The Mandie Collection (20 page)

“Shouldn't we take something to bring the gold back in?” asked Joe as he sat down to eat beside the girls.

“Oh, yes, the men will take something to put it in—if we find it,” John smiled.

“Gold—bad luck,” Uncle Ned mumbled as he rose from the table.

“Hurry. We go soon,” Uncle Wirt told the young people as he also stood up. “Eat.”

Mandie laughed. “That's one English word my Cherokee kin-people all know—eat.” She dug into her bowl of cornmeal mush.

“Eat—that's a good word to know,” Joe said.

“Do you like what our people eat? Do you eat the same thing when you are at home?” Sallie asked the two as she began eating her mush.

Mandie and Joe looked at each other.

“Well, yes, almost the same thing.” Mandie paused. “Everything I have eaten since I came to Cherokee country has been delicious.”

“At home we have fatback and red-eye gravy sometimes, and grits,” Joe added.

Elizabeth was packing meat and bread in several separate packages. “Let's make haste now,” she called. “We don't want to be too late coming back.” Turning to John, she asked, “Tsa'ni never came with our things from Uncle Ned's house, did he?”

“No,” he replied. “We can stop and get them on the way back.”

As they went through the community at Deep Creek, they asked several people, but no one had seen Tsa'ni. They left Morning Star at her cabin and said they would stop for their things on the way back. Tsa'ni's mother was not in her cabin as they stopped by.

Uncle Ned mumbled, “Bad Cherokee.”

Uncle Wirt, his grandfather, agreed, “Tsa'ni not good.”

However, there was one Indian boy they could depend upon. Dimar was sitting on a rock near the waterfall waiting for them when they got there. His eyes fastened on Mandie again. He rose and came forward.

“Good morning,” he greeted them.

“Good morning, Dimar,” Uncle John replied. “You haven't seen Tsa'ni around, have you? He never did come to Bird-town.”

“No, I have not seen him,” the boy said. “I have not seen anyone around here.”

“Tsa'ni—bad Cherokee,” Uncle Ned muttered. “Go.” He motioned for the others to follow him under the waterfall and into the cave.

“Since we aren't sure what direction to take, we'll all scatter out in different directions, but you three be sure to stay together,” Uncle John told them. “Now let's all go looking for a pile of rocks!”

Elizabeth took one look at the cave and shuddered as she turned to the three children. “To think you were lost in here! I would have been frightened to death!”

“It sure wasn't any fun,” Joe answered, shifting the coil of rope he was carrying over his shoulder.

“No, it wasn't.” Mandie agreed.

Sallie took a lighted lantern from one of the men. “Come, we will look together.” She motioned for Mandie and Joe to follow her.

“I'm glad you decided to come with us,” Mandie told the Indian girl.

“Since my grandfather was coming, I decided I should try to help, too,” she answered.

“Please be careful,” Elizabeth warned them.

Uncle John called after them. “Yes, you be
very
careful. We don't want to have to go looking for you again.”

“We will,” Mandie promised as she picked up Snowball. “I think we can find it.”

“Don't worry, Mrs. Shaw. We can't get lost with everyone in here,” Joe said.

With Sallie leading the way with the lantern, the three went off down a tunnel. This time they were laughing, feeling very secure with the grown-ups nearby. They stopped to look at every little pile of rocks they could find along the way.

“That can't be it,” Joe said as Mandie and Sallie walked over to a rock-covered wall. “The place we went through had a smooth wall all around except for the pile of stones covering the gold.”

“No, Joe, it had lots of rocks stacked all along the wall,” Mandie disagreed.

“Now wait a minute, Mandie. It did not!” Joe countered. Turning to the Indian girl, he asked, “Didn't it, Sallie?”

“I do not know, Joe. Do you not remember the lantern went out and we were digging in the dark?”

Mandie and Joe looked at each other.

“That's right, Sallie,” he said.

“Yes, you dropped the lantern, Joe! It must be wherever you dropped it,” Mandie reminded him. “We'll find the broken glass—”

“Aw, now, come on, Mandie. All those rocks fell on top of it. It's probably well buried by now,” Joe interrupted.

