The Mandie Collection (41 page)

Ludie, standing nearby, gasped when she saw what she was being given. “Mr. Shaw,” she said, “we couldn't possibly take all that nice furniture. It cost too much.”

“Ludie, don't worry about it. You and Jake will be working for it. Besides, I don't know that we'll ever need it. No sense in letting it sit here and rot,” John argued.

The men pushed a huge sideboard forward to take downstairs.

As Mandie and the other girls stepped back, Mandie spied a paper tacked to the back of the sideboard. She ran forward to get a closer look. “Stop!” she yelled excitedly. “Wait! I've found something!”

Joe, standing nearby, quickly looked to see what it was. “Looks like a map to some hidden treasure,” he said.

“Treasure?” the young people echoed.

“What's this all about?” John Shaw asked, stooping behind the sideboard. He looked closely at the large piece of old crumbling paper tacked there, then carefully pulled out the tacks holding it. He straightened up with the drawing in his hands. “Tigris has my sister Ruby's name on it,” he said, laying it down on top of the sideboard.

Everyone crowded around to look.

The drawing, dimmed by time, was labeled: My House, River, Rose Creek, Ruby Mine, Your House, Rhododendron Bush, Persimmon Tree, Rock Pile, and the Path to Hezekiah's House.

“Look! It has directions, too!” Mandie exclaimed, pointing to the printing at the bottom. She read aloud: “ ‘Go down the path to Hezekiah's House. Turn left and go 936 feet to Rock Pile. Go right 572 feet to Persimmon Tree. Then go left 333 feet to Rhododendron Bush. Dig three feet under Rhododendron Bush. That is where Treasure is buried.' ” Mandie looked up. “I wonder where all this is,” she said.

“The My House would have to be this house if Ruby drew it,” Celia reasoned.

“And there is the ruby mine,” Sallie pointed.

“But who is Hezekiah?” Dimar asked.

“Do you know who Hezekiah is, Uncle John?” Mandie asked.

“I don't remember ever knowing anyone by that name. But then if you will notice, this map was drawn April 30, 1850,” John replied. “I was only two years old then.”

“That was the day before she died. What a coincidence,” Mandie said in wonderment.

“It certainly was,” Uncle John agreed. He turned to Jake. “Did you ever know anyone around here named Hezekiah?”

“No, John. Don't believe I do,” Jake replied. “You see, when I was growing up, we lived in an old house right across the river from the mine. I wasn't allowed to go anywhere but to the mine and back. Then, too, we wouldn't have had the same friends as your family.”

Dimar leaned forward. “The place called Your House on this map looks like it might be the old farmhouse we are fixing up for Mr. and Mrs. Burns,” he said.

“Yeah, it might be,” Jake agreed.

“I wonder what the treasure was?” Ludie said.

“Was? I hope it still is because I am going to find it,” Mandie declared. “Who wants to go with me?”

“You are not going anywhere, young lady—not until we finish moving these things for Mr. and Mrs. Burns. And by that time the Thanksgiving turkey will be done,” Uncle John said. “Now let's get back to work here.”

“May I take the map, Uncle John?” Mandie asked.

“I think we'd better put it in that drawer with the other papers over there until we get time to look into it,” Uncle John replied. “It might be valuable.” He winked at her and smiled.

Reluctantly, Mandie crossed the room to the old wardrobe with the dolls and carefully added the map to the papers in the drawer.

The treasure map was the topic of conversation all morning. The girls helped as much as they could, taking turns going downstairs to open the front door for the men carrying the heavy furniture.

As Uncle Ned was tugging a huge chair through the attic doorway, Mandie came to help.

“I'll open the front door for you, Uncle Ned,” she offered, walking ahead of him down the three flights of steps.

In the front hallway, she paused with her hand on the doorknob as Uncle Ned set the chair down for a minute to get his breath. “I think you should have had some help bringing that thing down the stairs,” she said.

