The Mandie Collection (15 page)

“Do not worry. I will not get you lost. I know exactly where we are going,” Tsa'ni assured them.

A long time later a rushing, roaring waterfall came into view. Mandie stopped to admire it.

“Oh, how beautiful!” she exclaimed.

“That is where we are going,” Tsa'ni told her.

He ran ahead of them and when they reached the falls, he stopped and gave them directions. “Now, you must walk across the rocks in the creek behind the waterfall. The entrance to the cave is behind the falls,” and he started forward.

“We'll get all wet!” Mandie screamed above the noise of the water.

“No, you will not get wet if you stay against the cliff away from the water when you walk through. Just watch where you step. The rocks are slippery sometimes,” Tsa'ni yelled back and continued on.

Mandie followed, with Sallie behind her, and Joe bringing up the rear. Snowball was frightened of the water and clung desperately to Mandie's shoulder.

Once under the falls, Mandie looked up and could see a ledge protecting the walkway as the water cascaded down into the creek. It felt terribly damp under there and the rocks were awfully slippery. There was no use trying to talk. No one could be heard above the sound of the water.

Joe lost his footing once, and if the girls hadn't grabbed for him, he would have fallen into the creek. The slip caused the girls to almost lose their balance, and Mandie felt her free hand scrape a rock as she grabbed for a hold. Regaining her footing, she stuck her hand out into the waterfall to wash away the grit and slime. The water was ice cold.

Tsa'ni had stopped ahead of them, and when they caught up they found him waiting in front of a huge, dark hole in the cliff which appeared to be the mouth of the cave. He had taken a match from his pocket and was lighting his lantern, motioning for Joe to light the one he carried, and then he entered the cave.

Once inside, the loud roar of the falls became a muffled sound and Mandie looked around, afraid to go any farther. Joe, right behind her and Sallie, swung the lantern around, lighting up the cave. They could see huge, moss-covered boulders around the entrance. The floor seemed to be solid rock.

“Come.” Tsa'ni called, going deeper into the cave. “I want to show you something.”

The three hurried on, passing into another part of the cave with enormous, long spears of rock hanging from the ceiling and sprouting up from the floor. They looked around in wonder.

“What are those things?” Mandie asked, breathlessly.

“That is what I wanted to show you. The ones hanging from overhead are stalactites and the ones sitting on the ground are called stalagmites,” Tsa'ni explained.

“Well, what caused them?” Joe asked.

“They are formed by the water dripping from above,” the Indian boy replied.

“It must have taken an awfully long time,” Sallie remarked.

“Hundreds of years, maybe thousands,” Tsa'ni nodded.

Mandie set Snowball down, and he began to check out the scent of the floor.

“You mean this cave has been here that long?” Mandie asked.

“And this is the cave where Tsali lived?” Sallie queried.

“Yes. People are born, live, and die, but mountains stay forever,” the Indian boy replied. “This cave has several tunnels and other sections. Come, I will show you.”

The group followed as he went down a long tunnel which led into another section of the cave, and then continued into another tunnel. It was all so dark and cold. The lanterns made a soft glow and cast eerie shadows. Snowball seemed nervous. He leaned against Mandie's skirt and meowed to be picked up. She consented and he snuggled against her shoulder.

“Oh, Snowball, I think you are lazy today,” she laughed.

“Look, there is a stream over there. Look closely and you can see minnows in it,” Tsa'ni told them, pointing to the other side of the large cavern they were in.

Everyone hurried over to the stream and huddled on the ground to watch for minnows in the flowing water.

Tsa'ni, with a sly grin on his face, silently crept away, heading for the entrance. He knew his way around inside, and the trail for home, but he knew the two white children didn't know the way, and neither did Sallie.
The white girl claims to be part Indian
, he thought.
Well, we'll just see how much Indian she is. A real Indian could find the way out. White people—always coming to mess in Cherokee business!

Joe turned to speak to Tsa'ni. “I don't see any minnows.” And then realizing the Indian boy was nowhere in sight, he called, “
Tsa'ni
, where are you?”

