The Mandie Collection (10 page)

As Tsa'ni walked quickly through the deepest part of the woods, he suddenly spotted his grandfather's search party through the trees. Tsa'ni tried to escape notice, but the old Indian saw him.

“Come!” Uncle Wirt called to him.

Knowing he had to obey, Tsa'ni slowly walked over to his grandfather. The others in the party heard Uncle Wirt's shout and came to join him.

“Where you go?” his grandfather demanded.

“Home,” Tsa'ni replied.

“Where been?” the old Indian persisted.

Tsa'ni hesitated.

Uncle Ned stepped forward. “To my house?” he asked.

“Yes,” the boy answered.

“Why?” Uncle Wirt asked.

“To see if you had come back,” Tsa'ni replied. “For what other reason would I go there?”

John Shaw looked concerned. “Was everyone there all right?” he asked.

“Yes,” the boy said sharply.

Dimar looked at Tsa'ni with suspicion. He didn't appear to believe anything Tsa'ni said.

“Did you see anyone else in the woods?” Dr. Woodard asked.

Tsa'ni looked at the doctor coldly and then answered, “Of course not.”

“We go back,” Uncle Ned told them. “Crooks not this way. Crooks that way.” He pointed toward the trail to the hospital.

“You're right, Uncle Ned,” John agreed. “If they had come this way we would have seen them.”

Dimar looked over at Dr. Woodard. The old man was tired and worried about his son. “Dr. Woodard, when we find the crooks, I am sure we will find Joe,” he said. “I think the crooks hid Joe somewhere.”

“Yes, Dimar, that's what I've been thinking, too,” the doctor answered.

As Uncle Ned led the way back to the hospital site, the other men followed. Tsa'ni stood there watching them for a minute, then continued on his way home.

When the sky became dark and Tsa'ni didn't return to Uncle Ned's cabin, Elizabeth and Morning Star paced the floor frantically. Evidently the girls had not been found.

CHAPTER TEN

SNOWBALL HELPS

Mandie and Sallie huddled together in the storm cellar, trying to comfort one another while they watched over Joe. How they wished someone would come and rescue them!

Suddenly there was a noise overhead. The girls quickly jumped up, and Snowball slid off Mandie's lap.

“I heard something,” Mandie whispered.

“Someone is at the door overhead,” Sallie replied.

“I'm going to climb the ladder and surprise them when they open the door,” Mandie said softly.

“Please be careful,” Sallie pleaded. “We do not know if it is the crooks or our people.”

Mandie climbed the ladder and stopped near the door above. Slowly the door was opened a crack, and Running Fire's face appeared in the opening. His beady eyes looked at her, then glanced down at Sallie and Joe.

“Mister, please let us out of here,” Mandie begged. “My friend Joe is sick. He needs a doctor bad.”

“No,” the Catawba man snapped. “We wait. We catch white men.”

“Please don't harm anyone else,” Mandie said. “We don't even know why you hate us so.”

“White man must go home. Leave us alone,” said Running Fire. “Hospital not good for Indian.”

“But the Cherokees all want the hospital to be built,” Mandie argued, hanging on to the ladder. “They want to be able to take their sick there.”

“No!” Running Fire stormed. “No! Hospital not be built! Not need white man's doctor. I am medicine man. I heal sick Indians. Not need white man. No, no, no!”

Sallie called to him from below. “You are a medicine man for the Catawbas. Cherokees do not want a Catawba medicine man. We want a white doctor who knows how to heal.”

“No, no, no!” Running Fire shook with anger as he perched over the doorway. “Medicine man doctor all Indians.”

“So you are a medicine man. Now I understand what's been going on,” Mandie said. “You are angry because the Cherokees do not believe in medicine men anymore. They have seen white doctors heal their sick. They do not need you.”

“Hush up!” the Catawba man cried. “I come down and hush you up.”

As he fumbled trying to close the door, Mandie spied a good-sized rock lying near the top of the ladder. Grabbing the rock quickly, she stuck it under the door just as Running Fire shut it. The rock let a crack of dim light into the dark cellar. Mandie listened. Running Fire rolled the boulder on top of the cellar entrance again, but the rock held the door open a crack.

