The Mandie Collection (72 page)

Annie spoke up again. “Miz Taft,” she said, “dat Injun man whut Missy know, he be in de sunroom.”

“Uncle Ned!” Mandie cried, hurrying to the sunroom. “He'll help us find Phineas.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE ROBBER!

Uncle Ned, as always, agreed to help Mandie and her friends. He knew Phineas Prattworthy and he listened carefully as Mrs. Taft explained the whole story with occasional interruptions from Mandie, Joe, and Celia.

“Must help find,” Uncle Ned said as Dr. Woodard came into the sunroom.

“Yes, I agree,” said Dr. Woodard. “After all, Hilda might have died from the cold if Phineas hadn't done what he did for her.”

“But, Dr. Woodard, I don't think he's guilty anyway,” Mandie remarked. “We can't let an innocent man be prosecuted.”

“Of course not, Amanda,” Dr. Woodard replied.

“We find,” Uncle Ned assured them. “Go now.”

“I know we will find him with you helping us, Uncle Ned,” Mandie told the old Indian, as they sat in the warmth from the fireplace. “Grandmother, may we go with Uncle Ned?”

“Amanda I just don't know,” Mrs. Taft replied. “Evidently there is a robber involved in this, and he could be dangerous.”

“Please, Grandmother,” Mandie begged. “We'll stay right with Uncle Ned,” she promised.

“Well, I suppose so,” Mrs. Taft said uncertainly.

“Thanks,” Mandie said.

“May I go, too?” Joe asked his father.

“I suppose if you stay right with Uncle Ned, it'll be all right,” Dr. Woodard agreed.

“Thanks Dad,” Joe said, grinning.

Mrs. Taft looked at the old Indian. “I'll send Ben with y'all, too,” she said. “He can help see that the young people don't get into any trouble.”

Uncle Ned nodded in agreement.

“And be back before dark,” Mrs. Taft said to the young people. They all nodded as Uncle Ned motioned for them to go. “Must go while trail fresh,” he said.

The young people bundled up and followed the old Indian through the snow with Ben bringing up the rear. Ben didn't seem very happy to be involved in the hunt.

Uncle Ned traced Phineas's tracks in the snow through the yard, into the back, across the surrounding property, and into the main road. There, the tracks disappeared. The snow had been shoveled from the dirt road, and dozens of wagon wheels, horses, and footprints had marked the road.

“Maybe he went back to the church,” Mandie suggested.

“He could have,” Joe agreed. “We didn't tell Mr. Simpson that he had been hiding in the church—just that he had been ringing the bells and doing all that other crazy stuff. I don't believe Mr. Simpson would look for him there.”

Uncle Ned nodded. “We look,” he said.

Inside the church, the young people led the way, explaining to Uncle Ned what had happened there. They took him up to the gallery and showed him the rope ladder to the belfry. The old Indian was as agile as the young people as he scaled the rope ladder. Ben refused to go up.

In the belfry, Joe showed Uncle Ned the loose paneling.

“He said he hid in the attic, remember?” Mandie reminded Celia and Joe. “We never did go into the attic. Maybe he's there now.” “How can we get into the attic?” Celia asked nervously.

“He told us he could slide down through the wall behind this loose paneling into the attic,” Joe said, shaking the panel in the wall.

Uncle Ned stood there looking and listening. “No other way?” he asked.

“Well, yes. He said there's a scuttle hole in the ceiling of the gallery,” Mandie recalled.

“We see.” Uncle Ned went back down the rope ladder, and the young people followed.

When they reached the gallery, they found Ben stretched out on one of the benches.

“Big help he is,” Joe teased.

Ben got up sheepishly and joined the others.

Uncle Ned immediately spotted the trapdoor in the ceiling, but it was too high for them to reach.

“Need ladder,” Uncle Ned said, looking around.

“There isn't a ladder in the building,” Joe told him. “We've been through the whole church several times, and I don't remember seeing one anywhere.”

“Then we get table, stack, reach,” Uncle Ned decided.

The young people understood what the old Indian meant. If they brought the table and chairs up from the basement that they had used to open the basement window, they could probably reach the ceiling.