“Not heavy. Open door now,” the old Indian told her.

Mandie flung the door wide and stared out onto the porch in disbelief. There, huddled on the doormat, sat Snowball, meowing weakly.

“Snowball!” Mandie cried as the kitten limped toward her. “Oh, your foot is hurt!” She picked him up and hugged him tightly. Suddenly his disheveled, dirty body went limp.

Mandie panicked. “Dear God,” she prayed, “please don't let Snowball die.” Tears trickled down her cheeks as she sat down in the middle of the porch, holding the kitten. Uncle Ned bent over her to look.

The white kitten's dirty fur was covered with briars. Uncle Ned rubbed his hand across the kitten's face. The kitten didn't move. “Do not hold too tight,” he said. “Snowball weak, not eat.”

Mandie loosened her hold on the kitten and held him up to her face. “Please don't let him die, dear God, please!” she cried again.

At that moment Snowball perked up and lifted his head, then meowed and snuggled against her shoulder.

Mandie was so happy that it was all she could do to keep from squeezing the kitten to death. “Thank you, dear God! Thank you!” she cried.

Uncle Ned sat down on the porch beside her and took her hand in his. “Papoose see what trouble disobedience cause,” the old man said. “Must learn to obey. Keep promises.”

“You're right, Uncle Ned,” Mandie admitted, squeezing his hand. “Let's thank God for sending Snowball home.”

The two sat there and looked toward the sky.

“Dear God,” Mandie began with tears in her eyes. “Thank you for sending Snowball home. I love him so much. Thank you again for forgiving me for causing trouble. Help me to think before I do things. Thank you, dear God.”

“Thank you, Big God,” Uncle Ned added.

Mandie cuddled the kitten as she stood up. “I've got to get Snowball something to eat and see what's wrong with his little paw,” she said.

“Me see paw,” Uncle Ned stated, rising. He examined the kitten. “Here. Thorn in paw. We get out. Hold.”

Mandie held the hurt little paw while Uncle Ned worked on it. Snowball meowed weakly and tried to pull his paw away, but uncle Ned held it firm and pulled out the thorn.

“Must get medicine now,” the Indian told her.

“Thank you, Uncle Ned,” Mandie said. “I'll go bathe it and put some medicine on it.”

“Papoose not going to look for treasure?” he asked.

Mandie grinned at him. “Not yet, Uncle Ned. You see, I stopped to think first. I'll go when Uncle John gives me permission. Right now I'll go doctor Snowball.”

“Good girl.” Uncle Ned smiled back. “Ruby good girl, too. I hope you find Ruby's treasure.”

“I will,” Mandie promised. “All in good time.”

MANDIE

AND THE

HIDDEN

TREASURE

With Thanks to

W. Harold Christian, Jr.,

who has so many talents and

who so willingly shares them.

CONTENTS

MANDIE AND THE HIDDEN TREASURE

Chapter   1  The Treasure Map

Chapter   2  Old Newspapers

Chapter   3  Cemetery Path

Chapter   4  Abraham's Secret

Chapter   5  Fine Food Since 1852

Chapter   6  The Old House on the Rock Pile

Chapter   7  Who Was Hezekiah?

Chapter   8  The Secret Hiding Place

Chapter   9  More Clues

Chapter 10  The Map's Treasure

Chapter 11  Other People's Business

Chapter 12  Much Is Given

“For unto whomsoever much is given,

of him shall be much required.”

Luke 12:48

CHAPTER ONE

THE TREASURE MAP

“I wish Celia and Dimar could have stayed and helped us find the treasure,” Mandie said as she and her Indian friend, Sallie, climbed the steep stairs to the attic.

“There might not be any treasure, you know,” Joe Woodard reminded her, following close behind.

“Oh, Joe, you know there's some kind of treasure,” Mandie protested as they reached the top of the stairs. “We've got the map to prove it.”

Snowball, Mandie's white kitten, ran ahead of them as Mandie pushed open the door to the attic.

