The Mandie Collection (25 page)

The Shaws and Uncle Ned all found seats together, and Mandie flopped down with a sigh of relief. She slept most of the way, and before she knew it, the journey had ended. They were home at last!

Jason Bond met them at the depot with their rig, and as they approached the house, Mandie's heart beat faster. Dr. Woodard's buggy was at their gate.

“Is Dr. Woodard visiting us?” she asked Jason Bond.

“Sure is. His boy, too.” Mr. Bond winked. “They just got here today.”

Mandie turned to look at Uncle Ned, who was sitting behind her. The old Indian smiled knowingly. He was waiting to see if she apologized to Joe.

As the rig came to a halt, the front door of the house burst open and Joe raced down the walkway to meet them. “I'll help carry the baggage,” he said excitedly to Uncle John. He glanced at Mandie.

In spite of her good intentions, Mandie suddenly was afraid to speak to Joe. She jumped out of the rig and ran up to the house. Calling hellos to everyone she met inside, she quickly went to her room, set Snowball down, and plopped down on the bed. As she threw off her bonnet and gloves, she berated herself.
Now, why did I act like that?
she wondered.
Joe obviously made the first move and I didn't even meet him halfway
.

In a few minutes Liza danced into the room. “Dat doctuh boy send word he waitin' fo' you on de veranda,” she announced. “And he been good boy since you left. Ain't said 'nother word to Missy Polly. Not one.”

Mandie bristled as she thought about Polly inviting Joe to dinner. “He hasn't?” she asked.

“No, 'cause he ain't been heah till today. And if he ain't heah, he cain't talk to huh. And now she done gone back to huh school, so you's got him all by yo'self,” Liza explained.

“You say he's on the porch?” Mandie repeated.

“Sho is. Waitin' fo' you,” the maid replied.

“See you later,” Mandie said, hurriedly leaving the room. Mandie looked around quickly as she opened the front screen door.

Joe was sitting in the swing, and when he saw her, he hurried across the porch to meet her. “Mandie, I'd like to say I'm sorry,” he said, holding out his hand.

“I wanted to tell
you
I'm sorry, Joe,” Mandie said at almost the same time.

Joe took her hand and led her to the swing where they sat down.

Mandie blinked back her tears. “Oh, Joe, I've been miserable ever since I left. All I've done is think about how I hurt you—”

“I hurt
you
, Mandie,” Joe interrupted. “And I'm truly sorry.”

He looked down. “I promise I won't ever act like that again. Am I forgiven?”

“Of course, Joe. Will you forgive me?” Mandie asked.

“I forgave you the day after you left,” he assured her.

Mandie sighed with relief. “Whew! I'm sure glad that's taken care of,” she said. “You know, the Bible says, ‘Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.' But I did let the sun go down on my wrath
many
times before I could come back and ask your forgiveness. I think that's why I was so miserable.”

At that moment Aunt Lou, the enormous Negro housekeeper, stuck her head out the front door. “You chilluns is wanted in de parluh,” she called to them. “Tea done been served.”

As Mandie and Joe entered the parlor together, Uncle Ned nodded at them. They each took a piece of cake from Liza and walked to the far side of the room where Uncle John and Dr. Woodard were talking.

Dr. Woodard looked up at them and smiled, then continued. “So, John, you think the Pattons are serious about taking Hilda into their home?”

“Yes,” Uncle John replied. “They asked me to talk to you about it—to ask you to help them go through the proper channels.”

“I'll certainly help where I can, but I don't think they'll have any trouble,” Dr. Woodard said. “I've known George Patton for years. He's highly respected as a businessman as well as an attorney, and he has made sizeable contributions to various hospitals and institutions in the area. That man has a heart of gold and so does his wife. I think the Pattons would be the perfect couple to care for Hilda.” He looked up at Mandie. “What do you think, Amanda?”

“I like them a lot.” Mandie nodded. “I think Hilda would love being in their home—homes,” she corrected herself. “Especially the beach house.”

