pa been paying me for my work. When he gives me money, he says, ‘Jordan, it be good havin’ your help. You earned this.’”

Jordan turned toward his mother. “I been savin’ the money for my family.”

As tears welled up in Libby’s eyes, she glanced toward Caleb. For the first time since she had known him, Caleb could not hide his feelings.

As the ferry drew close to the Iowa side of the river, Caleb
spoke in a low voice. “Just do what I do,” he told Jordan and his family. “And do it as fast as you can.”

The moment the ferry touched land, Caleb was off. Like shadows in the night, Jordan’s family followed, their bare feet making no sound. One instant after they reached a hiding place, Libby heard noise from the river side of the bushes.

Crouching low, she and the others waited. Peered between the branches. Across the river, lanterns swung back and forth. Then the lanterns moved down to the dock where they had taken the ferry.

From their hiding place Libby heard the mournful baying of bloodhounds.
So! Mr. Weaver guessed where we’d come, even if his dogs didn’t track us.

With their half howl, half bark, the baying dogs filled the night with fear. Waiting in the darkness, Libby shivered.

CHAPTER 18

H
alf standing, half crouched, Caleb started to run. When he reached the nearby woods, the rest of them were close behind.

For some time they walked without speaking, going deeper and deeper into the woods. Libby knew they followed a path, but it was an unmarked path most people wouldn’t see. Caleb was back in the area he knew well from his work with the Underground Railroad.

When they came to a barn where horses were harnessed and ready, Libby wasn’t surprised. No one was around, but Caleb seemed used to being here. As Jordan and his family crawled under the hay in the back of the wagon, Libby took her place on the front seat. Caleb led the horses out and closed the door behind him.

The moment Caleb sat down beside Libby, he flicked the reins and the horses moved out at a steady trot. They had traveled only a few miles when a group of men rode out of the woods into the road.

“We’re looking for runaway slaves,” one of them said. “They told us to find a girl with red hair.”

With a suspicious glare, a man held a lantern toward
Libby. The light fell across her face.

As her hands started shaking, Libby tightened her fists. Keeping her hands in her lap, she forced herself to smile. “To set your mind at rest, you might like to see my hair,” she said.

Telling herself that her fingers could not shake, Libby untied the strings of her bonnet. Carefully she raised it to show the hair that was now a dull, lifeless color.

“You see?” Libby asked, her voice still sweet.

In the glow of the lantern, the man stared at Libby’s hair, then backed away. “Thank you kindly, miss,” he said. “We’re keeping the roads safe for you tonight.”

As Caleb called “Giddyup!” to the horses, they moved out again. When Caleb finally looked at Libby, she saw his grin. Only then did Libby breathe deeply again.

About twelve miles down the road, the horses turned into a farm. As though they knew exactly where they were going, the horses stopped in front of the wide doors of a barn. Caleb jumped down to open them.

Once inside, he again closed the door. “It’s okay,” he said softly, and Jordan and Zack wiggled out from under the hay.

Together the three boys worked quickly to put the horses in stalls and rub them down. As they hitched up a fresh team of horses, another boy entered the barn.

“I’ll leave them at the usual place,” Caleb whispered to him.

As soon as Jordan and Zack again took their place under the hay, the boy opened the door. The moment the fresh team of horses stepped out, the door closed on well-oiled hinges.

When they were well away from the farm, Libby looked at Caleb. “I’m awfully glad you made it to the ferry,” she said.

“Me too.” Caleb’s grin showed his relief. “Jordan could
have taken you through the woods, but he wouldn’t know the first station. From there someone would have taken you on. But it might have been hard getting that far.”

Libby wasn’t sure how many miles they had traveled from the ferry—twenty-five, twenty-six, or perhaps more. She only knew that it had to be about one o’clock in the morning when Caleb turned and spoke softly toward the back of the wagon.