“We have not passed the room with the bats in it yet,” Sallie said. “The bats flew at us before we found the gold.”

“Oh, goodness, I had forgotten about the bats,” Mandie groaned. “Do you suppose we could pass quietly so they won't get stirred up again?”

“ 'Course not, Mandie. There's no way you can sneak up on bats. They are very sensitive,” Joe admonished her. “We'll just have to watch out and get away fast when they come out.”

They rounded a corner and a whirring, cackling noise greeted them.

“Here they come!” Sallie yelled as they bent low and ran down the passageway.

The terrifying black creatures circled and circled before they finally roosted again in their hiding place.

“Whew, that was close,” Mandie said, breathlessly, pulling Snowball's claws loose from her shoulder, “Snowball, calm down. Let go!”

“We are getting close to the place,” Sallie said. “Remember, it was not long after we saw the bats that we found the opening.”

“There was a large hole in the floor of that room where the gold was,” Mandie reminded them. “We walked around it before coming to the pile of rocks.”

“Right,” Joe agreed.

Meanwhile, Uncle Ned was leading Elizabeth and John around another way. Uncle Wirt had taken Dimar with him in still another direction.

Uncle Ned pointed to cracks in the walls and ceiling and kept muttering, “Dangerous! Cave not good!”

“But Uncle Ned, these cracks look like they have been here a long, long time,” John replied, examining them closely.

“Long time. Ready to fall now,” the old Indian said.

“John, if this thing started caving in we'd never get out,” Elizabeth fretted.

“This is a huge cave, Elizabeth, and the walls look like pretty solid rock. Even the floor is mostly rock,” John said. “Anyway, we'll hurry.” He put his arm around her tightly.

“John, I wonder where the children have gone,” she said.

“Papooses not lost,” Uncle Ned reassured her as he continued on through the tunnel they were in.

“I would like to know what happened to Tsa'ni,” John remarked.

“Tsa'ni—bad Indian,” Uncle Ned repeated.

They wandered on through the tunnel, searching for the pile of rocks that might be covering a pile of gold.

In another tunnel Joe was leading the way with the lantern when he yelled, “Here's the room with the hole in the floor!”

The girls joined him to look at the place. There it was—the hole in the floor of the cavern where they had found the gold.

“Now, our opening must have been over there,” Joe said, pointing across to the other side.

At that moment the three heard a low moan and then a weak cry, “Help!”

They stood absolutely still with fright.

“W-w-w-wh-what was th-that?” Joe whispered.

“It may be the spirit of Tsali,” Sallie replied.

“But Charlie didn't die in this cave,” Joe said.

Again there was a call for help, this time a little louder.

“Sounds like it came up from that hole in the floor,” Mandie said, not moving an inch.

“Who is it?” Sallie called in a loud voice.

“It is me, Tsa'ni. Please help me!” he answered, more clearly now.

Mandie was suddenly seeing another day, another call for help. She was remembering the panther and her terrible predicament. Tsa'ni had turned and left her alone. But she couldn't do that to him. No matter how mean he had been, she would have to help him now.

“Where are you, Tsa'ni'?” Mandie called to him.

“I fell in the opening in the floor. I am down here at the bottom of it,” the boy said.

“Tsa'ni!” Joe ventured to the edge of the hole, and swinging the lantern he could faintly see something at the bottom of the pit. “Why should we help you after what you did to us?”

Mandie hesitated, fighting with her own feelings.

“No, Joe, we must help him,” she said, coming to his side.

“He must have come back here looking for our gold.” Joe frowned. “He's not honest. I won't help him.”

“Oh, but Joe, the Bible says we should return good for evil,” Mandie reminded him. “You know that.”

“Well, anyway, there's nothing we can do to help him. The hole is too deep,” the boy argued.

“Are you hurt, Tsa'ni?” Sallie called down to the boy.

“Yes, I cannot move,” he answered in a weak voice.

“Joe, let's tie our rope around that stalagmite over there and I'll scoot down to see what's wrong with him,” Mandie suggested.

“Are you crazy? There's no telling what's down in that hole,” Joe argued.

“I will help,” Sallie told Mandie.

“You can't climb down a rope,” Joe reprimanded.