Dr. Woodard laughed. “Well then, it's settled as far as I'm concerned. I'll start things rolling at the sanatorium, and by the time all the legal business is worked out, I'm sure Hilda will be well enough to leave.” He looked up. “She loved the new dress, Amanda. She even told me to thank you. Yes, indeed, she's making progress.”

Mandie felt good inside, knowing Hilda liked the dress.

Dr. Woodard smiled and took a drink of his tea. “By the way, John,” he said, “what I really came for was to tell you that Jake Burns is interested in buying that old mine you've got over there at Rose Creek.”

Uncle John looked surprised. “Why, that old mine's been shut up for years. I don't know what he wants with it. All the rubies have been dug out long ago.”

“Well, maybe he'd like to try anyway,” Dr. Woodard replied.

“But it's been neglected so long it's probably falling in,” Uncle John protested.

Mandie and Joe exchanged glances, then leaned forward to listen.

“You own an old abandoned mine, Uncle John?” Mandie asked. “The ruby mine we're talking about, Amanda, belonged to my father,”

Uncle John explained. “It has been closed since I was young.”

“Oh, Uncle John, please don't sell it until we can see it,” Mandie begged.

“Please, sir,” Joe added.

Uncle John looked at Dr. Woodard and smiled. “Looks like we've started something here.”

“We might find one little teeny ruby if we look hard,” Mandie persisted.

Uncle John chuckled. “I'm sure you won't find any, but I guess I can wait to sell it until you have had time to check it out.”

“Thank you, Uncle John,” Mandie replied, clapping her hands.

“We will find out whether there are any rubies left in it, won't we, Joe?” “We sure will,” the boy agreed.

“And when is that going to be?” Dr. Woodard asked.

“The next holidays I get from school, we'll go explore it,” Mandie promised.

“Yes, we will if my father gives me permission,” Joe said, sending his father a pleading look.

“Oh, I suppose so, if Amanda is allowed to go,” Dr. Woodard agreed.

“Thanks, Dad,” Joe said excitedly.

“If that mine has any rubies in it at all, I'll bet we'll find them, Dr. Woodard,” she promised.

Mandie's blue eyes twinkled brightly. Somehow, going back to school tomorrow didn't seem so bad, knowing that one day soon she and Joe could explore that old abandoned ruby mine!

MANDIE

AND THE

ABANDONED

MINE

With love,

to my granddaughter,

Natalie Rae Leppard,

that precious blue-eyed, blonde-haired darling,

not yet old enough

to read about Mandie,

but old enough to love books.

CONTENTS

MANDIE AND THE ABANDONED MINE

Chapter   1  A Sad, Bad Mine

Chapter   2  The Store-Bought Dress

Chapter   3  Waiting

Chapter   4  Another Secret Tunnel

Chapter   5  The Woman With the Dress

Chapter   6  Mandie and Joe in Trouble

Chapter   7  The Search Begins

Chapter   8  Adrift in the River

Chapter   9  Forgiveness

Chapter 10  Explanations

Chapter 11  A Mysterious Find

Chapter 12  The Secret of the Mine

CHAPTER ONE

A SAD, BAD MINE

“Is this what a ruby mine looks like?” Mandie Shaw asked her Uncle John as she stared in surprise. All she could see was what looked like a plank floor covering the ground, going down the hill out of sight toward Rose Creek, a branch of the Little Tennessee River. The sound of voices and hammering came from beneath the boards.

Uncle John dismounted and offered his hand to help twelve-year-old Mandie down from her pony. Her white kitten, Snowball, squirmed in her arms as she slid down.

“Well, this is not exactly a typical mine for western North Carolina,” he explained. “Most ruby mines don't go underneath the ground like this one. You see, Amanda, the dirt has to be dug away until you reach the gravel. Instead of digging a tunnel, you just scrape the dirt off the top. The rubies are in the gravel.”

Mandie's long-time friend Joe stood nearby with his father, Dr. Woodard, listening. “Then why is this one underground?” Joe asked.

“Probably because this mine is about nineteen feet deep, and the depth of the dirt was so great that it made a huge crater when they dug it away. When they closed the mine years ago, they must have had to cover it with boards to keep people and animals from falling in,” Uncle John explained.