Mandie slid down the ladder. “Look, Sallie!' she whispered. “I put a rock under the door so it wouldn't shut tight.”

Sallie glanced upward. “That was fast thinking. Now we have a little light and air in here. But it will soon be dark outside and then it will be pitch black in here again,” she said.

Mandie bent over Joe in the faint light from above. His face was all bloody and bruised. Their aprons still covered his motionless body.

“Joe has not moved an inch,” Mandie said.

“He is still breathing though,” Sallie replied.

Mandie picked up his limp, cold hand and rubbed it with hers. “Sallie, we've got to get him out of here before it's too late,” she cried.

“I wish I could think of a way,” Sallie replied.

Snowball rubbed around Mandie's legs and meowed loudly. Evidently he was hungry.

Picking him up, Mandie rubbed his soft white fur and put his cold nose against her cheek. “Snowball, I'm sorry you're hungry. Come to think of it, I am, too,” she told the kitten.

“So am I,” Sallie said. “My grandmother and your mother must have supper ready by now. I know they are worried about us.”

“I imagine Mother is walking the floor,” Mandie told her friend.

“My grandmother is probably out looking for us,” Sallie said.

Mandie thought for a moment. “You're right. Mother and Morning Star are both out looking for us, I'm sure,” Mandie said. “Oh, will my mother be angry with me!”

“I think they will be too glad to see us to be angry with us,” Sallie told her.

“I hope you're right,” Mandie replied. “I'm going up the ladder again to see if I can see anything through that crack,” Mandie said, putting Snowball on her shoulder.

Climbing the rungs of the ladder, Mandie got as close to the crack as she could and tried to see outside. But the crack was at an angle, so she couldn't see much.

Snowball jumped onto the ledge under the door and began scratching at the dirt around the crack.

Mandie reached for him. “Snowball, come back here,” she scolded.

Snowball only scratched harder, kicking dust in Mandie's eyes.

That gave Mandie an idea. “Sallie,” she called to her friend. “If we could scratch enough dirt away, we could poke Snowball through the hole. Then maybe he would go home.”

Sallie stood up. “That is a good idea. Is the ladder strong enough to hold both of us?”

“I think so,” Mandie said. “It didn't shake when I came up. Here, I'll move over to one side.”

As Mandie moved over, Sallie carefully climbed the ladder. It did not even sway.

Arriving at the top, Sallie looked at the crack where Snowball was still scratching. “Yes, I think we can make the hole larger so Snowball can get through,” she agreed. “But there is nothing to dig with.”

Pushing the kitten aside on the ledge, Mandie and Sallie went to work on the dirt with their bare hands. They broke their fingernails and scratched their hands, but they kept digging. The hole slowly grew a little larger. The girls stopped and listened now and then to be sure no one was around to hear them.

“Whew!” Mandie sighed. “My fingers are bleeding.”

Sallie looked at her own hands. “Mine, too,” she said. “But now the hole is almost large enough for Snowball to go through.”

Leaning back, Mandie looked at the hole and then at Snowball. “Come here, Snowball,” she called, reaching out to him. She held him up next to the hole and looked at Sallie. “It's large enough.”

“Are you sure? Do not force him through. It might hurt him,” Sallie cautioned.

Mandie looked again. “Maybe just a little bit more.”

The girls dug more dirt out until the hole finally looked large enough.

“Now!” Mandie declared.

“Yes,” Sallie agreed.

Mandie picked up Snowball and started to push him through the hole. Then she stopped suddenly. “I have an idea,” she cried. “Let's tie our hair ribbons around Snowball. Then whoever finds him might figure out that we are not able to come home.”

“That is a good idea,” Sallie said, quickly pulling the red ribbon from her long, straight black hair.

Mandie untied the blue ribbon from her blonde braid and started to tie it around Snowball's neck.

Sallie stopped her. “No, no,” she said. “He might get caught on something and the ribbon would choke him. Tie it around his belly.”

“Will it stay?”

“If you tie it like this it will,” Sallie said, showing Mandie how to crisscross it behind Snowball's front legs.

“Perfect,” said Mandie, tying her ribbon as Sallie had shown her.

Snowball thought it was a game. Meowing, he rolled over on his back, trying to reach the ribbons with his claws.