Ben was put to work helping. It was a job to get the big table up the stairs from the basement and then on up the narrow stairs to the gallery, but they finally made it.

Straddling the table over the bench directly under the scuttle hole, they put a chair on top of the table. The ceiling in the gallery was low. Joe and Uncle Ned could both reach the trapdoor by standing on the chair.

“I'll go up there,” Joe volunteered.

Uncle Ned nodded and stood holding the chair for the boy to step on. The girls held their breath as they watched. Ben stood back, watching as he flipped the key in his hand.

Joe had trouble trying to slide the trapdoor open. It refused to budge.

“Get chair. I help push,” Uncle Ned told them.

Joe jumped down and hurried to the basement to bring up another chair. He placed it beside the other chair on top of the table.

“Ben, you'll have to hold the chairs this time. Uncle Ned is going to stand up on one and me on the other,” Joe told the Negro man.

“All right,” Ben agreed. He started to put the key in his pocket as he stepped forward to help. The key slipped out of his hand and went flying between the benches, making a loud rattling noise.

Ben stooped to look around. “I jes' lost day key whut I found in dis chouch de other day.”

Mandie quickly asked, “You found a key? In this church? When?”

Ben, down on his knees, looking under the benches, raised his head to answer. “Missy, I find dat key de day y'all make me come inside de church, de fust time. It be on de flo' right under my foot where I set.”

Mandie said, “Come on, let's help Ben find his key. He found it here in this church, and you remember the man and woman were looking for something they had lost.”

The young people quickly covered the floor. Uncle Ned, watching, bent to pick up something at his foot.

“Key,” he told the young people, and he handed the key to Mandie. Mandie squinted to read the faint printing on the key while the others crowded around to see.

“It says Property of National something or other, Charlotte, North Carolina, I think,” Mandie said. “What's that other word there?”

“That's a
k
on the end of the word,” Celia determined.

Joe looked closer. “Bank!” he exclaimed. “Property of National Bank of Charlotte, North Carolina.”

The girls gasped. Uncle Ned nodded in understanding, but Ben looked confused.

“If dat key be de property of de bank, den I'll jes' send it back to 'em,” he said innocently.

“Ben, don't you know what you've found?” Mandie asked. “This must be what the man and woman were looking for here that day we hid behind the curtains.”

Celia's eyes grew wide. “And if this is what they lost—”

“Those people must be connected with that bank robbery in Charlotte,” Joe interrupted.

“You mean they were bank robbers?” Celia asked.

Mandie looked up at Ben. “Can I keep this key?” she asked.

“Sho,' Missy,” he replied. “Don't belong to me.”

Mandie put the key in her pocket. “Uncle Ned, we need to get in touch with this bank in Charlotte,” she said.

“We see, Papoose,” the Indian agreed. “Now we go in attic. Be dark soon.”

“You're right, Uncle Ned,” Joe said, climbing up on one of the chairs. “We have to hurry.”

Uncle Ned stepped up on the other chair. Ben held the chairs steady while Uncle Ned and Joe pushed on the trapdoor overhead. After several hard blows, it finally moved, and they were able to slide it back, uncovering a square hole in the ceiling.

Joe swung up inside the hole, and they could hear him walking around in the attic. “The place is pretty empty,” he called down to them. “I see Mr. Prattworthy's bag over there and some odds and ends, but there's nobody up here.”

“Come,” Uncle Ned called to him. “We go.” Joe came back down, and they closed the trapdoor and returned the table and chairs to the basement.

As they left the church, Uncle Ned asked Ben to drive them out of town toward the mountains. “Robber not stay in town. Phinny he go, too,” the old Indian decided.

They all nodded. The robber wouldn't want to be seen around town, so he would most likely hide out in the country somewhere. Phineas knew that, too.

As they rode along the bumpy, snow-covered country road, they kept watch for anything unusual. There were very few buildings on the road, a few tumbled-down barns, some rough country houses, an old deserted church building, and a school. They stopped at all these places and quickly searched them.

“Uncle Ned, it's going to be dark soon,” Celia reminded him.

“One more place. Then go back,” Uncle Ned replied.

“Oh, I do hope we can find him,” Mandie said.