The three stepped over crates and trunks and made their way through a maze of abandoned chairs, dressers, and other discarded furniture to get to the huge old wardrobe standing at the far side of the attic.

“Just because we found a map is no reason to say there really is a treasure,” Joe argued. “Someone might have found it a long time ago. That map's about fifty years old. By now, someone could have taken whatever was there.”

Mandie bent to open the big drawer on the bottom of the wardrobe and took out the treasure map they had found a few days earlier. As they sat down on the floor of the attic, she spread the map out before them.

“I'm going to look anyway,” Mandie told him. “Since Ruby got killed the day after she drew this map, I don't imagine she took the treasure out of its hiding place. And since we found the map tacked to the back side of that old sideboard, I don't believe anyone else ever found it.”

“I think as you do, Mandie,” Sallie said. “We must explore the places shown on the map and see what we can find.”

“Oh, I'll go along with you girls and help look, but I really don't think there will be anything to find,” Joe said.

Mandie ignored his remark this time. She read the directions on the map. “It says, ‘Go down the path to Hezekiah's House. Turn left and go 936 feet to Rock Pile. Go right 572 feet to Persimmon Tree. Then go left 333 feet to Rhododendron Bush. Dig three feet under Rhododendron Bush. That is where the Treasure is buried.” Mandie looked up. “I'm sure Ruby buried something,” she said emphatically.

Joe leaned forward, pointing to the drawing. “We've already decided the ‘My House' on the map must be this house we're in,” he said, “because Ruby was your father's sister, and this was your grandparents' house. Then there is a path drawn to ‘Hezekiah's House' right there.”

“And we go 936 feet to a rock pile, 572 feet to a persimmon tree, and 333 feet to a rhododendron bush,” Sallie added, studying the map.

Mandie nodded. “There's the Little Tennessee River, the ruby mine, and a place marked ‘Your House.' It's all right here in Franklin, North Carolina,” she said. “But I don't know anything about that path that goes to Hezekiah's House.”

“I don't think we can begin in the middle or at the end of this map,” Joe told them. “We'll have to start at the beginning and find the path to Hezekiah's house. It looks to me like that path must go right next to the cemetery across the road from here.”

“Yes, it does,” Mandie agreed.

“The ‘Your House' might be the old house where Jake and Ludie Burns are living now,” Sallie suggested.

“It probably is,” Mandie agreed. “And if it is, then this rhododendron bush, the persimmon tree, and the rock pile must be between our house and the house the Burnses are living in.”

“Well, we're not going to find it sitting here in the attic,” Joe told the girls.

Mandie picked up the map and turned the front of it around to show Joe and Sallie. “Don't y'all think these things are between here and the Burnses?” She glanced down at the back of the paper map. “Wait! Here's something on the back. Look!” She laid the map upside down for the others to see. “I believe it says, ‘It's about'—something—” She shook her head. “ ‘—to Hezekiah's House.' ”

“ ‘One mile,' ” Sallie filled in, squinting closely at the writing.

“So it's about one mile to Hezekiah's house,” Joe agreed. “Do y'all see anything else written on the back?”

The three of them carefully inspected every inch of the faded paper but found nothing else.

“I guess we've got all the information there is on the map.” Mandie sighed. “What do y'all suppose the treasure is?”

“Some silly kid thing,” Joe said. “Ruby was only ten years old when she drew this map.”

“Lacking five days,” Mandie corrected him. “She was born May 6, 1840, and she died on May 1, 1850, five days before her tenth birthday, according to her tombstone.”

“Oh, well, nine years and three hundred and sixty days if you want to be exact,” Joe grumbled.

“Ten years old is not such a dumb age, Joe,” Mandie said. “I'm only twelve myself, and you're not quite two years older than I am.”

“And I am almost one year older than you, Mandie,” Sallie added. “My grandfather said that Ruby was a sensible, mature little girl. I think she probably hid something valuable.”