The girls were startled at the alarm in Joe's voice. They saw no sign of Tsa'ni. Mandie once again felt the hatred rising in her heart.

“He has left us,” Sallie spoke angrily.

“Oh, no, Sallie! How will we ever find the way out—and home?” Mandie cried.

“We can only search around and hope to see familiar things,” the Indian girl told them.

“Thank goodness, we have a lantern,” Joe added.

Mandie sighed. “Well, let's be on our way.” She started forward and then stopped. “Joe, you'd better go first with the lantern so we can watch our step.”

“Please, be careful,” Joe warned them. He stepped ahead and flashed the light into the next section of the cave. “Did we come in from here or over there? There's another opening over there.” His voice echoed.

The girls turned to look. There
was
another opening. They were both puzzled.

“This one, I—I think,” Mandie said, indicating the one nearest where they stood.

“No, I think it is that one over there,” Sallie disagreed.

“Hey, now, we can't go two ways at once,” Joe said.

“All right, which way do you say, Joe? We'll go the way two of us agree on,” Mandie said.

“I just don't know!” Joe sounded confused. “I suppose we could
try
this way and then come back if we don't find the way out.”

“And maybe get thoroughly lost doing it!” Mandie moaned.

“But there is nothing else we can do but try,” Sallie reasoned.

“Agreed,” Joe said. “So here we go.” He led the way into the next cavern, and to their dismay it had several openings.

“Listen for the sound of the water,” Sallie told them. “If we can get headed toward the water, we will find our way out.”

The three stood still, holding their breath, listening for the faint roar of the waterfall. Simultaneously they pointed in three different directions. Then they all laughed.

“I've always heard two heads are better than one, but I'm not so sure three heads are any good at all,” Mandie sighed.

“Let's do it this way,” Joe suggested. “We'll take turns deciding which way to go.”

“All right, you choose first,” Sallie replied.

“This way,” Joe said, pointing to his right, and the girls followed.

Now they were in a long tunnel with no end in sight within the dim light of the lantern.

“Mandie, you choose next,” Sallie said, as they stumbled along the rough floor.

“Right now I would choose to go back the other way. It looked smoother and I don't remember a floor as rough as this one. No, wait! I see a dark place on the right up there.” She hurried forward. “It's an opening.”

“Well, let's go through it,” Joe said, flashing the lantern light inside the next cavern. At that moment it seemed like hundreds of dark birds came flying at them. Flapping wings buzzed around their heads and a wild cackling sound filled the air. Joe and Mandie froze in terror.

“Bats.” Sallie yelled. “Get down low and go back out!”

The three almost crawled out of the cavern into the tunnel they had just come down. Two of the bats circled here and there, and then disappeared.

“Sorry, I picked the wrong way,” Mandie said breathlessly, as they ran through the tunnel.

“Here is another opening on the left,” Sallie said.

“Joe, hold the light inside first so we can see.”

Joe flashed the lantern around but no bats appeared. Directly across the passageway was yet another opening.

“There's another tunnel over there.”

The girls followed him on through. It was a large cavern with a huge hole in the middle of the floor. They gathered around to look. Even though Joe held the lantern as far over the hole as he could bend, they could not see the bottom.

“Oh, how spooky!” Mandie shrieked.

“Do not get too near the edge!” Sallie warned them.

Joe turned to look at the girls. “I think we are completely lost.”

“That Tsa'ni! Just wait until I tell my grandfather what he has done to us!” Sallie cried.

“There's only one thing left to do,” Mandie told them. “We must pray. In fact, we should have prayed long before now.”

“Pray?” asked Sallie.

“Yes. I know you must go to church, because Uncle Ned does. Whenever I am afraid or confused I ask God to help me,” Mandie told her. “And He always does.”

“Yes, I go to church and I believe in God,” the Indian girl replied.

“Then, let's all repeat this verse together: ‘What time I am afraid I will put my trust in Thee.' ” And the three did as Mandie suggested.

“Oh, dear God, please help us! We need your help now!” Mandie pleaded, turning her eyes upward.