“No, silly cat,” Mandie scolded him. “Don't pull it off. You've got to be our messenger to get us out of here.”

She picked him up and tried to push him through the hole. Snowball didn't like that at all, and Sallie had to help. Then when he got outside, he tried to come back in. Mandie quickly stuffed a rock in the hole to make it too small for him to get through. But Snowball didn't leave. He just sat outside and meowed loudly.

“Goodness!” Mandie exclaimed. “He'll alarm the whole neighborhood. Those crooks will hear him and come to see what's going on.”

“Maybe we could get him back inside,” Sallie suggested.

“Let's try,” Mandie agreed.

Removing the rock, they tried to coax the kitten inside. But he only sniffed at their hands and meowed louder.

“Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see who hears him,” Mandie said, disappointed.

“Yes, that is all we can do,” Sallie agreed. “I am going back down. I want to sit for a while.

“I'll stay up here and listen,” Mandie told her friend.

While Sallie kept watch over Joe, Mandie listened at the cellar door. Someone was sure to come soon. Snowball wouldn't quit meowing.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

RESCUE

Tsa'ni was almost home when he decided to go back. If he circled far enough out, he could bypass his grandfather's search party and get back to Uncle Ned's cabin. He might as well tell the women he didn't find the girls. He wouldn't mention that he had met the search party.

As Tsa'ni tried to sneak past the Catawba man's house, he suddenly heard Snowball crying. Silently he moved closer to see the kitten. There was Snowball, sitting by the barn, decorated with ribbons, howling for no apparent reason. Tsa'ni decided that the cat must have gotten lost.

When Snowball saw Tsa'ni approaching, he hunched up, ruffled his fur, and hissed at the boy.

Tsa'ni quickly jumped back. He had never touched that cat before, and he didn't intend to now.

As Tsa'ni turned and quietly continued on his way, Mandie stood at the top of the cellar ladder, holding her breath.

“Sallie, there was someone outside just now,” she whispered. “Snowball stopped his meowing and began hissing at somebody. It must have been somebody he didn't like.”

“Yes, I heard,” Sallie called softly from below. “But whoever it was must have left. Snowball is meowing again.”

As Tsa'ni headed for Uncle Ned's cabin, he began making up the tale he would tell the women.

Elizabeth and Morning Star saw him approaching and stood in the doorway to wait.

“I saw no one in the woods,” he told them as he entered the cabin. “No one at all.” He repeated it in Cherokee to Morning Star.

“Oh dear!” Elizabeth exclaimed.

Morning Star began screaming at the boy in Cherokee, but Tsa'ni just stood there with a sly grin on his face.

Elizabeth watched, trying to understand. “What did Morning Star say?” she asked as the squaw stomped over to the table and began wrapping up some food.

“She told me I should have found them. She said that I am no good, so she is going to find them,” Tsa'ni told Elizabeth.

Elizabeth walked over to Morning Star, watching her put some food into a basket.

“I am going with you,” Elizabeth announced. “Tsa'ni, will you go with us?”

Tsa'ni hesitated. “Yes,” he said. “I will go with you. I will get the lantern and the matches. It will be dark soon.”

“I need to get a coat,” said Elizabeth. “Tsa'ni, will you please tell Morning Star to get a coat or something warm. It will be cold before long. And tell her that you and I are going with her.”

Tsa'ni walked over to Morning Star and spoke quickly in Cherokee. Morning Star replied but kept wrapping food to fill the basket. Then she reached for a jar, filled it with water, and set it up straight in the basket so it wouldn't spill.

Tsa'ni took a lantern from the nail where it hung by the door and put some matches in his pocket.

Elizabeth finished the note she had started writing earlier, and placed it in the middle of the long table. The three left the cabin and walked down the road toward the woods.

Silently, Elizabeth again prayed that the girls were safe and asked God's help in finding them.

Morning Star, sensing that Elizabeth was praying, raised her eyes toward the sky and said her prayer in Cherokee.

In the meantime, Uncle Ned had led the search party back into the woods. Although it was getting dark, they didn't light their lanterns for fear the crooks would see the light. They all walked quietly. Only occasionally was there a sound of a twig breaking under someone's foot.