“I can so. It's not much different than climbing a tree, and I've climbed quite a few trees in my life,” Mandie said, as she put Snowball down and began to pull the end of the rope from Joe's shoulder, “Come on. Unroll the rope.”

Joe set the lantern down and did as Mandie asked. They fastened the rope as tightly as they could knot it and pulled it over to the hole as Mandie prepared to descend.

“Go very slowly,” Sallie warned.

Pulling up the slack in the rope, Mandie finally wriggled around on the edge of the hole so that she was swinging down. Joe held the lantern as far out as he could over the hole.

Snowball, watching Mandie slide down the rope, reached over with his paw and started to claw at it.

“Snowball, stop that!” Mandie commanded, looking up at him.

Sallie picked up the kitten. “I will hold him. He might fall.”

Mandie slid on down until her feet touched the bottom. She looked around in the dim light until she saw Tsa'ni lying on his back watching her. She let go of the rope and bent over him.

“What's wrong, Tsa'ni?” she asked. “Where are you hurt?”

“I do not know. I cannot move,” he said.

The girl saw a stream of water near where he lay. She took off her apron and dipped it.

“Here, let me wash your face,” she said. “But I'll warn you. It's pretty cold.”

She wiped his face gently and he didn't move.

“Tsa'ni, we have to figure out a way to get you out of here,” she said.

“Please, go for help,” he begged. “Get some strong men to help me.”

“Uncle Ned and Uncle John and your grandfather are all in the cave somewhere,” she told him. “You just lie still and we'll go find them. It shouldn't take very long.” She dipped her apron into the water again, squeezed it out, and placed it across his forehead.

“There, I'll leave that right there. Maybe it'll help. Now I'll go back up the rope and get help.”

“Please hurry,” the Indian boy moaned.

“We will,” Mandie called back as she caught the rope. By pulling it tight and bracing her feet against the wall of the pit, she was able to work her way back up to the top. Sallie and Joe pulled her onto the floor at the top.

“Well, what's wrong with him?” Joe asked.

“He can't move, Joe. We must find the men as fast as we can.”

Mandie picked up Snowball as they hurried through the tunnels and caverns calling the men's names. It was a few minutes before they finally got an answer.

“Here, Papoose. Stay there. We come,” Uncle Ned called from somewhere out of sight.

“That's Amanda,” Elizabeth said.

“Maybe they've found the gold,” John said as they followed Uncle Ned in the direction of the voices.

Turning a sharp corner they were met by a flood of light from Mandie's lantern.

“Uncle Ned, Uncle Ned, we found Tsa'ni! He's hurt—bad. He's in a deep hole. It will take some strong men to get him out.”

“Show us, Mandie,” Uncle John said, and turning to Uncle Ned, he added, “So he came back here looking for the gold.”

Uncle Ned nodded his head and grunted. Then he gave his whistle for help. Uncle Wirt and Dimar were not far off and came on the run. Soon they were all in the cavern with the hole in the floor.

“There!” Mandie said, pointing. “He's down there. I went down to see what was wrong with him. He can't move.”

She showed them the rope still fastened in place.

“Papoose good Indian,” Uncle Ned said, putting his arm around her.

Mandie, pleased beyond expression by the compliment, looked up in his face with a big smile. “Thank you, Uncle Ned.”

“This is the room where we found the gold,” Joe told them. “I think it was over there where all those rocks are spilled all over the floor.”

“Over there?” Uncle John was trying to distinguish the rocks he was talking about in the dim light from the lanterns.

“But first we have to get Tsa'ni out!” Mandie reminded them.

The two Indian men were already making a rope ladder to get down inside the pit.

“If he can't move, Uncle Ned, it's going to take some doing to get him out,” John said, helping with the rope.

“Make basket. Put basket down hole,” the old Indian replied. He was busy weaving the rope they had been carrying into a crude basket. Wirt and Dimar were helping, evidently knowing exactly what he had in mind. Uncle John finally understood. He walked around the hole to the other side, carrying the end of the rope from which they were making the basket. The other end stayed on the other side. The rope was fastened on each side to the basket so it could be lowered into the pit and then pulled back up.