“Now let's not worry anymore. God will help us find the way out,” Joe added.

“Yes, but I cannot hear Him telling us which way to go, can you?” Sallie was serious as she looked at the other two.

“No, but we have to trust Him to put it into our heads which way to go,” Mandie explained.

“I think I'll check what's over on the other side,” Joe said, walking slowly around the huge hole in the floor.

The wall on the other side had stones of all shapes and sizes piled up against it, and there was no opening.

Mandie, following Joe, accidentally stubbed her toe on a rock near the bottom of the pile, and all of a sudden the whole stack
seemed about to tumble. She jumped out of the way and bent to look closer at the stones. As she was straightening up, her eyes caught a glitter in the pile.

“Joe, hold the lantern over here! I saw something shiny in the rocks!” she exclaimed.

“Oh, it's probably mica,” Joe said.

As he swung the lantern the light revealed more glitter and the three began pulling at the rocks to see what was there, breaking fingernails and rolling rocks onto their shoes. All at once a large stone rolled down, uncovering a pile of gold nuggets.

“Gold!” whistled Joe, furiously digging away the loose stones.

“Gold!” murmured Mandie.

“Gold!” repeated Sallie.

Then the three of them broke into hysterical laughter.

“Here we are, lost to civilization, with a fortune in gold at our feet!” Mandie cried, picking up a nugget.

“Yes, we'd better be trying to find our way out,” Sallie reminded them.

“Find our way out? Oh, Sallie, aren't you interested in seeing how much gold is here behind the rocks?” Joe asked, as he kept digging.

“Gold—that is what caused the Cherokees to lose their land, their homes—everything!” Sallie replied, sadly.

Mandie turned to her, understanding. “I know, Sallie. If that gold had not been found in Georgia, the white people might not have ever made the Cherokees move out.” She dropped the nugget into her pocket.

“Daylight! I see daylight!” shouted Joe as he continued to pull away at the rocks. “There's an outside opening behind all these rocks!” In his excitement he broke the lantern on a rock he was rolling away and they were suddenly in the dark.

But he was right. Together the three soon had a hole dug big enough for them to squeeze through to the outside. The terror of being lost in the dark, cold cave was over.

“It's a little uphill out there, I think. Let me go first and then I can help you two crawl out,” Joe suggested.

All thought of the gold left their minds. Joe climbed through the hole they had dug and pulled the two girls after him. Snowball scrambled ahead of Mandie. Sallie went through last and barely cleared her foot when the whole side of the cave seemed to come tumbling down and the opening disappeared.

“Thank you, God! Thank you!” Mandie cried.

“Amen!” Joe added.

“Me, too!” Sallie said.

They stood up and looked around. They were in a thick forest of balsam firs and it seemed to be growing dark rapidly. Hours must have passed since they left Uncle Ned's house and now they were lost in the woods. There was no sign of the waterfall or the creek. It would be dark soon, and they had no lantern.

CHAPTER THREE

CAPTURED IN THE DARK

Tsa'ni waited for hours outside under the waterfall for the three to find their way out of the cave, but they never came out. He smiled to himself.
That white girl claimed to be part Cherokee. If she was part Cherokee she would find the way out
. He sat down to whittle on a piece of pine he took from his pocket. It got later and later and then began to grow dark, and still there was no sign of the three!

Suddenly he heard voices and saw lights flashing through the waterfall in front of him as they came nearer. He stood up and put his knife and the piece of wood back into his pocket. Evidently a search party was coming and he had better be prepared for them.

A group of men appeared through the trees, swinging lanterns in the dark. One stepped forward and Tsa'ni recognized him as Uncle Ned.

“Cave under water,” he said, motioning to the waterfall. “Papooses might go there.”

Uncle John walked to the edge of the creek, swinging a lantern. “Where is the cave, Uncle Ned? I can't see a thing beyond the water.”

“Follow me,” the old Indian told the others. He took them across the rocks and under the waterfall.

Then they were face to face with Tsa'ni.