“Just hope the robber doesn't find him first,” Joe cautioned. “The robber must know what's going on in town.”

They came to a narrow dirt road branching off the one they were traveling on. Uncle Ned motioned for Ben to pull up on the side road. “Stop there,” he said.

Ben did what he was told and brought the rig to a stop. The side road was too narrow, and the snow was too deep for the rig to go down it anyway.

“Come. We walk,” Uncle Ned ordered.

They all piled out of the rig onto the frozen snow.

“What's down this road?” Mandie asked.

“Old ground camp for church,” the Indian replied, leading the way.

Mandie laughed. “Oh, you mean a campground for the church.”

“No more. Church no more use.” Uncle Ned adjusted his bow and sling of arrows on his shoulder.

The young people walked carefully on the frozen snow to keep from sliding down.

Ben trudged along behind them, mumbling to himself. “Dem hosses dey gwine be froze to death 'fo' we gits back,” he fussed.

“You put their blankets on them,” Joe said. “They'll be all right.” “Not fo' long,” Ben argued.

In a little while Uncle Ned stopped for the others to catch up with him. He held up his hand. “Quiet,” he said softly. “Not far.”

Everyone hushed and cautiously followed the old Indian.

As they came around a curve, a large, old dilapidated building came in sight. Several smaller structures sagged nearby, but no one seemed to be anywhere around.

Again Uncle Ned held up his hand for them to stop. He motioned for them to hide behind a cluster of huge tree trunks nearby, then sniffed the air. “Smoke,” he whispered.

There was a loud scuffling noise from somewhere behind the big building. Uncle Ned motioned for them to creep forward and stay out of sight. He slipped around the corner of the building. The noise got louder.

They heard a man's loud voice. “That's what you're going to get for snooping in other people's business,” he yelled.

There was a loud crack of a whip.

Uncle Ned took an arrow from his sling and softly crept toward the back of the building. The young people stayed right behind him, and Ben brought up the rear.

As they reached the corner, they saw Phineas. He was sitting, tied up, on the snow-covered ground, and a strange man with a gun strapped to his waist raised a horse whip, ready to strike.

Uncle Ned quickly pulled back his bowstring and let his arrow fly. The arrow whizzed overhead and stuck in the tree trunk just over the stranger's head. The man whirled quickly and reached for his gun, unable to see them hiding around the corner. He looked at the arrow embedded in the tree.

“Indians!” the stranger shrieked.

“These woods are full of Indians, mister,” Phineas told him as he wiggled to get free of the ropes. “Great big, strong Cherokee Indians.”

“Then we'd better leave,” the stranger said anxiously.

In the meantime, Uncle Ned had raced around the building to the opposite corner, and at that moment he shot another arrow above the man's head.

“Looks like they've got us surrounded,” Phineas warned. “No way we can get out of here.”

“We have to leave,” the man insisted, nervously eyeing the second arrow. “Those Cherokee Indians are dangerous.”

“You leave. I'll stay right here,” Phineas offered. “Those Cherokees are my friends.”

“If I leave, you're going with me,” the stranger ordered. “And if they're your friends, you can see that no harm comes to us when we leave. Otherwise, you are going to be greatly harmed by me.”

Uncle Ned raced back to the corner where the others were watching through the bushes.

The stranger stepped toward Phineas. He had a limp!
So this is the man who stole from the grocer
, Mandie thought. Phineas had found him!

The old Indian motioned for the others to come near. “I go behind man. Shoot arrow,” he whispered. “He turn that way. I run fast. Shoot arrow again other way. Man get all confused.”

“What can we do, Uncle Ned?” Joe asked in a low voice.

“You go that way. Get help,” Uncle Ned motioned toward a slight path off to the right. “Mumblehead live that way. Two minutes.”

Joe understood and nodded his head. Uncle Ned slipped around the building. Joe turned to the path and spoke quietly to Ben on his way. “Stay close to the girls,” he whispered. “See that they don't get hurt. I'm going for help.”

Ben nodded and moved closer to the girls. Together, they watched the stranger and Phineas through the bushes while Uncle Ned moved all around, shooting arrows from different directions.