“Why was it closed, John?” Dr. Woodard asked. “Was it mined dry?”

“No, I don't think so. I don't remember ever seeing it worked. I was small when my father closed it. It must have been nearly fifty years ago, around 1850. I remember hearing that there had been some special reason for closing it, but I don't remember what. In fact, I was forbidden to go near it when I was a child,” Uncle John told them.

“How do we get under there to look for rubies?” Mandie asked, flipping her long blonde braid behind her back.

“As soon as the workmen shore up the timbers, we'll be able to go down inside,” her uncle replied.

“But how? I don't see any entrance,” Mandie said, looking around.

Uncle John pointed to an opening in the boards. “There are steps going down over there. The opening was covered over with the planks, so the workmen had to hunt for it. We were surprised to find it in fairly good shape, considering how many years it has been closed.”

“Is this where our family got all its money?” Mandie asked, holding Snowball tighter as he tried again to get down.

“Part of it,” Uncle John replied. “My grandfather, who was your great-grandfather, was in on the gold rush when gold was discovered here in our state at Concord in 1799. Most people don't know that the first gold discovered in the United States was found there. There was so much of it that the government had to open a mint in Charlotte about 1837 to take care of it.”

“You mean the original gold rush was here in North Carolina and not in California?” Joe asked.

“Yes, it was some fifty years before the California discovery. Not only that, but gold was also found on Cherokee land before the rush to California. That was the main reason the white people moved the Indians out,” John reminded him.

“Gold can do terrible things to people,” Dr. Woodard remarked.

“Why does everybody have to be so money crazy?” Mandie sighed. “Was my great-grandfather money crazy?”

“No, Amanda, I can honestly say he wasn't. It just happened that gold was found on land he owned, and also emeralds, sapphires,
garnets, and the rubies here, and mica. It just happened that way. He didn't go looking for it,” Uncle John explained.

“Are all those other mines closed now?” Joe asked.

“No, not all of them,” Uncle John answered. “We have a large mica mine over near Sylva, and we have a couple of other gem mines here in Macon County. They seem to be full of stones.”

“If the rubies are in the gravel, how do you go about finding them? Do you just get down and dig through to the gravel?” Mandie asked.

Uncle John laughed. “No, dear, that would take forever. You have to remove the topsoil, and you need a water trough and a sieve. The loose dirt and fine gravel filter through the sieve and wash away, leaving the larger pieces of gravel in the sieve. Then you have to examine what's left to see if there are any rubies in it. Once in a while you'll find a ruby stuck in a rock left in the gravel.”

“That sounds easy enough,” Mandie said.

“Oh, but it takes time, lots of time, to do this and really come up with anything worthwhile. The rubies are few and far between,” her uncle stated.

“And even though it sounds like fun, it's wet, dirty, backbreaking work,” Dr. Woodard told her.

“But it'll be fun anyway,” Joe remarked.

“Yes, I can't wait to get started. Are you getting us a water trough and a sieve, Uncle John?” Mandie asked.

“There's a trough already down there with a hand pump to bring the water through, and we've got sieves back at the house,” Uncle John said. “While one of you dips the sieve in the water, the other one will have to be sure the water is pumping through.”

“By the way, Amanda,” Dr. Woodard warned, “the rubies you may find won't look like the setting in a ring. They'll be a dull, dirty-looking dark red. They have to be polished and cut before they are used in jewelry.”

“That's right,” Uncle John agreed. “You have to look very closely. Some of them might look just like old rocks.”

“I'll be sure to examine every little particle,” Mandie replied. “That way I'm sure I'll find some rubies.”

“And if you do find one, what are you going to do with it?” her uncle asked.

Mandie's blue eyes sparkled as she thought for a moment and then answered, “Why, I'll have it polished and cut like Dr. Woodard said, and I'll have it made into something for my mother. That would make a nice Christmas present for her, wouldn't it?”

“It sure would. But in the meantime, I think you'd better plan on an alternate present, because you might not find a single one, you know,” Uncle John said.